Smiles Coffee promotion - USA

[notmuffy]

http://www.smilescoffee.com/Promos/GrinderCam.asp

How does this look to you guys? You get a free coffee grinder, and a free digital camera (don't ask me how the two go together) when you sign up. It says you can cancel anytime. Anyone ever had this coffee before?

 

[CoffeeLover]

Free Gifts with Coffee

You thinking about trying them for coffee? I can see why they want to give a camera. They want you to take pictures, when ya take pictures you Smile, Just like their coffee name

Its worth it if your into trying the coffee since you can cancel anytime, but as far as the coffee is concerned, that is their incentive for you to try them! I haven't tried them Maybe I will once I get back from my weekend trip, and If you dont like it you get the camera and grinder

 

[CoffeeLover]

Smiles Coffee +SPAM

I don't know much about smiles coffee anymore. I don't like SPAM much and I've gotten 7 e-mails in the past 5 days for Smiles Coffee offers, I didn't sign up for anything but now im a part of their campaign.

Does Spam make you dislike companies and products? I've lost my trust in them from all this spam that's being sent to me with their name on it.

Who here feels the same, and why? And who has had Smiles coffee?

 

[Guest]

Coffee Spammers

Ever were I to get SPAM from ANY company I would NEVER support them. I would tell all my friends and family to do the same also. Its one thing if it is a one time event and I signed up so I can remove myself but its totally WRONG to keep sending it even after asking to be removed.

I didn't nor will I now buy Smiles Coffee. I never heard of them before the spam event and it could very well be a scam to con unsuspected people by offering free items. :evil:

 

[Guest]

more like frowns coffee!

Don't sign up for this--it's not free to begin with, it's $19.99 for 6 "short-pot" (4-cup) packages of coffee, the grinder, & a certificate to redeem for the digital camera.

You have to pay an additional $9.99 to get the digital camera if you cancel your subscription to the coffee program, otherwise they ship it with the first monthly shipment, which is a minimum of $36.99.

4 of the 6 bags of beans sparked in the microwave within the first 10 seconds; we didn't try the last 2!!

And, they charge $4.99 to cancel the subscription, no matter what, so you're out a minimum of $25 & still no digital camera.

No idea how the coffee tastes, since we were never able to "roast" it properly--got a coffee grinder out of it, at least.

You cannot cancel online, & their customer service folk are rude & very unhelpful. They suggested it was my fault or my microwave's fault, & basically told me my 2 options were to authorize the $4.99 cancellation fee, or they would ship & bill me for $36.99 for the next shipment. I'm going to dispute the cancellation charge with the credit card when we get the statement, but this was a terrible experience!!

 

[mightybean]

No matter how hard we want to believe, seldom is something ever free. At MightyBean Coffee we have free giveaways that are free. We currently off a free 10 cup sample to anyone purchasing a 1 lb minimum. You even get to pick whatever sample you want. So their is an example of something free that still cost something. We have in the past given a free sample for registering. We will offer it again in the future so keep visiting the site. If you received your free sample please be kind enough to reveiw it on my website. This may determine if we do it again. hint, hint.

Ron

 

[Guest]

I have heard on alt.coffee that this stuff is truly awful. YMMV, but a microwave is not a good way to roast coffee.

 

[Bill Ahlman]

Glad I read these posts!

I am SO GLAD I read these posts, particularly the one by the writer who TRIED Smiles Coffee and was dissatified. I have gotten a number of email promos from them, and a few times, I ALMOST ordered to try it. But, since I had never heard of the company, I stopped only because I did not want to give my credit card number to a company I had not heard of before.

BUT, after reading these posts. I imagine I WILL NOT ORDER SMILES COFFEE!
Bill Ahlman
[email protected]

 

[horizonod]

smilescoffee.com smiles coffee complaint resolved

COMPLAINT RESOLVED.

<Search engines follow><meta name="Smiles coffee rip off spam scam free digital camera promotion lie">

This complaint has been satisfactorrily resolved. While there were things that could have been handled in a more positive fashion it was more a misunderstanding brought about by low level employees than a ripoff or scam.

Once the right people are contacted Smilescoffee.com smiles coffee seems to want to do the right thing.

 

[horizonod]

SMILESCOFFEE.COM IS A HUGE SCAM!! AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!!

