Steer clear of freecig.com - they're running a "free cig but pay £40 a month for three day's worth of carts" scam. A friend was daft enough to get suckered, and she's now £160 out of pocket, and hasn't even got the e-cig to show for it.
A Warning for newbies
- Thread starter hifistud
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sounds like a smoke every where program too.
This still belongs in the general section so i will move it.
This still belongs in the general section so i will move it.
I went to go look at their terms and found a scary part in there:
Free Trial Period
Beginning on the day that You place an order for a product (Product) from the Website, Your credit or debit card will be charged £6.99 shipping and handling, and Your seven (7) day Free Trial period begins (Free Trial Period). You agree that AM can charge Your credit or debit card for this amount, and You agree to pay such amount regardless of whether You cancel Your Free Trial in a timely fashion or not. Shipping and handling is not refundable. The Free Trial Period is calculated in calendar days, not business days.
the full cost of the Product is £49.99 + vat plus shipping and handling of £6.99 + vat plus a one off charge of £19.99 + vat for the e-cigarette.
Hmmm so they can charge you if you cancel within the 7 days or not, and the 7 day free trial starts the day you place your order, in reality it's a 3-4 day trial and they can still charge you. Take a look at the actual cost of the product and all of sudden that FREE E-CIG is now £19.99 + vat once you get the bill. I think I would pass on this as well, good call to bring it to peoples attention. So many people see the word FREE and lose their common sense. This is a scam that will tarnish E-Cigs in the eyes of consumers everywhere, these things have a hard enough road ahead without greedy jerks with no morals running scams on people looking to quit. These are the companies that should be shut down, not people selling kits with no obligations for future purchases.
Free Trial Period
Beginning on the day that You place an order for a product (Product) from the Website, Your credit or debit card will be charged £6.99 shipping and handling, and Your seven (7) day Free Trial period begins (Free Trial Period). You agree that AM can charge Your credit or debit card for this amount, and You agree to pay such amount regardless of whether You cancel Your Free Trial in a timely fashion or not. Shipping and handling is not refundable. The Free Trial Period is calculated in calendar days, not business days.
the full cost of the Product is £49.99 + vat plus shipping and handling of £6.99 + vat plus a one off charge of £19.99 + vat for the e-cigarette.
Hmmm so they can charge you if you cancel within the 7 days or not, and the 7 day free trial starts the day you place your order, in reality it's a 3-4 day trial and they can still charge you. Take a look at the actual cost of the product and all of sudden that FREE E-CIG is now £19.99 + vat once you get the bill. I think I would pass on this as well, good call to bring it to peoples attention. So many people see the word FREE and lose their common sense. This is a scam that will tarnish E-Cigs in the eyes of consumers everywhere, these things have a hard enough road ahead without greedy jerks with no morals running scams on people looking to quit. These are the companies that should be shut down, not people selling kits with no obligations for future purchases.
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Given that I'm working towards opening up as an e-cig vendor, I was a little wary of posting anything that might be seen as taking a swipe at "the competition", but those terms (and yes, I'd read every last little word) are, I think, illegal in the UK. I'll be contacting Trading Standards on Monday to seek further advice - I do think these folks need shutting down pronto.
I have to say I agree with you and am very glad that someone will lodge a complaint against them. Judging by the length of the small print and the terms used in it I am betting that it their lawyers have gone over it with a fine tooth comb, it's outrageous if those terms could be enforced thats just insane in any country! As for your friend that's out all that cash how could they get that much from them without even one single E-Cig showing up, I would have stopped payments to them on the CC after the first 7 Days and cancel any further shipments before it got up that high, or is that what the first bill comes to after all your "free" stuff is charged off? Either way, go get them sorry .......s.
Apparently, she got the first hit for over £80 and the second one happened before she could get the thieving barstewards to answer her calls - this second hit was, apparently, the day after she'd posted the e-cig back asking for a refund. They won't take her calls now.
While Caveat Emptor always applies, these bugger want sorting before the press gets wind of it and e-cigs are tarnished with their effluent-laden brush.
While Caveat Emptor always applies, these bugger want sorting before the press gets wind of it and e-cigs are tarnished with their effluent-laden brush.
I would definitely agree they need shutting down ASAP, that just sounds like a big load to me. Thanks for the warning, hopefully it'll save some people some hassle.
Unfortunately, people sign up for this scam before they find the Forums. I've read in other forums that folks are filing law suits against SE for misrepresentation.
There is a company by the name of Smoker's Savior - Tobacco, Nicotine and Tar FREE that is advertising on WGN radio out of Chicago, which is a big time expensive station to run ads on. They are advertising a free ecig. The catch is you need to buy a month's supply of "filters" for $70. Basically the same scam, but now advertised on a mainstream media outlet.
