Hi. I'm a breast cancer survivor twice and I think I was the victim of this same scam! I tried ordering the Genie Bras for a better fit and somehow got linked to ValuePlus. I didn't realize that they were charging my "emergency account" $24.95 EVERY month for 16 months!!! I'm getting the run around too. Did you ever get your refund? Just wanted to know if I was wasting my time fighting it.
I believe it is worth fighting because even though the bank has come back to me to verify my allegations, I believe it helps all of us who have been scammed to help get others to be aware that try to get their money back from these crooks. I hope my bank will dig further into Value Plus and SEM's reputation and all the complaints..
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B
Hi. Did you ever get a refund? I'm a victim of the same thing and wondered if it was worth the fight?
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angry wife
| 1 reply
I will let you all know. I wonder if they have been sued?
I noticed a class action suit against them and if you sign up supposedly you will get free attorney response. I cannot sign up because my bank has already returned my money but if my back recindes their opinion I will sign a class action suit.
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panamena
| 2 replies
I have learned how this little scam works. First off, a company named Sempris.Com has ValuePlus and several other programs under their umbrella. They are also affiliated with SWReg Digital River, a company that processes payments online. You make a payment through Digital River and at the end of the payment process you don't get a payment confirmation, you are invited to preview other programs. By the time that you click through the maze of pages to get to where you want to be you have been fraudulently registered for a bogus program. They only sure way to stop the charges is to get a new card number issued. Meanwhile, following up with a fraud report. It is my understanding that if they get too many charge backs they get their privileges cancelled. Probably why they changed their name to Sempris last Sept. The BBB reports 904 complaints in less than 6 mos.
I do not know how they first started to scam me because I didn't attempt to contact any of the companies I have heard about. All of a sudden they have my name, address, zip code and my card information. On the invoices they sent the bank I had ordered nothing, had been sent nothing and they charged me $24.95 per month. They said my name and street address was a match for their records. That's easy to get but I don't know how they got my card number.
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angry wife
| 3 replies
After waiting over 2 weeks (and 3 phone calls) for a refund form from value-plus, I gave up. I called the 800 number on the back of my credit/debit card and reported the fraudulent charges to the bank. They are reversing all of the charges. They did require that I get new cards so that the old card could not be charged again by this company. This took a 10 minute phone call after waiting weeks for a response fro this SCAM company, If enough people reverse their charges, the credit cards will ban this company. Good luck everyone.
After seeing a charge on my credit card that I did not authorize, I made a telephone call to the 800 number listed next to the charge. I called the telephone number and inquired as to what the charge was and WHO THEY WERE. This company answers the phone as "Member Services" only, no other information. The person representing Member Services knew who I was without me giving them much information. They informed me that I would receive a refund to my account of $39.90 in 8-10 days. One month later I called and spoke with a "Jamie" who informed me that two refunds of $19.90 were made to my credit card account (which was never made). She then informed me that this situation was now between me and my credit card company.
This is a scam and I suggest that everyone who falls victim to this scam contact their State Attorney General's Fraud Unit and report these fraudulant acts, which I plan to do.
I didn't waste time with the company and when straight to my bank. The person I talked to pulled up all the complaints and immediately recognized it as a scam. My trouble seemed over and after waiting for a new card and waiting 10 days the money was put back into my account. And now it appears the bank is listening to Value Plus and expecting more correspondence rom me. I have sent it but since I know nothing further I wonder how i will turn out!
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Scammed and mad
| 1 reply
r Membership Services, I just noticed on my checking account this month that for the past eight months you have been taking $24.99 a month for services I did not authorize you to withdraw. For this transaction there must be some kind of paper trail. I am requesting this paper trail be sent to me to see when I signed up for your services. I have never received any benefits from you for this $24.99 a month deduction. The supervisor Jonathan told me that I ordered something on the phone around the 22nd of June and requested your services. I have absolutely no recall of this request. I want to see the paper trail of this account. He gave me this address and here is my letter to you requesting the paper trail of how I requested your services and how you got my bank information to withdraw money from my account without my knowledge. On 02/18/12 I called your company and was referred to go on line to cancel my membership and to request a refund letter. To date I have not received anything from your company . My bank has been called and I have to go in to see a bank officer to file a legal dispute against your company unless I get all my money refunded back. I went online to see about your company and found many others that have had the same circumstances happen to them. Please send me this paper trail as soon as possible and refund me my money.
Sincerely,
Scammed and mad COMMON TO ALL COUNTS Preacquired Account Marketing 5. Preacquired account marketing is a widespread and problematic marketing practice whereby a consumer gives private billing information to a business for the purpose of purchasing a good or service from that business only; however, the consumer’s billing information is then passed to a third party who utilizes it to place charges on the consumer’s account for unrelated products. The “merchant partner” who originally acquired the billing information is paid a fee by the third party for every set of information it passes. This sharing of consumer information is commonly referred to as a “data pass.” 6. In a majority of instances, consumers do not consent to the sharing of their information in this manner, and are more often than not completely unaware that a merchant has transferred their information to a third party. 7. Following the data pass, consumers are commonly enrolled in a membership program or “loyalty club” by the third party with a recurring monthly subscription. Any possible benefits that exist from the membership programs are rarely realized because the overwhelming majority of consumers are unaware they have been enrolled in these clubs and/or programs in the first instance. Third party sellers and their merchant partners are completely aware of the deceptive nature of this business model. 8. However, even after thousands of complaints, a variety of preacquired marketing continues to plague consumers.
