May 06, 2004
motherhood scam
I make it a point to seldom rant in this webspace, but I'm a little ticked at a scam from Motherhood (maternity clothes store) and Parenting (magazine) that just tried to snag us.
we bought some stuff at motherhood a while back. they pretty much have a monopoly on nice maternity clothes. their prices aren't too terrible if you shop carefully. we paid with our checkcard, and apparently signed up for 2 free issues of Parenting. all fine and dandy.
then a $20 charge from Parenting shows up on our check card statement. apparently we had to call to cancel the mag if we didnt want them to charge the card we used at Motherhood. I'm sure no one bothered to tell us this.
to their credit, the lady at Parenting was very nice when we called to cancel and get a refund. but this is clearly a scam, and I'm wondering how many people are snagged, especially those who don't keep a close eye on their statements. of course we'll see if and when we actually get our $20 back.
I remember being disgusted by the wedding industry back in the day (except for DJs of course). the baby industry is no better.
Posted by bobw at May 6, 2004 04:44 PM
Was that you with a mattress in a truck late this afternoon?
I thought so. You look sexy in a truck.
Sorry to post on topic, but I experienced the same thing at Media Play. I used my credit card and was offered 8 free issues of 2 magazines. Naturally, once they 8 weeks was up, they kept sending the mags. Then the charge showed up on my credit card.
It was no problem getting it taken off. In fact, the automated phone system at the publisher had that specific option available.
Emily once bought some "Turbie Towels" (http://www.cachebeauty.com/turbie.htm) from a 1-800 commercial she saw on TV. Somewhere in the midst of her order, she was enrolled in a "Rewards" program that offered her "money saving coupons", all for just an additional $19.95 a month. For whatever reason, she didn't bring it to MY attention until more than a year later.
Just like podge, I had no trouble getting them to take the charges off, getting back $280.00.
There are NUMEROUS scams like this. The general rule of thumb you should use is the old adage, "there is no such thing as a free lunch."
And, by the way, nice save on the DJ comment.
Yuck! I thought the worst Motherhood/Parenting did was promote formula to unsuspecting parents--billing credit cards for unasked for magazines, too? Ugh.
(Though, I'm so thankful that maternity fashions have come a LONG way in the last decade! Target and Old Navy seem to have decent maternity clothes at good prices, too.)
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