Speaking as a newbie, this forum is a must-find prior to thinking about laying money down on e-cigs & supplies. I am grateful for it. Thank you!
sea
sea
Yeah, I caught a co-worker typing in his information to sign up for this, almost complete. I stopped him and gave him a bunch of links to go to before doing something of the like on impulse. I enjoy I've gotten people interested, but hope they ask me for more information than going to Google. Scam sites seem to get pretty high on the results there.
I'll second that thought. It was only by sheer luck that I found this site while looking for reviews of the "SmokingEverywhere" product, because their claims seemed too good to be true. I am ecstatic that I found you guys first and chose a better and cheaper option.
My partner and I were in the Millgate Shopping Centre, Bury, Lancashire. There was a popular trading stall with two sales representatives showing members of the public an electronic cigarette, which is a battery operated device that vapourises a nicotine based substance and provides the customer with the experience of smoking without the health implications.
The trader was advertising a 7 day free trial of the product, which we signed up for after speaking to the sales representative Mary. We completed the form, providing switch card details and bank account details and were told that we would be charged £6.99 for postage of the trial pack and if we were not satisfied we could return the product within 7 days and would not be charged any further.
The trial pack arrived by recorded delivery on 29th September 2009 and it contained the 'e cigarette', a USB charger, 5 loose packed refill cartridges and a blister pack of 5 nicotine free refill cartridges. The only paperwork was a scruffy A5 printed note telling us to enjoy our trial.
I noticed that the device had attached to it a blank plastic tube and not a proper cartridge, so I opened just one of the loose packed nicotine cartridges and tried the product, which seemed to work OK but was not what we expected. We decided to return the product and end our free trial.
As there was nothing in the delivered pack saying how to go about returning the pack we referred to our original signed agreement. To cancel it explained that we had to call an 0844 number, obtain a cancellation code, write this on the form, pack the product and form in an envelope and deliver it back to April Marketing within 7 days by recorded delivery.
What has concerned me is that the terms of the contract were clearly unfair, in that they only offered 7 calendar days, not working days, to return the product. In small print it also explained that to adhere by the cancellation policy no refill cartridges should have been used, however we had to use one to actually trial the product!
Following that it stated that any breach of these instructions would cost us £19.99 for payment of the pack sent and would also automatically sign us up to the home delivery service. The cost for this is £49.99 + £6.99 postage + VAT for a 30 cartridge refill pack and then £49.99 a month thereafter. The agreement made it next to impossible not to breach the cancellation policy and as such meant that they would attempt to obtain the above costs by charging our switch card or sending a standing order instruction to the bank.
As what they were doing was clearly unfair, preying on less observant consumers and overcharging for a product that wasnt even wanted we cancelled our card and instructed the bank not to set up any standing orders. We had already been charged £6.99 + VAT for the original trial pack and accept that this money has gone.
April Marketing advertise 2 websites for this scam, freecig.com and trendycig.co.uk. I conducted a whois domain name search on each freecig.com showed the register of the domain name being April Marketing, created 14th July 2009. Trendycig.co.uk showed the registrant to be Sphere Marketing, created 29th July 2009. Whilst April Marketing do not seem to be known at all, a quick internet search on Sphere Marketing brings up many web pages in connection with a male named Graeme Ross, who has defrauded many others through various other scams, namely a well publicised Google Adwords scam. The addresses shown for Sphere Marketing is the same address for April Marketing:
Unit 11 St Georges Court
St Georges Park
Kirkham
Preston
PR4 2EF
hello my dad also purchased the freecig from bury .today he got a letter from the bank that a £65 standing order had been set up to be taken out of his bank each month . then we realised it was free.cig this is a scam we posted our free trial back on time.
DEFINATELY A SCAM.. LOST OUT ON £150 AND COUNTING..
My mum signed up for the 'free' trial at a stall in Wigans Grand Arcade
Signed for the cig then was told the terms and conditions pad had run out as it was the end of the day and to look on the internet..
When the cig arrived my mums partner decided he did not want it and still had time left to contact and cancel
Could not get through with the phone number they had given. After trying several times finally got through and was told to try the cigarettes that they had and they would be charged nothing more and could cancel at any time.
Looked on the internet myself but could not find anything to say the company was a scam so thought it must be legit, if only I'd seen this page then.
Little did they know the company had already taken out nearly £90 from their bank account before the trial had even ended
Rung up and finally got through to someone again who was quite abrupt and told them it was cancelled
Two weeks later low an behold £65 has again gone out of my mums account
Contacted the bank who say there isnt anything they can do as the standing debit has been signed for so my mum has had to cancel her card today.
