I’m angry. I bought some flowers from interflora for my mum on the internet a few months ago. At the same time some company called http://shopperdiscountsandrewards.co.uk collected my card information and have been charging me £8 a month for no reason. Check your credit card statements and if you see £8 being removed periodically by them call them up and cancel. The woman on the phone was quite friendly and I managed to cancel and get a full refund by getting a bit shirty – beware!
Their phone number is 08082341539
JPS
Late additional edit from CMB: This may also show up on a credit card bill as WLI*SHOPPERDISC, either way it’s exactly the same thing!
Luckily if it can be called that, I was taken very ill so made no use of my credit card for some time, on receiving my next statement there was ONE lone entry. Yes it was shopdisc.co.uk for £8.00 having no knowledge of what it was for I looked them up and phoned, I also got the nice American lady and asked why this payment was taken as I have no idea what it was for.Just a moment sir was the reply I will check your account, then much to my surprise she informed me I had been paying £8.00 a month for the last 9 MONTHS! She went on to reveal this was started by a purchase I made at Interflora which I had. After protesting, I was promised a full refund, and email cofirmation of this which was received, further to which my card was refunded in full. I or my family will never use Interflora again!
If I drew £8.00 per month unauthorised from someone’s card it would be classed as fraud, and would be in prison. This thread drew my response I thought it was only me.
Interesting to read these notices of what can only be described as a scam. I too have been conned in this way. No surprise, my bank is unwilling to help, referring me to the company itself. I am amazed that there are no sanctions against this scam and particularly against Interflora. I also will never use them again and the sooner everyone takes that stance the sooner Interflora or any other companies who are tempted to team up with this rogue trader will think twice. It is obviously still going on in January despite the scam first coming to notice in May 2007.
Good to know I am not the only one. After a career in IT I thought I could easily spot such an obvious scam but I missed this one. Fortunately the penny dropped after only one payment had gone. I have now cancelled my membership, claimed my refund and told all concerned what I think of them. Interflora have lost all future business from my family.
Hi, yep got me too!! I ordered a poster from Allposters.co.uk, so not just Interflora should be ashamed of themselves.
I rang the number and the american lady has agreed to refund the £8 charge within 3-5 days and to stop any future charges, after I got cross with her, so perserve!
Want to add my thanks to the person who started this thread! I do a lot of online shopping, and always read the small print …. I was scammed by these people when I ordered from Allposters.co.uk . All I can say is that their information must be either non-existent or extremely misleading. Managed to get through on the phone and hopefully will get my refund through as promised. Thanks for the info in this thread.
Thank you so much for helping me find out about this scam. I bought flowers through Interflora online just this month and still was signed up for membership to shopdisc.co.uk. I tried talking to Interflora on their customer service line but was told that it was nothing to do with them and I had to telephone shopdisc on the freephone number given at the top of this thread. I didn’t have to wait too long and I was spoke to a very helpful lady who initially wanted to stop further payments but allow me access to my amazing discounts for a further month but when I checked that she had given me a refund she quickly changed my account to end immediately and refund my £8. She was very polite, helpful and efficient and I think she must spend all day doing this. I will never shop with Interflora again – had they been helpful, apologetic or had they taken notice of this scam and done something about it back in Spring of last year when it was started then I might have forgiven them, but not now.
Same at Crabtree & Evelyn’s online store. I bought something for my counsion on their website and £8 has been deducted from my account to shopperdisc.co.uk. So seems there are more and more online shopping website involved in this thing.
I too have been stung but have only just noticed it this month and luckily it was only £16 in total but I rang up using the following number 08082341539 got through straight away – very polite lady called Sue – pulled up all my info and cancelled it and said that the £16 would be credited back to my credit card within 3 – 5 working days. We shall see. I will also be contacting watchdog and Interflore and letting all my friends know far and wide what has happened.
blimey – they must be raking it in. I’m pretty switched on I thought… but they’ve managed to winkle two payments out of my account after I bought something on an american shopping site, polaire. I did a quick google because I couldn’t work out what I’d spent £8 on and found this page – imagine my surprise. Just rung them, spoke to Carla who, once I used the phrase ’stealing money from my account’ very quickly agreed a full refund and cancellation. only two months taken, but it’s really easy to miss those debits on your account – must be a lot of people out there who are paying them good money for nothing. about time this was stopped, surely?
