kadyellebee

Whee! I have run into them before. I DEMANDED my refund IMMEDIATELY (to the woman who had a very hard time understanding me), demanded talking to a supervisor, and then called my bank and informed them that it was an unauthorized charge. The bank credited my account (it was my debit card) pending investigation, and I got my refund from the scammers. (The bank of course took their moola back) It all worked out well - but like you, they tried to tell me how I really wanted this stuff, it was a good deal, etc - she stopped when I SCREAMED that I wanted my money back, that they had overdrafted my account and I had no money for FOOD. Guess I got through that time. Good luck!

I am having a similar problem. My wife did this. Do you have a 1800 number for these duds. MT

mwi connections got me for $94.00

mwi connections just showed up on my bill for $96.00. who are they? the 1800 # is 1-800-568-2386

I got two charges from these bastards, one was 96.00 and the other was 19.95. THis makes me so mad

what is mwi connections? i’ve never heard of them until they took $96 out of my account with a debit card.

I had never heard of this company til I saw a $96.00 charge on my Visa bill!! They, along with Provida Life Sciences who fraudly charged $249.89 on my Visa bill are the biggest scammers going. I have contacted the attorney general offices of Ca. and NC; filed consumer complaints on-line and with the NC atty. gen. office. I have written the president of Visa and sent copies from the internet of people with the same problems as mine. I also called the CBS show "48 Hours" and would love for them to do an expose on these companies! Supposedly a person named Rachel Kolczynski used my Visa to purchase stuff from a t.v. informercial which I NEVER watch, let alone order stuff from! Something needs to be done about these fraudulent companies and NOW!

MWI charged me $89.95 as of 1/14/02! I’m gonna get it back!

I have been screwed too... they charged my credit card $96.00.... I have called my credit card company but all I got was the stupid machines..saying they are going to send out a form to me.... I have seen that a lot of people have been hit by this... was looking at one.. and she said that she called them and said that she wanted her charge taken off... they said they would in 7 days... she said no.. and told them now... and told them that she had contacted her bank...and let them know about their scam and how the BBB had revoked their license in 1999... and said that she was going to contact the attorney general... and that there are tons of chatboards on the net and people are setting up lawsuits and complaining...she was supposed to get her refund in3-5 days...good luck

I signed up to get $25.00 K-Mart gift certificate and in order to get it you had to sign up for MWI Connections. Called and told them I did not want it, but a charge of $79.95 still came out of my bank account. Talked to a lady named Alexander ID# 14657(also confermation #). Will see if it comes.

I was just charged too. Has anyone looked into a class action lawsuit? I have been scammed too. I’m going to contact my lawyer to see what can be done.

mwi connections charged me 96 bucks for god knows why?
i really need to know what the hell is going on...
can somebody plese explain this to me?
what should i do next?
thanks

I WAS ALSO SCAMMED BY WHOEVER THESE PEOPLE ARE.I HAD A $99.95 CHARGE ON MY ACCOUNT. I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THES PEOPLE.I CALLED THE 800 NUMBER WITH NO RESULTS. EVERYONE I TALKED TO WANTED MY PHONE NUMBER AND ACCOUNT NUMBER.NONE OF THEM COULD SPEAK GOOD ENGLISH.ITS TIME WE DID SOMETHING ABOUT WHOEVER THEY ARE

I just looked on my Visa statement as well. $79.95 has been charged by MWI Communications. I don’t even know what they DO let alone how they got a hold of my debit card #. Now I am overdrawn, and have to battle a $25.00 overdraft fee on top of it!

Oops, that IS "Connections," by the way. I goofed ;)

MWI has charged my VISA $84. I hope some of you have luck getting $$$ back.

I just called MWI to receive a refund. My account was activated by receiving an offer for a free $25 gas card (which I through away). Call 1-800-568-2386 - Brian at ext. 14812 was helpful. We’ll see if the refund is processed in 3-5 days like he said. here’s some info that might help
http://www.connections123.com/
Connections
PO Box 24128
Omaha, NE 68124-0128

My son just got a $96 charge to his debit card. He was out of the country in HAITI without a telephone at this time. The company wants his bank number before they send a refund because they cannot find his charge on their records...so they say. Did MWI refund you directly or to your bank? Thanks for helping.

My son just got a $96 charge to his debit card. He was out of the country in HAITI without a telephone at this time. The company wants his bank number before they send a refund because they cannot find his charge on their records...so they say. Did MWI refund you directly or to your bank? Thanks for helping.

I was scammed too! My old High School released a compiled directory of every graduate and their current address, the company that did the compiling (Harris Publishing) uses this information to sell the "MWI Connections" program. Funny when I gave my information to the people for the directory I was told that this compilation of data was only to be used for contacting old classmates and would never under any condition be used for anyone’s monetary gain. If anyone else has tracked their MWI Connections charges to Harris Publishing let me know. (I will say that I did get a refund after hours of calls...but I still feel that my resonal info was misused and is still in the hands of deceptive con-artists).

