Cheaper Than Dirt Customers: Check Your Statments

[KC&97TA]

ADMIN / Moderator; this isn't personal, it's Bad Buisness. If it's too inflamatory edit the last paragraph

This morning I was looking through my Bank Statements from the past 2 months (I've been busy), when I noticed a $10.00 charge on 08/02 and one from 07/01 something called VISA-WLI*RESERVATIONREW800-7327031 I called the number to find that Cheaper Than Dirt Had enrolled me into this program with out my knowledge.

This is one of the links I found on this RIP OFF SCAM

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1303811/posts

This Link has this company for 556 cases of this type of unauthorized transactions.

http://badbusinessbureau.com/search...=Search!&q5=Reservation+Rewards&submit=Search

I'm not saying anything bad about Cheaper Than Dirt, personally I won't do buisness with them again, I've ordered from them twice and neither order was correct, wrong colored products, damaged products, returns on products took forever, I even called to ask why my money wasn't refunded to be told the delivery never came, which it was and I had the name of the person who signed for it as well. Now to top off my bad buisness with them, they've tried to rob me blind. To bad for them, Being an "Infantry Weapons Instructor" I'm enraged and will inform the 200-300 students I get a month on my experiances with this company.

 

[Nomad101bc]

Dont forget to press charges for theft etc.

 

[camslam]

Sorry about your experience. I have ordered from Cheaper Than Dirt 4 different times and I am yet to have a problem.

I have ordered ammo, accessories for my guns, a tactical vest, and things have always worked out fine.

Better luck in the future.

 

[GlowinPontiac]

If I were you i would most certainly look into pressing charges.

 

[SMMAssociates]

I nearly got bit by this some years back. Threatened to never do business with them again. Didn't for a year or two....

My daughter managed to get nailed by this about three months ago. The "Reservations Rewards" stuff continued to bill us after I told the CC company NOT to honor those charges. I'm waiting to see if that last nastygram stuck.

Be careful to see that they don't bill you every month....

What appears to be happening is that after you complete an order you're asked to look at a page related to the scam, at which point your CC info is passed to the scammers. I'm not sure if you actually need to do anything at that point other than bail.

To be fair, the "almost" I had did say what they were going to do.... I expect my daughter wasn't as careful when reading whatever popped up.

Regards,

 

[asknight]

Thanks for bringing this to light again. I was hit last year by the thugs at Cheaper Than Dirt and WLI Reservation Rewards. It took me filing a complaint with my CC company and the BBB to get the monthly charges to stop and a refund made.

 

[Tom488]

Another benefit of using virtual CC numbers... they can be set up to only allow a single charge to be made against them, then they're no longer valid. I make all my online purchases using these. If it's a place I haven't bought from before, I'll also set a maximum spending limit, matching the amount of the order. This prevents the place from accidentally (or otherwise) over-charging you.

 

[Shadowangel]

how do you set up virtual credit card numbers?

 

[armoredman]

Yes, do tell, sounds great.

 

[def4pos8]

I was another victim of this scam by Cheaper Than Dirt about seven years ago; never bought another item from them again. My CC company refused to pay them and gave me a new card/number.

They continue to waste money sending catalogues my way.

I doubt they learned this "screw the customer" stuff in a business school -- must be some creative, self-taught talent there. . . .

 

[Crunker1337]

I'm interested in hearing about virtual credit cards too.

 

[asknight]

Virtual credit cards...

 

[Tim James]

Please note

This is not a "scam" by Cheaper Than Dirt. CTD and many other companies contract with these WLI Reservation Rewards idiots. The Reservation Rewards people have a popup ad that offers $10 off your next purchase. Do not click on it! That will sign you up for the monthly charge.

There's no reason to hate Cheaper Than Dirt other than that they would contract with WLI Reservation Rewards for a few bucks of ad revenue. Instead of misguided anger, the lesson is to be careful on the Internet. When a popup ad offers you a freebie, run far, far away!

Please get the story correct rather than sending off an email to the 500 people you know and telling them to never order from Cheaper Than Dirt. At least present the facts to understand how the scam works instead of a bunch of ranting.

 

[zinj]

There's no reason to hate Cheaper Than Dirt other than that they would contract with WLI Reservation Rewards for a few bucks of ad revenue.

I think fraud is a perfectly good reason to stop patronizing a company.

