Cooking Club of America / Scout.com
reviews and complaints

This is an online publishing company called scout publishing or scout.com. I cannot find a business address for the company.

They have a totally bogus condition in place regarding credits and refunds. I ordered a gift subscription of their online and print magazines called ny jets confidential (football team news). I paid $80 for the gift and charged it to my credit card. At the beginning of january, they charged my card again, without notifying me, for another year’s subscription. I notified them in writing and via multiple (unanswered) telephone calls that I wanted to terminate my subscription, that I didn’t authorize the charge, and that I wanted my money back. Finally today I spoke to a live person, who informed me that they have a no refund policy. He said that I would have had to ask for cancellation before january 1st in order to not be charged and since I didn’t, it was not their problem. He also said that these conditions were sent to me, but they weren’t. The company sent them to the party receiving the gift, not to me who’s the person they’re making pay for the service.

I have a real problem with this. My argument is what good is the law that they have to notify me of their terms and conditions and that I have to agree to them if I never receive and approve those terms? They could have sent them to anyone in the world! The point is, I didn’t have that information and I am the one paying for it.

On top of it all, them man I spoke to was abusive. I don’t think that companies should be able to get away with blatant abuse of “terms and conditions” statements. I want to make this very public and hurt their reputation as I am sure others have had the same experience.

This company is as unethical as can be imagined. Do not sign up for a "free" seven day subscription, or you will end up being charged. On december 13th, I signed up for a free trial of au. Tigers.com, which is a scout property. When I went to cancel my account, you can not cancel unless you talk to a representative. This way, apparently, there is nothing in writing. So, I called their office to cancel, and they were closed that day due to inclement weather. I left all of my information, including my account number, my phone number and all pertinent information, asking for my account to be cancelled. On december 26th, my account was charged. When I called to get a refund, they said their corporate policy is to not issue refunds. I asked to speak to a supervisor, who again told me their corporate policy is to not issue refunds. I asked even when it is your mistake? At this point we were disconnected. When I called back to speak to the supervisor, she was "out of the office."

Stay away from this company!

They send me cook books sometimes 2 times a month. The last 6 months I have returned them. I get the books in the mail and put return to sender and then take them to the post office. Unopened.
Then a month or two down the road they send me a bill for the book which I had sent back.
It's starting to upset me to the point of cancelling my membership. I will do that the next time I get another bill. The books cost a total of $29.95 each. I don't want them anymore that is why I put return to sender. Don't send me anymore books. Please

I was a member several years ago member #[protected] and they also had me down for 2 memberships. I liked cooking club at the time, but then I lost my job 07-2007 and canceled my membership and haven't been employed sense. I'm starting over again. I just got a collection notice today 10-14 and I can't afford this and don't feel I owe, because I canceled a long time ago in 2007. The notice is for $248.34. I don't even know if I can pay my home mortgage this month and in the future. What do I do!

Last month ccoa sent a nasty letter about my so called monthly bill. That bill did have a #, so I called it and thought the problem was corrected. I used 2 addresses to make sure I received the products. When I spoke to them, the billing error should have been corrected. It was not. Now their sending me a bill for products they say they sent. I did not receive any cookbooks, magazines, or gadgets ever from them. Used several e-mail addresses that were posted from their site, only to find out they could not be used the server said it was an invalid e-mail address. I want out of this membership, no future contact from them in any way shape or form. I did not get any thing from them so I will not pay for something I didn't receive. I am seriously considering getting the bbb involved in this. Linda h, e mail this e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need javascript enabled to view it any suggestions?

do NOT even think about joining them anymore. It's a total scam. I signed up for the "trial" membership and decided that it wasn't all that it was advertised to be... so when I received the invoice, I didn't pay it. The invoice says on it that if you do not send payment, it will be assumed that you do not want to join. So I didn't send it. They kept sending invoices, the 4th of which threatened to submit to a collection agengy if I didn't tell them that I didn't want to join. So I wrote back that I didn't want to join - cancel the membership... after all, it WAS a "trial", right? That was about a month ago... and yesterday I opened a bill from a collection agency saying that I owe $301 -- not even the $12 that it cost to join.
You can not speak to a customer representative at the collection agency and you can not get contact information for the cooking club unless you're a member - So now I'm left w/ a collection agency to deal with.

I decided to join cooking club of america because i'm always looking for new recipes and ideas. I was also intrigued by testing products. The products were substandard and the recipes were nothing special. Then I received an item from them in the mail. It was a stupid porcelain basket that I certainly did not want, so I returned it several months ago. I have been receiving invoices from them ever since stating that I needed to either return the item or pay the invoice.

I tried writing them a letter stating that I had sent the box back to them several months ago, and that I am not going to pay for an item I do not have in my procession. They still continue to send me invoices claiming I need to pay the invoice or return the item.