Thanks for explaining the chain of paper trails. I never received any information that I was in any membership club and as soon as my bank is involved Value Plus alleges I was given a contract saying I would pay $24.95 as contained in their contract to me after the point of purchase. There was never a point of purchase and no letter trail back to them. This is maddness and the more I hear from other people who have been scammed the more angry I get!
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Jim
We are also in the proces of disputing charges from this company. I also sent an email to david.jatko@sempris.com who does not respond. They can not even tel us what we bought, what services or products they provide for 24.99 a month. This is a scam company.
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David
My wife began receiving $24.95 monthly charges on her Discover card, identified as SEM Value Plus, after placing an order to a late-night TV direct marketer. She filed a complaint through Discover's online "dispute a transaction " link, and also with Value Plus at the link memberservices@onlinemembershipservices.com Discover immediately gave her temporary credits for the disputed charges and blocked future charges. Value Plus later refunded the disputed charges, and Discover then reversed the temporary credits. She has been made whole, but this experience has soured her on ever making telephone or internet purchases. By the way, any time you call a toll-free number, the number you are calling from shows up on the receiving party's caller ID. even if you have a privacy block in place. A toll-free call is actually a type of collect call, so the receiving party has a right to know the caller's number. That's how they know you before you identify yourself. This is commonly used by debt collectors and "repo men", who often ask debtors to call a toll-free number even if they are working from a local office. Then they have your number and can harass you!
David
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It's true
| 1 reply
Those of us unfortunate enough to work in infomercial phone sales run the risk of losing our jobs if we dont, at the end of the call, bully our customers into joining value plus. I make 5 bucks on every membership.
and im the unfortunate person who landed the job of dealing with these un happy customers haha im sure u all have strict guidelines on how u r supposed to offer these services too bad ppl dont listen they hear the word free and theyre all over it
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Margaret Mantooth
My father tried to buy Strutz socks from a TV ad. We have never received the product and now they are charging $24.95 a month to his checking account debit card. Fixing to begin fighting this tomorrow. Thanks for all your information that has been posted!
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Chantal
I just got charged this $24.95 also and I have been calling the company and getting the run around. I am pissed!!!! This David Jatko is no longer with the company and I did get ahold of Steve Sadler: 952.258.2157 steve.sadler@sempris.com and all he told me was that he wasn't in that department and he would have someone call me tomorrow. We will see. I will blast this company all over the internet! I hate getting scammed!!! If you are getting charges these phone numbers will get you in touch with the company. If you call the number on your credit card statement all they will tell you is that they will send out a letter and you have to dispute it by mail and if you want to hear your voice recording (that I KNOW they do not have) you have to request that by mail also. ERRRR
Did anyone get this problem taken care of by this company????
Comments
Fax: 952.258.2100
David Jatko: 952.258.2129 david.jatko@sempris.com
Steve Sadler: 952.258.2157 steve.sadler@sempris.com
After seeing a charge on my credit card that I did not authorize, I made a telephone call to the 800 number listed next to the charge. I called the telephone number and inquired as to what the charge was and WHO THEY WERE. This company answers the phone as "Member Services" only, no other information. The person representing Member Services knew who I was without me giving them much information. They informed me that I would receive a refund to my account of $39.90 in 8-10 days. One month later I called and spoke with a "Jamie" who informed me that two refunds of $19.90 were made to my credit card account (which was never made). She then informed me that this situation was now between me and my credit card company.
This is a scam and I suggest that everyone who falls victim to this scam contact their State Attorney General's Fraud Unit and report these fraudulant acts, which I plan to do.
I just noticed on my checking account this month that for the past eight months you have been taking $24.99 a month for services I did not authorize you to withdraw. For this transaction there must be some kind of paper trail. I am requesting this paper trail be sent to me to see when I signed up for your services. I have never received any benefits from you for this $24.99 a month deduction. The supervisor Jonathan told me that I ordered something on the phone around the 22nd of June and requested your services. I have absolutely no recall of this request. I want to see the paper trail of this account. He gave me this address and here is my letter to you requesting the paper trail of how I requested your services and how you got my bank information to withdraw money from my account without my knowledge. On 02/18/12 I called your company and was referred to go on line to cancel my membership and to request a refund letter. To date I have not received anything from your company . My bank has been called and I have to go in to see a bank officer to file a legal dispute against your company unless I get all my money refunded back. I went online to see about your company and found many others that have had the same circumstances happen to them. Please send me this paper trail as soon as possible and refund me my money.
Sincerely,
Scammed and mad
COMMON TO ALL COUNTS
Preacquired Account Marketing
5. Preacquired account marketing is a widespread and problematic marketing practice whereby a consumer gives private billing information to a business for the purpose of purchasing a good or service from that business only; however, the consumer’s billing information is then passed to a third party who utilizes it to place charges on the consumer’s account for unrelated products. The “merchant partner” who originally acquired the billing information is paid a fee by the third party for every set of information it passes. This sharing of consumer information is commonly referred to as a “data pass.”
6. In a majority of instances, consumers do not consent to the sharing of their information in this manner, and are more often than not completely unaware that a merchant has transferred their information to a third party.
7. Following the data pass, consumers are commonly enrolled in a membership program or “loyalty club” by the third party with a recurring monthly subscription. Any possible benefits that exist from the membership programs are rarely realized because the overwhelming majority of consumers are unaware they have been enrolled in these clubs and/or programs in the first instance. Third party sellers and their merchant partners are completely aware of the deceptive nature of this business model.
8. However, even after thousands of complaints, a variety of preacquired marketing continues to plague consumers.
David
Did anyone get this problem taken care of by this company????
Chantal