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CB Online Scams Smart Savings Center/Hot Books Sale/Discount Book Sale

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1:11 am EDT
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Smart Savings Center/Hot Books Sale/Discount Book Sale Unauthorized Membership Charge on Credit Card

I purchased some books at discountbooksale.com, then discovered they charged me an unauthorized monthly charge of 19.95. After confronting their representative, who basically lied stating that there was no way I could have processed the order without agreeing to the membership fee, I visited their website and found that they had a link that states "No thanks, continue with checkout" (if I wanted to order without agreeing to the membership); I told her that I could order a book without agreeing with the membership, then she changed her version by stating that the membership was disclosed in the Terms of Use clause. I clicked on the Terms of Use and confronted her with this information; which showed her to be a liar. After that, she only repeated the same thing over my voice like a robot, since she couldn't prove me wrong. Please don't purchase anything from this company.

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Smart Savings Center/Hot Books Sale/Discount Book Sale Unauthorized charges to credit card

I purchased a book a couple days ago from www.discountbooksale.com for $5.77. It stated I had to check a box agreeing to the terms in order to get the $5 discount on my purchase. I read through both sections of terms and policies and not once was there mentioned anything about membership fees or additional fees. I specifically checked for additional fees as I am on a very limited disability income. Today I went to my online banking to pay a bill to find that my account was overdrawn due to the additional $29.95 fee and $1.00 fee from hotbooks.com and smartsavingscenter.com. I contacted their customer service and after about 30 minutes on hold finally got a life person. I was adamant that the charges were never authorized, that I specifically read through their policies regarding additional fees and that they were never listed, and I demanded that all memberships be immediately canceled and an issue refunded. She put me on hold again for a couple minutes then came back and told me both memberships were canceled and gave me reference numbers. She then said it would be about 30 days before I got my refund. She also said I would get an email stating the memberships were cancelled. I asked her if the book order was canceled as well and she said no it would go ahead and ship. About 15 minutes later I got the cancellation email. About an hour or so later, I received another email that was suspiciously back dated to the prior day stating that my book was on backorder. After speaking with the customer service person at smartsavingscenter.com, I immediately contacted my bank. Since two of the charges were still pending, I was told I would have to wait until they posted before the fraud department could do anything. He did tell me that 1) the 30 days to refund was complete BS - he said it usually takes about 10-12 days and 2)it is illegal for them to charges membership fees or any fees after the fact if they are not directly stated in the policies and rules prior to someone accepting the terms. I also told him that my invoice from the company mentioned nothing about additional fees. As soon as the remaining transactions post I will immediately be filing a fraud complaint with my bank and have them blacklist all company names associated with this fraudulent organization on my account. I will also be filing a complaint with the better business bureau and any other organization that might help in shutting this sham down. I also read a post where another victim is going to be filing a class action lawsuit - I will be contacting that person as well. I had stupidly assumed that since this company showed at the top of google shopping when I did my search for the book that they were legitimate. My bank representative told me that sham companies have a way of basically faking their ranking in the results where they appear on the first page instead of much farther down as they should.

Read full review of Smart Savings Center/Hot Books Sale/Discount Book Sale and 28 comments
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4027
, US
May 04, 2011 2:56 am EDT

Thid word countries? Actually the "fraud" that u claim is because u r a buch of stupid people that can not read TERMS OF OFFERS...sooo who's being dumb now?

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Samantha K
non of your buisiness, US
Dec 07, 2010 3:25 pm EST

I had concidered joining their club, but after reading multiple complaints, I think I'll pass. It seems to me that consumers really need to be smarter, and learn to utilize the information on the internet to it's fullest. How many of you think that your porblem could have been avoided by checking out the reviews first? I don't know how anyone didn't know they were joining a club. With frases like MEMBER PRICE and JOIN NOW GET FREE SHIPPING... it's hard to believe that anyone can be that ignorant. Besides, if it's too good to be true it probobly is, nothings free, and it's cheap for a reason.

Here are a few pointers
1 ALWAYS check for the BBB logo on the homepage of the site in question. If they haven't got one, be on gaurd.
2 Search for reviews.
3 Keep an eye out for frases like JOIN NOW AND... or MEMBERSHIP PRICE.
4 If the sales price is too good to be true, trust me, it is.

