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I tracked down my "membership" in Shopping Essentials to a purchase I made for a Christmas present through www.catalogfavorites.com. 9.95 appeared as a debit charge on my bank acct. for two months. When questioned, the company insisted I had signed up for a trial membership and their was nothing illegal about it. I assured them they were duping their customers and I would no longer be one.

Thanks to one of your website posting by another victim, I found a working ph number for Shopping Essentials 1-80*-962-****

Good Luck, fellow consumers! Keep a close eye on your statements.

Sandy in SC

Monetary Loss: $29.

Location: Mount Airy, Maryland

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Guest

This company is VERY scary! Purchased something for my daughter and next day after my purchase, there were fraudulent charges to my credit card!!

Not to mention when item arrived it was a piece of junk, falling apart! Please avoid using anything this so called company is involved in!!!

Guest

:cry :sigh :eek :upset thank you all for your testamonies ..wow now i am scared

i wish i would of checked the reviews before placing my order... well lesson learned...i am waiting for my order that is taking forever...

each time i call they say it has shipped and part of my order is back order .. i realized this was not going to happen to me again because i won't order ever ever ever ever again.

Guest

The charges on my account - $19.95/mo. - were a result of my purchasing a GT Express from a company called Giam.

I returned the unit, plus the cookbook, tools, etc. because they were not at all as portrayed in the infomercial.

Shame on me for falling for such a scam! I continue to be hit for the charges even after returning and cancelling!

Guest

I just bought two tshirts off of the catalogfavorites website. I hit forfeit reward next to their trial offer, hoping that I don't get sent the two months of charges for their subscription.

I just want the tshirts, anyone else try hitting the forfeit reward button? What were your results if you did?

Any advice, appreciated. Thanks.

Guest

yep they are evil,didnt open any survey boxes that offer $10 they said i did i didnt i never open them.

but i did shop on vistaprint well they just lost my business.

also i went to my bank and they helped me stop all charges and get refunds.

thanks for this blog

Guest

I also found this. I had a $14.95 charge that suspiciously is the same amount I paid Vista Prints for a box of checks...

I called my bank and they gave me 1-87*-***-**** to call for Shopping Essentials Plus. My CSR was also very nice and said it should be reimbursed in 2-3 days.

We'll see if it really is, but at least I got through to someone. And thankfully, this was the first time they charged my card.

Guest

Our 2 - $11.95 charges came after a Catalog Favorites purchase. I found the charge on the card a few hours ago, researched it online, told my husband (who was extremely angry especially since it was his purchase to me) and he just called the 800 number previously posted and didn't even give them a chance to talk.

He said, "you either refund the two charges and take my name off your list or I will put my JAG officer intouch with you" and they agreed to refund it without question.

just be firm and they'll refund.. i wonder if the employees know its a scam....

Guest

I also had this same situation; I bought a couple of gift certificates from restaurant.com and, by reading other posts, I think it is from this website that Shopping Essentials got my info, though it specifically says in the restaurant.com privacy policy that they will never give or sell credit card info (my guess is shopping essentials is hacking in). Luckily I caught the $14.95 charge the very first time they debited my account.

I called 1-80*-***-**** and after entering my phone number was connected right away to a CSR. He was very nice and said the charge would be reimbursed within 2 business days and my membership would be canceled. No arguing or disputing or anything. I think they are maybe starting to realize that what they are doing is totally sketchy and so many people are fighting them on the unauthorized charges that they are not hasseling quite as much.

With the spread of online banking, I hope situations like this diminish as people catch unauthorized transactions much quicker. I check my online bank account every day to make sure everything is in order and I'm glad I do because of this exact situation.

Guest

Thanks to all of you before me. I just discovered this and it goes back 7 months for me.

I am getting the run around from them so I went straight to my bank and filing a dispute and claim with them.

Guest

I also received the charge but it was $14.95. i called 888-999-**** and spoke to Faye, CSR # 20981 and was refunded one month and then i asked about the 2nd.

She had to transfer me to Gloria, CSR #4789. I asked for documentation of my approval. She said it was through another website that I do purchase from, Restaurant.com.

I insisted on seeing the "proof." she said she will refund me my money. It takes 2 business days...we will see.

Guest

I just got all my money back from these *** and here's how I did it. I called the number listed above as soon as I noticed the charges (5 months at 9.95 each). I got CSR Carmen, and I told her I wanted all of my money credited to my credit card and my information deleted from their database immediately. She told me she could refund the current month, and I said that was not good enough. She transferred me to Supervisor Gloria, and I told her that the charges were unauthorized and I wanted my money back. She said that I agreed to the membership. I told her that I wanted a copy of any agreement I supposedly signed mailed to me so that I could show it to my attorney, and she said that considering my "special circumstances" she would refund two months worth. I said fine, that my attorney would be in touch with them after I received my documentation. I also said "you know, you're all over the internet as a scam" she said "no, ma'am, I wasn't aware of that". I replied, "well, look it up, gloria. I hope you sleep well at night". (haha!)

Today, I checked my account and all five months have been refunded. I think if you mention legal action, they get scared.

In the meantime, I did some research and found all of the catalogs they work through, and the parent company, which is called Adaptive Marketing. If you look them up on the Better Business Bureau website, you can see all of the various names they work under, and also all of the complaints against them.

Also the Adaptive Marketing site has a "best business practices" (or something like that) page that explicitly states that anyone who claims they were not aware of any agreement of membership is always given a 'no questions asked' full refund, so if you have any problems, pull up that site and refer to it. That was going to be my next step, but I didn't end up having to use it since I got all my money back. Good luck, and please warn all of your friends and family about this evil company. Oh, they also run through a credit check company called Vertrue.

Guest

My Mother is 82 years old, and uses her credit card to buy small gifts for the great grandchildren at Christmas. When the bill came in January it was paid in full.

February there was a charge of $19.95 saying shoppingsessen and some numbers. This company had enrolled her in a "Shopping Membership Club". I called 877-581-**** and talked to a man named Gason.

He states the charges will be cancelled as well as her membership. Be careful out there--this a scam.

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