wafflesatnoon.com » Scams & Deception » Scam Alert: Smart Shoppers Savings Club
Scam Alert: Smart Shoppers Savings Club
A company called “Smart Shoppers Savings Club” is aggressively calling consumers telling them they are eligible to receive a gift card of values from $50 to $150, with no questions asked. Is this company legit? What do you think we’ll say?
The Pitch
They’ll call (we received the call from 877-786-1624) and tell you that they want to give you a FREE gift card, with no questions asked. It may be for major stores such as Target or Walmart. They will then proceed to ask for your personal information, such as date of birth, address, and a credit card for an activation fee, which will sign you up for their discount “savings club” that will hit your credit card every month for over $60. This small “activation” fee appears to vary from around $3.95 to $8.95, and only applies to your “trial” period which only lasts for 7 days.
So basically this is a bait and switch, enticing consumers with a gift card, only to sign them up in an expensive and difficult to cancel discount club.
It’s not worth it.
It has been reported that complaints and even attempts at cancellation are nearly impossible.
If you call 877-786-1624 back, they usually answer with a greeting such as, “Thank you for calling Smart Shoppers Savings Club. How can I help you?”
If you can forget about the gift card they’re dangling in front of you for a moment, what you have is a person from an unknown location and representing an unknown company calling you and asking for your personal information. Never give a telemarketer your personal information!
The Website
It has been reported that the website associated with Smart Shoppers Savings Club is thediscountsavingsclub.com , but that site is currently listed as “Under Construction.” A Wayback Archive snapshot of that site from 2011 shows a rather generic site with a $50 Target Gift Card Voucher and other company logos for which their club supposedly has savings offers. That website was created on March 17, 2010 by an anonymous registrar.
Further Reading
Ripoff Report
Filed under: Scams & Deception
no that is not true the reason why you been rip-up because its your own fault YOU JUST KEEP ON SAYING YES TO ALL THE QUESTION WITHOUT EVALUATING THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS..THINK AM I RIGHT?HAHAHAHA
Yes, they have been calling harassing me saying I own them almost 2,000 dollars when I cancel them before I receive anything, in March 14th 2012 and only19.95 was suppose to only take out each month, how does it add up to that amount. I cancel them before within the so call trial period, I put a stop to the bank card when my bank card had unauthorized debits taken out, my bank call me and we immediate closed that card out before more was taken . They are saying they are sending it to collections if I don’t pay them and give them my credit card information, I have them on tape, one of the managers Mark Murphy” collections refuse to give me information to this company, saying I didn’t cancel and the only way to cancel is pay them. I am going to sue them. Anyone has any information please let me know quickly please.
hey
research LLR. consult with a good lawyer who has had many cases dealing with such issues like these. i received a letter today about owing them $201.45, but they will settle for $141.02. I don’t recall registering for any savings club and I know all about these scammers. They can send all the letters they want but they aint getting a dam dime from me. if you fall for it, you’re putting yourself at risk. always research when these things come into play. hope this helps!
Re: smartshopperssavings club… Hi S.. i just wanted to ask you because im in the same dilemna right now with smart shoppers savings club i called them to cancel the subscription from which i never received anything 50 dollar gift card , coupons or anything and they keep saying they emailed it to me when i didnt receive any, and they charged me twice in my credit card and when i called them to just cancel since they didnt want to refund the charges made and they told me to pay like $ 800+ so they can cancel it… so i negotiated until it went down to 140 which is so shocking since i didnt receive anything… so what i did was just to cancel my credit card… did they sent you letters to pay for those subcriptions too.. what did you do??? thanks for the help
Don’t know what that person above is saying; but once I realize they want you to take surveys, I cancel!!!!!! But not soon enough in that email I get 48 email ads a day…and I haven’t brought anything.
These guys are sending me magazines that I didn’t order, and are threatening me over the phone to pursue me aggressively for $500. They have already charged me at least $140. How do I get rid of them and get them to stop sending these idiotic magazines? Are there any class action suits against the company? Also, their ad was associated with that penny auction site that also seems like a total scam, zbiddy in the same line as ponzi schemes.