I just got a $96 CHARGE ON MY MASTERCARD FOR THIS MWI SCAM.!!!! I called them at 800-568-2386 and spoke to Jonathon ID# 14739 and he advised me that I’d signed up for membership via an infomercial... I advised that I had not and demanded an immediate refund... He acknowledged that maybe they made an error, but "can I take a few momemts to tell me about our program"... These people are a joke... I again demanded an immediate refund.... He claims that I’ll see a credit on my statement within 7-10 days. I won’t hold my breath.... I’m contacting my bank, the Illinois Attorney General, and the BBB... Anyone have any success with a refund yet...?

I never heard of MWI connections. Until I found out I was missing money. I called my bank and asked why I was missing money and they told me the transaction was by MWI. I didn’t think much of it until it happened to me again. This time I went to the bank and told them I never made a transaction with them. They charged me $96 and the other tome was $99.95. I couldn’t believe that they took all that money from me because I don’t have a job right now. I cann’t afford money to be missing out of my account. Know they are investigating it. I hope I get that money back.

I just got screwed by MWI connections as well.. I just found out a few hours ago. I am freaking out.. I have never heard of these guys and my credit card has been credited $99.00.. What the *$&) is going on and how do you get these guys?? I think a TV show exposing their scam is a GREAT idea!

What am I gonna do about MWI Connections. I dont know what is going on.. I pay my tuition through my visa and now its overdrawn and if I dont get this figured out I will be forced to move out of my dorm. I have a minimum wage job and cant afford to get money taken out of my account by scammers. I am screwed big time!!!

I just got screwed by MWI Connections. I just found out not even five minutes ago when my husband went to pay the bill. I feel like I have been raped and taken advantage of. The only thing I did was call to order Elastic Plastic for my son for Christmas, and WHAM !!!!! I get hit with $96.00 on my Visa. How can this happen How can we make it stop?
My husband is furious and so am I. I am going to call our credit union, the BBB, anyone who can help? If anyone gets refund, let us know.

Dear Sir

Let me add my name to the list of those fraudulently charged $96.00 by MWI. Thanks for the website. It enabled me to quickly realize I had been scammed, or as so many have said, screwed! Probably like most people I thought it might be legitimate and I just couldn’t remember making this charge. I too called the 800 number that showed up on my bank statement. I met a lot of resistance from the sales rep when I called to request a complete refund. The rep did everything possible to avoid giving me a refund, although finally she said I would get a refund at the next billing cycle. I’m not holding my breath 'til that happens.

Tom

MWI Connections showed up on our business account of all things! Called my bank, and they are researching the unauthorized charge. We told the bank to show our card as stolen so it won’t happen again under that number. Called MWI Connections and talked to a guy named Keith who says we accepted the offer when calling on an informercial. I told him there was NO WAY!!!! He says he is going to get us a full refund. RIGHT! On the bright side, his English was perfect. Wish I knew where he got the debitt card information. I’d like to sue them!!!!

As a follow up to my earlier message: I have received a refund for both my recent charge from MWI Connections and an earlier charge from a year ago (both charges totaled about $200). I insisted that they give me a copy of the voice recording that they are legally bound to have to charge my account to possess ... they say they can not find it now and said that their affiliate Harris Publishing would have that tape (Harris says that MWI Connections would have it go figure).

Anyway if you need a refund please call Jason Chapman at MWI at 888 206 2321 ext 2406 in Omaha, NE. He was fairly helpful but still lacked the integrity to admit that what he is involved in is a SCAM. They have also renamed the package "Simple Escapes" so beware of that program...has the same address and phone numbers as MWI Connections.

I have yet to hear anymore from the lawyer I thought was doing something about these guys. I guess the best anyone will ever get is a refund.

In the meantime I have started the practice of being as rude as humanly possible to any uninvited telemarketeer as well as returning all postage paid junk mail return envelopes back empty with the note "GET A LIFE". I know that sounds childish but at least I’m not in the practice of lying or stealing as these ruthless people are.

I would be interested to see if anyone’s MWI nightmare involves the same situation as mine did where I was just trying to participate in a reunion directory for my High School.

Also as far as sueing these people I believe their actual main operations are from the Bahamas (I’m still working on proving this theory though...though I have some intersting leads that point that way).

I got my Discover Card statement and found that MWI Connections has charged $99.95 to my account. What can I do?

I got my Discover Card statement and found that MWI Connections has charged $99.95 to my account. What can I do?

