Here are a few Scams I encountered

 

Shopping Essentials-(http://www.DealPass.com)

While inching thru a "survey" promising me a laptop and a $25 kmart gift certificate, I was told I needed to select 2 offers from the current page to continue. I selected a Photoshop training video for 7.95 and a trial membership from Shopping Essentials for $1.00. After selecting these two deals, and clicking next - gee whiz! - ANOTHER page with two deals to select! Here, there was nothing I was interested in. And, I didn't know how long these "select 2 deals to continue" would go on. Besides, the ad include NO info about the laptop(no info on brand, speed, memory size, etc). For all I know, it isn't capable of more than just checking your email! So I abandoned it. And, now I have a debt of 8.95 - just for trying :O !!!!

So, I will not get the laptop- I didn't compromise my credit card quite enough. But, the Shopping Essentials sign up came with a $25 Kmart gift certificate. So, I thought I was still ahead of the game.

Now: here is the deal with Shopping Essentials. I paid $1.00 for a one week trial subscription. After one week, my credit card would automatically be debited $19.95 for one month of membership. Shopping Essentials sells gift cards. If you are planning a shopping trip at Macy's, and expect to spend $100, you can buy gift certificates from them, and eventually, you will recieve 5% of it back. (That's $5.00 for your $100 Macy's gift card.) They have a lot of major chains to chose from. But a disclaimer says they are not affiliated with them.

I don't know about you, but I would MUCH prefer to have cash in my pocket than a gift certificate. What if I plan a trip to Macy's to get sheets. Then discover Macy's doesn't have sheets I like, but JC Penny does. I can't purchase from JC Penny because my money is committed to Macy's!

Regarding my Kmart gift certificate: When I went through the sign-up process, I considered it a done deal. The Kmart gift was due me. But when I logged on to Shopping Essentials, I found to my surprise, that I had some paperwork to do. There was a message that said I had to fill out and return a form to get the gift certificate. Ok. I'm here now. I click on the link to fill out the form. But instead of getting a FORM, I get a message that says "we will send you a form via US mail. The form must be completely filled out and mailed back to us. You must still be a member when we recieve it back in order to get your gift". US mail???? I thought they were an internet company!

Ok, you do the math. If you must cancel the membership before 7 days are up, and the form takes a few days to arrive via mail, and a few more days to ship back, what are the chances it will arrive before those seven days are up? And, since I now question their integrity, what is the chance they claim it didn't arrive in time, or that it was incomplete.

Today, I decided to cut my loses and cancel, even tho their form has yet to arrive in the mail. (Yes, I am sacrificing my $1.00 investment.) However, what I discovered was that you have to catch them on the phone in THEIR time, not yours.

Now here is a burning question: WHY would anyone be willing to spend $19.95 a month (or even a year) to have a memebership in a special service for purchasing discounted credit cards. You'd need to purchase $400 in gift certificates a month, just to break even. If I spent $600 a month in gift certificates, I would realize a profit of $10.05. If I could afford $600 a month in gift certificates, I wonder, would I be willing to go thru this to get the extra few bucks?