Dog crimper Steven's fury as card cash goes walkies

Jun 8 2008 The Judge

DOG groomer Steven Allan went barking mad when he spotted rogue deductions from his credit card account.

He was being charged £9.95 a month by an American firm he had never heard of called Adaptive Affinity.

The 49-year-old contacted his bank, Lloyds TSB Scotland, but when they couldn't stop the debits he called me in.

Steven, of Dunblane, Perthshire, said: "The money has been coming out of my account every month since August. It's ridiculous they can help themselves to my cash and I can do nothing to stop it."

I soon got on the case and found the monthly deductions were linked to a previous online transaction.

Steve, 49, who is married to Irene, 50, had ordered business cards from a US firm called VistaPrint.

VistaPrint automatically signed him up to their VP Rewards scheme costing, you've guessed it, £9.95 a month.

The club, which is supposed to offer discounts on subsequent orders, is owned by Adaptive Affinity Ltd.

He is not alone. Scores of customers have the same complaint and are up in arms about the scheme.

I got on to VistaPrint, of Lexington, Massachusetts, and they sprang into action.

The firm's Jason Keith said: "This is an offer that some customers do sign up for in error from time to time.

"We will work on getting his membership cancelled and his money refunded immediately as is our policy."

So Steven gets his money back and I'm just glad VistaPrint took my lead.