Cheap things that turn out to be expensive
By Porcospino
@Porcospino (31365)
Denmark
April 8, 2012 6:09pm CST
My mother-in-law has joined a book club and today she asked me to help her cancel her membership. It wasn't possible. When we logged into her account and tried to cancel her membership we got a message saying that we couldn't cancel her memberships yet, because she didn't buy enough books yet. I asked to see the papers that she got when she joined, but she said that she never read the details of the membership, because she accepted an offer that she got on the phone. She told me that the person who sold her the books never mentioned that she had to buy more than two books.
We spent a lot of time on the website, because we wanted to find the information about the number of books that she had to buy. The information wasn't there. She will have to call them after Easter. My mother-in-law regrets joining the book club, because she doesn't really have the money to buy the extra books that she is required to buy. It sounded like a good offer on the phone, but when we visited the website we discovered that it will be more expensive than she thought.
Have you ever accepted an offer that sounded great and discovered that you had to buy more than you expected? What did you buy and what happened?
9 responses
@leighz (456)
•
9 Apr 12
Wow that's the reason why I got a caller ID. Beware of sales people calling you and promising too good to be true offers. It's important to read their policies and disclaimers, I guess most of these outbound agents are targeting the baby boomers. They know they can easily persuade them and that this demographic have money to spend. I've had a fair share of such instances, especially home-based online jobs worth $30 sign in fee with a money back guarantee within 30 days. I tried once and guess what they are not fully giving back the full amount you initially paid. Now I'm smarter when looking for a legit site online.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31365)
• Denmark
9 Apr 12
That is true, we should be very careful when we receive that kind of phonecalls. I once accepted an offer that I got on the phone, and that was a mistake because it got much more expensive than I thought when I accepted the offer. Since that time I have been a lot more careful. Unfortuneately there are many companies and online jobs that don't keep their promises like that online job where you didn't get the the full amount of money back. When I was new to online money making I was less careful and less skeptical than I am today, and I didn't do much research when I joined new sites. I was scammed a couple of times, and today pick out online sites in a different way, because I have more experience today.
@timetravel (1424)
• United States
9 Apr 12
What you need to do is get an email or physical address of the top person there. Inform that person your mother-in-law was scammed by them over the phone, and if they don't let her withdraw without any consequences you will inform the better business bureau or what ever consumer fraud bureau you have in your country. Tell them they told her nothing about having to purchase a minimum amount and she does not have the funds to do this. You need to be direct, and gently threatening.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31365)
• Denmark
9 Apr 12
Thanks, we will try that. I want to help my mother-in-law get out of that club, because I know that she doesn't have the extra money to pay for the books that she is required to buy, and they didn't tell her the truth on the phone. Book club scams are quite common here, and I know that other people have had bad experiences as well. Some book clubs "forget" that former members have cancelled their memberships and they keep on sending them books. I had one bad experience several years ago and since that time I haven't joined any book clubs.
@timetravel (1424)
• United States
9 Apr 12
You just need to be forceful and direct. Tell them - even over the phone - that you suspect there was something illegal in their "doings" -but make sure you talk to a higher upper. Good luck!
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31365)
• Denmark
12 Apr 12
I am a big reader, too, I think that was the reason why I also joined a book club in the past. I am sorry to hear about your bad experience. My experience was different from yours and the problem was that they just kept on sending me books after I cancelled my membership. My mother once experienced the same thing, and today we both avoid that kind of memberships.
@myfb2009 (8296)
• Malaysia
9 Apr 12
Hi Porco, how are you now? It is always wise to ask for more details before join any offer. Because nowadays there are so many tricky offer. There had been many types of hidden fees being imposed if we didn't ask correctly and ended-up being cheated by those tricky company. I nearly got cheated recently when i thought the offer is fine. Only when i ask for more information about that offer then only i realized that it is not as cheap as they had mentioned earlier.
@Porcospino (31365)
• Denmark
11 Apr 12
Hi! I am fine. I just got an extra job in order to earn more money for travelling and I am going to start in a few weeks. I hope that things are well at your place, too.
