At Home Rewards - Unauthorized Charges

On 10/22/08 I checked my credit card statement online so that I would know what balance was due. To my complete surprise, I saw a recent transaction for $14.95 from a merchant called "At Home Rewards". I had NEVER heard of them before so I did a little investigating. I just so happen to be a FRAUD INVESTIGATOR for the government. I "Googled" the company name and it took me to this site, Complaints.com, as well as to RipoffReport.com where I found NUMEROUS COMPLAINTS of UNAUTHORIZED CHARGES appearing on credit and/or debit cards. Luckily, I happened to catch this bogus charge only a day after it was posted so I immediately disputed the charge with my credit card company. I called the At Home Rewards number: 877-636-6858 and finally reached a representative after hitting zero on my phone. They have a computer, voice-prompted menu that won't allow you to talk to anyone directly unless you hit zero (they don't tell you that though ... I just tried it and got lucky). I first asked for the company address ... the rep. immediately was suspicious and wanted to know why I wanted the address (I knew this would happen, that's why I asked for the mailing address first). After much hesitation, the rep. finally gave me the adress: 9500 W. Dodge, Omaha, Nebraska 68001. Now, I have not yet mailed my letter (so that I have concrete proof that I canceled my membership via telephone), so I'm not sure if this is a bogus address. Do NOT just rely on the automated voice response which gives you the choice of canceling your membership by entering a number ... do that, but also press zero so that you can talk directly to a representative. Make sure to get their name, ID # and time that you called ... then tell the rep. that you NEVER AUTHORIZED this charge(s), have already disputed it w/ your credit card company or bank and that you have reported it as FRAUD. That will let the At Home Rewards Rep. know that you mean business! The rep. said I should see a credit for the $14.95 fee they charged to my credit card within 2 - 5 business days .... Let's just see if they refund the fee like they said. TO BE CONTINUED ....

Comment On This

I just received at charge of $14.95 from At Home Rewards on my debit card and because of it will bounce at the bank and be charged $30.00 NSF fee. I'm so pissed!!! I NEVER ordered anything from this company and emailed my bank and told them it was a fraud. I'm hoping my bank will reverse the charge on Monday because I can't wait 5 days for the company to reverse it. They should have had my CC information in the first place. Guess they just count on people that don't do anything about the charges... I'm not one of them... I'm doing something about the charges!!!