Omar Othman
Where do I begin??…. They are wanting $979.02, from me BUT will settle for $685.31!!!!! and I have received NOT ONE thing from “Smart Shoppers Savings Club”, I have NEVER applied to this savings “club”!! Please HELP!!!!!!!
Bitter
Hi,
I got trapped into the same scam when i transposed the customer service numbers of my Bank Customer services. These people said that they will redirect me to the Bank after I am done with the process. I gave them all my details and they signed me up for 4 different offers. How do I get rid of that? I already cancelled Credit Card account in less than 24 hours after this happened. What do they do now since my account is cancelled? Are they going to threaten me for some money? Please help me with what you did?
that is not true ! it’s still all your fault why you were being charged or sent by those things cause you did agree to the program and to the terms and billing ..
it’s not my falut they’re sending me a bill that i’m not even familiar with. i have not registered for any savings club and i don’t deal with smart shopper deals because theres always a risk. i do my research first and investigate further. ppl should always research before committing. so, the bill they sending me they will NEVER get cause i don’t owe them a dam dime. and they gon have to come better than that to convince me.
excuse the mispellings. goin mighty fast.
I knew something was up when the lady called me. She asked for my mom so I went along with it. I kept asking questions like why she needed my name, birthday, and postal code. She got my mom’s name, my name, and half a postal code (dont know if she wrote down the other half cause she asked me to repeat – it sounded like she was writing it down so I didn’t repeat). The moment she said I had to pay 3.95, I was like f you, waste of my time. These scammers are horrible at lying too.
Today I kept getting phone calls from a number, 720-356-0796. After three in about two hours, I finally answered and let the man speak. He starts reading off an obvious script: “Hello ma’am, I am calling from the Smart Shoppers Savings Program, and I want to tell you congratulations, as out of the many people who visited our site, you have been selected to receive a free $50 Target gift card voucher.” At this point, I stopped him and kindly told him that I wasn’t interested, and to please take me off of their calling list. He responds with “Oh, but ma’am, you don’t have to make any purchases today. So anyways, you’ve been selected to receive a free $50 Target gift card voucher, absolutely free. Sounds great! Right?” I replied with an unenthusiastic, “Uh-huh.” He continues with, “Just to let you know, this call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance purposes.” He then launches into a spiel about how I will save thousands of dollars each month, and that if I pay for the $3.95 trial period, which is seven days, that I will receive a welcome package in the next 2-5 business days, so can he please get my zip code? At this point, I tell him that no, you said I wasn’t going to make any purchases, so please take me off of your calling list. He begins to speak over me at this point, to where he is yelling, saying “It’s not a purchase, it is a $3.95 activation fee-” And I finally lost my temper, as no one yells at me on the phone, so I told him, “Look, dude, you said there were no charges or fees, $3.95 is a fee. That’s a purchase. Fee means purchase. Learn proper English, and not what you read off of a screen. Take me off of your fucking calling list now or I will report you to the Better Business Bureau for harassment!” And he says, “Fine, thank you for listening, have a great day. Bitch.” And hangs up. Yeah. This is completely not legit, as I’ve been looking up information about the program, and these people are scammers and will get your personal information and credit card information from you and take money from your bank account. DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR INFORMATION PLEASE! I hate to think of all the people that are going to fall for this.
Woah, seriously? How dare they start to insult their consumers, that’s not how a professional company is supposted to act to their customers (albiet their not exactly profesh, hah) but seriously, why do people have to scam their way to money instead of earning it themselves like the people their scamming? It’s an insult to humanity…
I found a charge for 64.00 on my bank statement today. I have also been receiving magazines I did not order and do not want. I called the number and a representative tried to convince me that I had made an agreement and must pay based on my “good word”. I insisted that I wanted to cancel and a refund. I spoke with a manager who said that I could only cancel if I paid a total of $180. I finally told her that I wanted to cancel and I wanted a refund NOW or I was going to hang up and call the BBB and my bank to stop payments. She immediately said that she wanted me satisfied and canceled the account and promised a refund of the $64.