No matter how hard we want to believe, seldom is something ever free. At MightyBean Coffee we have free giveaways that are free. We currently off a free 10 cup sample to anyone purchasing a 1 lb minimum. You even get to pick whatever sample you want. So their is an example of something free that still cost something. We have in the past given a free sample for registering. We will offer it again in the future so keep visiting the site. If you received your free sample please be kind enough to reveiw it on my website. This may determine if we do it again. hint, hint.

Ron

 

[Guest]

More on Smiles Coffee

OK, so I've tried smiles coffee twice now (I know, I'm a sucker for coffee deals). The first time I kept the subscription for a good while, because the coffee really was amazing -- I never had any trouble roasting the beans, though I only did it for about 5 seconds (and they smoked and steame even after that). I also had a really good experience with their customer service. (This was all before the digital camera/thermos thhing -- the grinder was still a promo freebie, but nothing else)
BUT not the latest time I tried it. I went to the site, left it, and got an email offering the camera as well as the grinder and thermos. I though "what the hell" and signed up again. they charged me $9.95 shipping (it's supposed to be $19.95 with the camera), so I emailed to ask what was up; they replied saying I hadn't authorized them to charge an extra $10, so they couldn't send the camera -- so I sent them another email authorizing that. Lo and behold, they charge me those $10 twice, I get my coffe without a camera (I've emailed them again, and dammit I will get what I paid for ), and to add insult to injury, the coffe flavours are wrong. :roll: So I guess I would have recommended them before, but no longer . . . too bad, though, cause I really liked the coffe

 

[dspender]

Thanks for the warning about this place - I almost signed up for it!!!

 

[notmuffy]

Wow,
I hope that by me telling you guys about smilescoffee (which BTW was indeed a spam I got), you didn't get spammed just by visiting their site! I hate spam with a big passion!! :evil:
But I'm glad someone here posted about their experiences! Thanks a lot!

 

[Guest]

ripped off

I wish I had read all of these posts before I foolishly signed up for this "deal?". I feel I have been royally ripped off! It took me 3 days to get a clear line into the company by phone to cancel and complain. You aren't kidding about their rude customer service department. I was ready to wring the woman's neck and ended up just hanging up the phone with no resolution to my complaints. I am ready to report this company to the attorney general of my state for fraudulent advertising. If you are reading this, Smiles executives, you'd better wise up and play fair!

 

[chesler]

Re: ripped off

It seemed like a good deal. Not too good to be true[*], but for $15 I'd get a cheapo camera, a $10 grinder, some coffee, and they'd get me to try their product. I'd heard about the coffee before and was curious. I went to GrinderCam.asp and hit all the "Click here" links and authorized the $9.95 charge. The confirmation didn't mention the camera, so I wrote back. (Also thanked the party who referred me, grumbled about the back-end fee but said "If this package were $14.90 up front I'd still take it", asked about a particular coffee I like.) Went in circles for a while ("We can't find your subscription" "You found it fast enough when you charged my account!") eventually they say "The promotion you want costs $19.95, send us $10 more." (To be fair if instead of clicking where they say to click you read the bottom of the page, they've hidden that there; GrinderCam funnels to the same order-entry page as the regular Grinder promotion.)

*About 3 years ago I got a cheapo digital camera from EarthLink, in return for trying out their service at $19.95 per month for 3 months. The same camera was selling for about $85 then.

I said "Forget it -- I was in for $15 but not for $25". Box has arrived while they were messing around. They write "Cancellations can only be done by phone, not email." I'm getting ticked, but what the heck, cell phone calls are free, so I call them. They go around in circles some more ("We can't give you a refund." "Why not?" "Because it's policy." "Who made the policy?" "We can't give you a refund." "Sure you can, you are merely choosing not to.")

I contested the charge with my bank. They credited me the $9.95, but then allowed the charge for $4.95. I waited a few weeks for them to make a final judgement and have now asked for the $4.95 to be reversed. Bank so far has said "You authorized the $4.95; by the way please send us certification that you've mailed back the product." I've just told them "I authorized both the $9.95 and the $4.95 in expectation of getting something that they didn't send; I have the box ready for pickup, or they can send me a return shipping label, but since it costs them $9.95 to ship and handle it, and I don't have their economies of scale, it would cost me at least that much to mail it back. I'll be throwing it away in a month."