Jewish World Review Feb. 10, 2005 / 1 Adar I, 5765

Jeff Gelles
Consumer Watch

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Consumer Reports


Trojan horse in an envelope

By Jeff Gelles

http://www.jewishworldreview.com | Something seemed odd about the bill Howard Moed got from Macy's.

For one thing, he hadn't used the retailer's credit card in a year or so.

Then there was what he found inside: a $99 charge for an item listed as "Auto Gold."

Moed, of Montgomeryville, Pa., didn't recognize the name, and wasn't about to pay a charge he didn't owe. But when he called the toll-free phone number listed alongside the charge, Moed wound up with more of a mystery on his hands.

He learned that Auto Gold - officially, AutoVantage Gold - is a membership club that offers services such as lock-out protection and roadside assistance, as well as discounts on auto maintenance or repairs.

All well and good. But why was it on his bill if he'd never signed up?

The AutoVantage representative told Moed that he had done just that - by cashing a $2 check sent to him as a marketing tool. His endorsement signed him up for a trial membership. When he didn't cancel within 60 days, he was billed for a whole year.

A plausible explanation. The trouble was, Moed didn't recall ever seeing such a check, and was confident that neither he nor his wife would knowingly fall for such a pitch.

Moed was rebuffed when he asked for a copy of the check. When he finally got one_ after I contacted Trilegiant Corp., the Connecticut company that markets AutoVantage - he said his wife may have signed his name, mistaking it for a rebate check.

Even so, Moed objects to the whole marketing method as, at best, a confusing gimmick.

He's not alone in his complaint about AutoVantage or Trilegiant, a subsidiary of Cendant Corp., a vast real estate and travel-services conglomerate that owns such familiar brands as Avis, Orbitz and Century 21.

The Florida Attorney General's Office says it is investigating hundreds of complaints about Trilegiant, typically from consumers who believe they were wrongly billed for services such as AutoVantage.

The Better Business Bureau of Connecticut says Trilegiant has "an unsatisfactory record" because of "a pattern of complaints concerning deceptive selling practices, unauthorized charges to consumers' credit cards, and noncancellation of memberships following cancellation requests."

The Connecticut bureau says Trilegiant has resolved most of the complaints it referred to the company, but not all, and says it is referring further complaints to the state attorney general.

Moed's complaint was resolved swiftly, though not by Trilegiant.

When the best offer he got was that Trilegiant would send him an application for a credit, Moed asked for a supervisor. After a long wait, he hung up and called Macy's instead.

At Macy's, Moed heard a different tune. With him on the line, its customer-service rep called Trilegiant, then promised him that he'd get a refund.

Jean Coggan, a spokeswoman for Federated Department Stores, says refunds are given to any customer who complains about AutoVantage or a similar travel-and-entertainment service that Macy's also markets - a full refund, even if the complaint comes 10 or 11 months into a year-long term.

Why such a liberal policy?

"Customer service is one of our hallmarks," Coggan says. "And if a customer isn't happy with one of our products, we want to make it right for them."

Trilegiant, too, has a no-questions-asked refund policy, though only for the unused portion of a membership, according to spokesman Todd Smith.

As for Moed's broader complaint, Smith says that signing up customers with a "live check" is a common marketing practice, and that the terms of Trilegiant's offers "are clearly and conspicuously disclosed."

Smith says Trilegiant has "a very small complaint ratio" from its millions of customers. "If a consumer problem arises, we fix it," he says. "We took care of it with Howard, and he's a satisfied customer."

I hate to break it to you, Todd, but that would be stretching the truth.



Jeff Gelles writes the ConsumerWatch column for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Comment by clicking here.

Up


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© 2004, Philadelphia Inquirer Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services