That’s a terrible story. Do you know how they first obtained your bank info?
Hello. The same thing happened to me just today, like 40 minutes ago. I called my bank number and, lo and behold, the 64 dollars was taken out like they said, but only after they kept me on the phone for 20 minutes, talking nonsense into my ear. Please tell me you were able to get this resolved, because i need help from you if you were able to. I called them back saying that I wanted to cancel and refund my 64 dollars. They said that my account and everything hasn’t been activated yet since they just called me today, and they told me to call back tomorrow to see if it’s been activated. Then they can assist me in getting a refund, and taking me off their mailing list and such. Is this what you did or did you do it a different way? Please reply back. I need all the help I can get. I’m a college student and I guess I was stupid enough to buy into this scam. I hope things can be changed. Please reply back as soon as you can.
I did not order anything from these people…I have not seen any charges to any of my accounts…but today I receive a letter stating that I’m being sent to a collection agency for $200…?????
I’ve tried to call the numbers that they have given me, no one answers…I’m placed on hold.
Has anyone contacted the BBB?????????
Please tell me with how your $200 dollars thing got settled? I am afraid they going to threaten me the same way. Please please share for others benefit and people like me on how you got it resolved.
I just contacted the BBB….here is the info.
If they get enough of us complaining, maybe we can get this stopped.
•BBB of Central, Northern & Western Arizona
•4428 N. 12th Street
•Phoenix, AZ 85014-4585
•Phone: (602)264-1721
•Fax: (602)263-0997
•Email Address: info@arizonabbb.org
•Website: arizonabbb.org
Definitely a scam. Don’t fall for it. This is coming from a consumer advocate. They have multiple offices in multiple states. I got a call from a Florida number saying “Smart Shopper”. Its all b/s. The guy who put Arizona BBB is way off. They’re based out of Indiana and have an “F” BBB rating. I’m definitely sending a letter to them and I suggest everybody does too who reads this. If they get enough letters, maybe they’ll stop.
Smart Shopper Savings Club
4010 West 86th Street Suite D
Indianapolis IN 46268-1779
Hopefully this works.
I have some personal alleged (I say that for legal reasons) “inside” information about this company. You are all receiving calls from their outsourced center in the Philippines. They have hired a company called “International Contact Center Solutions” to do all their dirty work for them. Most are Filipino with perfect English accents. Some are transplanted Americans. They are paid about 12% of what an American gets paid for the same work. See their website here:
http://iccsinc.blogspot.com/
You may notice on the walls in the photographs that there are maps of the United States on the pillars showing them which timezones they are calling.
I know this information wont exactly help anyone. But I just thought you should know, before yelling at the person calling you, that they most likely don’t even know that what they are selling isn’t quite legit. It’s the company in the USA that is to blame for any problems you are having.
Thanks for the additional info!
I received a call at 6 AM…awakened me while on vacation in Maui…the caller relentlessly kept asking for my phone number so she could help me…I kept refusing and only after several rebuttles did she even say WHO she represented. I asked 3 times to have my number removed and she continued to ask for my phone number. I would never have taken the call except we have family traveling and I thought perhaps there had been an accident.
The number was518-795-3421
I received a very similarly troubling call from a Mark at 1877-715-2298 of “Smart Shoppers Savings club” thus call was extremely harrassing and distressing. I CANCELLED THIS SERVICE monthes ago when I I started seeing debiton my bankcard for $3.95- $5 each and every week. I disputed the charges with my bank and closed that card.
I WANT TO KNOW HOW WE CAN START A CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST THIS COMPANY OR SHUT THEM DOWN
The guy Mark “The collection Manager’ said I owed
Noe today this guy Markis alleging that I owe over$160
Dip shits jus called me n said ican use a card wit NO $ on it fo tha 6.95….so ican bounce my acct? This is such a scam n they r terrible liars, they even said ican use my mom’s debt card#! LoL…….lil desparate ya think!? After straight out askin if ihad to cancle somethin b4 iwas charged, he screamed yes….haha….iain’t dealin wit this crap, keep yo $100!