I just received a 96.00 dollar charge to my visa bill!! I’m probably going to get an overlimit fee because of this. Apparently when I signed up for this service to receive magazines, I wasn’t listening to the guy when he told me that I receive a gas card ( Which was never activated anyway) and that somehow automatically subscribed me to this OTHER service. I called Visa and they took off the overlimit fee, but I had to call this other company to try and get this refund. The lady I spoke to kept trying to get me to try out the service and offered to refund my money by way of gas cards and AOL memberships, but eventually I got her to send a refund and cancel my service. She said it should come in the next 7-10 business days. It’s probably not even a refund. It’s going to be a certificate I’ll have to mail in and wait another month to receive. I’m a telemarketer for MCI, but we never pull this rotten sneaky stuff through our customers. These people should ROT IN HELL

Quick note to TERRY:

Don’t be rude to telemarketers just because of ONE bad experience. We’re the one’s who’ll set you for a call back 30mins. later, so be nice. PLUS, we only get 7.50/hour. Everybody has to have a job and pay rent. You’re probably just lucky to have found a nicer job. In my case, these were the only people in town hiring.

I also found a charge for 109.95 from my debit card. Like the rest of you, I never ordered whatever service this is. All I know is that they claim it is from an infromercial billing. They said they would credit my account. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? HOW DO THEY GET THIS INFORMATION. I AM MAD TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will join a class action suit if anyone can find out more and how to get rid of these scam artist.

MWI*Connections charged my Visa for $96 on 3/9/02. I ordered a TaeBo DVD and turned down the MWI offer but apparently that didn’t matter. I called MWI @ 800-313-3540 and was told I would be credited. After reading some posts from others saying it happened more than once to them, even up to a year later, I called my credit card company and asked them to move my account to a new account #. The credit card company said any credits would pass through to my new account. You may want to consider doing this also.

Read this: http://www.heartlandbbb.org/Reliability_Report.asp?compid=7000028

Then report MWI to the Omaha BBB like I did. Homepage is http://www.omahabbb.org/

I posted two prior messages about MWI*Connections trying to scam me for $84. I have received my refund (credited VISA) makre sure you request to be removed from their database after your refund goes through.

Plus I filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. (www.ftc.gov) if enough people file a complaint on these people they will start a FEDERAL investigation. Obviously conducting fraud across state lines will be of interest. File a complaint on ftc.gov, omahabbb.org, and let your local news know about it. If everyone would raise a stick maybe these people would get shut down, or better yet sued.

FIGHT THE CHARGES!

I just filed a complaint with the ftc and hope that something is done. I am over fifty years old and I work hard for my money as I know you all do and this is just not right. I agree, lets fight this scam.

I happened to notice an unauthorized debit from MWI Connections of $96 on my VISA check card just last nite. I tracked them down, and their website is www.connections123.com. In case anyone needs it, their ph# is 1-800-568-2386. I believe this originated from a magazine subscription I took out, and apparently they sold or gave out my check card #. Have tried to call them, but closed til Monday a.m. Will give 'em #ell starting then. Good luck to all of you as well !

I was contacted by phone by some guy who sold me on a high school compendium of information about all my high school classmates at Eagle Point, Oregon. (I noticed Chad’s similar message above.) I paid $79.94 on the January bill of my VISA for that and maybe I’ll never get it. This is a credit card I set aside for risky use and guess what—my February bill has an $84 charge from WCI*Connections.

I haven’t started working on this yet but I’ll see if I can just take care of it thru VISA because I just know those other guys are a snake pit and I HATE getting the runaround. I’m going to close the credit card account when I make that phone call.

You might consider having several bank credit cards for a layer of protection. I stopped charging on my debit card last year when I got spooked by reports of identity theft. Now I won’t even go to a convenience store for cash.

Correction = That last one was not WCI*Connections. It was MWI*Connections.

Ken

Hello me too had a chage of 96.00 on my visa card from connections. I called and canceled the service I hope I get refuned. This is bull shit they can charge your account like this.

MWI - Most Wicked Inc., This is what i could think of those who tried swindling my 96 dollars. I wonder how they creeped into my account. I have never received andy phone calls from them..however, I was shocked to see the charge on my debit card. I THINK IT IS HIGH TIME WE SEW THESE GUYS..WHAT SAY??

Fuck MWI to Hell, they stole what little money I have and they will pay for it (Visa debit - $96, suprise suprise)!

Riley County Police Department in Kansas has received a complaint of a charge from this company on a citizen’s credit card similar to I have read on this site. I have checked with the FBI on this, and they are currently putting a case together on this company, but they need your help. PLEASE DIRECT YOUR COMPLAINTS TO THE FOLLOWING WEB SITE TO BE INCLUDED IN THE FBI CASE.
www.ifccfbi.gov

Add one more surprised victim... I’m not sure what MWI stands for, never heard of them (until a $96 charge appeared on my account), have NO IDEA how they got my card number. My bank says it was an internet purchase, but I’ve NEVER purchased ANYTHING over the net... whoever has succeeded in getting their money back, please pass me a note saying how it got set right!