 

[Werewolf]

This is not a "scam" by Cheaper Than Dirt. CTD and many other companies contract with these WLI Reservation Rewards idiots.

1. If CTD doesn't know about what WLI is doing then CTD is too stupid to risk doing business with.

2. If CTD is aware of what WLI is doing - and the implications are that they are aware - then they are complicit in the actions of WLI by knowingly providing a gateway for WLI to perpetrate it's scheme. Doing business with CTD in that case is tantamount to supporting their support of WLI.

Whether or not what WLI is doing is illegal - (debatable - appears to me they are just preying on the stupid and I don't think that's illegal - unethical but not illegal) - it is definitely unethical. Doing business with a company that is known to be unethical makes oneself unethical (lie down with dogs and get fleas).

CTD will not be on my list of vendors in the future.

 

[Dysfunctional Individual]

Did these charges really occur without any user involvement, or are they the result of clicking on some "Special Offer" link and not paying attention? I've been a frequent CTD customer and have never encountered this problem.

 

[Tim James]

Did these charges really occur without any user involvement, or are they the result of clicking on some "Special Offer" link and not paying attention? I've been a frequent CTD customer and have never encountered this problem.

The other occurances of this WLI scam indicate that there was an additional click involved.

It is perfectly reasonable to discontinue shopping with CTD because they align themselves with these people, just like you would do if they contracted with a company that put 10 pop-up ads on your screen every time you ordered from CTD.

Werewolf seems to completely understand this. I just wanted to clear it up for the people that were going to run around with their heads cut off screaming, "Cheaper Than Dirt will charge you $10 a month if you order from them!!" That just dumbs down the truth and obscures what's really happening from those who are less technically inclined. We need to get the facts out to educate people so companies like WLI go out of business.

It's the whole "teach a man to fish" thing.

 

[asknight]

Tim James, there most certainly not another click involved. I never click on popups, popunders, or any other type of ad. I was signed up for WLI Reservation Rewards by clicking on "Submit Order" on my Cheaper Than Dirt shopping cart.

 

[Liberty4Ever]

I have a different Cheaper Than Dirt problem

I came to this forum to start a thread about a despicable Cheaper Than Dirt practice, and find there was already an active thread!

I know a lot of you guys like the online merchant, Cheaper Than Dirt. I wanted to like them, but couldn't. Why?

1) About a year ago, on my first order, the shipping was way too expensive. They were clearly making money on shipping. I know it's the total price that counts and if the merchandise is cheaper than dirt, it'd still be a good deal, but the prices seemed about the same as other online discount suppliers. I still hate getting gouged on the shipping even if the merchandise cost is low. They must have had a lot of complaints, because I noticed they now advertise that you only pay the shipping rate chart price for shipping, as if they're doing you a big favor by not ripping you off.

2) I received the item and the quality was very disappointing. It looked cheap, was made from inferior materials that wouldn't last very long, and was typical of the low quality Chinese import that it was. It was useless to me.

3) I returned the item but of course, they don't refund their overpriced shipping. To the best of my memory, the shipping was about $11, and my return shipping was about $2, so I was out about $13, about the cost of the item, to try an inferior product I didn't want.

4) Then my mailbox is stuffed with CTD catalogs. I call and ask to be removed from their customer list so I stop getting catalogs I don't want and they tell me the usual bit about the catalogs being pre-printed and it'll be about six weeks. It was, and then some. I continued to get catalogs, and after a reasonable time I called back a couple of times and eventually the CTD catalogs stopped. I was suddenly getting a lot of other catalogs I didn't want, selling hunting stuff, outdoor stuff, exotic knives, etc. I can't prove it, but based on the timing I suspect that CTD sold or leased my information. It's a common but despicable practice.

5) I received a spam from CARE.org.

Dear Bruce,

I’m Helene D. Gayle, president and CEO of CARE, and I want to be the first to welcome you to the CARE online community. By joining CARE, you have taken a bold first step toward eradicating poverty and improving women’s lives around the world.

I apparently took that "bold first step" by giving my personal info to Cheaper Than Dirt, because that spam was sent to an email address that I only gave to Cheaper Than Dirt. It was CheaperThanDirt@<my company>.com.

I called Cheaper Than Dirt AGAIN, and they looked up my account by my last name and zip code, so I was definitely on their customer list. They supposedly marked my personal info as personal (duh!) so they wouldn't sell it any more.

