I received an advertisement for clubtac, an online retailer of tactical gear which promised more gear per month then the price they sold for. They had an 8.95 trial offer with a monthly fee of 59.00 if you continued to receive their monthly shipment of gear. Instantly on the day I signed up they billed my account 67.95, both the trial fee and the monthly fee. I called them within one hour of them billing me and cancelled my order because I expected them to at least let me see what I got in my trial before billing me for the next month. I was told my account was cancelled and I would receive my refund in one to three business days. Instead 2 days later I received a shipping confirmation from them! I called and cancelled my account a second time and then filed an FTC complaint against them. I live on a fixed income and they claimed their billing policy was disclosed in their terms and conditions. Ok my mistake, yet then they lied about cancelling the order and proceeded to ship it anyway. This caused my checking to overdraft. I had already discussed with my bank that I approved the 8.95 fee but not the 59.00 on the day of trial purchase and my bank had agreed to return the 30.00 overdraft fee if the purchase was refunded. I told the customer service representative I was disabled/ retired veteran trying to survive on a fixed income when he promised my purchase would be refunded. I will never do business with them again nor anyone else who promotes them. They had the opportunity to correct this and chose to take the money instead.
Afterwards an internet search of complaints against them found repeated complaints of similar practices with the BBB. I also then filed an FTC COMPLAINT. Now I am exercising my right to disclose their practice to the world. All they had to do was refund and cancel my order.
BEWARE!! This company is click bait at its best (or worse depending on how you look it). They paid attorneys big money so I am sure they are covered 'legally', but morally and ethically ... definitely not. They trap you in by offering a 'free trial' of the their monthly club packages which advertises that all you have to do is pay the shipping and handling (8.95) and they will 'get your monthly tactical supply crate risk free'! So, I pay the 8.95 looking forward to seeing what they supply in their tactical crates .. and hey, if solid, would continue the membership at 59.00 a month. I am not a complete noob ... so I prepared myself for needing to go and 'cancel' my account before a month rolls around or I would be caught up in one of those 'trails and turn into memberships because you are too lazy to go back and cancel in time' ... right? Those are bad enough techniques, but this is worse ... WAY WORSE!
So, within 30 minutes of paying the shipping any handling I start to get that feeling something just isn't right so I start some research (yes, shame on me for trusting and not doing this prior). In that research I learned that what the company does is charge you for the shipping and handling, then ship you the crate. What is often considered the 'free trail crate' (myself being one of those people); however, those well paid attorneys carefully worded the offer that it is a 'free trial' ... 'not a free crate to see if you like the product trial'. So, if you don't return the 'crate' you receive immediately they can charge you for the crate ($59) and you are autorenewed for the next month package. Okay, so bad and uncool ... but hey, at least I researched this and found out so I could make plans to immediately return the package once I received and not get bambozzled right? I would be out the 8.95 and some wasted time and energy, but they wouldn't get me to fall for that.
BUT WAIT ... I recieve an email my package has been mailed and I should receive it in a couple days. So, I am prepared to get it so I can return it immediately so that I don't get caught up in falling for that legal but unethical practice. The same day I see that 59.00 was drafted from my bank account!! WTH! I was ready ... they weren't going to get me ... what did I miss? So, I email the company asking them to go ahead and send me their generic reply they send to everyone saying how it was in their terms and how it was my fault and not theirs ... while adding for them to ask themselves how they live without a conscious by taking advantage of people, etc because I know its coming. Sure enough I was sent a explanation of their 'agreement' ... once again, their well paid lawyers played with words so that it appears as though if you return the package within 15 days (reminder which everyone things they are getting for free to begin with) that you won't be changed and continue on their auto-monthly subscription ... instead they can legally interpret the wording to say that you will be charged the $59 15 days after you signed up for the trail membership. So, I haven't even received the 'tactical crate' yet (for this so called free trail) and have been charged $67.95. Of course, I am being told that once I return the 'product' (which I haven't received), they will refund me the $59. They can hide behind their misleading small print all they want, but a reputation is earned which they haven't. They want to make the quick buck on taking advantage of people.
