Affinion Group review: Absolutely ridiculous 7

Chase Bank is in bed with Affinion. Affinion billed me for insurance that I did not order. Chase happily put that on my bill. There is a glorious circle of insanity in trying to get Chase to realize I really have no intention of paying for something that I did not order. Then, of course, they wanted to charge me late fees for a bill I did not owe and for services I did not order. Chase keeps wanting me to go to Affinion. They apparently will bill people for this vendor as long as the vendor wants them to. It doesn't matter that there is no record anywhere of an order...just Affinion's request to bill people.

I have tried to get Chase to bill everyone in the country $1.00 for me. I guess I am not an affiliate so they won't do that. Pitty.

Hahaha you wanted a refund for using a stamp; you're ridiculous lady. I love working for Affinion, and we love the people like you who act like you didn't sign up for the service, and don't check your bank accounts for 20 years, and then finally realize you've been billed for 12.99 every month for the past 2 decades.

I am completely disgusted with the last comment coming from a supposed employee for Affinion. It seems people have legitamit complaint and it just shows how poor customer service really is. Whoever you are ought to be ashamed of yourself for even responding in such a manner. Grow up, realize that mistakes do happen and ask yourself "what can you do to make it better" stop blaming other people who are concerened about THEIR hard earned money. Also I suggest going back to school to for something that doesnt have you dealing directly with the public. You give all customer service reps a bad name!

I worked for them years ago. Most "unexpected charges" are because one of their marketing tactics is to send out checks to bank customers. These checks could be as little as $5 or as much as $25. On the back of the check, if you read, it says it that if you deposit this check, you agree to receive their product (They have many). And it tells you how many days or months you get for your free trial. And it tells you that if you don't call to cancel before trial is up, you will be charged monthly or yearly a certain amount of money. The problem is many people just deposit the check without reading. Or people plan to cancel at the end of the trial, but forget. I understand people thinking this is deceptive, but it goes to show you that everyone needs to read what they sign. Just like those e-mails you get from Nigeria.

Out of the hundreds of complaints by people saying that they didn't sign up that I dealt with, I only found 5-10 where the company couldn't find a signature or a recording of the person agreeing to it. It happens, but rarely.

The refund issue, unfortunately, is a result of the Graham-Leach-Blyley act from about 8 years ago. By Federal law, Affinion cannot keep a real credit card number or bank account number in their database unless a customer specifically gives it to them. So the only way they can bill these customers is to send the billing to the bank through which they signed up, and attach a fake ID number that the bank only knows. Since Affinion doesn't have your real account number, refunds must be sent every 2-4 weeks in a special file that the bank then decrypts and converts the fake number to a real number on their end, and then processes the refund. This whole process increases the refund time by a few weeks, but there is no way around it without violating the live credit card law.

I saw many cases where the same person signed up multiple times for the same product. Probably because Chase Bank sent them a "check", and then Capital One sent them a "check", then another bank sent them a "check" - all for the same product. Affinion has a system that tries to prevent you from signing up more than once, but it relies on making sure the same credit card isn't signed up more than once. They do it by credit card number, because there could be 2 or more customers with the same name. So if each different bank gives Affinion a different fake credit card number, potentially someone could get billed multiple times for the same product each month.

I'm not saying this company is a bunch of angels, but I worked in their billing area, and because of some of the unexpected effects of Federal regulation, it is sometimes difficult to successfully find and refund members in their huge database of literally millions of customers (active and cancelled).

My best advice is to make sure that every time you are offered anything free, you should read the fine print very carefully. There are one or two of their products that I think are worth the money charged (as long as you use it). I agree with the original poster though, that their customer service should get their story straight as to whether or not you need to mail or fax in a refund request form.

Hope this helps with an explanation. I know it can be frustrating though.

Your experience with this Affinion scam can help a class action building against Trilegiant/Affinion. Can you join me and contact Freed & Weiss to share your story?

It’s easy and quick for you. They need to hear from consumers who have gone through this directly.

Here are the details:
Trilegiant Scam: HELP STOP IT!

Trilegiant is behind more consumer abuse. Take action and contact Freed & Weiss - info @ freedweiss (dot) com (No Spaces), or call, toll free 866.779.9610

Here's more information:

Customers of websites like 1-800-Flowers.com, Travelocity, Shutterfly, and Orbitz (to name only a few) are reporting mysterious monthly reoccurring charges to their credit cards.

Thanks to marketing tactics (i.e., those pop-up windows) used during check out, without proper consent consumers are accidentally joining club memberships and having to pay for them monthly!

Most people don't even realize they are being charged every month for a service they never ordered!

PLEASE CONTACT FREED & WEISS IMMEDIATELY if you - or anyone you know - has reoccurring charges after purchasing from any of these companies.

Email: info@freedweiss.com

I pay 10 years of my life to keep protected and now the insurance not cover life. that why I canceled my insurance w/the affinion in 2012.I ask for refund request form I fill out with notary public and send back.after now I'm not receive any notification or lettler from my refund back. I'm not go way to the of this year have to do something to fix this problem.I going to right way if you no like it see you in courthouse.thank you

Well I tried that before and this is a legitimate offer, some of the customer just forgot to cancel after or during the trial period there are some idiot people or don't even read the billing terms.