1-800 Flowers / Travel Values Plus - upset with purchase experience - unauthorized charge

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on August 20, 2002:

From:

RE: 1-800 Flowers / Travel Values Plus - upset with purchase experience - unauthorized charge tucson, arizona august 19, 2002 marty isaac

vice president

travel values plus mr. isaac: i would advise you to immediately contact legal counsel concerning charges to credit card information obtained from a partner's site without the authorization of the cardholder. it is illegal to do so. i purchased flowers from 1800flowers.com. i was offered a coupon for $10 in return for allowing 1800flowers.com to trandfer my information to you. your illegal action results from the fact that you did NOT divulge that you would charge my credit card as a condition of providing the coupon. in a post-agreement notice, you state that i AUTHORIZED your site to charge my credit card. this is a patent falsehood. nowhere do you indicate that this is a requirment for the coupon until after one has "clicked" on the corresponding button. i authozied 1800flowers.com to charge flowers to my credit card. the only thing i authorized you was to have 1800flowers TRANSFER my information. in addition, pursuant to your agreement attached herein below, the transfer is for processing of the coupon, not for processing of a payment to your company. i NEVER authorized you to charge my credit card. your post-agreement terms state that you will AUTOMATICALLY charge my credit card unless you receive negative feedback from me. this is illegal. the fact that you will not process the charge for 3 months and only if you do not receive feedback from me stating that i am not "100% satisfied," does not change the result: this action is refered to as slamming and is completely illegal. i have copied 1800flowers on this message and will cease immediately to do business with that company. i will also provide information to the authorities on your business practices and that of 1800flowers.com. to this effect, i have copied the investigations department of the federal communications commission and the arizona attorney general's office. i also filed a formal complaint with the ftc, consumer protection agency, fbi nw3c and government internet fraud complaint center. i am also planning on contacting media, messageboards and any other means at my disposal to alert non-suspecting customers of your underhanded business practices. finally, you may NOT use my credit card or any other information you received from 1800flowers.com for any purpose whatsoever. rest assured that i will take immediate action if you do! remove me immediately from all your mailing lists. very sincerely, john m. wilson

attorney at law

national law center

tucson, az

5206221200

enclosures ----------------------------------------------------

FOR THE INFORMATION OF THE FCC, THE FTC AND THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, I AM ENCLOSING COPIES OF THE AGREEMENT PAGE (ANNEX ONE BELOW), AS WELL AS THE POST AGREEMENT TERMS PAGE (ANNEX TWO BELOW). RELEVANT INFORMATION IS CAPITALIZED. ---------------------

ANNEX 1: AGREEMENT Check the box and click YES below to claim all your Travel Values Plus discounts... plus $10.00 Electronic Gift Certificate By checking the box and clicking YES, I have read, understand and agree to the offer details and authorize 1-800-FLOWERS.COM