I can only imagine how many people have been impacted by this way worse than I have been. I am sure their have been thousands of people how get drafted the $59 by this unethical practice who didn't have the money at the time and had that s****.>
Do not try the trail and pay for shipping they will still bill you and take your money even if you do not register for an account. I tryed to call several times they will nor answear I have sent emails they do not answear. They took 72.95 from me with out an account and have not answeard any of my emailos or calls.
The F Better Business Bureau rating and subsequent "Beware" comments should be enough to avoid these con artists.
But, in case you want more detail, here's my story.
They hide small print in promotions and then deliberately move the goal posts to the point where the narrative meets their terms and conditions.
The merchandise is cheap and of poor quality. I learned this after ordering a discounted promotional offer box.
It took forever for them to ship it and I received it with just three days to spare before they charged me full price for the promotional box. I was out of town on business and had not even had a chance to look at the merchandise yet.
I attempted to call customer service and request a return, but I was disconnected as soon as the subject of a refund came up. Odd timing?
I attempted to call back and was put on hold. After being on hold for over 10 minutes, I hung up and emailed customer service regarding my experiences and desire for a refund/return.
Customer service did not respond promptly and instead waited until after the return window had expired before responding, while also ignoring the request. There was also no return instructions with the initial shipment so I had to try to contact them to facilitate a return/refund.
Eventually, I chose to ship back the merchandise at my own cost. The merchandise was new and unopened. I left instructions for a return and order # and contact info in the box. I received notification that the shipment was received. That was over 6 months ago. To this day, they refuse to refund my money for merchandise that they have in their possession.
Not only that, but they charged me the promotional price, plus the full subscription price. Add all that and my personal cost to ship back the merchandise, I'm out over $80 for merchandise I don't even possess.
I filed numerous formal complaints and they ignored every one of them.
Bottom line, this company tries to find a "legal" way to steal. They're nothing, but thieves and cons
Watch out for clubtac.com! Total ripoff. Advertised a "free trial”, all I had to do was pay shipping and handling. It seemed cool and I decided to give it a go. Their "free trial” turned out to be a total scam. Paid shipping and handling, and when I received the package, I was not too impressed, so I decided to cancel my membership and not continue with the service.
I then received a 59.99 charge to my card a couple weeks later. Turns out that the "free trial” was not free at all. They just waited 2 weeks to charge me for it. When I contacted customer support, they said that in the fine print, it was only a "free trial” if I chose to ship the package back to them within the first 14 days. They tricked me, so watch out and know that you are not actually getting any free trial, just a delayed payment.
This is a very unethical, shady company. The only place it is stated that you must return the product at your own cost, plus no refund for the $11.95 shipping, is in the small print of the terms and conditions.
I placed my order on 11/11/18, and got the package on 11/15/18. Naturally, one would think the trial would start on the 15th... So the last day of the trial should be on the 28th. So I opened the package, and the "survival gear" included was a bunch of absolute garbage.
There were about 8 items or so, but the value of them as a whole was possibly $20, and that is being VERY generous. Also, this is right around Thanksgiving, so I was a little preoccupied with other things.
Nonetheless, I did my due diligence and emailed them on 11/17/18 with the following message: "I wanted to cancel the trial before any further charges beyond the original $11.95 are made. My order number is xxxxxxx. My email is whatever. Thank you".
Well....they didn't reply until 11/20/18 with a simple reply saying "Hello, will you be returning the crate?" I responded literally minutes later with "I wasn’t aware of needing to return the crate. I thought that was in part why it cost $12.
I will return it, I just need a prepaid shipping label and a refund of my original price please." Later that day, still the 20th, he responded with their legal jargon crap saying that the "risk-free" trial was a $12 non-refundable shipping fee, then you must pay and ship the crate back to us if you do not wish to be charged $59.
I responded shortly after.... "I’m sorry, but I wasn’t informed that the product must be sent back. Please send a prepaid shipping label and I will send it back. I would also like to have a refund for the 11.95 since it was described as "risk free”. Thank you, Jeremy.
Well, I tried calling them 3 different times over the next few days, and received recordings... Finally, the week after Thanksgiving, on 11/27/18, I spoke to a guy, who proceeded to tell me that "your 14 day trial is expired. If only you would have just emailed us to communicate that you wanted to cancel, then I could help you, but". And I said, "check your email box, I did Exactly that!" He said, "Oh, I do see you spoke with Sam, but you did not follow up".
