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The good, the bad, and the ugly - discover what customers are saying about Brandarama

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2:56 pm EDT
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Brandarama never received giftcard

These people are liars. They keep saying the gift card is coming but somehow it never arrives. They keep changing the company that is handling the disbursement. First it was yourtopbrands then it was Mpell Solutions then Brandarama. They are all full of crap.

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TNK
, US
Aug 05, 2009 7:24 pm EDT

I was also ripped off by Mpell. There was nothing I could do about it as an individual, but I did file a complaint with the store that engaged their services so they would be aware of how their customers are treated. If enough people lodge complaints with the stores that work with Mpell, maybe Mpell will wake up and change their business ethics.

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angry234
, US
Jul 30, 2009 3:16 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

The same exact thing happened to me. I have given up and told them to all go to hell. You can't get water our of a rotten stone.

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chimpsnest
Salem, US
Jul 30, 2009 1:30 pm EDT

Have been approved since late Feb 08 for a 1K visa, via YourTopBrands (part of Brandarama) got the run around like so many others, backlogged filling orders, etc., etc., , finally did the "rebate" thing via MPell solutions and was approved thru them. Then, MPell refers back to "Active Response Group" and that they will be handling, then ARG says they're in an audit, all certificates need to be approved, then BAM you go the YTB site and go to log on and there is a sob story about bankruptcy.

These offers used to work, I had received a couple of other gift cards thru them over the years, they always took longer than 8-12 weeks, but not much more.

Not sure if we have any recourse?

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Efmc4429
Havertown, US
Jul 13, 2009 12:31 pm EDT

I have been waiting for almost two years for Brandarama to make good on three offers I completed which total $700.00. I hae been getting the royal runaround. Then I receive a letter saying I must settle for about $210.00 or risk getting nothing. I knew I was in trouble then. I was supposed to receive this money in April but of course I did not. Today I got an Email saying they were in a quasi-bankrupt situation and would most likely get nothing. I am finally calling our District Attorney and the Attorney General's Office of Pa. I should have done this awhile ago. What a giant scam! The worse part they are still operating on the internet.

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2:23 pm EST
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Brandarama Sponsor offer gift card scam

After completing 8 different trial offers from 8 different companies (most of which were scams in and of themselves), I was supposed to qualify for a $500 gift card from Brandarama. I usually don't fall for these types of scams, but $500 was hard to pass up. Unfortunately I didn't check the web first as there are hundreds of complaints posted about Brandarama and their various scams.

Anyway, I bought all the trial goods as directed, which cost me ~$150 in shipping and handling fees, not to mention hours (literally tens of hours) of dealing with unscrupulous companies that did not want to end my trial membership. Each of the "sponsors", or companies with which I participated in some sort of trial offer, were supposed to confirm to Brandarama that I completed the offer so that I would qualify for the gift card. It has been over 3 months now, and only 6 of the 8 sponsors have supposedly reported my participation.

As directed, I sent Brandarama the backup confirmation emails that clearly show I completed the offers, but they claim they cannot qualify me for the gift card until the sponsors confirm, and that they cannot force the sponsors to confirm in any specific amount of time. Being in the marketing world myself, I know that Brandarama probably gets paid by those sponsors for every confirmed participant, so why on earth would they leave an open-ended timeline for the sponsors to report participation?

The only logical conclusion I can make after 3 months of waiting, and after reading the other complaints, is that Brandarma is not only scamming me and other consumers like me, but is also likely scamming the sponsors who advertise with them. I have no desire to work with any of the sponsors again after the headaches I've been through to try and complete this process. So if the sponsors are paying for Brandarama's service, they are completely wasting their money as it is counterproductive.