I received a statement on my VISA yesterday with an unauthorized charge of $84.00 from MWI. I called this company only to be told 1) the computers were down and they couldn’t help me, 2) that if I had a charge, I must have an account, and that 3) a publisher that I ordered a high directory from authorized a trail period with this company--which I told this publisher explicity NOT TO DO! NOw I can’t seem to get ahold of anyone at the publisher to tell them I want to cancel my order with them for even dealing with MWI. I am appalled by both these companies. I’m gald I found this message board. WHAT SCAMMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MWI CONNECTIONS WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?? 96 DOLLARS FOR WHAT. I JUST GOT HIT BY THESE GUYS. I’VE READ ALL THE TESTIMONIALS YOU GUYS POSTED. I JUST CALLED THESE PEOPLE AND SPOKE TO ANDREW #TP232. HE ASSURED ME I’D RECEIVE A REFUND IN 3 TO 5 BUSINESS DAYS. IF I DON’T HEADS WILL ROLL. THIS IS COMPLETE BULLSHIT. THESE PEOPLE NEED TO BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS. I’M SURE I WON’T BE THE LAST ONE TO FALL VICTIM...BUT IF AND WHEN YOU HAVE TO CALL THESE PEOPLE, DON’T FALL FOR ANY OF THE OKEY DOKE THEY MAY TRY TO PULL. THEY GUY I SPOKE TO DIDN’T HAVE THE HEART TO ADMIT HE WORKED FOR A SCAM COMPANY. BUT BE AS POLITE 'AND' FORCEFUL AS POSSIBLE. KILL EM' WITH KINDNESS, BUT AT THE SAME TIME LET THEM KNOW YOU’RE SERIOUS.....PEACE PEOPLE--I’M OUT

I’ve had the same proble with MWI. I was charged $96 to my Visa debit account. I called the company and after being offered many different discounts, they finally agreed to take the charges. I also told them to take my number out of the system. Let’s see. I just hope I get the money back soon. I’m a college student on a very limited budget. I also agree with the person who said they might be out of the Bahammas, because they couldn’t speak very good English and the first thing I thought when they spoke was that they were not American.

I was just taken for 96.00 and I called my credit card company and had to close my account. They are refunding me this money and I don’t know who this MWI Connections company is. But they need to be stopped from doing this to people like us any time they want.

MWI connetions took 89.95 from my checking accout and the olny thing they could tell me is that they got my info from reg for a CD player. I had never heard of them befor this. I have contacted a lawyer and I have also wrote a letter to the Attorney General of NE.

These assholes took $89.95 from my account on March 22, 2002. I called the 800 number you folks gave me and they told me my money will be refunded soon (next cycle). It had better be!! I have contacted by credit card company about this as well.

Who the hell are these assholes? My credit card is debited $96. How do they get hold of your credit card number? What can be done to get this reverse.

I just got a charge myself. I’m glad this website is here or I may have just dismissed it as something I forgot about. I’m calling them right now to get my money back.

I discovered a 96.00 charge on my AMEX from MWI connections. I called the 800 number and was told there was a 30 minute wait due to "overwhelming customer response." I certainly believe that. I checked to see if they had a website and discovered that this was a scam. I called AMEX and they immediately issued a credit. I hope all of your credit card companies will do the same for you. Those of you that were scammed through your debit cards, good luck. You will have to deal with your banks and that’s almost always a no win situation. Banks are only one step lower than these scammers.

I discovered a 96.00 charge on my AMEX from MWI connections. I called the 800 number and was told there was a 30 minute wait due to "overwhelming customer response." I certainly believe that. I checked to see if they had a website and discovered that this was a scam. I called AMEX and they immediately issued a credit. I hope all of your credit card companies will do the same for you. Those of you that were scammed through your debit cards, good luck. You will have to deal with your banks and that’s almost always a no win situation. Banks are only one step lower than these scammers.

Don’t order anything from tv infomercials and you wont be charged by mwi. When you order anything from tv, for example, a cooking product, a video, cleaning product, anything, that’s when the infomercial distributes your account information, so no matter how bad you want something advertised on tv, never order it.

I thought I would add my third message to this list.... First of all I have been successful in getting a full refund, but it wasn’t easy. I basically told these nice folks from MWI Connections that I would spend every waking hour calling their 1-800 # till I got a refund...it worked after spending four hours one night overloading them with calls. The individual I finally talked with was Jason Chapman (888 206 2321 ext 2406), he was fairly friendly but did keep reminding me of the great deal I was going to be missing out on and that they had over 7 million happy consumers (I have not been able to locate one yet). Jason also said that one mailer is sent to your house with small print at the bottom saying you are going to be charged (yet it neglects to give an amount...hmm) He also said that it was bad marketing to write statments boldly like "YOU WILL BE CHARGED" or "INVOICE". He said that frightens their 7 million happy customers. He also said that it was too costly to send out invoices that a consumer could have to see how much they were paying or charged (funny with 7 million happy customers I would assume that they would have an easy time sending out such a letter). Anyway you can get your money back if you are persistent and we can all take the lesson of not buying anything over the phone or off infomercials, etc.
Also to the person saying that we should not be critical of telemarketers. I had to file legal paperwork two years ago to keep MCI from calling my house (it was happening at least twice a week) and I hate the fact that I pay for my phone and over half of the incoming calls I get in the evening are unwanted telemarketers. I work for a phone company and I am sad to say it people are paying more for their phone bills because of this excess traffic on the network.....it is the same as SPAM so I abuse every telemarketer that calls my house now and forever.

