Reader didn’t realise she had subscribed to Complete Savings until she was down €1,000

“I hope you don’t mind me asking for your advice regarding a company called Complete Savings,” begins a mail from a reader called Gemma. “You may have heard about them,” she says.We have indeed heard about them. In fact, we have been hearing about them for more than 12 years. The first time we featured Complete Savings on this page was in March 2014, not much more than a year after the company had started doing business in this country.[ Reader caught out by Complete Savings subscription: ‘I never knowingly signed up’Opens in new window ]And what is their business? It is a multinational, self-styled web-loyalty scheme that people sign up for – sometimes without being entirely aware that is what they are doing – after they make purchases on partner sites.READ MOREWhat Complete Savings promises is cash back to members if they shop on certain sites. That is all well and good if members know they have signed up for the site and are happy to have done so.But how would someone sign up without being aware of it?From what we have been told, it is easier than you might think. If someone buys a product on a site that has a relationship with Complete Savings, they might be offered the chance to avail of a discount on their next purchase. They then re-enter credit or debit card details and by doing so sign up.That appears to be what happened to Gemma. “I was unaware I signed up to any subscription,” she says, before adding that over a period of time Complete Savings increased its charges from €15 to €18 and then to €21 “without my consent”.[ Are you accidentally paying for a Complete Savings loyalty programme and what can be done to stop it?Opens in new window ]Gemma says the “worst part of my experience is that because I was unaware of it, I found out it had been activated back in March 2021 and so I have lost over €1,000″. She continues: “I thought this was a saving going to my credit union from my bank. The bank can’t help me as it goes too far back. I did put in a bank dispute. The Complete Savings company claim they send me emails but this is definitely not the case.” Gemma says she doesn’t know what to do next. ”I have sent them an email demanding a refund and explaining how I was unaware of any subscription. I never used it obviously!”[ Two months after receiving half a shed from Homebase, customer’s patience is wearing thinOpens in new window ]We contacted the company and in a statement, a spokesman said that as “an online rewards savings programme”, it “provides access to the most consistently high cashback rates for shoppers in Ireland, enabling members to save over €3,600 a year when they make full use of the benefits". The spokesman drew attention to the ”multiple affirmative steps to enrol into Complete Savings” once they click on the advertising banner on whatever site the company has partnered with. “Our sign-up page contains full details about the programme and all the membership benefits available,” he said. “Our membership fees are clear and transparent from the onset and are mentioned at least three times on the online sign-up page, including at the top of the page.”He said the company also contacts members regularly. “We send all members at least three emails in the period of the free trial to encourage them to make the most of their membership benefits, remind them of the end of their trial period and the next billing date.”After our intervention, the company got back on to Gemma. She emailed us to say she was delighted that it had committed to giving her a refund of the money she had spent without knowing it.