At this point my blood is boiling. I remained calm, and just said "The trial is barely past 14 days, and it was Thanksgiving weekend. I will go ahead and pay return shipping, so another $10 or so. But please be reasonable and give me the refund of the $59 once that is done." He said "I know it was Thanksgiving, but business is business, and you are past the 14 day trial. As a courtesy, I will go ahead and cancel your membership for you......." I asked to speak to his supervisor, and he told me he was the one with the authority to issue refunds."
This company is criminally unethical and is a complete scam.
My box came EMPTY, only one of the half dozen seams were sealed. The box is labeled in big letters Military and Survival supplies, big surprise someone opened up the box and USPS delivered an EMPTY box, so I contacted a snotty punk named Samuel who has no business in customer service. After much complaining I was able to get the 59.99 dollar charge removed (from my first "free" box) They were going to charge me 3 days after I got the box full price. I still am being stuck with the 11.99 shipping and Handling, yes it was shipped but they Clearly failed to properly secure the package. The fact that they label the outside of the box the way they do, it is a wonder anyone ever gets their items without them being stolen. This place is clearly a half assed rip-off.
I responded to a email advertising "This is a must-have for any tactical enthusiast. You can get one for Free within the next 48 hours.... ClubTac gives people like us the ability to obtain constant supplies of top-notch survival gear! ...hurry, limited supplies are available for this giveaway!"
I clicked on the link, and it described a monthly subscription service. Each month, a box of tactical gear would be shipped to my address, for which I would be charged $59. However, the first month's crate is "RISK-FREE" just pay Shipping and Handling. Only in the Terms and Conditions (it is necessary to click on the link) does it state that on the 15th day after the initial signup, you will be charged $59 for the first crate as part of an active monthly subscription.
After I received my first box, I called the company to cancel my subscription. I was told that I would still be charged $59 for the box I received. To not be charged, I would have to ship the box back to them (at my expense). It cost me $18.05 to ship the box back to them. So, I'm out a total of $27! There is absolutely nothing "RISK-FREE" about this offer. A classic case of misleading and deceptive advertising.
ClubTac Reviews
I received an advertisement for clubtac, an online retailer of tactical gear which promised more gear per month then the price they sold for. They had an 8.95 trial offer with a monthly fee of 59.00 if you continued to receive their monthly shipment of gear. Instantly on the day I signed up they billed my account 67.95, both the trial fee and the monthly fee. I called them within one hour of them billing me and cancelled my order because I expected them to at least let me see what I got in my trial before billing me for the next month. I was told my account was cancelled and I would receive my refund in one to three business days. Instead 2 days later I received a shipping confirmation from them! I called and cancelled my account a second time and then filed an FTC complaint against them. I live on a fixed income and they claimed their billing policy was disclosed in their terms and conditions. Ok my mistake, yet then they lied about cancelling the order and proceeded to ship it anyway. This caused my checking to overdraft. I had already discussed with my bank that I approved the 8.95 fee but not the 59.00 on the day of trial purchase and my bank had agreed to return the 30.00 overdraft fee if the purchase was refunded. I told the customer service representative I was disabled/ retired veteran trying to survive on a fixed income when he promised my purchase would be refunded. I will never do business with them again nor anyone else who promotes them. They had the opportunity to correct this and chose to take the money instead.
Afterwards an internet search of complaints against them found repeated complaints of similar practices with the BBB. I also then filed an FTC COMPLAINT. Now I am exercising my right to disclose their practice to the world. All they had to do was refund and cancel my order.
BEWARE!! This company is click bait at its best (or worse depending on how you look it). They paid attorneys big money so I am sure they are covered 'legally', but morally and ethically ... definitely not. They trap you in by offering a 'free trial' of the their monthly club packages which advertises that all you have to do is pay the shipping and handling (8.95) and they will 'get your monthly tactical supply crate risk free'! So, I pay the 8.95 looking forward to seeing what they supply in their tactical crates .. and hey, if solid, would continue the membership at 59.00 a month. I am not a complete noob ... so I prepared myself for needing to go and 'cancel' my account before a month rolls around or I would be caught up in one of those 'trails and turn into memberships because you are too lazy to go back and cancel in time' ... right? Those are bad enough techniques, but this is worse ... WAY WORSE!