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josephsmk
Central Islip, US
Aug 04, 2009 4:41 pm EDT

Dear Brandarama Customer,

According to our records, you may be a claimant of Brandarama. Active Response Group,
Inc. (“ARG”) is the parent company of Brandarama. As you know, many businesses have been hurt badly by the financial downturn and the credit crunch that followed the collapse of the subprime mortgage markets. ARG, like many other firms, though not involved in any way in those activities, has seen its revenues drop dramatically. As a result, we found ourselves in very serious financial difficulty.
Despite taking various steps to reduce our costs and preserve value, we became unable to make our debt payments to our senior lender, Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. (“Hercules”). Hercules had lent ARG $10, 000, 000, which senior loans were secured by all of our assets. Since we were unable to pay our current payments, Hercules declared the loans in default and began to exercise its rights under the loan agreements and State law to recover its loans outstanding through an agreed upon asset sale process.
Through this process, ARG is working with Hercules to complete the sale of all of ARG’s assets in an auction. In the meantime, Hercules has agreed to permit us to use its collateral to fund a bare bones operating budget in order to allow ARG to continue enough operations to be able to still seek a buyer of ARG as something like a going concern. Unfortunately, since any claims you might have are unsecured, and therefore in any liquidation scenario would be junior to the claims of Hercules, who holds a valid senior security interest in ARG’s assets and any proceeds from the sale of ARG assets, no funds have been allocated in the budget to satisfy any consumer prize claims.
Hercules’ agents have scheduled the bidding on ARG’s assets to end on July 23. Only after the results of all of Hercules’ and ARG’s Management’s efforts to sell our assets and business are determined will we be able to say whether there will be any funds left over after Hercules applies the proceeds of any such sale to its loans outstanding. At this juncture, we cannot determine whether there will be any surplus at all. However, if there is sufficient interest by a sufficient number of bidders, it is still a possibility.
Should you have any questions, please contact us via email at support@cs.brandarama.com. While our customer service center is no longer in operation, if we are in a legal and operational position to do so, we shall try to keep you informed of material developments in this process. We are of course very disheartened by this turn of events, as we know you must be. We thank you for your patronage and wish you the best.
Very truly yours,
Customer Care Department

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josephsmk
Central Islip, US
Aug 04, 2009 4:40 pm EDT

Monday, August 4, 2009

Dear joseph vera,

According to our records, you may be a claimant of one or more consumer prize(s) from one of our consumer rewards sites.

Active Response Group, Inc. ("Active Response Group") is the parent company of Brandarama the Brand that you originally registered for.

As you know, many businesses have been hurt badly by the financial downturn and the credit crunch that followed the collapse of the subprime mortgage markets. Active Response Group, like many other firms, though not involved in any way in those activities, has seen its revenues drop dramatically. As a result, we found ourselves in very serious financial difficulty.

Despite taking various steps to reduce our costs and preserve value, we became unable to make our debt payments to our senior lender, Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. ("Hercules"). Hercules had lent Active Response Group ~$10, 000, 000, which senior loans were secured by all of our assets. Since we were unable to pay our current payments, Hercules has foreclosed on its collateral and has sold Active Response Group's assets to a third party via an auction process. While the details of the transaction are subject to confidentially provision, the highest offer was insufficient to pay Hercules in full.

Unfortunately, Active Response Group's inability to pay Hercules in full means that with certainty Active Response has no funds to satisfy any consumer prize claims. Our customer service center is no longer in operation, and we will be winding down the affairs of the company under state law. So this is the last communication you can expect from us and we have no means of conducting further contact with you.

We are of course very disheartened by this turn of events, as we know you must be. We thank you for your patronage and wish you the best.

Very truly yours,

Customer Care Department

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choco
New York, US
Jul 31, 2009 12:40 pm EDT

I just went throught the same thing! But I actually bought the $500 gift certificate because they said that they were so backlogged that this would somehow expedite the process - 6 months later, not only have I not received my promised reimbursement from Brandarama but I now get an email saying that they are filing for bankruptcy and are "not sure" if they can honor all if any of their customer requests! I feel like such an idiot for falling for this kind of thing! Wondering now if I have any legal recourse. If anyone has filed a lawsuit against this company, please let me know what happened?

