At the beginning of January I ordered a seat cushion from a company called
Amerimark. I got the cushion. It was fine. I'm sitting on it now. But a little over a month later I was looking at my credit card statement, and I noticed that in addition to the charge for the cushion, Amerimark had posted a second charge three weeks later for $3.99. I had no idea what the additional charge could be for. I asked my wife about it. She didn't know either. But I figured it must be postage, or something like that, so I didn't think any more about it. After all, it was only $3.99.
But today I was looking at my credit card statement online, and I noticed that Amerimark had recently posted a third charge to my account, this time for $29.99. Now I decided to call Amerimark to find out what these charges were for. I reached a customer service rep who told me I had subscribed to their
"Passport to Health" program.
Suddenly I remember. I had received a sales call from Amerimark back in mid-January trying to get me to sign up for their "Passport to Health" program. I told them I wasn't interested and thought that was the end of it. But they had my credit card information since I bought the cushion from them, so apparently they signed me up for it anyway.
The customer rep told me that the charges were in error and that he would cancel them immediately.
But after I hung up with him, I decided to google Amerimark, and I discovered I'm not the only person who has been "mistakenly" signed up for the "Passport to Health" program. They're pulling this scam on a regular basis.
"Passport to Health" appears to be a program that offers no (or very few) benefits, except the benefit of getting charged $29.99 every month (the first month is only $3.99). The really slimy part is that many of their customers are elderly people who may be less likely to look carefully at their credit card statements, so they never notice they're being charged $29.99 every month.
For instance, 800notes.com has
an entire message board full of people complaining that they were ripped off by Amerimark. One person describes how they've been "charging my 87-year old mother $29.99 a month for 'Passport To Health' that she supposedly signed up for in April '07 when they called to 'make sure her Amerimark mail order arrived safely.'"
In addition, Tom from California has
posted a report on ripoffreport.com describing how he was subscribed to the "Passport to Health" program after his wife bought a pair of shoes from Amerimark.
I didn't trust Amerimark to actually credit back what they had billed me, so I called my credit card company (Bank of America) to contest the charges. While I was on the phone with the billing dispute department, I described how Amerimark was scamming elderly people, and I urged Bank of America to do something, like stop accepting charges from Amerimark. But the service rep just gave me the run-around and didn't promise to do anything.
So I'm posting about it here to help spread the word. Hopefully if someone is considering making a purchase from Amerimark, they might come across this post and decide to shop elsewhere.
In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out who else I can report Amerimark to. The FTC? Better Business Bureau? I want to bring this company down.
Update: I checked out AmeriMark's listing on the Better Business Bureau's site. It turns out that the BBB has already received a lot complaints about them (I filed one more), and particularly about their Passport to Health program.
The BBB page about AmeriMark notes:
Many complaints processed by the BBB concern confusion over the company's membership renewal policy in the Passport to Savings program and the Passport to Health program (formerly known as Family Health Network program). Many consumers claim they are not aware that the company automatically bills their accounts for the renewal fee unless they notify them to cancel. Many of these consumers complain that they were not aware that they had been enrolled in the program. The company has responded to these complaints by canceling the membership and issuing refunds. In January 2005, the Cleveland BBB met with company representatives. The company has indicated its willingness to work to correct the cause of consumer misunderstanding concerning enrollment and cancellation of these programs.
Apparently AmeriMark's meeting with the BBB didn't have much impact on the company, because they're still working the same old scam.
Comments
You may also make a cursory call to your local police (non-emergency line, please 😉 ) just to check on how and to who you would report something like that. If it is blatant credit card fraud (seems to be) and there is enough documented evidence against them (seems to be online) it might be something the FBI might be interested in since I'm guessing it crosses state lines.
I would also strongly suggest the Better Business Bureau. While there's not a lot they can actual do, it is a good source of information for people looking for reliable and safe businesses.
Most will unusally refuse to do business with scam artists.
How appropriate.
J/P=?
However, since Amerimark is doing business in multiple states, they do fall under the juridstiction of the Federal Trade Commission. If any part of their deal involves the US Mail you can also get the Postal Inspectors involved.
Unfortunately, I was signed up on a bank account I hardly used (I had a portion of my paycheck automatically deposited there each month, and then had some bills paid automatically out of it. So it wasn't until a few months later that I noticed I was still being charged. I called them up, spoke to a supervisor, and, er, got a bit verbally abusive, demanding a full refund and accusing them of theft and fraud and some other things best not repeated. Eventually, they agreed to refund the last month's fee, but that was it.
