Shopping Essentials Plus review: Fraudulent Practice 25

I just filed a complaint against the company. I never signed up and they were deducting $19.95 from my account. They claim I clicked a pop up. I was so shocked at what was going on that I didn't even question how they got my credit card number in the first place. They promptly canceled my account and credited the most recent charge but basically said sorry sucker. I can't get back the rest.

Ok, this is sooooo funny. They tried to get me too.
I copied the "chat", I'd like other people to see what was said: (This happened after I went to a "Free" diet product website, It happened the first time I went ther so I was kind of expecting it.

Ashley Says: Hi Tami, thank you for your order today. As a special reward, you're eligible to claim a $25 Wal-Mart Gift Card as a member of Shopping Essentials! Plus, you can try this program today FREE for 7 days!

Ashley Says: Please type 'HI' or 'HELLO' in the space below to let me know you are there...

You: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

Ashley Says: With Shopping Essentials Plus, you can get great savings on apparel, entertainment, home improvement, personal care products, and up to 20% savings on gift cards pre-purchased through the program, good at popular stores including, Dillards, Circuit City, Toys R Us, Sports Authority, K Mart and more!

Ashley Says: After the 7-day free trial, the membership fee is just $14.95 per month.

You: NONONONONONONONONONONONONON

You: what part of no don't you understand?

Ashley Says: For your convenience, Shopping Essentials Plus will automatically charge the card you used today the $14.95 membership fee after the trial period and then each month thereafter at the then-current monthly membership fee as long as you remain a member.

Ashley Says: And Shopping Essentials Plus comes with our guarantee -- you can call to cancel at any time and you'll no longer be charged.

Ashley Says: To cancel, just call us toll-free at the number provided in your membership materials during the FREE 7-day trial period and you'll owe NOTHING.

Ashley Says: So, with your approval under the terms I just described, I'll activate your free 7-day trial to Shopping Essentials Plus and email you the membership materials with details on how to claim your FREE $25 Wal-Mart Gift Card, OKAY?

You: NO NO NO NO NO

Ashley Says: I just want to make sure that you understand, you will receive an email with your membership materials in the next business day, look them over and even try it out.

Ashley Says: If you feel like it is not something you can use, just call [protected] to cancel anytime within 7-days and you won't owe a thing -- it's that simple!

You: NO No NO NO

Ashley Says: Okay, no problem, I'll note that you have declined the offer and you will NOT be enrolled. Thanks for your time and have a good day!

Ashley Says: To end this chat, simply click on the 'X' on the upper right corner of this window. Have a great day!

This is actually a computer generated conversation. I have another one copied that is not so funny (The first time) It is word for word (their end of the chat) and punctuation mark exactly the same.
What is wrong with people that they think they can get away with this stupid kind of behavior?

They got 9.95 from me. Class action time?

they tried to get me also for 9.95. Class action lawsuit time?

Got me for two months of $19.95. Came from VITACOST.COM. They gave them my information. It's in their Policy. Unfortunately it comes down to me not paying attention. I saw the charges, but at the time I thought they were my son's video game subscription. The 3rd month I called about it and got it refunded. I'll never buy from vitacost again. So shame on me the first time. Next time though!

discovered that they have been billing me 11.95/mo. without any authorization. contacted shopping essentials-plus as was told they can't do anything without me disclosing a huge amount of personal information etc. i contacted amex and informed them of the scam.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO LEARN TO READ... IN ORDER TO SIGN UP FOR DEAL MAX OR ANY OTHER MONTHLY SHOPPING CLUB YOU HAVE TO CLICK "YES I HAVE READ THE AGREEMENT" AND ETC, THEN YOU HAVE TO ENTER YOU EMAIL IN AGAIN TWO MORE TIMES! THE PROBLEM IS THAT NO ONE TAKES TIME TO READ WHAT THEY ARE CLICKING TO... PEOPLE JUST CLICK CLICK CLICK... IT'S A 30 DAY MONEY BACK OFFER NOTICE I SAID OFFER, AN OFFER IS SOMETHING YOU ACCEPT OR DECLINE... I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT THE CHAT SITE THE OTHER GIRL WAS TALKING ABOUT ABOVE, ON VITACOST.COM IT IS VERY CLEAR AND "YOU" CHOOSE YES OR NO, NO PRESSURE AND NO FAKE CLAIMS. EVERYTIME I PURCHASE FROM VITACOST.COM IT IS ALWAYS A GREAT EXPERIENCE. IF I CALL IN MY ORDER I AM ALWAYS GREETED BY A FRIENDLY CUSTOMER SERVICE REP. SO LEARN TO READ PEOPLE AND QUIT BEING SO HIGH SCHOOL LOL