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bobbie
Beverly Hills, US
Apr 24, 2009 11:09 am EDT

Not to mention LOTS and I mean LOTS of other people have been waiting for gifts ranging from $100 to over $5000 for nearly TWO years Now.

So anyone newly completing a site, be warned.

ComplaintsBoard
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12:22 pm EDT

Brandarama Reward ($50 gift card) never received

I completed the requirements for a gift in April. 6 months later, I have not received it. My e-mail messages to them result in the same response (see below).

RE: Gift tracking (LTK14307618187X)
From: Brandarama Member Support

To: Michelle Lofton
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2008 10:38 am

Reference number: LTK14307618187X Please use this ticket number in any correspondence with us.
Subject: Gift tracking
Dear Michelle Lofton,
Thank you for contacting us.
We are currently experiencing huge delays in shipping, due to high demand of certain gifts and the website growing rapidly. We are exhausting our best efforts to get caught up again. We are currently on the July mailing list for the visa gift cards and the September mailing list for all other gifts.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions.
Sincerely,
Anne
Brandarama Member Support
---------------Original Message---------------
From: Michelle Lofton < >
Subject: Gift tracking
Hello, I completed an offer for a Kohl's gift card, which was confirmed on May 2 (8 weeks ago). It is still listed as "to be shipped." Do you have an idea as to when the card will be shipped?

RE: Gift tracking (LTK14309884091X)
From: Brandarama Member Support

To: Michelle Lofton
Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2008 10:55 am

Reference number: LTK14309884091X Please use this ticket number in any correspondence with us.
Subject: Gift tracking
Dear Michelle Lofton,
Thank you for contacting us.
We are currently experiencing huge delays in shipping, due to high demand of certain gifts and the website growing rapidly. We are exhausting our best efforts to get caught up again. We are currently on the August 07 mailing list for the visa gift cards and the September/October 07 mailing list for all other gifts.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions.
Sincerely,
Susan
Brandarama Member Support
---------------Original Message---------------
From: Michelle Lofton < >
Subject: Gift tracking
I was just checking to see if the gift card I earned in April was on its way? Thanks.

RE: Gift tracking (LTK143010838691X)
From: Brandarama Member Support

To: Michelle Lofton
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2008 12:19 pm

Reference number: LTK143010838691X Please use this ticket number in any correspondence with us.
Subject: Gift tracking
Dear Michelle Lofton,
Thank you for contacting us.
We are currently experiencing huge delays in shipping, due to high demand of certain gifts and the website growing rapidly. We are exhausting our best efforts to get caught up again. We are currently on the August 07 mailing list for the visa gift cards and the September/October 07 mailing list for all other gifts.
feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions.
Sincerely,
Susan
Brandarama Member Support
---------------Original Message---------------
From: Michelle Lofton < >
Subject: Gift tracking
Hello. I am checking on a Kohl's gift card I qualified for 6 months ago. I was wondering when they would be disbursed

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David
, US
Jan 05, 2009 12:40 pm EST

I was first told my $100 gift card was on its way and am now being told they are backed up over a year. This is obviously a criminal enterprise. Everyone should boycott their advertisers which include Blockbuster and Columbia House.

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Pattie
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Jun 20, 2008 6:59 am EDT

I don't even remember taking this survey but was charged $12.95 on my phone bill something about a personal voicemail with an 800#. I have no clue I can't believe they can just charge your account like that good news is I called the 800 #. Provided on the phone bill and they are going to credit my account.

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AlhaDean
149 locust street, US
Nov 16, 2009 7:19 am EST

I completed thier offers over a year ago now. Still have not recieved my ipod touch... Just one huge scam. When I did contact them they told me that they were working on orders from october of the previous year. So I'm still waiting... I doubt I'm ever gonna see that ipod

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SCAMMED BY FRAUDSTERS BRANDARAMA
Brooklyn, US
Nov 09, 2009 6:37 pm EST

I HAVE BEEN WAITING OVER 2 YEARS FOR MY $100 GIFT CARD AND EVERY TIME I PURSUE THE THING I GET THAT VERY SAME RESPONSE. I RECOMMEND THAT EVERYONE AVOID THEIR SCAMS IN THE FIRST PLACE. I THINK THEY ARE DISGUSTING FRAUDSTERS.

