The Seller's Lounge , The Sellers Lounge Ran a scam by offering a low-priced DVD, with fine print authorizing recurring credit card charges. Carson City Nevada

In February 2009, I had an item that I was thinking of selling on e-Bay (I had never sold anything on the site). e-Bay directed me to The Seller's Lounge website, which offered a "How-To Sell on e-Bay" DVD for free (actually there was to be a small charge of $3.87 for shipping & handling, which in this case I charged to my Discover Card). I thought at the time that The Seller's Lounge was an adjunct of e-Bay, and was providing the DVD so that e-Bay would generate business as a result of its usage. As a matter of fact, I never did view the DVD, since I lost interest in trying to sell the item on e-Bay.

Unfortunately, I'm slow in reviewing my Discover Account Summary printouts, sent to me each month. By the time I got around today (5-5-09) to reviewing the February, March and April Account Summaries all together, I found that I was charged not only the $3.87 S&H fee for the DVD, but $48.73 at month's end in both February and March, all to "The Sellers Lounge" in Carson City, Nevada. I then went on-line to my current (May 2009) Discover Account Information, and found that I had once again been charged the same amount of $48.73, at the end of April.

Upon complaining about these 3 monthly charges to Discover Card customer service, I was told that they would notify The Seller's Lounge (called The Sellers Lounge, on my statement), and ask for confimation that I had been provided a service (whch I told customer service that I hadn't) for the three monthly recurring charges. They also suggested that I call The Seller's Lounge directly, to request a refund. I told them that I was skeptical that I would be successful in getting a refund, but I would try.

As suggested, I did call The Seller's Lounge, at 866-785-7328. A young lady named Lisa answered; after providing her my name and zip code, I told her that I knew nothing about paying a monthly fee to them. She then pointed out that "the second page" (which I found out was actually "the fine print") of the site information stated that, unless the recipient of the DVD notified them within ten days to cancel the "service," that a monthly fee would be charged (in my case, $48.73). This apparently would go on forever, until I notified them to cancel.

When I told Lisa that that was quite a scam they were running, she quickly replied that it wasn't a scam. Oddly enough, though, and without any prompting on my part, she immediately went on to say that she was crediting my Discover account with $48.73 times the 3 months in question, and was cancelling my "service." She gave me a confirmation number; I'll see if the credit actually happens. Stranger things have happened, right?

This is a big time "buyer beware" website, based upon my experience of the last few months, and today's conversation with Lisa. Sign up for the "free" DVD at your own risk.

Jagfan
Mount Holly, New Jersey
U.S.A.