I too have been cheated by these fellas. I have just talked to teh bank and I am going to claim a dispute. Now, can’t these people, whoever they are, be brought to book if they have cheated so many of us?

$109.95

Just wondered if there are any former Lenoir-Rhyne College (NC) students out there who were contacted by phone to purchase an alumni directory and were surprised to find out, later, that their VISA card had been charged $109.95 by MWI Essentials and $84.00 by MWI Connections....

I too have been scammed by this misfit moron’s!!! A credit for $96 appears on my credit card statement. I have no idea who MWI Connections are, but I will certainly find out. I find it incredulous that any company can make unauthorized charges to my or anyones account. This is blatant fraud and theft. Something needs to be done to these criminals, this is robbery. My wife is attempting to contact these thiefs to get our account credited. But my real concern is that they have our account number and can simply do this again, or someone else for that matter!!! This is unbelievable!!!

I noticed an $84 charge on my bill. So my first instinct was to look it up and these messages are what I found. Thanks to all the rest of you for keeping up this message board or I would not have handled my situation as I did. It looks like I got sucked into this wen Harris Publishing called for the high school directory thing. Anyway, I called my credit card company and got a new number so this won’t happen again. And I called MWI Connections and told them I never to intened to sign up for their service (does anyone know what they do or even what they claim to do?) The woman I spoke to wasn’t difficult and claimed I will receive a refund for the amount on one of my next two statement depending on the billing cycle. We’ll see, but it’s been disputed nevertheless as credit card fraud. I will be contacting the Omaha BBB and the Federal Trade Comission next.

PS: How did these messages get onto a site called hopeless romantics? hee-hee

hi..
i’m one of the victims of MWI connections..
i don’t even know who are these guys..
but they really piss me off when I found out 96 bucks
had been missing from my credit card account..
I’m gonna make sure I get a refund..
or they gonna suffer

P/s: their homepage is connections123.com

pay a visit ..and make sure u make your presence known

Well, I take a looks at my credit card and see a charge for 99.95 with a company I’ve never heard of and they want me to pay them.
Their website www.hopelessromantics.com is no help what so ever. It is a big problem when you can’t report this company to the Better Business Bureau because they supposdly don’t exist.
What a bunch of crooks.
And that connections123.com is another website is something else.

MWI hit my account 3-26-02. I did not know this until 4-8-02.
After going to my bank this morning (4-9-02) i called MWI from the bank. The lady could not tell me where she got my credit card #.
she said
"For your privacy I can not tell you that"
hahahaha What a joke. My bank put an unauthorized use on my credit card and ordered me a new one.
the MWI person said my order will be cancelled and i will get a refund. 7-10 days for credit and 3-5 days for debit. Funny how it takes that long to give it back and it only tool 1 day for them to receive it. MWI told me that i had ordered it off of TV. They told me it was from a $19.95 pancake flipper that I ordered off TV. I received a post card from the "Perfect Pancake" place stating that my item would not be in their warehouse until April 15th. To call 1-802-846-3719 if i have any questions. I called numbers that i got off a consumergroup site (1-800-568-2386 is the only one that worked) BEFORE i called that number. And they gave me this number to call 1-800-284-3900.

1-800-568-2386 is to MWI connections. the 1-800-284-3900 is to informercials. they said that they have had TONS of callers on this matter. Seems that MWI or whoever is giving out all of out credit card #’s

I received a $96 charge from MWI as well, which caused my account to go below what I needed for a purchase i was making .. I was freaking out about what I was going to do, but then I found this list ... I called up, and said that I didn’t know what the fee was for, and the woman (who was actually surprisingly helpful) cancelled my account and said that I’ll get a refund soon ... I guess I’ll find out soon enough! It was funny though- in the background, i distinctly heard at least three other customer service representatives talking about cancelling their accounts....

Apparently i had agreed to a $25 gas card and some other special movie premiums... (which is funny cuz i very clearly recall saying 'no' to a massive number of telemarketing calls)

I just got one for $96. If i dont get some money back, some one WILL pay.

I have just received my statement from the bank, and found a $96.00 charge. I called and was told I would receive my money in 7 to 10 days, yea right! They need to be stopped I am writing to the Attorney General and Better Business Bureau there is more out there one is media outsourcing they will give you a free month on magazines and then you get a bill for $700.00. another is ABEnergizer order something and never receive, then try to call them and no one ever answers.