So, within 30 minutes of paying the shipping any handling I start to get that feeling something just isn't right so I start some research (yes, shame on me for trusting and not doing this prior). In that research I learned that what the company does is charge you for the shipping and handling, then ship you the crate. What is often considered the 'free trail crate' (myself being one of those people); however, those well paid attorneys carefully worded the offer that it is a 'free trial' ... 'not a free crate to see if you like the product trial'. So, if you don't return the 'crate' you receive immediately they can charge you for the crate ($59) and you are autorenewed for the next month package. Okay, so bad and uncool ... but hey, at least I researched this and found out so I could make plans to immediately return the package once I received and not get bambozzled right? I would be out the 8.95 and some wasted time and energy, but they wouldn't get me to fall for that.
BUT WAIT ... I recieve an email my package has been mailed and I should receive it in a couple days. So, I am prepared to get it so I can return it immediately so that I don't get caught up in falling for that legal but unethical practice. The same day I see that 59.00 was drafted from my bank account!! WTH! I was ready ... they weren't going to get me ... what did I miss? So, I email the company asking them to go ahead and send me their generic reply they send to everyone saying how it was in their terms and how it was my fault and not theirs ... while adding for them to ask themselves how they live without a conscious by taking advantage of people, etc because I know its coming. Sure enough I was sent a explanation of their 'agreement' ... once again, their well paid lawyers played with words so that it appears as though if you return the package within 15 days (reminder which everyone things they are getting for free to begin with) that you won't be changed and continue on their auto-monthly subscription ... instead they can legally interpret the wording to say that you will be charged the $59 15 days after you signed up for the trail membership. So, I haven't even received the 'tactical crate' yet (for this so called free trail) and have been charged $67.95. Of course, I am being told that once I return the 'product' (which I haven't received), they will refund me the $59. They can hide behind their misleading small print all they want, but a reputation is earned which they haven't. They want to make the quick buck on taking advantage of people.
I can only imagine how many people have been impacted by this way worse than I have been. I am sure their have been thousands of people how get drafted the $59 by this unethical practice who didn't have the money at the time and had that s****.>
Do not try the trail and pay for shipping they will still bill you and take your money even if you do not register for an account. I tryed to call several times they will nor answear I have sent emails they do not answear. They took 72.95 from me with out an account and have not answeard any of my emailos or calls.
The F Better Business Bureau rating and subsequent "Beware" comments should be enough to avoid these con artists.
But, in case you want more detail, here's my story.
They hide small print in promotions and then deliberately move the goal posts to the point where the narrative meets their terms and conditions.
The merchandise is cheap and of poor quality. I learned this after ordering a discounted promotional offer box.
It took forever for them to ship it and I received it with just three days to spare before they charged me full price for the promotional box. I was out of town on business and had not even had a chance to look at the merchandise yet.
I attempted to call customer service and request a return, but I was disconnected as soon as the subject of a refund came up. Odd timing?
I attempted to call back and was put on hold. After being on hold for over 10 minutes, I hung up and emailed customer service regarding my experiences and desire for a refund/return.
Customer service did not respond promptly and instead waited until after the return window had expired before responding, while also ignoring the request. There was also no return instructions with the initial shipment so I had to try to contact them to facilitate a return/refund.
Eventually, I chose to ship back the merchandise at my own cost. The merchandise was new and unopened. I left instructions for a return and order # and contact info in the box. I received notification that the shipment was received. That was over 6 months ago. To this day, they refuse to refund my money for merchandise that they have in their possession.
Not only that, but they charged me the promotional price, plus the full subscription price. Add all that and my personal cost to ship back the merchandise, I'm out over $80 for merchandise I don't even possess.
I filed numerous formal complaints and they ignored every one of them.
Bottom line, this company tries to find a "legal" way to steal. They're nothing, but thieves and cons
Watch out for clubtac.com! Total ripoff. Advertised a "free trial”, all I had to do was pay shipping and handling. It seemed cool and I decided to give it a go. Their "free trial” turned out to be a total scam. Paid shipping and handling, and when I received the package, I was not too impressed, so I decided to cancel my membership and not continue with the service.
