I am a recent victim of this company which has been rated F by the Better Business Bureau. According to the BBB:

“We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.”

I placed an order for two books for less than $10 and then three days later I was billed $119.95 for my “membership”. I called the company to complain the day I noticed the charge on my bank account (on day 5 after the order) and they told me I could cancel future charges but I missed the three day window to cancel the initial charge. I strongly protested and they agreed to give me a refund without a timeframe so I am highly skeptical that a refund will come.

I found the following buried at the bottom of the confirmation email I received:

This confirms your offer and billing information for your DiscountBookSale.com membership. Enjoy 3 days of full membership benefits and money-saving discounts on books through 3/31/2009 with our compliments. If you are pleased with our service, you won't need to do anything further. All your DiscountBookSale.com benefits and discounts will automatically continue for $119.95 semi-annually billed to the credit or debit card you authorized. DiscountBookSale.com will use the same contact and credit or debit card information that you have authorized to use for billing and processing benefits. In the event the membership fees were to change; you will receive notification of any fee changes prior to billing. DiscountBookSale.com benefits may change at any time without prior notice. Your semi-annual fee will appear on your card statement as billed by DiscountBookSale.com 866-707-5858.

If you don't feel that our services and benefits are everything we say they are during your trial or thereafter, simply call Member Services 24/7 toll-free at 866-707-5858 to cancel your membership benefits and that your credit or debit card should no longer be charged for membership periods. All your membership benefits and access will then be canceled. An email confirming your cancellation will be sent to you.Please note, if you are a member of more than one program, each must be canceled separately.

It is a complete scam. First of all, there was no real notice about this on the website despite the customer service representative telling me it was “clearly stated” and I was not able to order the books without signing up for the “future discounts” (which is how the button was labeled.

I felt the need to post this to keep others from getting caught out the same way I did. I feel stupid for not reading all of the fine print but I am also angry at the dishonest nature of their approach.

I wish the BBB would rename their company to Dishonest Book Sales, LLC