Worse for me! I just got a $149 bill on my old credit card taht I have not used for over a year. They have new number now: 1-888-241-0073. We must get them refund and stop them asap!

I just find their websit. Take a look. http://twiki.cageyconsumer.com/MemberWorks

I have a MBNA Mastercard . I was taken for $99.00 from MWI Connections. I called them asked what I bought the man could not tall me. My card company will take it of my account,but I want this company to go down.The man could not speak well,I had to keep asking to repeat things.After I told him to credit my account ,he saked me if I would like to hear about another offer.Can you believe these people?

I was a victim of the MWI Essentials credit card fraud recently. I disputed their unauthorized charges on my credit card for the past three years, and upon informing them of my intentions to take them to court, they finally agreed to reimburse the charges. It is important that all of us, victims of MWI essentials file a complaint to local attorney generals, better business bureaus, and the federal organizations (such as the FBI-www1.ifccfbi.gov and federal trade organization-https://rn.ftc.gov) for them to launch an investigation to put a stop to this corrupt business organization. MWI have been sued in the past (http://www.heartlandbbb.org/Reliability_Report.asp?compid=7000028) but with obviously no permanet solution to put a stop to this organized crime business. It is incredulous that with so many fraud reports and complaints from victims from all over the country for the past decade, the governing bodies of this country have allowed this company to carry on with its fraudulent business to this date. if anyone needs to get their money back I suggest you do the same, call them for a refund with intent to file a law suit, and file a complaint report to as many consumer affairs organizations around the country. Here is the company information for those who intend to pursue this further than just getting a refund:

MemberWorks Incorporated
9500 W Dodge Rd
Omaha, NE 68114
Phone: (402) 661-2000
Web Site: www.memberworks.com
Primary Contact: Mr. George Vogel
Customer Relations Contact: Ms. Sue Gardner

i just got charged 100$ by MWI* . They wont get away with that, thats what i get per week, they just cant take that in one day!!! Never! I called every number I could, they were nice, I wasnt, I am never gonna be. They reap what they havent sown!

Well, it seems I also have been ripped off by MWI Connections. Late June I received my bank account statement, and there, among the transactions was a charge against my Visa Check Card for $12.95 by MWI Connections. The charge was made on 5/29/02. A day earlier I had ordered an item off an infomercial ("Quick Cooker") and the charge for that was also on the statement. When I purchased the Quick Cooker they offered me a subscription to some service of discount coupons which I rejected. However, I am assuming that they make a commission on the sale of this item and so passed my details along to MWI, in order to get that commission.

I was tied up in a project for the rest of June and could not get to to the bank until July 1. Just before going I did an online check of my bank account and found a second charge by MWI for $12.95 on 6/25/02. So that was now 2 charges of $12.95. I was feeling really pissed.

I went to my bank (Intrust Bank, Kansas) and told them I did not authorise these deductions. They told me they would fix the matter for me. Today (7/6/02) I received a letter from my bank telling me that they cannot resolve the matter without me first ringing MWI Connections and telling them to refund the unauthorised deductions. I will do that ASAP. The number my bank told me to ring was 1800 750 4364.

I am most unhappy about this. I arrived here in the USA from Australia on December 24, 2001. I have been subject to 4 other scams since arriving here ... costing me in total $275. In Australia these kinds of things just do not happen. I am now very wary of buying anything over the phone. And I am rather disillusioned too.

Hi all.
I work for MWI Connection has a Cust. service rep.
I started there a couple months ago and it didnt take me long to realize that it is indeed a huge scam. The whole thing is quite cleaverly disigned to take your money without you realizing it. For those who dont know, the companys real name in Memberworks Inc. Connections is the name of the product they ''sell''. There are many more, always appearing has MWI sumthing. But what I have to say is that posting comments on a forum is not gonna do much. Most of you where satisfied with receiving your refund. This is how this company gets away with it. The catch is that enough ppl are not realising they have been billed to make this proffitable, most of the ppl who ask for a refund only ask for 1 years, when they often have been billed for 3-4 years.... Its a statistic thing has they say, and you wouldnt believe how much money this racks up. The company has about 8 millions members throughout united states and canada, but i could swear to you that no more than a third of these ppl are actualy aware of it. And the funniest partrs is that, since they actualy loose money when ppl end up using the membership, I have realise that they start sending stuff in late and not honnoring orders of '' participating members'' so that the members gets unsatisfied and cancels its mbship.... thats new marketing for you, hehe. No, its not funny but hey! you know why it works? Cuz you are most likely NOT goin to do anything about it...

P.S.: Anyone here has an honnest customer service job to offer??

I was scammed by MWI Essentials as well. I am in the process of trying to get my money back. When I call the actual company (800-313-3540) They want me to fax them proof of an overddraft charge that they caused. I have faxed it 3 times. My bank is investigating now. I have found, that this company has been sued many times, and twice, they settled (for $1.3 MILLION). A lawyer emailed me after I told him my situation, he says I may be included in a class action they already have filed. Watch out for these people!! All I did was order OxyClean over the phone....

