Warning - VistaPrint Free Business Card will rip you off
Review, Business January 2nd, 2008This post is a warning to all my readers. I encourage you NOT to do business with VistaPrint, a wonderful business card printing services for years. Please do your own research before you make any purchase with VistaPrint.com.
VistaPrint will sell your credit card information regardless you like it or not.
Being a business owner, I have been using VistaPrint’s wonderful business card services for years. Recently, I print another sets of business cards with their discount deals. It prompts me to join a third party program. It was described as a totally free and no obligation program, which sounds too much like the scam deal. I opt it and say NO to the program. A week later now, I saw my VISA card transaction, I saw two $14.95 charges from AP9*PASSPORTVISTA and SHOPPING ESSENTIALS.
I did a research and found others with the same issues. You can read the Ripoff Report at Report: VistaPrint - AP9*PASSPORTVISTA - AP9*PASSPORT TO FUN - SHOPPING ESSENTIALS - Vertrue and find the suggested answer to this issues.
Turns out - VistaPrint is very flexible with their customers credit card information and sold it to Vertrue, Inc. Who in turn uses it in all of their departments - each with a different name ie - PASSPORT TO FUN, PASSPORTVISTA, SHOPPING ESSENTIALS and BUSINESS MAX.
As a victim of this scam, I have learned one thing.
DO NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER! NO DO NOT REALLY MEAN NO!
Please spread the words to all your friends and let them no about this issues. I hate to say that I was happy with VistaPrint, but they pissed me off!
NO MORE VistaPrint CRAP!
Technorati Tags: VistaPrint, rip off, ripped off, scam, privacy, selling your information, credit card theif, identiry thief, bad business, consumer alert
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32 Responses to “Warning - VistaPrint Free Business Card will rip you off”
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January 2nd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Sorry to hear about what happened. I guess using paypal is a better and safer option to pay online.
Thanks for the heads up!
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Terence - sorry to hear about your problems. I have used vista print but I will stop NOW, after reading your post.
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:02 am
@BloggingMix:
Long time no see. PayPal is not always friendly to their customer. I use Chase VISA card, because they always take care of my dispute cases. I think paying with credit card gives me a lot of freedom.
@Mark:
I have been a happy customer with VistaPrint for over 4 years. I print a lot of business cards for my consulting business. It was not a problem to ignore the third party promotion until few months ago. I stated that I don’t want the third party promotion program, but it still take my credit card information for unauthorized transactions.
I like VistaPrint’s services, but they should not release my information without my authorization. Especially the financial information.
January 3rd, 2008 at 3:48 am
Thanks for the warning!
January 3rd, 2008 at 5:28 am
@Recliners:
You are welcome. I am just hoping they change their policy, but I already found a local printing shop for all my needs.
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:41 am
This is astonishing. I am shocked. Thank you for this warning. VistaPrint has been much hyped about!
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:44 am
If you are looking for an alternative for business cards, definitely check out www.GigglePrint.com. As far as I know, no one has had any problems with them. They offer 250 free business cards + shipping.
They also offer tons of other custom printed products such as postcards, invitations, and announcements.
Thanks!
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:55 am
I own a small graphic design business in York Pa, Rethink Designs. We used Vista Print in the past and have loved some of their products, but they really seem to struggle with moral integrity. One company with over 15 years of printing experience that just started a new venture called GigglePrint. Their customer service is really incredible and they really might be poised to threaten Vista Print someday. I would check them out. www.giggleprint.com. Hope this helps.
January 3rd, 2008 at 7:25 pm
@Dining Tables:
I was surprised by the finding too. I have been with VistaPrint for so long. It’s hard to get out there and redesign my card again.
@Sondra:
The web site you provides seem to be a good choice. I will probably give them a chance with my next order. Thanks!
@John:
Two visitors from the same IP offering me the same services? That’s interesting.
Thank you anyway!
January 4th, 2008 at 5:00 am
I have heard a lot of horror stories about VistaPrint.
I suggest ooprint.com. They are also an online printer, so you still have the ease and low cost of placing your order on the web. However, they don’t distribute your credit card information. I’ve been a very satisfied customer of ooprint.
Plus, their designs are much nicer than Vistaprint’s!
