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From: "Dan" <Dan_Caulfield@email.msn.com>
Congressman
July 18. 2000 Here is a company that I think their business practices should be investigated and halted for deceptive sales. The company is: DAMARK
They operate as a close-out catalog company... which they solicit by mass mailings. If you order something from them by credit card (which they now have your credit card number), they will then offer you a "Preferred Member" discountn on a "trial basis" for a period of time (I think it's 30 days) and after that, if you DO NOT CALL to cancel your membership, they will charge your credit card $73.99. (In the past... $59.99) They do not make it real clear
about the ongoing membership charge and the things you are agreeing to
at this point. I have discovered they now have two different memberships
they sign you up for... A Vacation Passport and their Preferred Customer
Club. They charge membership in both and if you cancel one, they
do not cancel the other. You don't even know you're a
I called and canceled the membership... (that was in 1998)... Just a few days ago I received a postcard from DAMARK stating a "UPCOMING CREDIT CARD CHARGE FOR MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL VACATION PASSPORT" and I must respond before 8/4/00 or my membership would be automatically renewed. I thought I had canceled my
memberships when I called in 1998... NO, they tell me... I only canceled
for that year and did not cancel the "automatic renewal" feature.
I didn't know there was an automatic renewal feature, I thought when I
tell someone to cancel... put me on their "do not call list" (which I did),
I'm not interested in their offers, that would be the end of
Their renewal card is also deceptive... no where on the card is the renewal amount ($73.99) but they offer a "special" of $20.00 gift certificate. I don't think companies should be allowed to renew anything with out prior approval (especially on a deceptive method, they told me that I had agreed to this when I was offered the trial period)... NOT, IF YOU DO NOT RESPOND, YOUR CREDIT CARD WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY CHARGED and the charge is not on the card they send you. I do not use travel discount programs, I have a motor home that we use for travel. We belong to AAA and Good Neighbor Sam's Club. I didn't even know I had agreed to join this offer. They have charged my credit card for $73.99 (after I canceled) for 1999... and if I wasn't paying attention to my postcard "junk" mail, they would have done it again. I urge you to look into these practices and save other senior citizens unwanted memberships (signed up deceptively) and not allow automatic renewal of something that was canceled in the first place. I visited your office in Lakewood,
Ohio on July 17, 2000 and Gerry helped me to cancel my unwanted memberships.
Now please help the rest of the world and stop DAMARK.
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