Why didn’t my messasge post
If you posted a comment that didn’t show up here, it may have been stopped by our spam filters, as we get a couple thousand junk comments a day!
today i was introduce to them send me my free 50 card i bet lol
she wanted my credit card i said my husband has it not me
she then wish me a good day
i realize while i was talking to look it up computer right beside the phone and seen many have been scammed by this
so right away i stop giving anymore info and all the info i gave was wrong so be it
most scams happen on the phone
i realize this I wasn’t born yesterday
Make damm sure of what and who ever i talk to
and tell them nothing that can affect my buying power until i can read conditions etc
send me the paper work before i give any info about my credit etc
to see if i want it or not
i think not
lol
I too signed up for this scam not fully realizing the implications of the matter. Once I was charged 29.95 on my account, I knew I was apart of a membership. Thankfully, I found the website and cancelled my membership with no additional charges afterward.
However, I’m still receiving magazines that I did not order with this membership. This magazine company (who I think is the same company) told me I was paying them monthly. But I don’t have any reoccurring charges being placed on my account. After reading some peoples experiences, I’m worried that they’ve signed me up with another membership that is going to claim hundreds of dollars via mail.
I hope closing my bank account (as well as notifying my bank about no further re-billing) will stop any further transactions.
Closing your account should end the problem, though we know how much of a hassle that can be. Check back again and let us know if there are any new details. Thanks for your comment!
I was called and said that I would get a $100 gift card for Walmart. Only a $3.95 processing fee. Then they told me I had to say yes to 4 other offers before I could get the confirmation code to activate my $100 card. I stated that I did not want to say yes to anything else. They then said “well we already have your credit card information and you will be charged $3.95, $14.00, $29.00, and $39.00 every month.” I said I want to cancel and they laughed and said that I had to say yes to all the offers before I could cancel. I hung up and called my bank saying that I had just been scammed and they closed my card. They keep calling me back and telling me that they hope that I enjoy my monthly fees. I told them that I cancelled my card and they said that they can get my new card number and charge me. They said that they were calling from Pheonix, AZ and the number that called me was 541-704-7601, an Oregon number. Then I keep getting calls from them with 0000000000 as the number showing up on my caller id.
Jesse the exact same thing just happened to me 30 minutes ago. I was on the phone with them for over 2 hours telling them i would not go on recording stating my name or card number…….WOW… lol i just got another call while i was writing this from the same number saying since i was such a valued credit card user they were gunna give me a free promotional cruise or some nonsense, i wasn’t really paying much attention. they then asked if i had credit cards and i said no i just got rid of all my credit cards and debit cards. she then said thats ok i will still put you in the drawing for the $50,000 sweepstakes which then transferred me to the number i had been transferred to earlier…. this is ridiculous. anyway sorry back to the origional story. I also said i wasnt going to agree to anything on recording and i just wanted the number to cancel. they kept saying that the only way to get it was to go throught the verification process getting no where i finally said fine and when they got to my card number i gave them a bogus number which they said i could not do. i kept insisting that if they had already billed my account that i did not need to say my real card number again on the recording. after about 2 hrs of arguing and yelling i was transferred to 4 different people and finally after getting to the “Senior Verification Supervisor” i asked her litteraly 4 or 5 times ” If i do NOT go on recording stating my information could i legally be bound to anything?” and 4 or 5 times she said YES they already have my information in their system. Finally I was fed up and tired of yelling and cussing at them for trying to screw me so i proceeded with the verification and after i verified my card number and stuff they tried to get me to say yes to other promotion and i said no. she then came back on the line and said something along the lines of… if you dont want them you can cancel them and to that i said ok which was a mistake because after i said ok to what she said i heard a beep which means she just recorded me saying ok and applied it to the promotional question. i then got disconnected and they never called me back. except to try to get me to do it all again for something else. …. sry for so long and no punctuation i am just very upset and letting you all know how my case went.
Please advise. I have been harassed by this company being called 41 times in 2 hours from a number oooooooo. No ID number. Persons are very persistent and I am in trial period however canceling as I understand from other comments is almost impossible to cancel. Has anyone had any success on canceling during trial period?