Complaint Review: HDI Simple Escapes2 - Nationwide

I worked for this company for several months, and eventually quit because I couldn't continue to make money by being dishonest. We were given $1 for each Vertrue sale made, and I was very good at selling them. The trick is to put the negative stuff (i.e. how much money it costs, and that it automatically renews each year) in the middle of a rambling speech. We were required to do at least 3 comebacks to each "No," and many sales were made by simply wearing the customer down. This company hires many "questionable" employees - like recent parolees, current drug addicts, etc. - and many of them like to make a quick buck by occasionally clicking "Accept" when the customer clearly rejected the offer. Basically, I'm saying "BUYER BEWARE!" Most phone order companies are exactly the same in integrity, and you need to make sure not to agree to ANY upsell - no matter how good it sounds. Repeat as many times as necessary that you only want what you called to order. If you still get charged, consider filing a lawsuit if they refuse to refund ALL of your charges (and I mean ALL!!). They have to prove that you agreed to any upsells, and if you know 100% that you did not agree, you shouldn't lose. At the very least, report the instance to the FTC (ftc.gov) and to the Better Business Bureau. Do your part to stop this from happening to others. You might even end up with some compensation if a lawyer is interested! ... my two cents, for what it's worth. :)

Memberworks became "Vertrue"...as if that somehow made them truthful. Virtually nothing was ever billed by this firm without nominal approval from the party billed. Trick is, it's a 30 day trial, and most customers would "space out" the entire process in that time. Another neat trick: under either guise, it was convenient for the firm to simply never ship the literature to the customer, and a lot of idiot dimwit customers simply threw out the literature under the moronic presumption it was junk mail. The firms who peddle these "programs" tape all sales, and it is almost unheard of for the customer to NOT approve the forwarding of the information, in exchange for bonus items like prepaid gasoline cards or savings bonds, which they almost universally forget about and never claim. Customers are also give the phone number and website where they can cancel, but customers seem to "lose" this information and "forget" to look for the program literature in the mail, which always arrives separate from the "hard" merchandise ordered. What's needed, frankly, is not the demise of "Vertrue", from which HDI has, for one, disassociated itself. What's needed is a firm group of ironclad laws to forbid one company passing on ANY consumer informatio to another company for ANY purpose, to include selling names and addresses, as well as this sort of thing. Long term, the management of companies who do this--and it is almost ALL of them, by the way, who do phone or internet orders--are lining their pockets in a most unethical manner, and generally destroying their companies, because customers who hear too much of this pressure selling simply won't come back. But they won't listen to such things; they are too imperious and self-absorbed, and will condemn their employees, upon pain of firing, to endlessly repeat this near-fraudulent JUNK no matter what, and pay them rewards to raise their sales percentage. It's a form of corruption, right out in the open, and also explains your e-mail spam, the tons of unwanted catalogs, etc., etc., etc. This is a business and a way of business which, though now lawful in an environment where it becomes almost impossible to successfully sue even a third-rate, blatantly dishonest company, should be banned and the firms which practice this dance shut down, once and forever. It's amusing to read all these neo-n**i lies from major criminals about "frivolous law suits", but what they really want--and "Vertrue" is one of these--is a situation in which people of low or moderate income can be ravaged to make them pay and pay and pay, no matter how absurd the scam in which they were ensnared, whereas the wealthy cannot even be touched. Anyone recognize a pattern???

I called the 877 number listed. After 10min, I was able to have the operator (who had better than average English speaking skills)agree to a full refund. At first, he was only going to give a $77 pro-rated refund! Then I mentioned filing FTC complaints & joining a class action lawsuit for unauthorized charges then he agree to the remainder. Also, he was able to confirm that the offending offer started from a The Company Store online purchase & not HSN. I called The Company Store to complain & was actually assisted & listened to by CS rep. who was going to forward complaint to supervisors. She stated that she was actually familiar with THIS site!!!! She stated that they have been offering cross promotion with Simple Escapes for THREE YEARS.