I never have been scammed by this company, but I am getting overloaded with phone calls to my Skytel Pager service (a 1-877 number) of people trying to cancel their Simple Escapes memberships for the last 9 months. These people always sounded lost (or easily taken advantage of) based on how they left their information. I finally called a (to what sounded like) an elderly lady. Her Capital One credit card had a bill on it that lists "MWI Simple Escapes" with my pager phone number on it. Why would MWI be listing an invalid phone number to a phone they don’t even have? It prevents innocent people from cancelling the bill.

I had done research on Simple Escapes before, but did not succeed until I found the full name - MWI Simple Escapes. Has anyone else gotten an invalid phone number? Who would I call to complain about them using my phone number on their credit card statements?!

I too was scammed. I was just about to pay my VISA bill when I noticed that I only had $13 left in my account. I looked and there was a 139.95 charge to my account from MWI*Connections. I will be calling tomorrow to get my money back... This makes me oh so mad. I think I just might have to change my account number and never use my debit card again...

Have they charged any credit cards or has it all been debit? Cause I believe credit cards have much better protection from those sorts of things. Anyhoo, I’m filing a report with the ftc and would certainly like to be involved in a lawsuit against them.

-Jason

To add my name to the list (just in case anyone wants to add me to a class action law suit or something against this company). My discover card was charged 99.00 from a company called "Simple Escapes". I called the 800 number and asked the guy (who was very hard to understand) what the charge was for. He said that, when I mailed in a registration card for a "deluxe ab slide" I agreed to sign up for a free 30-day trial of a travel program. He said that, when I did not call and cancel within 30 days, my account was charged for the annual fee for the travel program (99.00). Well, lots of things are shady with this. 1) I NEVER purchased an abslide. 2) I never use my Discover card (therefore, I never have any charges on it anyway). When I told the guy that I was going to call the BBB, he said he would refund my card. Well, I received a credit for 57.50 on the next months bill. When I called to ask where the other 41.50 was, the guy said, "Oh, you just said you wanted to cancel your account (wrong - I had asked for a refund), you needed to ask for a refund of the prorated amount". Whatever!! So, I asked for a refund of the prorated amount, and he said that he would issue the credit immediately, and gave me a confirmation #. Shady business practices for sure!!!

I have also just received the charge of death. I called the number and was promptly greeted by some effeminate male who cheerfully said I would be receiving my refund within two months. As an extra precaution I am sending in a charge dispute claim to my credit card company.

Just took a look at my bank account on line and saw that MWI had taken $96.00. Had ordered knives over internet (Miracle Blade) and some stuff over the phone from Signatures. What a rip off. I use debit card so first thing Monday I will be calling BBB and our Attorney General. He is death on this type of thing and has won many judgements against scammers doing business in Idaho. You can add my name to a class action suit.

I too got scammed by these punks. When I asked them for documentation or some kind of proof they said I agreed to it when I purchased something from an infomercial, also. So I tried to catch them (cause I’ve never purchased anything through an infomercial) by asking which company was it that I went through and they didn’t have any record of it. Isn’t it shady that they have our CC #s but have no information about which of their 3rd party marketers I ordered from. On the BBB website under the co.’s reliability report they claim they verify all third party client orders through tape recordings. But its impossible to reach corporate to get those recordings. I don’t know what to do. I filed a complaint with BBB. I too want to be in on the class action suit, not for the money though, but just to have enough people for the suit to follow through so we can get those scam artists. Its sad because some of us can’t afford a lawyer on our own.

Because MWI probably won’t tell you themselves, for those of you who have gotten charged $109.95 on your CC with the merchant description MWI Simple Escapes, you’ve probably also gotten charged $96 some time in the past. The 109.95 seems to be a "renewal fee".

I checked my account online and saw that my balance was -$400! There was a charge from MWI Simple Escapes for $140.00 and that made every purchase made after that was posted get an Unavailable Funds Fee of $31.00! And these debit purchases were for $2 - $5, because I had no cash on me! So, I paid $31 for a $2 charge due to this company’s scamming operation. I just gradated college and need to get job so I’m on a very limited income. Now I have nothing until this is cleared up. I’m not calling the company. I’m letting my bank deal with this and also a lawyer I found online dealing with this company’s scamming. Good luck to everyone!

i never got my money back, the bank just ignored my calls and sent me a warning letter about fraud. thats great service from (wells fargo). yeah thanks a-lot.

I too was scammed. Here’s my two cents:

In addition to calling your bank or card company to get the charge removed, you should also report the incident to the states attorney where you live, where the charge was posted (which your bank and card company may be able to tell you), and in Omaha where the company is located.

What is amazing and inexcusable is that these guys are still in business after at least a year of scamming people.

