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“If Your Credit Card Expires, We’ll Charge it Anyway”

et bookTo entice people to sign up for an annual subscription to their Entertainment coupon books, the company recently offered an enticement: pay just $10.50 for the 2012 book (and agree to buy the 2013 book, and those printed in subsequent years, for $5 off when they become available).

Like a book club, they say they will give you advance notice before the new book is shipped and give you an opportunity to cancel. That’s fair and reasonable.

To prevent some clever consumer from just cancelling the future editions in order to snag a bargain on this year’s book, they buried in the fine print, this bit of protection for themselves:

*MOUSE PRINT:

6. If you cancel prior to receiving your first book through the Annual Renewal program (2013 Edition) your credit card will be charged a $5 cancellation fee.

That also seems fair, and the consumer is still getting a bargain price on the 2012 book.

What seems to cross the line, however, is this:

*MOUSE PRINT:

5. If your Credit Card reaches its expiration date, your failure to cancel after receipt of our notification will constitute your authorization for us to continue billing your card.

What? They are going to send you the book, knowing that your credit card has expired, and deem this fine print provision to be your authorization to engage in this questionable practice?

Somehow, I don’t think that Visa and MasterCard would look kindly on a company that deliberately puts charges on a card it knows is no longer valid.

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Free Hugs*

Special thanks to Bruce from Tennessee and his son for finding this fine print chuckle.

[Reprinted with permission from J.L. Westover and www.mrlovenstein.com]

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90% off on Groceries at Amazon? (part 2)

Recently we told you that JC Penney was doing away with phony price comparisons in its stores. Other sellers, however, still need to clean up their act.

A little over a year ago, Mouse Print* spotlighted a number of grocery items at Amazon.com that they claimed were 90% off, when they were not. The company used grossly exaggerated “regular” prices to make it appear that the goods were 90% off.

After we called them on the carpet, influential blog that Mouse Print* is, the company cleaned up its act, right? Well, not quite. A quick look through their listings turned up hundreds of questionable discounts.

Here, they are claiming that 24 boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese normally sell for $791.76 — or $32.99 a box.

*MOUSE PRINT:

The actual regular price at a local supermarket was $1.59 a box, or $38.16 for 24, not nearly $800 as Amazon claimed.

Here are some more examples of wildly exaggerated regular prices used to provide an illusory discount of over 90%:



*MOUSE PRINT: Supermarket price is $2.50 a box; with four boxes costing $10, not $239.


*MOUSE PRINT: Supermarket price is $1.34 a box, not over $140.


*MOUSE PRINT: Supermarket price is $4.69 a box, not over $90.


*MOUSE PRINT: Supermarket price is $1.89 a bottle, not over $47.


*MOUSE PRINT: Supermarket price is $1.79 a can, not almost $45.


*MOUSE PRINT: Supermarket price is $1.59 a box, not $55.


*MOUSE PRINT: And in one of the craziest savings claims ever, how could a single small package of licorice ever cost over $72, thus forming a basis for a $2599 regular price for three dozen?

In many of these cases, a third party seller has established the regular and sale prices, apparently with little oversight by Amazon. So, a word to the wise is to ignore Amazon’s savings claims, and do your own comparison of actual selling prices at a variety of stores.

You can see more wild price comparisons scattered here.

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