Glad I saw this website – just happened to me via allposters and I can’t believe i got scammed as so careful usually. No idea they could get your details vias allposters. I’m raging at the moment so have sent a very stron e-maikl to them and to allposters. Can’t ring up as I’ll probably go ballistic…
How are thjey getting away with this?
i am so glad to you people that have left comments on this website. that has given me rage, i dont know if i have used interflora recently or if it is from a different website. that is unbelievable what they are gettign away with. just seeing comment above i have recently purchased from allposters. that is where it is from. they will be getting a strong email from me.
Disgusting. Bought flowers for my mum at Interflora and have been scammed for 2 months. 8 pounds a go.
Have had the hassle of cancelling my card and then phoning all the companies that i pay bills on my card to inform them.
Can’t believe this is still happening looking at the early emails.
Am strongly complaining to everyone I can.
Will never use interflora again.
I could not believe it when i checked my bank statment this morning and found a chanrge from shopdisc.co.uk on my card. Looked at the web site and was shocked to see they had my credit card and part of my address registerd.
Looking back through my statements found that this had been going on for 5 months.
Found this site and have to say thanks to everyone. I thought i had signed up one night and not read the TC’s, i read this and realised it was not me and i might get the momeny back.
Called them ready to have a go and got a very nice American Lady, had to push as they only offered to cancle my account, then refund one month. I had to get a tad angry before she offered the whole lot back.
Turns out LED Shop was the company that passed on my details. Fingers crossed this will go through or another call will be made
We should boycott all companies that do this sort of thing. Tell all your friends not to use interflora online, tell them to tell their friends too. Until they learn better they will carry on doing it.
Also vistaprint is doing the same sort of scam only its called vprewards or clubprem and costs £9.95. Tell your friends not to use them, tell them to tell their friends not to use them.
We have to stamp this practice out. If the Government won’t do it, we should.
I can’t believe I fell for this – my husband was checking the bank statement and notice a payment had gone out to shopdisc.co.uk and becasue it was January when we have a lot of birthdays we thought we had bought someone a present from the site – having checked the site to see what it was I knew I had not bought anything from them so I phoned them up (ohone number on bank statement) and asked them why I was being charged – I do not remember seeing anything about a charge when I registered. Hopefully got a refund and my membership cancelled – lady I spoke to very pleasent but will see if get results
if you want a real shock, google webloyalty – the company that owns them. this is particularly interesting (cross fingers the link works)
I see we are all here for the same reason. 8 pounds disappeared from my bank account this month and I found this site thanks to google.
I have never used Interflora – I only used National Express website. I can’t believe that National Express is involved in this sort of illegal things. I phoned my bank and cancelled my card but the scary thing they said was that despite the cancellation the money might still be taken from my bank account and that i have to call shopdisc.co.uk. This is quite shocking what they say that cancellation of the card doesn’t stop the future transactions. So what is the point of cancelling the card then?
Looks like I am one of the many thousands (maybe 10’s of thousands) who have fallen for this scam via an intaflora purchase. Have emailed webloyalty and expect a full refund. What amazes me is that this scam has been going on for at least a year and Interflora still have the link on their site. I will never use them again and will ensure everyone I know does the same…………. I am keen to find out the name of marketing genius at Interflora who signed up to this deal…..If he still has a job then they are a bigger load of b*st*rds than I first thought!
Like most people here I was duped by the £10 off voucher as a link on the Interflora site, but also like a lot of people here was able to get the £8 monthly transaction cancelled and refunded in a very quick and straight forward manner.