I too have been duped into their scam. They called me about 3 months ago for one reason or another. I told them not to enroll me into the program, but they did it anyway. Last month I found that there was $99 taken out of my account. I was able to get the money back that time. Now I go to check my account and guess what..... there it is again, another $99 out the window. I called them this morning and I found that the person I talked to, Tim (who could barely speak English with a heavy middle eastern accent), all he wanted was to keep me with them and keep asking why I wanted to "leave their services when I could save sooo much money if I stayed". When I told him that I never signed up for the service and never wanted it, he told me that I would have the money back in my account in 3 - 5 days.

There has to be a way for these people to be brought down and kept down. There are too many people complaining about them and yet they are still around and taking people’s money.

So glad i found this.......today i checked my onlind bank statment and saw a charge for 139.95 from MWI Connections. Well, i didnt give it much thought at first cause hubby and i had been doing loads of xmas shopping over the weekend. Then i started looking at receipts and it wasnt adding up and either was my check book.
I immediately went to google.com and typed in MWI connections and found tons of complaints against this company, or so called company.
I got their # and called and very firmly told them that I did not authorize this transaction and i wanted the 139.95 back and to cancel what ever it was. The person on the phone Kevin ID# TP221 told me that he would refund my Visa Debit card and that it would take 3-5 days. I asked him what was this company i told it was a disconut company for things like travel meals etc etc.....he said i got something in the mail in October and sent it in for membership. I told him that I did no such thing!!!! He said he would take care of it and refund my money.
Then i started thinking.....and reading.....so i called them back. I now spoke with Shelly TP#599-she said that my account said i signed up via the web. I told her there was no way that i did, cause I have been out of work since May and could never afford 139.95 on unemployment (which is the truth). She said that i could of visitied anyone of their web sites: coolsavings.com, connections123.com, dealpass.com. i dont remember anything of the sort-im not one to visit those kinds of sites. She said that my account was creditied and it would take 3-5 days. But here is what i found stragne she said the credit would be as follows $106.60 and 33.35. I Asked her why and she gave me some lame excuse. I just hope that in 3-5 days the credit was there. If not, there phone lines are going to be burning with my calls.....
I hope we can stop these people. I felt like telling the girl on the phone...do you know you work for CROOKS!?!?!??!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Yeah, I have never heard of these people either until I discovered a charge of $119.95 against my checking account. I’m a student and this sent me into overdraft which I have to battle the bank with. Yuck. I wish you all luck!

I have used the Ab Energizer, and was left with several burns to the stomach. I heard that there would be a lawsuit against these companies and was wondering if I would be entitled to anything. I have had these burns for about 2-3 months now, they aren’t going away. Please inform me if there is a web site, email address, phone number etc that could help me THANK YOU

I had this happened this weekend. I had 139.95 taken out of my account from the slim and I freaked out. I called the bank and did a fraud report on the company. After doing that I went to work and looked the company and could not believe how many people this is happened to. I found there number and called them. They gave me this story that I could get movie tickets for 4.50 hey I soend 139.95 to get movies tickets for 4.50 I don’t even go to the movies that often. I demanded my money back and they did give it back. Also sent my bank print out’s of this company so they had a heads up. here is there info if you need it

address
9500 West Dodge Rd
Omaha Nebraska 688114

Phone number
800-750-4364

Good luck everyone

I found a charge for 79.95 on my credit card bill and am pissed to find out I am getting ripped off in some huge ongoing scam! If someone is filing charges against them let me know so I can sign on. We should be compensated for all of our wasted time dealing with this scam!

I am also a victim of this scam. I can’t believe how many people have been victims to this company and that they are still in business. I am in the process of working with my bank right now. MWI also assured me that I would get back my $79.95 in 3 business days. We’ll see what happens.

yeah .....scammed too.
I just thought to check my account.
$96.00 withdrawl.
talked to Pamela id# 14462 said sorry for the miscommunication.
It was from ordering the stupid Miracle bLADES OFF THE INFO-MERCIAL.
They asked if I wanted membership to a discount coupon club.
I ADAMANTLY said noo repeatedly to these requests.
They signed me up any way. Now I have to leave work to get to my credit union and put $100 buck back in my account to cover my automatic insurance withdrawl.
They gave me the 3-5 business days canned speech too and I, like Aaron, cannot believe this company is still in business.

I dont care if I doo get my money back.
I will still sue them for fraud and theft (wich might be the same thing, I dont know.....we’ll see)

-mike

MWI Connections took a total of $108 from my credit card account of 2 transactions of $96 and $12 on the same day. I never heard of these people and never ordered anything from them. I’m writing my credit card company to reverse the charges. I think the information came from http://www.carletonsheets.com or when I ordered for Phase 4 Orthopedics. Both are informercials at midnight.
Both weeks from each other.
To review other negative web site about these people click on the link below.

Clark
http://search.yahoo.com/bi