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C Hunter
Middletown, US
Sep 02, 2010 9:55 pm EDT

I got scammed as well. It took me 7 months to catch the 9.95 monthly charge they were hitting me up for each month. I called to ask what the charges were for and they gave me a line of bull about how I joined a membership club when I bought a book for 15 bucks. A club which I never signed up for nor did I receive any communications from over the course of the 7 months of being a proud member-not. I called several times in one day to complain and they credited me with $30 dollars of the 109.00 that they took. I called my bank and filed a fraud alert and I will be calling the Fla attorney generals office tomorrow to issue a claim. Total scam.

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JANEY PET
Saratoga, US
Aug 06, 2010 9:00 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

WE HAVE BEEN SCAMMED OUT OF 8 MONTHS PAYMENTS OF $19-95.. WE JUST NOTICED IT... USUALLY OUR CREDIT CARD COMPANY WOULD LET US KNOW IF WE HAVE ANY UNUSUAL CONSISTANT BILLS.. THEY NEVER WARNED US. WHEN WE CALLED THEM THEY TOOK OFF ONE MONTHS FEE THE REST THEY WOULDNT OR COULDNT HANDLE ... SO WE ARE STUCK WITH 8 MONTHS Of MEMBERSHIP FEES AT $19-95 WHICH RUNS UP TO JUST UNDER $200.

WE ARE SENIORS AND LIVE ON A BUDGET AND WOULD NEVER SIGN UP TO A CLUB LIKE THIS.. THERE WAS NO SUCH CLAUSE ON THE ORDER I TURNED IN. THEN TO BE SCAMMED LIKE THIS IS CRIMINAL. WE ARE TOTALLY DISGUSTED WITH SUCH A RUSE TO HOOK PEOPLE INTO A CLUB UNKNOWINGLY... THIS IS WRONG IT IS AGAINST THE LAW...WHAT ARE WE ALL GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? THIS SCAM MUST BE STOPPED BEFORE OTHER PEOPLE GET HOOKED IN...GT

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Hawkeye18
Lenexa, US
Mar 28, 2010 2:45 pm EDT

Yep, me too. My wife purchased a book for Christmas and sure enough, a $9.95 charge began showing up monthly on the credit card statement. After waiting for I don't know how long for a cs rep (with loud, obnoxious music blasting from the phone), I found out why the charges were there. My wife was a member! I've asked for a copy of the original agreement, but I doubt I will get one.

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Donna Cameron
Salmon, US
Mar 11, 2010 11:40 am EST

I have also had the same experience except Smart Savings Center and Hot Books were both withdrawing from my account. It has been sicne 4/09 and we are know at 3/10. I don't know if I can get my money back or not ? I never signed up for a free trial membership. I don't think companies like this should get away with fraud.

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Lemonic.Demonade
Mead, US
Dec 31, 2009 6:03 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I just bought a book from them. I read all the fine print, and noticed i had three days to cancel. I canceled right after i ordered my book. I checked my credit card, and the $2 i spent was gone, but nothing else. I'll be monoring for the next few days. Hopefully nothing bad come of it. I still wish i would have found this before buying. The way the operate is very sneaky. I tried to cancel on the website, and i needed a password they sent me. (They sent me nothing) and when i called to cancel, i used the automated version, and at the end, it took me back to where i started. Twice. I called the representive, who made things confusing, and tried to convince me that i really did need this $30 monthly membership for the $10 books i buy.

So i'd just avoid this site altogether.

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Katee
E Stroudsburg, US
Oct 31, 2009 10:00 am EDT

I see that they have picked up a new name with which to run their scam. Why can't anyone stop them!?

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BG1
Yes, US
Oct 30, 2009 9:44 pm EDT

DO NOT order anything from HotBookSale or DiscountBookSale or BestBrandValues. It took 19 days for my book order to arrive and they would not refund the $5 extra I paid for 2 day shipping.

DO NOT order anything from HotBookSale or DiscountBookSale or BestBrandValues. It took 19 days for my book order to arrive and they would not refund the $5 extra I paid for 2 day shipping.

DO NOT order anything from HotBook Sale or DiscountBookSale or BestBrandValues. It took 19 days for my book order to arrive and they would not refund the $5 extra I paid for 2 day shipping.

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DaVarners
, US
Sep 15, 2009 10:57 am EDT

OMG! Thank you all so much for posting this informaiton. I was just about to spend $50.00 in books at the Hotbooksale.com website. Thanks to this post I will not be doing that ever. If I do I will be using a prepaid/non-rechargeable credit card number. I would like to see them try and charge be the membership fee if there is no money on the card!

Again thanks so much for all your unfortunate experiences and those to which have saved me from many headaches Im sure!

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