Thanks JPS for posting that telephone number and for all you guys for pointing this out. I’m certainly going to read the terms and conditions thoroughly next time!
Dear Forum Members,
We have come across this forum and would like the opportunity to answer your questions or address your concerns.
We encourage you to contact our Customer Service team on 0808 234 1539 (this is a free phone number), Monday to Friday 8.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. and Saturday 9.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m., or send us an email to customerservice@webloyalty.co.uk. One of our dedicated customer service representatives will be happy to help you either by answering questions or cancelling your membership if you are unhappy.
Webloyalty want to ensure that Shopper Discounts & Rewards members understand and derive full discount and insurance benefits from their memberships. Your feedback is both important and valuable to us.
With very best regards,
Customer Service Team
Shopper Discounts & Rewards
Happened to me also
This must be stopped
I was also caught out with this con/scam.
Apparently the £8 monthly charge is in the small print when you use Interflora on-line.
Well, so much for Interflora – won’t be using them again.
Pretty disgraceful practice by this company – highly unprofessional as its all done covertly.
Easyjet are in on it too – not enough to screw people over with their ‘baggage’ charge, they reinforce their lack of regard for customers by referring you to the ’shopper discounts.. website’ to claim a £10 voucher off next purchase. Only once you’ve clicked on the links do you discover that your next purchase would need to be almost immediate and it was only through suspicion and a convoluted route to unsuscribing that I discovered a reference to the £8 per month membership charge. Crooks!
Despite many years buying online and despite being an IT professional I TOO sent my Mum some flowers via Interflora and unwittingly paid £56 to Shopper Discounts before I discovered the scam. What a complete dodo I must be – or how small is that small print!
Have now phone and cancelled. But now feel the blame must rest squarely on Interflora’s shoulders. I have successfully bought goods from dozens of online retailers without scam repurcussions … Except Interflora.
Someone suggested emailing family and friends to try and get a good chain email going. This sounds like a good way forward. We need to embarrass the hell out of Interflora. I recommend you all to do the same.
Really glad I found this site. My wife purchased from Interflora in Nov 2007 and since then we’ve been charged £8 every month. Just called them (number found in 1st comment) and basically told them what I thought of them and that I wanted my money back. Spoke to someone called Mark (UK accent) who said he will be cancelling my membership and refunding all my payements (3 x £8). Will have to wait and see if I get it. Won’t be using Interflora again. Definetely CROOKS.
Just scanning through my credit card statements and noticed a payment of £8 to Shopper Discounts and Rewards. Googled it, did a bit of reseach and came across this site. I can’t believe I’ve been paying £8 a month for 8 months, without noticing and for absolutely nothing. The frightening thing is I didn’t even know I had joined!!! I asked for a full refund which they agreed to do, so here’s hoping I get it. I told the girl I thought the whole thing was totally disreputable, obviously you do need to be so careful these days.
This has happened to me too, I’ve not used my card since December, checked my statements this weekend and noticed for the past 4 months Shopperdiscount have been taking out £8 every month for past 4 months!! Can’t believe this has happened. Spoke to an english guy at Shopperdiscount, who told me how this happened – by ordering off allposters.com they took my account details from there!! I told them it was a very misleading sales tactic they have, not fully informing people that they automatically take details from website you’ve just purchased from. The gentleman was very kind and offered a full refund in the next 3-5 days (lets see if I actually get it!!) I didn’t need to cause a fuss, he was very willing to offer full refund – seems like they get this alot. I hope this gets reported on Watchdog!! People and banks need to be aware of this deceiving company!!
Yes, I unwittingly signed up for this following a purchase made on the National Express website. They tell you you will get £10 off your next National Express purchase but what they don’t tell you is that you will be charged £8 a month. I rang up 0808 234 1539 as this number was provided to me by my bank. The guy I spoke to (Matt) was very nice and immediately cancelled my ’subscription’ and has also refunded the money (which takes 3-5 working days to process). Will write to complain to National Express too this afternoon!