I was charged by Shopping Essentials Plus for five months before I noticed the charges. I looked up information online and was shocked at the large number of fraud cases against them. I canceled immediately, and filed a complaint with the BBB. After a few days, I got a response stating how I gave them all this information and was sent emails regarding the "membership". I wasn't sent any emails, however. After a long list of things THEY did right, I was refunded the entire amount. File a complaint. Get the word out.

P.S. File the complaint under Vertrue, Inc. They're the parent company.

I noticed this charge today -- after it overdrafted an account I stopped using. I have been charged $14.95/month since December 2008. I called and canceled and demanded my money back. I spoke with a man named Willford who was incredibly helpful. He understood completely and was easy to work with. I feel bad that in this economy, their employees might have no choice but to work for a scam of a company, since jobs are so few. Anyway, the money is being refunded in "2-3 business days" according to them. He told me I signed up in conjunction with Restaurants.com -- you know, the website that SAVES you money, not steals it from your account unknowingly. BE CAREFUL. He also told me that I could fax my overdraft evidence (statement) to them and they would refund me the overdraft.

Don't just COMPLAIN. CALL AND DO SOMETHING.

There is a class action suit against the Parent company, Vertrue at the below link. Please join the law suite, these people need to be put out of business.
http://classactionblog.mdpcelaw.com/2008/08/articles/unauthorized-online-billing/class-action-filed-against-vertrue-inc-adaptive-marketing-llc-vistaprint-usa-inc-and-vistaprint-ltd/

I got charged $19.95. I have no idea how this happened. I called and said this is fraud I want to be credited back this money. I was told in 3 days that it would be credited back. I will see.

I noticed on my bank statement in October that $19.95 was being deducted from Shopping Essential Plus. I didn't think much of it because I made a lot of purchases around that time. When I noticed the same charge in November I looked into it and saw all the fraud claims people have made. I called my bank immediately to put a claim and get my money back. They weren't able to do anything and adviced me to contact the company to cancel my membership (which I didn't know anything about). So, I contacted Shopping Essentials Plus and they had a lot of my information. It was a fairly quick process. They stated that they've cancelled my membership and will refund me for the last fee. I didn't get refunded for $39.90, but at least I get some money back and HOPEFULLY I won't have to deal with them again. It's amazing how companies can easily steal your information. My advice is to be more vigilant checking your bank/credit card statements for any suspicious activities.

I just found out that I have been getting charged $11.95 for nearly a year. Bogus!

When I tried calling, they wanted the credit card that I had "used" to sign up. That number had been cancelled for unrelated fraud and a new one issued, but somehow the charge carried over to the new card (I'm VERY curious how that happened) and yet they couldn't look up my information using the new number.

I was able to cancel this program through a mildly convoluted process on their website shoppingessentialsplus.com (I hope; I have their system's confirmation printed out and plan to scream and yell if another charge shows up).

Same thing happened to me they refunded the last charge... I still got an over draft fee to pay now..