I then received a 59.99 charge to my card a couple weeks later. Turns out that the "free trial” was not free at all. They just waited 2 weeks to charge me for it. When I contacted customer support, they said that in the fine print, it was only a "free trial” if I chose to ship the package back to them within the first 14 days. They tricked me, so watch out and know that you are not actually getting any free trial, just a delayed payment.
This is a very unethical, shady company. The only place it is stated that you must return the product at your own cost, plus no refund for the $11.95 shipping, is in the small print of the terms and conditions.
I placed my order on 11/11/18, and got the package on 11/15/18. Naturally, one would think the trial would start on the 15th... So the last day of the trial should be on the 28th. So I opened the package, and the "survival gear" included was a bunch of absolute garbage.
There were about 8 items or so, but the value of them as a whole was possibly $20, and that is being VERY generous. Also, this is right around Thanksgiving, so I was a little preoccupied with other things.
Nonetheless, I did my due diligence and emailed them on 11/17/18 with the following message: "I wanted to cancel the trial before any further charges beyond the original $11.95 are made. My order number is xxxxxxx. My email is whatever. Thank you".
Well....they didn't reply until 11/20/18 with a simple reply saying "Hello, will you be returning the crate?" I responded literally minutes later with "I wasn’t aware of needing to return the crate. I thought that was in part why it cost $12.
I will return it, I just need a prepaid shipping label and a refund of my original price please." Later that day, still the 20th, he responded with their legal jargon crap saying that the "risk-free" trial was a $12 non-refundable shipping fee, then you must pay and ship the crate back to us if you do not wish to be charged $59.
I responded shortly after.... "I’m sorry, but I wasn’t informed that the product must be sent back. Please send a prepaid shipping label and I will send it back. I would also like to have a refund for the 11.95 since it was described as "risk free”. Thank you, Jeremy.
Well, I tried calling them 3 different times over the next few days, and received recordings... Finally, the week after Thanksgiving, on 11/27/18, I spoke to a guy, who proceeded to tell me that "your 14 day trial is expired. If only you would have just emailed us to communicate that you wanted to cancel, then I could help you, but". And I said, "check your email box, I did Exactly that!" He said, "Oh, I do see you spoke with Sam, but you did not follow up".
At this point my blood is boiling. I remained calm, and just said "The trial is barely past 14 days, and it was Thanksgiving weekend. I will go ahead and pay return shipping, so another $10 or so. But please be reasonable and give me the refund of the $59 once that is done." He said "I know it was Thanksgiving, but business is business, and you are past the 14 day trial. As a courtesy, I will go ahead and cancel your membership for you......." I asked to speak to his supervisor, and he told me he was the one with the authority to issue refunds."
This company is criminally unethical and is a complete scam.
Horrible customer service and unsecure packaging
My box came EMPTY, only one of the half dozen seams were sealed. The box is labeled in big letters Military and Survival supplies, big surprise someone opened up the box and USPS delivered an EMPTY box, so I contacted a snotty punk named Samuel who has no business in customer service. After much complaining I was able to get the 59.99 dollar charge removed (from my first "free" box) They were going to charge me 3 days after I got the box full price. I still am being stuck with the 11.99 shipping and Handling, yes it was shipped but they Clearly failed to properly secure the package. The fact that they label the outside of the box the way they do, it is a wonder anyone ever gets their items without them being stolen. This place is clearly a half assed rip-off.
I responded to a email advertising "This is a must-have for any tactical enthusiast. You can get one for Free within the next 48 hours.... ClubTac gives people like us the ability to obtain constant supplies of top-notch survival gear! ...hurry, limited supplies are available for this giveaway!"
I clicked on the link, and it described a monthly subscription service. Each month, a box of tactical gear would be shipped to my address, for which I would be charged $59. However, the first month's crate is "RISK-FREE" just pay Shipping and Handling. Only in the Terms and Conditions (it is necessary to click on the link) does it state that on the 15th day after the initial signup, you will be charged $59 for the first crate as part of an active monthly subscription.
After I received my first box, I called the company to cancel my subscription. I was told that I would still be charged $59 for the box I received. To not be charged, I would have to ship the box back to them (at my expense). It cost me $18.05 to ship the box back to them. So, I'm out a total of $27! There is absolutely nothing "RISK-FREE" about this offer. A classic case of misleading and deceptive advertising.