Here's the thing:
You get an offer in the mail or over the internet and when you respond, you don't expect the company to tell you later on that the offer is not the offer that you thought it was.
I just found this link that I wish I had found a month and a half ago or so. Others have been mistreated before me-
http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=1418&page=1&pp=10
I just got off the phone with a guy who said his name was Nick at extension 1535. He said that I had not read the offer. I KNOW that what I was offered was free product by just paying the shipping. I didn't think to keep whatever I was sent in the mail or the link to the page I signed up through. (Honestly, at this point I don't recall if it was through email or snail mail, BUT, I just searched my Gmail account for Hydroderm and nothing came up. Gmail keeps everything forever unless you delete it and I rarely delete anything.)
Nick kept telling me stuff I know isn't true. How I must have not read it right. Look. I've been using the internet for about a decade and I know that Vistaprint tries to sell you stuff while you're checking out and Godaddy does also to a certain extent (though Godaddy politely offers you the chance to click a box and NOT see the other offers/upgrades before they show them to you...) and there are others that try and upsell you, but this is different.
The offer I signed up for is NOT the one they claim I signed.
But, let's say for a minute, for the sake of argument, that it is.
Companies need to stop TRICKING their customers into buying/paying for things that they don't fully realize they are getting.
Even Vistaprint, which is a legitimate business that I would definitely not call a scam, needs to stop offering the travel whatever club or whatever it is that they offer now, and JUST LET ME FINISH the transaction unmolested!
(Just in case someone is hypersensitive - Vistaprint is an honest company as is Godaddy, in my experience!)
So, all you legitimate companies out there, listen up!
Change the design of your site to allow people to simply buy whatever it is that they want to buy and stop putting deceptive (even if it's only slightly deceptive) or time consuming or confusing or transaction blocking stuff in their way.
Now, back to Nick...in the course of the conversation I let Nick know that I'm not upset with him as he's just the guy on the phone. I tell him that I can't be the only one out there with this complaint and maybe he's got to decide in the future if he's going to continue working for a company that I and probably many others consider ethically challenged or deceptive.
Then he floors me by telling me that I should essentially expect this sort of behavior because 99% of churches and businesses of all kinds are corrupt in their pursuit of making a buck. I tell him that I think if he really takes a look around, he'll see that's not true and he seems bothered by my debate of his belief system. I didn't completely follow, but I mentioned that he was the one who started telling me his beliefs about businesses and such.
So, I've got to send back this package within 30 days or no refund and I can't simply return it through UPS. I have to put another address label on it and he recommends that I get a receipt from the post office.
I'm tired now. I think that people who use these "strategies" count on this. Like it's too much work to get a refund, so they'll just eat it. Not me. Not anymore.
By the way, the refund is for the 2nd shipment, because they claim the first one wasn't really free. At least that's what Nick said. We'll see.
As an aside, this does remind me though, of why I like networking and why I prefer to do business through people I know. I know that if someone tells me that they have a great dentist or plumber or computer person, etc...and they don't do a great job, I'm going back to my contact who recommended them and asking them why did you send me a bonehead? In my experience, this means they don't recommend boneheads to me.
