Complaints
According to the Better Business Bureau, thousands of issues have been reported by consumers for deceptive selling practices, unauthorized charges to consumers' credit cards, and failure to respond or resolve issues. Consumers are told that it takes 28 days for a charge to be canceled or credited back, and even employees of the credit card company are not able to dispute these charges in the same manner any other charge would be handled. Per the creditors contracts with Affinion Group disputed charges were to be processed by contacting Affinion directly. Where any normal unauthorized charge can be disputed and resolved within a month as a matter of law, charges from these merchants are often not resolved for several months on end.
On March 7, 2005, the company made a Settlement Agreement with the Office of the Attorney General of Florida. Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, Chapter 501, Part II, Florida Statutes.
In July 2005, the Attorneys General of Connecticut, California, and Maine brought a lawsuit against TLG/Affinion for allegedly deceiving consumers into enrolling in its clubs.
In December 2006, Trilegiant/Affinion agreed to pay over $8 million to 17 states and their residents to settle allegations of deceptive selling practices.
In August 2010, Affinon/Trilegiant settled a consumer fraud action brought by the Attorney General of the state of New York for $8 million USD.
In March 2012. a class action lawsuit was announced by Gillman Law LLP, a national law firm specializing in consumer protection. According to Gilman Law LLP, Trilegiant has been accused of colluding with numerous online merchants in an effort to sell memberships in the above named discount clubs. According to the complaints, consumers were induced into "joining" these clubs when they made purchases at websites. The complaint alleges that Trilegiant paid these reputable online retailers for customers' billing information, including credit card and debit card numbers, through a process known as "data pass."
Read more about this topic: Affinion Group
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