I again asked to be completely removed from their customer database to avoid any future problems with my personal info like the several that already occurred, that I had so far been unable to correct in any meaningful manner. I was told that she'd ask her supervisor if there was any way to do that. In other words, don't count on it.

IF YOU VALUE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION, DO NOT GIVE IT TO CHEAPER THAN DIRT."

I'm still receiving spam to the CheaperThanDirt email address. I can easily tell the mail server to delete it so I never see it, and I will, but I just wanted the rest of you guys to know that Cheaper Than Dirt sells your email address to spammers.

 

[akodo]

Did these charges really occur without any user involvement, or are they the result of clicking on some "Special Offer" link and not paying attention? I've been a frequent CTD customer and have never encountered this problem.

no, the way these programs work is somewhere during the order process they slip them in as part of the regular process of checking out, no special button clicking required. What they do is require extra button clicking if you do no want to be enrolled...if you happen to notice

 

[mchgnmike]

KC&97TA,

Like Tim James mentions the Reservations Rewards is a seperate entity from Cheaper Than Dirt. Reservation Rewards is a link we have on the order confirmation page. The link must be clicked on as there is no piggy-back (auto posting) to that program. After placing your order with us you would have had to first click the button at the top of our order confirmation page to go there. Then you have to fill in your email address twice, check a box and click a big blue YES button as a requirement to join Reservation Rewards on their website. We DO NOT automatically enroll our customers into any kind of program. If you fill in the information at Reservation Rewards and join their club, we do have a SSL secure network connection to them and we do forward your information to them. There is nothing automatic about that process. You must initiate the action. You can contact them at 1-800-732-7031 to cancel the membership and they will usually refund all monies.

I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

 

[mchgnmike]

Liberty4Ever,

I am sorry for the problems you experienced while placing an order through us at Cheaper Than Dirt. I hope I can help clear up the issues you may have based on your order.
1. We now charge the actual shipping rate plus $2.99 for package protection. We have this information on the Square Deal link on our website (http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/squaredeals.html ). I checked and we are really right on based on the information I checked on through FedEx Ground Delivery. I think you just forgot to factor in the $2.99 on the shipping.
2. Most items can be returned within 30 days without problems (with exception to some items we have listed).
3. We only refund shipping charges on defective items or if we make a shipping error. I checked the RMA# that was issued to you and it listed other reasons for the return which is not refundable.
4. We removed you from our mailing list based on the call we received from you on 06/28/07 so it is understandable that you received a catalog recently because we print catalogs a month early. Also I see that you actual address and your email address have been deleted from our system. I am sure that you will no longer be getting our catalog.
5. We have not and never will give email information out like that. We do have a rewards program that you must input your email address in twice to activate and this may be where the spam is coming from or like any other email address that is created it is only a matter of time before a spammer can and will tag it and start sending spam to it.

If you have any further questions, if I don’t have the correct information or if I can help you with any other Cheaper Than Dirt issue please let me know.

 

[SMMAssociates]

MikeE:

(This being the Internet, we'll have to let Liberty4Ever verify that you are you....)

However,

I don't remember the "Reservation Rewards" foolishness to be quite that complex. I was able to bail out, at the point that something said "we're about to give them your CC info" or something to that effect. I probably should have cancelled the order at that time, too, but what I did do was tell CTD to lose my address.... Didn't help.... But at least the Reservation people didn't ding me. (I bought another range bag from CTD a couple months ago. $21-ish for something I just can't find anywhere else.)

My only problem with CTD otherwise was a lost order that I never followed up sufficiently after being told a couple times that a replacement shipment had been made. Some time prior to that RS sent me something that just never got here. A complaint resulted in a new shipment that did arrive. Some weeks later the original turned up. Seems that there's another house in the next block with the same number and a very similar street name. UPS or FedEx driver error, plus somebody was on vacation.... I told my CTD contact about that. Didn't help. Water over the dam now....

My daughter got bit by these folks a couple months ago. I talked the CC people into voiding the first charge, and found a second one on my next invoice, with the credit. Told the CC people to quit accepting those charges, and will probably trash the card if it appears again.

I am still surprised to see that CTD is even remotely connected with these scum. Guess it's time to revise my vendor list again.... :banghead:

Regards,