PetCareRx Fraud

Hey everyone,

I know I am starting to sound like Chicken Little (and not the Disney version), but I wanted to make you aware of something that has happened with regard to Sunshine Rewards and fraud.

I received a call from my advertiser today that fraud was found in 71 of the 82 PetCareRx sales that we had in April. As a result, PetCareRx is not paying for the $8 credits that everyone received.

Despite knowing that I run a clean site, it was discovered that a Free Shipping coupon code got passed around along with a suggestion that people could "make money" off of the PetCareRx offer by buying something less than $2, getting free shipping, and then getting the credit. When PetCareRx found that posting, they decided that I was indirectly the beneficiary of fraud and they are not going to pay for the sales.

In my opinion, PetCareRx should have paid the money because it was their mistake for not stipulating a minimum order. In their defense, I guess they didn't figure that people would take advantage of the sytem.

I'm not going through the accounts to see which sales were legitimate and which were not. But please keep in mind when you sign up for offers on this site or any site that 1) the advertisers have the right to withhold the money if you cheat in any way, and 2) it is the rewards site that will end up losing its advertisers and eventually closing down if we are all not careful.

Thanks for taking the time to read along. You know my intent is to do everything that I can to ensure the longetivity of Sunshine Rewards when more and more advertisers are growing leery of incentive sites. I'll keep you up-to-date as I hear more.

Tricia

I did not know at the time that it would be fraud. I was one of the people who spent $1.60 and got the credit. I would like for you to take your money back since you did not get credit yourself.

On a different note I may send them an email. I thought it was great PR for them. When someone asks about a website for pets I had said PetCareRx. They shipped fast and the site was easy. Now I am not sure I will mention them.

But Please feel free to take your money back. :)Dee

Hey Tricia,

I think I must have inadvertently participated in this fraud. I didn't realize that there was anything wrong with using the free shipping code. I would certainly be willing to have the 8.00 or whatever it was subtracted from my account in order to offset the loss you will probably experience for paying it out to us and then you not getting paid for it by PetCareRX. I do agree that they should have stipulated that a minimum order and no free shipping could be used. I don't want this site or you to get into trouble and I certainly don't want to be the beneficiary of ill gotten gains. Please feel free to debit my account the 8.00 with no complaints from me. I only want what I earned and if I committed fraud without knowing it I want to make it as right as I can. I think now that we are all on this forum where cancellations and ways around can not be discussed we wont be seeing this anymore. I would think that all of us who are loyal to you would want to do things on the up and up. Thanks for the heads up and Im sorry for any trouble we may have caused without realizing we were doing it.

ETA: We must have been posting at the same time Dee! Im glad Im not the onlyone who feels like that. Tricia is so good to us I want to return the favor if we can.

Your responses do not surprise me. :sunshine: I actually told my advertiser (the person between me and PetCareRx) that I had a feeling that some of my members would try to give their credits back. You are all so nice.

One of the things that bothered me the most about how PetCareRx handled this is that I actually added them to our shopping section because so many people who had made those purchases wanted to buy from them again. So they DID get value from the advertising. And now they are taking it back.

Interestingly, it turns out that all of the posts found by PetCareRX were in another rewards site's forum. As soon as the advertiser told me which rewards site it was, I knew, unfortunately, that my members were affected by it.

I remember that free shipping code going around. I know for myself, I didn't realize I was doing anything wrong. And in everyone's defense, I think they should've locked you out from using coupons with this offer if they didn't want you to.

That said....I apologize Tricia for any loss you've suffered and I will understand if you feel you need to take the credit away.

I won't be taking any credits away. I told the advertiser that I couldn't do that because no one broke the rules. I agree that they should have locked out the coupon code. That's what other advertisers who run incentives do.

If I had posted on the offer that you could not use any codes, that would have been one thing. But the offer came with NO stipulations, so I didn't post any. I can't very well take that out on the members.

On the plus side, my advertiser was very clear that she thinks that I run an honest site and that she will not even allow into her program a lot of the other rewards sites because she doesn't trust them. It was good to hear that. :)

Oh my goodness, I just recommended them to someone in another thread today! I don't even have a pet, but when the offer was up, I bought some rug cleaning supplies because my friend's dog had a little accident in my living room. The rug cleaner from Pet Care Rx worked pretty well and they have been sending me coupons ever since, which I have no use for not having a pet.
I'm going to un-recommend them. That was their mistake and they should not be able to take the $$ back. I thought they were a good company to deal with, but apparently I was wrong!