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Courtney
,
Dec 04, 2008 8:50 am EST

Uggh I just found this on my phone bill too. I have no memory of signing up for this, but like you said, they were great and credited my account no problem.

Insane and deceptive!

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jay
,
Nov 18, 2008 2:26 pm EST

speed

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jay
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Nov 18, 2008 2:24 pm EST

Yes I too, have been waiting for the last 8 and half month for my card! Everytime I call or email I get the same bs!
What can we all do to spreed this process. This is not right.

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ben
,
Nov 05, 2008 3:51 pm EST

i got my apple tv from them almost a year after i completed the offers, i couldnt believe i actually got it after all that time, be patient...

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karen
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Oct 26, 2008 9:40 pm EDT

Why don't people report them to the FBI and Consumer Fraud Division aswell as the Attorney General's ..these people need to be stopped! It's pure fraud

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Anne
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Oct 07, 2008 9:52 pm EDT

Just wanted to let you all know...i was a complete disbeliever in the brandarama gift card thing, but I am here to say that all those lines about huge delays in shipping, etc, are true. It took me 11 months to get my free gift card, but honest to god, last week my $500 american express gift card finally came in the mail. sit tight, it will come--it might just take a year. Dont, however, lay off of emailing them thru the status page. it keeps them on their toes i think. keep at them and it will come!

ComplaintsBoard
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11:29 am EDT

Brandarama Gerber gift set

In order to win a gerber baby gift set I completed all th sponsor offers at Brandarama. The result is that i got caught lot of "scam" book club memberships and never heard from brandarama. When I pursued the matter with them, they asked me to fill in ad mail a claim form. This I did. Then again -Silence! When I got in touch with them again, they tell me it could take 1-2 years for me to receive the gift! Which means I will be pusuing them 2 more years all for 30 dollar gift, imagine what they would have you do for a more expensive item. Btw, I have already spent more than a 100 bucks get out of those brandarama sponsor offers, and they are still hounding me. :(

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karen
,
Oct 26, 2008 9:44 pm EDT

You have to report these people to the Attorney General's office and the fraud division of the FBI

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12:00 am EDT

Brandarama Deceptive business practices!

A copy of email to Brandarama:

R. Bruce Barritt, General Manager,

Dear Sir, today I saw an ad on Google saying I would receive 24 bottles of Citrus Water. I was very excited to try because the football player in the Super Bowl had said it was great.

We I clicked on the link from Brandarama it became apparent that it was impossible to find the end of the
survey unless I bought another product from them and then maybe the pages would have never ended.
I tried to email Brandarama on the bottom of the page but of course the links were dead. I would love to try your product and I hope you honor Brandarama teaser ad. I hope in the future that your company would consider using a company that would not use these kinds of tactics.

Regards

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Daine
, US
Jul 05, 2009 7:16 pm EDT

I mistakenly signed on to receive ads from this company over a year ago. I have emailed them repeatively to stop the emails; I am no longer interested. But...the ads keep coming everyday in my inbox. Why can they not honor my request? What do I have to do to make this company take me off of their so called list?

Diane

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reality-check
young America, US
May 22, 2009 3:51 pm EDT

Brandarama is owned by Active Response Group. They are also fleecing Publishers for their traffic with no intention of paying us. Pleas everyone, file with the New Your Attorney General's office. If enough of us do, they will investigate, fine and force them to pay us and or jail them. Both I hope! I don't want to spam links, so do a good search and you'll find the forms.