It happened to me to when purchasing flight tickets from Easyjet. I’m absolutely disgusted that these well known companies are attaching themselves to a website that deceiptfully deduct money from people’s credit cards. The worse thing about this is that my credit card details have been passed on without myself being aware. This was not clear or highlighted when clicking on the ‘free’ download voucher – unless it escaped my attention in the ’small print’!
DON’T use http://www.lastminute.com to book any travel tickest, etc. They have cause me the same grief with months of £8.00 debits from SHOPPER DISCOUNTS and Shopdisc.Co.UK. In the hands of Barclays Fraud team and I can only hope to get debits reversed by Barclays.
Same here. I recently noticed a £8 charge by Shopperdiscount on my credit card statement. I rang up the 0808 number on the statement. The lady I spoke to (US accent) was professional and cancelled my subscription right away. She told me that I subscribed on the National Express website when I accepted that I will get a £10 discount on the next purchase with National Express. I never got the discount (I booked a second ticket after I unwittingly ’subscribed’), but I got the refund from Shopperdiscount within less than 5 business days. I really hope National Express will remove this ‘feature’ from their website soon.
Ive just realised that I too have been scammed in this way. Unbelievable. perhaps we should get in touch with Interflora’s PR company?!
I too was conned by shopper discounts and rewards. They just took £8.00 out of my EasyJet account – what a cheak. Surely we should be creating alaw against this kind of scam?
Please report this to Trading Standards if you are in the UK. You can do this my completing a form on the Consumers Direct website at:
http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/contact
I contacted these scammers by email. This is the response I received:
—
Our records show that you or someone in your household joined UK – Shopper Discounts and Rewards through a special rewards program after completing an online transaction with http://www.interflora.co.uk. After your transaction you were offered and accepted a membership in UK – Shopper Discounts and Rewards. Immediately next to the offer, the Offer Details were displayed, which included the agreement that after your trial period ended we could bill the low monthly membership fee of 8.00 pounds to the credit card, debit card or PayPal account that you provided.
This membership was cancelled effective 17-04-2008 and we have issued a refund of 8.00 pounds for the membership fee billed. Your refund will show on your credit card, debit card or PayPal account within the next 3-5 business days.
If you require further assistance, please contact our Customer Service Department at 866-686-2974. Our Customer Service Representatives are available Monday through Friday 8:00 am to 11:00 pm, Saturday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm and Sunday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm ET.
Sincerely,
Ellen
The Shopper Discounts and Rewards Team
customerservice@shopperdiscountsandrewards.co.uk
866-686-2974
—
Please do report this to Trading Standards if you are in the UK. Certainly it is not true that there was clear information about a charge. I was specifically looking for it and when I didn’t find anything, assumed it was just a collection of standard promotional offers from the companies involved with Shoppers Discount making money from advertising. You can contact Trading Standards on line at:
http://www.consumersdirect.gov.uk/contact
I’ve been got too!
Electricshopping.com I’ve told them I wont buy anything else from them unless they assure me they’ve ended their association
Has Watchdog taken this up?
I was caught out by this too. If you call their customer services line (available on their website) cancel your membership – keep a note of the cancellation code, then speak to one of their customer service people they will refund you your money. You have to listen to a big explanation about how it is all made clear when you join up that you will be paying £8 per month. I missed this and I’m sure lots of people have and this is how they are making money.
There is an execllent article by Barry Fox in the June 2008 issue of the magazine Personnel Computer World. It seems that he to was taken in by the same unethical business practices. The frightening thing is that there are a lot of other reteailers who are involved in passing details onto this and similar companies. I have tried contacting Shopperdiscount by phone, and hadn’t received any reply after twenty minutes. I found that I had been paying £8.00 per month since September 2007. Fortunately I was able to immediately able to cancel any further patments on my Visa Debit card by cancelleing my card completely, and requesting a replacement card. this will in some cases cause some inconvenience waiting for replacement cards, but isn’t this better than being ripped off.