January 4th, 2008 at 7:17 am
@Meredith:
Really? You are the only one so far telling me the bad thing about VistaPrint. Will check it out. Thank you very much!
January 4th, 2008 at 10:37 am
[…] one days after post my weird credit card issues with VistaPrint on Warning - VistaPrint Free Business Card will rip you off, I saw two strangers in my web log. One is from Vertrue, the marketing company who has charges me […]
January 25th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Hello, I’m Jeff Esposito, an employee in VistaPrint’s public relations group, and I saw your blog entry on our rewards program and wanted to reply. On behalf of VistaPrint I am sorry you feel you’ve had a negative experience with our rewards program. VistaPrint believes that the vast majority of our customers who sign up for the program really enjoy the benefits, but if you are not happy, please call 866.870.4124 and we’d be happy to process a refund. We’re open from Mon – Fri 8 am – midnight EST.
January 26th, 2008 at 6:49 am
@Jeff Esposito:
Thank you for your reply on this topic. As I said that I have been very happy with your printing service. However, I am not happy with your security and privacy policy. Your company clearly states that you will give out customer’s credit card information and trick your customers to sing up some useless promotion program.
Unless your company changes the policy, I will not do business with VistaPrint again.
January 28th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
We’ve been doing battle with VistaPrint/Shopping Essentials/Passport To Fun for three months now. After prodding from the MA attorney general’s office, VistPrint rescinded our Shopping Essentials and Passport To Fun charges. Now Vertue is disputing that action. Vertue is one nasty entity, and it relies on your getting too tired to write any more letters. Its CFO belongs behind bars!
January 29th, 2008 at 2:45 am
@Anne:
Really sorry to hear your problem. I still believe that VistaPrint’s print services is good, but their security policy sucks. They probably make more money from their relationship with Vertue than from their printing services. I am glad that my case did not go that far. I got my money back just few days after I file complaint to my credit card company and post this bad reviews about them.
Anyway, I will not recommend their service any more. Good luck to you! Thank you for stopping by!
February 20th, 2008 at 1:34 am
Good Work People
As i am with the authorities secret service i will be seeing vistaprint about this matter as credit card details may not be sold in anyway whatsoever!
February 20th, 2008 at 1:36 am
ATTENTION ALL READERS:PLEASE SUE THIS COMPANY AT YOUR NEAREST COURTHOUSE!
February 20th, 2008 at 2:38 am
@Josh Howard:
I guess you were one of the angry customers that got ripped off by VistaPrint. I already take my action to get my money back. I have seem many cases that the company is working on improve their business image.
I hope they change their policy, otherwise, they will lost a lot of business in the future.
March 17th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Wow, I am surprised, Vista has been around forever. I am shocked to read this. I have never ordered from them, but just the idea, I guess I won’t be.
March 17th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
@Canadian Free Stuff:
Yes. Vista has been around for a long time. As their longer term customer, I was totally thrown out of their window. See the problem they have. Once they piss their customer off, they will never come back.
March 28th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Hey Terence, sorry to hear about your bad experience with VistaPrint. Like most on-line companies, VistaPrint makes cross sell offers during the checkout process for both thier own products and third party products. What happened is you unknowingly purchased one of these third party cross sell services when you filled out a survey after completing your order. This survey (sometimes it is a short survey and sometimes it just asks for your e-mail address) pops up at the end of the check-out process and there are also two buttons on the bottom of the confirm order page that will pop up one of the cross sell surveys as well when clicked. The survey offers you $10 off your order but the fine print tells you that you are signing up for a one month trial of whatever service the offer is for, after which you will be charged $10-$15/month depending on the offer.
Since you were familiar with VistaPrint, you probably felt like you could quickly click through the checkout process and got burned that way. You probably don’t remember exactly what you did because the checkout process is long and can seem like a blur of pages. I can tell you are a little confused because you thought you “opted out,” but this is a strictly “opt in” program. Hope you were able to get everything cleared up.
March 28th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
@Adam:
I think you have explained the situation very well. I am actually charged twice. The first time I did not really pay attention on which button I click on. The second time (2 minutes later), I did pay attention on the offer. I click on “NO THANK YOU!”. A month later, I still receive the charges (twice with different partners).