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LarryM
Monterey, US
May 16, 2009 1:04 am EDT

If you have a complaint, contact the CEO. His info is listed at http://freebiescoop.com/brad-powers-of-active-response-group

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Jose Caballero
Indianapolis, US
Apr 19, 2009 8:01 pm EDT

I was charged 18.73 on my phone bill by brandarama. I contacted them and they tried to make me believe I opened some kind of account with their company. They gave me the last 4 digits of my social security number and my telephone number. I know that had to get that information from somewhere on the web. The problem is I never associated with Brandarama or ever heard of them. They cancelled the account, but would not cancel the $18.73. I have called my cable company and am having my telephone transferred to my cable account. Then I am going to pay the last telephone bill except $18.73. I just can't believe a company can charge your phone bill and the phone company does not check with the customer first.

J. Caballero

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jandenburg
Pontiac, US
Apr 06, 2009 7:21 pm EDT

I completed all the offers and surveys, read all the fine print and checked my steps. I did everything Brandarama needed, and my gift card has been set as "Confirmed: to be shipped" for seven months. They respond to my emails by telling me to wait just a little longer. DO NOT believe anyone claiming to have successfully received anything from Brandarama; it is just one of their employees trying to lure other people into their scam. I also recieved spam voicemails and text messages that I definitely did not sign up for but still got charged $30 dollars a month for; I'm sure I have Brandarama to thank for that. Don't get screwed over like I did.

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nyguy26
, US
Jan 26, 2009 10:19 pm EST

It has offically been one year and a few days that my gift status is on "confiirmed to be shipped, I dont buy the fact that they are still processing gifts from such and such date. Come on what do you have to really confirm and even if there are thousand upon thousands, of requests it can be done within a few months, and thats with one person running this site.

I truly do believe that it is a scam, Ive reported them to the BBB and soon will be contacting one of the news stations here in NY area to do a report on them, im sure im not the only one.

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Michelle Lofton
,
Oct 07, 2008 12:15 pm EDT

I've been waiting for 6 months for a gift card from Brandarama. . . after reading these posts, I am less than optimistic that I will ever receive it. I've been sending e-mail monthly asking about it and always receive the same or a similar answer which is that they are working on the lists from Sept. and Oct. 07! What a crock! I'll know to stay away from them from now on.

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Bill Keefer
,
Aug 09, 2008 6:46 pm EDT

Recently August 2008. Bandarama had an ad on Craigs List looking for people to work for them supposedly. Sending in your resume and email etc. This is what I got back.
Hi, thanks for the interest in the Go Go Promos Internet research job.
It is a fun position, and we already have quite a few people wanting
to apply.

You've probably seen our promos (or promos just like them) all over
the Internet. Sometimes they look like little quizzes, like current
event type of stuff, other times they promote specific products or
companies.

We picked Craigslist to look for people because the people who use
Craigslist are obviously smarter then the average person in regards to
using the Internet. At least that is our gut feeling. And since this
job has a lot to do with surfing the net and research, it just seemed
to make sense.

But, the bad thing about Craigslist is the number of computer viruses
and spam that people send. So, we came up with a simple two step
process to prove you are a real person, and not some automated robot
used to collect email addresses or send spyware.

The first step will help us verify your email address. We can use one
of our regular promos like this one featuring Red Lobster. Go here:
http://www.gogopromo-clients.info/red_lobster.html and submit your
email address and verify your address.

The second step is to send another email to
bradleyberman@rocketmail.com and include your resume.

Sorry for making you jump through hoops, but the truth is, so many
people never follow directions, and this is an effective way for us to
weed through the applicants.

-Brad

Only a ploy to be bombarded with advertising emails.

I am a fomrer United States Marshal, and Brad will pay... I intend on seeing him in jail.

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Rhonda
,
Jul 08, 2008 2:55 pm EDT

I just found out this "company" had charged my phone account for $13.21 for 3 months, for a voicemail account, which I never signed up for. I don't even use voicemail. The phone company credited my account & gave me The phone # [protected]. I called & cancelled the account. Also, the phone company put a 3rd party charge block on my account for free.

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scambuster
,
Mar 05, 2008 7:36 pm EST

Total scam, they have been rported.It'sjust a matter oft ime before they are shut down.

Also they are part of a spam group (url.trgt.com popups)

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