Like the majority of people, I always refuse to authorise the passing of my details to other companies, but you must read the wording of the T&C’s on the agreements . In some instances you have to check the box, and in other’s it worls tha other way…and this is when most people are caught out.
On Easyjet booking procedure, there is a nice “£10 cash-back” box that doesn’t really state that you must pay £8 per month afterwards. It doesn’t matter what credit card you are booking with at the moment -I was paying with Italian Visa in euros for Madrid-Luton flight-: they keep your email address, find previous payments done with a British credit card, pick all the credit card details and use them for this f*ing s*t.
As I told to the helpful lady on the phone “there are so many ways in thi world to fuck people”.
Actually when you book you accept all the Terms of the bookings, so legally they are in the right position.
So, the only solution is to BAN EASYJET. Do not fly with them!
I have just received my credit card statement and i have the same charge with the contact number beside it 08082341539 (only open mon-fri till 5) will be ringing them tommorrow, reading these comments it seems that interflora is connected although i havent been ordering flowers is there another way this scam is catching people out
I found 8 pounds was taken from my credid card by shoppersidcounts.
I never shop at Interflora. I did buy flower from http://www.serenataflowers.com a month ago. The flower was delivered on time without any issue, but I am not sure if that site is safe.
Regarding my last comment, I just recalled that I booked a travel from expedia.com and was offered £10 for my next shopping and finally claimed a £10 check from shopper discounts & reward (I forgot the processes of how I ended up to be linked to shopper dicounts & reward). This looks similar to what has happened to someone on the National Express case. I think http://www.serenataflowers.com may be ok.
I also made a purchase from easylifegroup who had a brochure in one of the Sunday papers and an £8 charge appeared on my credit card statement this month. I cannot recall signing up to anything
my sting came via NATIONAL EXPRESS. i purchased tickets on line and after the transaction up popped an offer to save £10 on my next ticket. googled Shopper Discounts and Rewards just to check and arrive here. thank you so much for posting this warning. now cancelled within the hour and will go to my bank tomorrow to double check nothing’s been taken out.
this type of scamming should be illegal. national express is out of order sancioning this behaviour.
i have had an £8 debit on my credit card after accepting a £10 voucher from Easyjet – my statement says ‘Webloyalty London’
AVOID EASYJET AT ALL COSTS IN FUTURE
btw – isnt an 0808 number a premium rate one in the UK? so we are even getting scammed when gettig a refund…..
You guys are all morons! Do you just fill out forms online without READING what the hell you’re doing? It’s not a scam, it’s a totally legitimate cash back club offer. I saw it on Easyjet, clicked the banner to find out more, READ it and decided that it wasn’t for me. It says DIRECTLY above where you input your email address that the first 30 days are free and then you’ll be billed £8 per month after that. Christ….if you didn’t read it, how is that Webloyalty’s fault?!
And no, 0808 is not a premium rate number you paranoid freak….it’s a freephone number!!
You’re not being scammed, you’re just being stupid!
Yes, maybe we should all read the small print but I certainly never gave these jokers my credit card details so Easy Jet obviously passed them on. Is that legal? Why if it is so legimate don’t they ask for your credit card details when you register?
James Kenny, for your reference their activity is fraudulent, as they are obtaining credit card details via the transaction service being used by the website all these people have bought goods from. I have been conned by this £10 discount offer, and at no time did I give them my credit card details. Interestingly I was somehow dupped in to setting up an account with them, which corresponds with the same date as buying some software off the internet, however they did not begin drawing from my credit card until 5 months later!! As far as I can tell the transaction service that is passing on the credit card details (or at least in my case) is http://www.swreg,org. I have passed all my details about this company to Barclays fraud department, who are now investigating them.
UPDATE: This scam gets bigger, as I have just discovered they have also been drawing against my credit card under Shopdisc.Co.UK, 08082341539, I guess to disguise the transactions!!!