I just found out that Shopping Essentials (SHOPESSPLUS [protected]-442-5774 CT or SHOPPINGESSEN44325888-999-0564 CT) has been charging my debit card since 1/08 from 11.95 to 13.95. I immediately called the bank about this information. They told me that I should never use a debit card to shop with, (I have heard this a few times before), I need to fill out a fraud complaint, and call Shopping Essentials close my so called account and stop and more charges. I have completed the 3 steps the bank has given me. I contacted Shopping Essentials to close my account and requested all charges be returned to me, at first they said they would only send the last charge. I asked to speak with a supervisor who basically told me the same thing. I spoke with Veronica, whom I informed that my card number had changed three times in the period they had been charging me, and all the other companies that I know that I was doing business, I had to contact them to give them the new account information. I asked how they were able to obtain this information and the other companies had not? I did not receive an answer for that question. However I found this article on line (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/adaptive-marketing-llc-calls-for-industry-wide-internet-marketing-standards-70179487.html) which indicates that they will provide a free, no questions asked refund of all of my monies should I request it. Veronica told me that they would only refund a year’s worth of charges. I informed them this was unacceptable and asked if this meant that the executive team at Adaptive Marketing or Vertrue was lying to the public about this? The Supervisor (Veronica) put me on hold for a minute and came back indicating they would provide a full refund from the first charge to the last charge. I should see it in about 3-5 business days. I will not hold my breath. Here are some of the names of the executive team at Vertrue and Adaptive Marketing found on Linkedin

•Bruce Douglas General Manager at Adaptive Marketing
•Pamela Cohen VP, Marketing at Vertrue
•Gary Johnson Co-Founder, CEO and President of Vertrue Incorporated
•Jay Sung President, Adaptive Marketing, Vertrue
•Kathy Tuite SVP at TransFirst
•Rita DiPalma Vice President, Client Services at Vertrue
•Jon Eisenstein SVP & Chief Information Officer at Vertrue
•Duane Gereski Senior Director, Marketing at Vertrue
•Catherine Louw Senior Director, Online Marketing at Vertrue
•Michael Quinn Director, Online Marketing at Vertrue

I just discovered that I have been charged since 8/8/09. No, I didn't carefully screen my statements. They arrive online and I just never check them. Guess I will now. I have cancelled and sent an email to Shopping Essentials Plus.
This drives me crazy. I never click "yes" to any of these popups or inquiries. They just hijacked my information.

I have been receiving monthly charges of $19.95 for the past 4 months (for some reason or another it slipped by me). So I called my credit card company and asked for more details on the transaction and they told me the full name of the company, Shopping Essentials Plus, and gave me the phone number to try and resolve the issue on my own first.

I called the customer service number [protected] and spoke with a rep who told me that they had received my information from Restaurant.com's website. I've purchased from Restaurants.com before and never had any issues, so I didn't believe them. After complaining to the Shopping Essentials Plus rep about how I never gave consent nor agreed to these charges, she offered to cancle my "membership" and credit me for a refund while rushing to hang up the phone. Before she could hang up, I asked her the total of the refund and it was only the last month's worth. After complaining more she passed me to a supervisor who then only offered one more month's worth (2 of 4 charges). I told her that her offer is unacceptable and reiteratted that I did not approve these charges. FINALLY she agreed to credit my card for all charged payments and hopefully within the next few days I should be receiving the credits.

I was so shocked that they said my information came from Restaurant.com, that I called them to complain and make sure they were aware of the situation. The rep appologized and informed me that they were advertising on the front page of their website and supposedly that users had to click something to be charged. She also informed me that they removed them from their site and are offering to help others who were not able to recover their money from Shopping Essentials Plus.

I'm going to try and file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, the more complaints the better! Imagine how many people they scam daily and how few people are able to receive full refunds. Disgusting!

For everyone out there, Shopping Essentials Plus is a SCAM! Beware and stay far away!

Verture/Adaptive Marketing uses many shell companies, only one of which is Shopping Essentials. The cancellation of that one worked, but now I'm trying to get rid of something called Galleria which also goes through Adaptive/Vertrue/DealPass/whatever name they're using this month . Unknowingly, when I cancelled SEPlus, I also cancelled the "Member ID" that Galleria uses (so they can now legitimately claim that they have no record of me).

Still have no idea how they got my info, I suspect my card company gave it to them (otherwise, how can a charge keep showing up on newly-issued cards?).