In part, it was my fault - I should've been paying closer attention to my bank account. But still, they're clearly rip-off artists. I'm sorry to see they're ripping off other people too, but I'm glad to see you're trying to do something about it!
About 6 months later I noticed a charge of 9.99 on my credit card bill. I checked the last few months and I find out after the free 3 months they have gone back to charging me money. I called and asked for my money back. I even challenged them to listen to any recording that was done during my initial call. I ended up not getting any of my money back (about $30). But at least it got cancelled for sure this time.
I just hate these scams that target the elderly.
Also, if you can determine their bank, you can get their credit card privileges revoked if just a few people call to complain of fraud.
Ben
I mean, people should know where to draw that line. Good that you decided to expose this scam, I just stumbled your post.
Primarily AmeriMark is a catalog company. EVERY single order is recorded; this does also pertain to inquiries of and so forth. Sadly, ALL reps are REQUIRED to "pitch" any of the three memberships as they "pop up" on the screen in front of them. The three memberships are PassPort to Health 29.99 monthly, PassPort to Savings 89.99 yearly, and Sentential ID Alert 19.99 monthly.
A horribly long script is read to the customer.
It goes as follows...
"... as a thank you for placing your order with (catalog name) we would like to send you P ($100 Feel Good Store and Time for Me) in catalog coupons to use on your future orders with (catalog name). Along with a trial membership in our (PassPort to Health, PassPort to Savings, or Sentential ID Alert)." (Then a brief de
My question is how do we report it to the attorny general? I live in Colorado, but registered to vote in Texas. Which state do I use?
Just yesterday, I discovered that she had, again, fallen victim to the AmeriMark jackasses. I instructed her to call them and dispute the charges (nearly $500 since it began again).
She said they were very polite and would refund $179.94, the last six charges. We'll see if that really happens, but in the meantime, we'll be sending VISA another letter, requesting they credit the remaining $213.92 she was charged.
The number she called is 866-345-4401.
I second that motion!
http://www.ag4ohio.gov/Public/consumer.aspx?s=209
You will need to know this:
AmeriMark Direct, L.L.C.
Phone: 800-8000200
6864 Engle Road
Cleveland, Ohio, 44130
U.S.A.
I even got a call from the office. PLEASE DO IT!
However, the call began by asking me to "verify" my name and address, to which I said yes.
So they had me on tape saying yes to something, and apparently they figured that was good enough to warrant signing me up.
J. Gargano
This is the thing, just like the other reps have said; we have a set of VERY strict guidelines that we MUST follow when making the coupon/program trial offer.-Statements in quotations have to be given verbatim otherwise even if our customer wants the program, we won't send it)
We have inform the customer that the program is only free for the first '45 days from today' (the day they accept the offer) and that after that, if they don't call to cancel, their debit or credit card is billed the program price which is '$29.99 each month with an automatic renewal'.
We also inform our customers that they are welcome and ENCOURAGED to 'call and cancel the program at ANY time within those first 45 days and never be billed.'
AND we give our customers the phone number to call and cancel as well as letting them know that it IS in the information packet in several places, and that they are welcome to call and cancel as soon as the same day that their information and coupons arrive if they want to.
After we go through ALL of that information, we MUST ask the customer if it's okay to send them the passport to health 'packet/program/membership' and coupons, and we have to get a clear 'yes', 'ok', 'that's fine', etc.
AND THEN we ask the customer to verify the last four digits of the card that they used for the order to remind them which card would be used if they kept the program. After that, we remind them AGAIN that 'the account will be charged monthly unless you call to cancel'. And let the customer know when they will get their packet and what it looks like.
If we don't obey the compliance guidelines, a.k.a. give those statements in quotations verbatim, they don't send the packet out, we don't get any credit for the sale, and if it happens more than a couple of times, we get fired.
The thing is that customers DON'T LISTEN, and I understand, it's a big, long, boring pitch, but Why on Earth would you agree to something involving your charge card if you don't understand/weren't paying attention.
And in the end, if a customer forgets to cancel or doesn't remember accepting it and ends up being charged, all they have to do is call us back and let Cust.Svc know that they didn't actually WANT the program, we'll happily refund the customer for each month they were charged and cancel the program so they don't get billed again.
So yeah...It's a stupid program, not everyone can use it, and it's really expensive to continue it after the trial, but we do let our customers everything they need to know about the program, we try to MAKE SURE that they comprehend and want the program. AND in the end we refund them if they forget to cancel and actually get billed!
There's no 'rip-off' on our part here, just inattention and over-reaction on some of our customers' part.