I just don’t think it’s right to trick people this way. People like me watch their credit card account closely can find out that. There are many many people just pay their credit card bill without even check each transactions. They are over changed for something they don’t even aware of for months to years.
At the end, I did get my credit back. Thank you for your information. I think I have learned it the hard way.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Hi - just a comment that I had a bad experience with Vistaprint and my business cards NEVER SHOWED UP. I paid the extortionate shipping charges too which annoys me no end. Not only that but they have NO CUSTOMER SERVICE. When I tried their email it came back as it didn’t exist, then I tried contacting them through their webform - to which they replied that they were too busy to reply and to try again!!! If customer service is too busy to reply to your enquiry you have to wonder what problems others are experiencing…
All in all, I wouldn’t recommend ordering anything from Vistaprint!
April 9th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
@Liz
Wow… I am sorry to hear your problem. I hope you find your new supplier.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
I just discovered today that I was billed this and last month for the 14.95 for the “passport to fun”. I called my credit card company immediately after seeing all of the reports online about the scam. They connected me with the company who said that I signed up when I, get this, filled in my email address twice for a $10 rebate, which I now recall, but closed out of it when I saw that it was for trying something that would later be billed if I didn’t cancel. I can’t believe they got me that way, and the rep on the phone was so snotty, acting like I was wrong, and he was doing me a big favor. I’m so annoyed that vistaprint lets this happen to their customers for years and still allows the company to advertise through them. Anyway, “passport to fun” said they were cancelling my account and would refund both months in 2 business days. (Crossing my fingers for that one.) And I never even got a $10 credit for what i supposedly filled out. This was my first credit card rip off and hopefully the last. I’m sure to be more carefull now. Good luck to everyone else who’s working on refunds.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
@Lauren:
I am so sorry to hear your case. It just added one more bad experience about VistaPrint. They don’t really care about their customers, because they spent so much money to get people paying them. They are the top 5 online business with highest conversion rate. So they have to do something to get people using their services. I am glad that my credit card company react very fast.
I don’t know how many people are ripped off without knowing that they have been charged for something they don’t intend to do. Many people don’t review their credit card statement. Those companies took advantage from that.
I am hoping that you get your money back. Forget about the $10 credit. I think it is for your next order, but not the past orders.
July 19th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Two unauthoized charges to my card from Business Max. Of course, they are a rip off company that leaches off of Vista Print. I will not use Vista Print anymore. It’s not worth the hassle. Vista Print is like a hurricane- alot of sucking and blowing but in the end you lose your house.
August 7th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I was investigating Giggle Print and landed here. Free means you don’t pay, not that you pay and call it a shipping charge. I’ll be glad to give you something free, as long as you pay me a nice shipping and handling “fee”. I’m still investigating this, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Giggle Print is actually Vista Print, which is an absolutely fraudulent business. I actually closed a bank account over them, because they give away your bank info, try to sign you up for costly “offers”, and change the price they charge from a higher one than the webpage shows as your total. They did not correct that error on my order, though customer service said they would. A pox on Vista Print!
August 8th, 2008 at 9:10 am
@Annie:
I am so sorry to hear your story about been ripped off. I think it is possible that Giggle Print is another re-seller of Vista Print. Some of the template looks just like Vista Print’s stuff. I am shocked that Vista Print is one of the online retail store with very high conversion rate. In other words, they have attract a lot of people to visit their site and convert to buyer with their great offer.
Yes. Their offer is too great to be true. That’s how I got into it the first place. As I stated, I did not want to sign up those third party program. Anyway, lesson learned.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
My wife ordered some cards from Vista Print in July. Yesterday she noticed a charge of around $48!!! She called Vista, they denied seeing a charge for that amount on her card. She called her bank and they are beginning to recoup the money through their fraud department. We will NEVER do business with them…will have a post on my blog tonight about this mass rip-off scam that Vista Print is using.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
@Brent:
I am so sorry to hear that you were one of victim too. I have not used Vista Print ever since. VistaPrint has been the top e-commerce store on the Internet. Their product quality is good, but their Marketing strategies just sucks. I have no idea how many people were suffering the same pain in the Axx.
Anyway, I hope that you get your money back soon! Thank yo for stopping by!