If a company tries to take money using card detials that have been cancelled it is automatically passed onto the banks fraud team who will look into it themselves
Contacted Consumerdirect today who are looking into it and are also passing it on to tradingstandards
Also contacted the Grand Arcade to let them know what the company are doing, spoke to the manager who has had a number of complaints and is looking into it himself. Apparently the arcade use a company called Shop Attainment who vet any businesses that would like to set up in the arcade. Shop Attainment are also going to look into this.
Consumerdirect did tell us to write a letter to the address
Unit 11 St Georges Court
St Georges Park
Kirkham
Preston
PR4 2EF
demanding a full refund of all costs and stating that:
'The contract cannot be duly enforsed due to the cancellation of the contract made in the consumers home or place of work under the regulations of 2008'
I very much doubt the company will reply but it would be helpful if as many people as possible report this company to the trading standards so that people are stopped from being scammed by them in the future.
My mum signed up for the 'free' trial at a stall in Wigans Grand Arcade
Signed for the cig then was told the terms and conditions pad had run out as it was the end of the day and to look on the internet..
When the cig arrived my mums partner decided he did not want it and still had time left to contact and cancel
Could not get through with the phone number they had given. After trying several times finally got through and was told to try the cigarettes that they had and they would be charged nothing more and could cancel at any time.
Looked on the internet myself but could not find anything to say the company was a scam so thought it must be legit, if only I'd seen this page then.
Little did they know the company had already taken out nearly £90 from their bank account before the trial had even ended
Rung up and finally got through to someone again who was quite abrupt and told them it was cancelled
Two weeks later low an behold £65 has again gone out of my mums account
Contacted the bank who say there isnt anything they can do as the standing debit has been signed for so my mum has had to cancel her card today.
If a company tries to take money using card detials that have been cancelled it is automatically passed onto the banks fraud team who will look into it themselves
Contacted Consumerdirect today who are looking into it and are also passing it on to tradingstandards
Also contacted the Grand Arcade to let them know what the company are doing, spoke to the manager who has had a number of complaints and is looking into it himself. Apparently the arcade use a company called Shop Attainment who vet any businesses that would like to set up in the arcade. Shop Attainment are also going to look into this.
Consumerdirect did tell us to write a letter to the address
Unit 11 St Georges Court
St Georges Park
Kirkham
Preston
PR4 2EF
demanding a full refund of all costs and stating that:
'The contract cannot be duly enforsed due to the cancellation of the contract made in the consumers home or place of work under the regulations of 2008'
I very much doubt the company will reply but it would be helpful if as many people as possible report this company to the trading standards so that people are stopped from being scammed by them in the future.
Freecig.com / Trendycig.co.uk both operate through April Marketing
April Marketing is the same company as Sphere Marketing
Sphere Marketing may now also be known as Nice Day Marketing (Sounds dodgy eh?)
All link to a man named Graeme Ross, a millionaire CONMAN from Kirkham, Lancs
A quick search of 'Graeme Ross' or 'Sphere Marketing' on google will tell you all you need to know
Apparently people like this set up a business, con people out of money and then close the business and set up something else under a different name
How people get away with this I don't know but I guess there are loopholes that enable them to do it..
Shoppertainment, the people who decide which businesses go into shopping centres are looking into this. All the stalls have been taken out of the centres and the staff questioned. Apparently they were just interviewed for the job, given the job and handed over the paperwork to someone at the end of the day. They know nothing about the company.
Unfortunately doesn't look like we'll be getting any money back from this company and it definately gives E cigarettes a bad name.
April Marketing is the same company as Sphere Marketing
Sphere Marketing may now also be known as Nice Day Marketing (Sounds dodgy eh?)
All link to a man named Graeme Ross, a millionaire CONMAN from Kirkham, Lancs
A quick search of 'Graeme Ross' or 'Sphere Marketing' on google will tell you all you need to know
Apparently people like this set up a business, con people out of money and then close the business and set up something else under a different name
How people get away with this I don't know but I guess there are loopholes that enable them to do it..
Shoppertainment, the people who decide which businesses go into shopping centres are looking into this. All the stalls have been taken out of the centres and the staff questioned. Apparently they were just interviewed for the job, given the job and handed over the paperwork to someone at the end of the day. They know nothing about the company.
Unfortunately doesn't look like we'll be getting any money back from this company and it definately gives E cigarettes a bad name.
My dads bank contacted him as soon as they tried to take the £65 out . The bank stopped it so he had to close his account and open up a new one .
Those are they indeed. A Bad lot.
And Smoking Everywhere has just started Twitter marketing. If you're on there, tweet a warning to all your followers
And Smoking Everywhere has just started Twitter marketing. If you're on there, tweet a warning to all your followers
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