Post by "Pop" Stran on Jan 12, 2005 13:18:47 GMT -5
The name says it all, doesn't it..?
Buying Clubs...are they serious?
Another example of wholesale scamming is the buying club...or Savings Club, Discount Club, etc.
Walmart set the standard when they opened a wholesale source of bulk items for small business owners called Sam's Club, a very worthwhile and reputable business.
Taking advantage of their power to secure rock-bottom prices from suppliers, Sam's Club allows people like you and me to save a few thousand dollars every year on daily-use items for the cost of a membership.
Annual membership fees are small and fair, and I saved more than my membership fee on the first visit.
I like Sam's Club, though not real happy with the term "club", and my respect has been earned.
Backed by the Sam Walton family of stores (the Arkansas founder of Walmart), SAM's is a Real business, with Real products, offering Real value.
Today however, there are a dozen new scammers hopping online every month trying to offer a rip-off copy of this business model...and trying to capitalize on the "club" concept.
These new cookie-cutter scammers are nowhere near SAM's class, and you can see that in a glance.
Most offer no product at all; A collection of coupons for discounts on products that very few people want, or lists of companies offering promotional pricing on a particular product...any of which you can find yourself by searching Google for "discounts, promos, wholesale, etc.
*BTW: A few so-called "clubs" and discount membership services are charging you for exactly that...The results of a few searches for wholesale prices.
How pathetic is that?
The worst of the Top Ten Scammers in this field is BEST PRICE USA, which operates under a few other names (such as Americas Advantage), and is run by Triad.
*You will notice the sneaky and personally irritating scam being used by Triad; Naming each new fly-by-night company with an attempt to hook into the current patriotic theme running through this country.
Federal and state agencies are looking carefully at Best Price USA, Triad Discount and other "buying services" operated by the Triad Marketing Group of Boca Raton, FL. At least 20 states and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are said to be investigating the firm's operations.
Typically, consumers respond to an infomerical or order something from a catalog or Website and later find that they have also "joined" a discount buying club for $96 per year. If they don't notice the charge and dispute it, their account is "renewed" a year later for another $96.
Florida Assistant Attoroney General Jody Collins says that at least 90 percent of the company's "customers" are actually victims of deception.
Records produced under subpoena show the clubs added 3.3 million new members during the first quarter of 1999 and recorded 445,000 renewals.
Most of the renewals are simply consumers who didn't notice and contest the first charge, Collins said.
All of this sounds quite familiar to the Federal Trade Commission, which has a history of cases involving Triad President Ira Smoley.
In 1993, another of Smoley's companies, Synchronal Corp., agreed to a $3.5 million settlement for its infomercials promising cures for baldness and cellulite.
In 1990, Smoley paid a $400,000 settlement for alleged mail-order misrepresentation through a direct-marketing company that he then operated.
The Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported recently that Smoley also had pleaded guilty to federal mail fraud charges three years earlier but this could not be immediately confirmed.
PLEASE: Do NOT help this criminal make payments on his new $1.7 Million house...Avoid any "buying club" that uses sneaky marketing tactics, and promises you thousands of dollars in savings without first showing you SPECIFICALLY what you will be buying at discount.
*SAM's Club offers a trial membership, did you know that?
They don't have to...but they know how precious and rare trust is, and will lay all their cards on the table before asking for a nickle.
Any online savings club willing to make the same gesture is likely a good choice...start with AOL's Netmarket if you need a "club" to feel safe...but my suggestion is to avoid any online venture calling itself a club.
That's just me, and I'll likely catch a lot of grief over that opinion...but I haven't been comfortable with the term "club' since i was 9 years old...and the field has definately been polluted since then.
Buying Clubs...are they serious?
Another example of wholesale scamming is the buying club...or Savings Club, Discount Club, etc.
Walmart set the standard when they opened a wholesale source of bulk items for small business owners called Sam's Club, a very worthwhile and reputable business.
Taking advantage of their power to secure rock-bottom prices from suppliers, Sam's Club allows people like you and me to save a few thousand dollars every year on daily-use items for the cost of a membership.
Annual membership fees are small and fair, and I saved more than my membership fee on the first visit.
I like Sam's Club, though not real happy with the term "club", and my respect has been earned.
Backed by the Sam Walton family of stores (the Arkansas founder of Walmart), SAM's is a Real business, with Real products, offering Real value.
Today however, there are a dozen new scammers hopping online every month trying to offer a rip-off copy of this business model...and trying to capitalize on the "club" concept.
These new cookie-cutter scammers are nowhere near SAM's class, and you can see that in a glance.
Most offer no product at all; A collection of coupons for discounts on products that very few people want, or lists of companies offering promotional pricing on a particular product...any of which you can find yourself by searching Google for "discounts, promos, wholesale, etc.
*BTW: A few so-called "clubs" and discount membership services are charging you for exactly that...The results of a few searches for wholesale prices.
How pathetic is that?
The worst of the Top Ten Scammers in this field is BEST PRICE USA, which operates under a few other names (such as Americas Advantage), and is run by Triad.
*You will notice the sneaky and personally irritating scam being used by Triad; Naming each new fly-by-night company with an attempt to hook into the current patriotic theme running through this country.
Federal and state agencies are looking carefully at Best Price USA, Triad Discount and other "buying services" operated by the Triad Marketing Group of Boca Raton, FL. At least 20 states and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are said to be investigating the firm's operations.
Typically, consumers respond to an infomerical or order something from a catalog or Website and later find that they have also "joined" a discount buying club for $96 per year. If they don't notice the charge and dispute it, their account is "renewed" a year later for another $96.
Florida Assistant Attoroney General Jody Collins says that at least 90 percent of the company's "customers" are actually victims of deception.
Records produced under subpoena show the clubs added 3.3 million new members during the first quarter of 1999 and recorded 445,000 renewals.
Most of the renewals are simply consumers who didn't notice and contest the first charge, Collins said.
All of this sounds quite familiar to the Federal Trade Commission, which has a history of cases involving Triad President Ira Smoley.
In 1993, another of Smoley's companies, Synchronal Corp., agreed to a $3.5 million settlement for its infomercials promising cures for baldness and cellulite.
In 1990, Smoley paid a $400,000 settlement for alleged mail-order misrepresentation through a direct-marketing company that he then operated.
The Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported recently that Smoley also had pleaded guilty to federal mail fraud charges three years earlier but this could not be immediately confirmed.
PLEASE: Do NOT help this criminal make payments on his new $1.7 Million house...Avoid any "buying club" that uses sneaky marketing tactics, and promises you thousands of dollars in savings without first showing you SPECIFICALLY what you will be buying at discount.
*SAM's Club offers a trial membership, did you know that?
They don't have to...but they know how precious and rare trust is, and will lay all their cards on the table before asking for a nickle.
Any online savings club willing to make the same gesture is likely a good choice...start with AOL's Netmarket if you need a "club" to feel safe...but my suggestion is to avoid any online venture calling itself a club.
That's just me, and I'll likely catch a lot of grief over that opinion...but I haven't been comfortable with the term "club' since i was 9 years old...and the field has definately been polluted since then.