E-tailers Snagged in Marketing 'Scam' Blame Customers

Remember this group of companies that was just recently busted scamming customers out of billions of dollars? Well, they have an explanation…it’s all your fault.

Now, the bad news: the marketers--Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty--are still in business and judging from the responses of many of the retailers involved, such as Priceline, Classmates.com, FTD, Shutterfly, and Orbitz, it will be business as usual. They see nothing wrong with the marketing practices that millions of angry online shoppers and members of the U.S. Senate have called a "scam," "robbery" and "theft."

Not a bad idea tbh.

They couldn't get rich the honest way, so they bent the rules to fit their needs. Bent the rules just enough to make it still look honest. Damn bastardo!!!!!!!

And no one knows "scams" "robbery" and "theft" better than congress...

I nearly got snagged by one of those huge coupons. However, I also don't believe in something for nothing (I don't even do surveys). So I made sure to read the tiny print before clicking on it.

They couldn't get rich the honest way

In a capitalist society, the line between honest and dishonest is a big, blurry, smudgy one :P

Originally Posted by MisterSparkle

In a capitalist society, the line between honest and dishonest is a big, blurry, smudgy one :P

I suppose that may be true for the lawyers and bean counters at these companies. But I suspect that for the people who got tricked, the line is big, in-focus, and crisp.

There is no way these companies can not know this is a scumbag move. They aren't making enough money through normal means? Last I checked, capitalism and theft were not synonyms. There a lot of companies doing it right and making a pretty penny.

This reminds me of speaking with a restaurant owner once. He told me that he had a problem with folks stealing silverware. The shocking part was the fact that it was well-to-do customers for the most part. Odd.

This is just a dick move on the part of these companies.

Vertrue is located here in Omaha and I have known several developers who have worked for them. They are shady as hell.

The trick is that when you click on their coupon, your credit card number is sent from the store you purchased from to Vertrue behind the scenes. Vertrue then sets up reoccuring billing for several services up to $35 per month.

They sink so low that when Vertrue sends you your notification package in the mail, the cancellation phone number is printed in lighter ink inside the fold of the paper so you can't read it. They also asked a developer to "hide" the cancellation number in the emails that are sent.