Mar 07
23
Scammed by Chadwick’s and Reservation Rewards
I was reviewing our credit card statement today when I noticed an odd charge from “WLI*RESERVATIONREWARDS.COM” for $10. I didn’t remember ever doing business with a company by this name, so I checked my prior statements to see if there were any other similar charges. Sure enough, there was a $10 on the 18th of each month since December 2006. I called and checked with the wife and she hadn’t bought anything from such a site either.
That’s when the hunt begins. The obvious first step is looking up ReservationRewards.com to see exactly what it is we supposedly signed up for. The site is one of these so-called discount clubs offering savings on a variety of crap – not the type of thing that either of us would knowingly sign up for. I then decided to do a Google search for Reservation Rewards and found pages upon pages of sites talking about being scammed by this company, including a very informative blog posting by Adam Rosi-Kessel.
After reading several of the postings, I called Reservation Rewards with all guns blazing. As soon as the rep came on I said I had several fraudulent charges on my card from their company and I wanted the charges stopped and reversed. The customer service rep quickly looked up my “account” and noted that the account was actually in my wife’s name and that she had (supposedly) signed up through Chadwicks.com. The rep very quickly canceled the account and tried to get me off the phone before I could bring up the prior charges again. I quickly reiterated my request for a refund of prior charges, to which he put up no argument and promised that the refund would appear in 3-5 days.
Looking at the other people’s accounts of this scam, we aren’t the only ones who have been scammed by Chadwick’s and Reservation Rewards, and Chadwick’s isn’t alone in selling out their customers to these online scammers. A list of some of the other sites that have reportedly allowed Reservation Rewards to prey on their customers can be found here.
What’s my next step? First, we will check to see if the refund actually comes through as promised. While we are waiting for the refund we will also be calling Chadwick’s customer service to make our displeasure known. We will then be filing formal BBB complaints against Chadwick’s and Reservation Rewards, which will be quickly followed by complaints to the Office of Attorney General for the states of Texas (my home state), Connecticut (Reservation Rewards HQ), and Massachusetts (Chadwick’s HQ). I will also file a complaint with the FTC.
I’ll keep everyone updated on my follow-up communications and complaints and any responses I receive.