It is good to hear that you discovered the truth about that offer. Sometimes an offer sounds great when you first hear about it but when you read the details you discover that it isn't a cheap as it seemed. The offer that my mother-in-law got also sounded great and that is why she decided to join that book club. At that time she didn't know that we wouldn't be able to leave the book club when she wanted to. We didn't discover that till we visited the website and we couldn't find any information about the number of books that she was required to book.
@megamatt (14290)
• United States
9 Apr 12
Yeah, I'm not the point where I don't really accept any offers that sound rather great in this day. There is just a lot of deceit and once you get into an agreement like this, it might be hard to get out, as the situation that you underlined rather indicates. Everything sounds like a great offer I am sure, when it is given all of the phone.
Mostly because that some people are great salespeople, that the average people are just think these are great deals. Even if there are far better things. I'm to the point where I rarely believe many people right at their word in this day and age. There are just going to be many times where things sound great, and in the moment, they sound like a good deal. But when you start thinking about them, in hindsight, they are a scam. When people start selling things, I just hang up the phone. Don't want to be talked into something after all.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31365)
• Denmark
10 Apr 12
I don't buy anything that people want to sell me on the phone. Salespeople who call me give up really fast, because they can tell that I don't want to buy anything. I did buy something once, and it was not a positive experience and since that time I say no to everyone who calls. When I want to buy something I take the initiative and visit an offline shop or a webshop, I don't accept the offers that I receive on the phone because there are too many scams and I like to read the details of the memberships etc before I accept an offer. Unfortunately my mother-in-law said yes to the salesperson who called and now we are trying to get out of that membership.
@almond24 (1248)
• Hungary
9 Apr 12
We should be careful when we are no buying something in person.
I got internet for my mobile phone, and it was free for the first month. I was told that after that I have to pay the monthly fee. I changed my phone, and the service didn't work on that one. I kept calling the customer service, but they couldn't help with it. They would reduce my account with that amount every month, even though I couldn't use the internet on my phone. When I cancelled the service, they deducted a monthly amount of the internet fee.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31365)
• Denmark
12 Apr 12
That is true, we should be careful in those situations. Your experience with the internet connection for your phone proves that, and I am sorry to hear about your bad experience. I also had a bad experience with previous internet connection, the people from the customer were not helpful at all, and it was a pretty frustrating experience. Now I have another internet connection, it is not that great, but at least I don't have the same problems as I had first the other internet connection.
@Theresaaiza (10487)
• Australia
9 Apr 12
Hi...
Although I am not one to just join clubs or any membership, I did sign up one time. It works like Avon except that they sell household products. I wouldn't say I regretted it tremendously because I did benefit from the products but it turned out to be way more expensive than the ones you could readily purchase from regular grocery stores. There was nothing really too exceptional with their items. The more popular brands actually did better.
I'm just fortunate that there really isn't any policy that forces me to purchase anything just so I could cancel my membership or anything.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31365)
• Denmark
9 Apr 12
It is a good to hear that you managed to cancel the membership without problems. It sounds like those household products weren't too impressive. I have never tried to sell things that way, but one of my friends did and she asked me if I wanted to join her. I said no, because I didn't think that I would be able to sell much. The products that she sold were quite good, but they were pretty expensive.
@hvedra (1619)
•
10 Apr 12
I never have anything to do with calls like that. Even if they are a genuine company, there are a lot of scams out there just trying to get your personal and financial details.
Most book clubs have a minimum purchase requirement so what she has discovered isn't that unusual but I'm surprised it isn't written down somewhere in either paperwork or on the website - I doubt she could be held to a verbal agreement if it came down to it especially if the seller was rather vague.
1 person likes this
@NailTech (6874)
• United States
9 Apr 12
You should never agree to anything like that on the phone, there are alot of scammers out there and if you tell them no they should be able to take the hint. I never do business over the phone, my family has been burned too with that kind of thing.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31365)
• Denmark
9 Apr 12
I also had a bad experience when I accepted an offer on the phone, and since that time I have said no to every offer that I got that way, because I don't want the same thing to happen again. It was also a book club and they kept on sending me books after I left. Now I turn down the offers right away, and the salespeople who call me usually give up very fast, because they can hear that I don't intend to change my mind 