ANY ONE WHO HAS A COMPLAINT ABOUT SHOPPING ESSENTIAL (PLUS) NEEDS TO FILE A FRAUD COMPLAINT WITH THE ILLINOIS ATTORNEY GENERAL OFFICE! THAT IS THE ONLY WAY WE CAN CLOSE THIS FRAGULANT COMPANY DOWN. IF THEY GET FLOODED WITH COMPLAINTS ON THIS COMPANY THEY WILL HAVE TO PRESS CHARGES ON THEM. IF YOU NEED ANY INFO PLEASE CONTACT ME AND I WILL TRY TO HELP. I JUST FILED MY CLAIM TODAY AND HAD TO DO SO IN THE MAIL. SO IT WILL BE A WHILE BEFORE I KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN WITH THIS CLAIM. I just noticed that there has been a charge taken out of my account every month for the past 11 months. I don’t usually look that closely at my statements unless there is a big charge or something. It said on my statement shopessplus and their phone number [protected] so I called and they don’t know how they got my debit card # . They tried to say I signed up when buying something on line from The Pyramid Collection. I would know if I gave my card # out to any one. I don’t know if these companies are in it with shopping essentials but it sure looks like they must at least know about it. I will be sure to call them and let them know so if they don’t know what’s going on they can make a decision to do something about it. Because it’s that other company that will get a bad name too. I know I won’t use that company to buy anything EVER again. I asked if they sent me anything in the mail and they said no they only sent e-mail. Which is such a scam because if its not a company you know it may just go to spam or you put it in spam your self not wanting any viruses! This is a total scam and I cannot believe it has been going on so long. Most people do not know what to do when something like this happens. My sister worked for the attorney general in Oh and ever since she worked there I have learned a lot about my rights as a consumer and resident in general. Most people just don’t know their rights and it’s a shame. I know I didn’t know how much I was uninformed until I found the waste of time BBB and the attorney general.

July 2010 -

From reading this post, it appears that this issue has been around for over two years. I just noticed the $19.95 charge to my account as well, they have been doing it for the past 3 months.

I reported to my bank as fraud... I cant believe after two years they are still up and running >(

I just tried to login to the address given to get the $25.00 WAL_MART shopping card that i won and i found all of these complaints. This is totally awful since there are so many people out there such as myself that was counting on this m0ney card for groceries. I am in my late sixties, live alone, and am on a very low monthly income as well as millions of others. AM hoping the bad people are caught, sentenced, and have to live month to month on little food like we do. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING.

These awful people got me when we were truly down...I'm thinking the charges started while we were on vacation in Idaho, still not sure? I should have noticed sooner. Unfortunately we flooded 1/7/09. They charged merrily along while our house was gutted, built from the subfloor up (thanks to friends and family, flood insurance pays for as it was minus depreciation...) As I'm finally finding some old statements to amend taxes I see this. They charged at least 300.00, can't tell as we lost some things trying to get stuff up as the water came in. I am so mad, frustrated...just ...Finally coming out of a foggy depression...it happens when your world turns upside down, looking for any information to rectify this. Granted, , , , , , , , , , , probably out of luck with time gone by, still sorting the paperwork, it's just so creepy! Thanks.

These people are criminals. They have been charging me since 2009 and told me today when I cancelled that a catalog company online called Linen Source, from which I have ordered from in the past, was the referring org. I have no memory of signing up for anything, even a trial. This is outrageous. I have written them saying I will pursue a complaint against them.

I ordered from Serengeti Catalog online in April 2015. In May, June, and July $14.95 was charged to my credit card for a VIP Membership. I did not knowingly sign up for any membership. After reading the numerous complaints and how many years these people continue to steal funds from people, why aren't the attorneys general in the states where these unscrupulous companies operate investigate, fine, and shut down these thieves. I have contacted the BBB, the attorneys general in MA, IL, and MI, I will continue to post and share on facebook about buying anything over the internet, because it seems these companies are interlinked and too numerous to count.