So what? They are a good store. They have to make some money off of advertising dollars, so I can't say I blame them. And it only takes a second to close the pop up.

I was actually worried about this, because I started to fill out that survey thing and even put in my email address, and clicked OK or whatever at the bottom then suddenly saw about the credit card info and all that so I hit back on my broswer and clicked No thanks. I never entered in my email address twice, tho, so it's good to have the assurance that it didn't go thru. These pop ups may not be my favorite, but just because they get money off of it makes no difference to me. He had to give a PR response and he did. At least he responded. What stores would send reps here to do that? Not many.

Okay, so then by what you are saying here then, it seems you think that anytime a site gets money back for advertising a product or service it is a kickback.

Then any site that uses affiliate links is getting a kickback as well. Should sites stop using affiliate programs to support themselves?

No, but I doubt this is in place as an offer to the customer and nothing else. If it keeps their store prices low, then that is great, but I'd like DDD to be a little more up front than trying to make it seem like it is for OUR benefit.

The primary reason for these "offers" is not for the customer's convenience, but because DeepDiscountDVD was paid to carry these ads. By portraying them as a special free offer, rather than a cheap and somewhat deceitful program that is virtually impossible to prevent repeated charging to the credit card, DeepDiscountDVD shows a disregard for proper customer service.

Banner ads are one thing. They are unobtrusive and if they help keep online companies in the black, then I fully support them. However, pop up ads that create an automatic charge even if you close the window is the kind of deceitful action that gives online vendors a bad reputation equivalent with fake porn sites trolling for credit card numbers. What's next, automatic Gator downloads and internet redialers to 1-900 numbers?

I used to have a very high regard for DeepDiscountDVD and have ordered from this site many times. If DeepDiscountDVD continues utilizing "special offers" like this on their site, I might begin looking at other vendors to order from.

And if it's true that DeepDiscountDVD is passing credit card numbers along to outside vendors without express permission, they will definitely not getting repeat business from this customer.

Sorry I seem a little bent out of shape about this, but it's difficult finding reputable vendors online that give such good deals.

I have seen the ad many times, and never received any unauthorized charges. Of course I always read any fine print when the words "free" are used so I don't caught by these things.

By the way, so what if a sight gets kickbacks for having a popup. They are in business to make money. And of course the rep is going to speak well of an ADVERTISER to his site. He's not going to say "oh it's a crappy company, but we just take their money." That's the way the game is. All I know is that they ship their product to me in a timely manner, packaged well, and they answer my emails and phone calls quickly. I e-mailed them on a Sunday and got a response the same day. That's good service.

I would like to comment on this since I have done this 2 or 3 times now. It takes a few seconds to setup, you get the $10 very quickly (2 to 3 wks. max.), and cancelling is very easy (just call). Don't really see the problem. Free $10. I was unaware that I can do this on purpose though. I was under the impression that it just popped up occasionally. Now I can get $10 off on every order! Super!!

First, an apology - I started this thread, and only checked back on it once, but I have a good excuse - I was getting married :)

One thing I want to make very clear here - I like DDDVD a LOT - their prices are almost always the best, and I have never had a single problem with anything I have ordered (although their system was a little screwed up there for a while). I never intended this thread to discourage people from buying from them - on the contrary, I hoped they would see it and respond, which they did.

The most disturbing part of this experience was the fact that they are passing CC information along or doing the billing (not sure which). I hope that their representative didn't believe that we would take his suggestion seriously that this was done as a service to us - it was clearly a money-making opportunity for them. I don't begrudge them this opportunity, but it always needs to be clear to the customer that money is being spent, which I didn't think was the case here.

...dan

DDD cares so much about their customers that they don't even want them to be bothered with putting their own CC information in, how sweet. I doubt I will shop with them anymore, as a matter of principal. After all, they keep pulling this crap in one way or another. If they really cared about customer loyalty, they would act loyal to their customers and not pass along crap like this.

I guess I should add one more thing - we used to store our CC information with DDDVD; however, one day, we logged in and saw someone else's name, address and CC info. We immediately called them and had our CC info removed - we now only put it in when we order.

...dan

After I place an order and I know it has all shipped, I got back in and replace my real credit card number with 16 "0's" (zeros) so that if my account info would show up when anyone else logged in, they wouldn't be able to order anything.

If you don't trust a merchant with your credit card, get a card tht lets you generate one-time use numbers. I use MBNA, but most big issuers have something similar:

http://www.mbnashopsafe.com/

Being on WebTV the website doesn't support DDD, I thought I can never buy off them until I seen a toll free number.

I am from the unsupported WebTV and they take my order and that was quite a few titles ago. This is my experience with them I am 'not' advocating you do the same, they keep the last 4 digits of your card and address, and ask if your ordering.

I just ordered 4 titles releasing on May 20, their female rep was professional and kind, they kept the fact that I was disabled. She asked if I was still disabled I said yes.

You just have to read the fine print, it's pretty clear.

Note that, per the fine print at least, you can cancel at any time during your trial period (the first month) and keep the $10 credit, though you may have had to have used the credit (in other words, if you cancel right after you sign up, you've lost the money. If you buy something after you get the credit, then cancel a day or so after that, they won't charge your card the $10).

Emphasis added:

Bump.

Recently paid off a card and noticed the $7 "buyerassurance.com" charge. I'd seen it before, but absently thought it must've been some CitiBank fee, so I called, tracked it down, now I find this thread. Sigh.

They've been bleeding me for exactly TWO YEARS!!!! That's $168.

Funny, BA asked why I was canceling, and I felt like saying, "Well, because I'm a freaking idiot." They were quick to get me off the line and chirped about refunding this month's 7-dollar fee. How sweet.

Thanks, DDD. I wonder what I bought for $30 back in March 2003? Whatever it was, it actually cost me about $200.

Lesson: Even if you THINK you're hawking over your statements. Hawk some more.

Damn. Sorry to hear that. I've found mysterious fees on my CC statements as well and got burned before. It's good advice:

ANALYZE YOUR CC STATEMENTS! It only takes a few minutes and can save you big $$$.

Wow, that blows big time.

It's amazing how this has been going on at DDD for years, and there are many threads complaining about it time and time again.

The $168.00 lesson! Hard one to swallow.

And as far as to what you purchased (if you are curious), just check your order history @ DDD.

Hmmm. Well, Geoff suggested I call back, so I did and now they say I should expect a <I>full refund</I> in 3-to-5 days. It didn't sound to me like the customer service rep was supposed to overtly offer a refund -- without my specifically <I>asking</I> for one -- because she seemed to try to coax those words out of my mouth. We'll see.

Noel, that is great to hear!