My elderly mother apparently ordered an item from JC Penney's catalog by phone. As I understand it, the phone operators push a subscription to a JC Penney related operation "Savings Solutions". The way it was pitched, all my mother understood was that it was free when in fact there is a $9.95 monthly charge on her credit card. Contacting JC Penney's credit card customer service to dispute the charge (which is a phone tree nightmare in itself) resulted in them denying any involvement and claim no ability to cancel the charge though the source is a related JC Penney operation. Having experienced similar things in the past, if JC Penney were a reputable credit card operation such as Visa, this would have been all that was necessary to resolve the matter.

Pushing me off to customer service of Savings Solutions found they were supposedly unable to find any record of an account. Since the charge is certaining appearing monthly on the card statement (and is essentially the only thing on it), I have to assume this is the way they do business - slam confused old ladies and then refuse to correct the situation when they get caught while all involved claim inability to do anything to keep the charge going. I was told the only way to possibly resolve this was to fax a copy of the credti card bill to Savings Solutions, which I did. Thus far, no response. JC Penney should be ashamed of their incompetence and/or their anti-consumer business practices.