I never heard of PetCareRx until I came to Sunshine. I have made acouple purchases thru them. I was impress by their super fast service. I prefer them over Petsmart & Petco.But after hearing this I will not shop thru them again.

I honestly do not think anyone here or anyone who used their coupon committed fraud . Major companies have been known to make mistakes ,they don't take it out on the consumer. If something was a error the store will honor it until they can get a sign posted about the error to prevent any further loss.Online stores have been know to send off emails to the consumer informing them of such errors and asking if they wanted to keep the order or cancel it.

I feel that Sunshine should not pay for their mistake. If they are going to produce coupons then they need to have their system prepared for such mistakes not blame the innocent reward program..They need to blame their own system.:computer:

Good Grief !Tricia! I was one of those who ordered a cheapie too! I am so sorry !
Please feel free to deduct from my account as soon as I get it back up to 8.00, which shouldn't be that long . I was just fixing to order my dog's heartworm pill's from them . I'll go else where now.

Hey Tricia, would it help if any of us e-mailed the company on your behalf? I have really liked the service from PerCareRX and have ordered from them a couple of times. They have really good prices and have great cust. service, especially when it comes to perscription pet medicines. I am very unhappy to hear how they are treating you over this.

I don't want to cause more problems for you or anything. Just wanting to help out if possible. It's really too bad, because word of mouth is so important to any business, and this is sure to create some negative impact for them.

I'm sorry for your loss on this. I would understand if you had to reverse all the credits for that offer.

I also participated in this free shipping but I spent about $5.00 and I actually talked to customer service that same day. I tried to make that order go through and I was having trouble. I actually told her I had a free shipping code and I was going through an awards site, she told me that she can't do anything on her end to help me except delete my order, which she did. I was successful in completing this order later in the day. Just thought you should know my story, if you need to deduct from my account, I will understand perfectly! :love:

I'm really not sure what to do because it sounds like a lot of you like the company. And maybe if they understood that they did get a lot of good publicity (and repeat business) out of the offer, they would not look at it as "fraud" but rather a mistake. I've had good luck with them so far in our shopping section. The one credit that did not go through automatically, they credited for me.

Right now the third party advertiser is out the most. I negotiated with her to pay me the $8 for each of the bad leads. So I came out even and do not have to take back anyone's credits. She is out about $560 and deciding whether to do business with them anymore after this.

Tricia,
I feel bad for the third party advertiser, but I am really glad to hear that it is not you who is out the $$. You do so much to make this site great, and you don't deserve a bad break like that. It still sounds like it was Pet care RX who made the error, and who should eat the loss.

Hope it all gets resolved!

:sorry:Oh my goodness! I feel horrible too! I was also one of those who did a cheapie order, but honestly did not realize that I was breaking any rules! Well, I guess I really didn't break any rules, since they didn't state any! I despise when companies do things like this. If they wanted a minimum order, they should have stipulated a minimum order. If they didn't want coupons applied, they should have stipulated no coupons. To change the rules afterwards is just rotten and I don't understand how they can classify it as fraud.

I, too, was impressed by their fast shipping and did recommend them to my neighbor. I don't know if she placed an order, but I told her how impressed I was with their shipping. I was planning on shopping through them when I needed bird food but I'm stocked for a while right now.

I definitely will not be doing any more shopping with them, nor would I recommend them. I have a "never shop thru again" list, and they have now been added. And yes, I do hold a grudge!:rotfl: :rotfl: Speigel pulled a stunt like this probably 6 years ago that I never forgot about either!

I am so disappointed with PetCareRx's decision to deny the commissions. I spent $75 (heatworm meds for big dogs is expensive!) and they offered free shipping on orders over $35. But without the SR credit I would have gone to my vet who I trust and will match online prices.

I was planning on using them for most of my dog's meds. I got Buttons her flea and tick meds and TRIED to get her heart worm pills, but my vet would not cooperate. I spent like $40 and liked the service. I was going to use them exclusively instead of my vet. Maybe I will rethink that. I got free shipping because of the amount I spent, not because of a code, however, I would be willing to help with your losses. Of course right now I only have 99 cents (since the cash out), but you should not have to eat all of that $$. I feel that you have been SO good to us, that we do not mind AT ALL to pitch in with this issue!

Angela

Since Iwork for a vet (by trade I am a surgical vet tech...see my pet connection on helpingmomsconnect.com )I can tell you that one of the reasons your vet will not cooperate with you buying heartworm meds from the online sites is because the companies will not guarantee some of the heartworm medications from some of the internet sites. Also, some of the flea products look exactly like the ones your vet sells, however, they aren't. They are made by independent companies across the ocean and are not as effective. I personally will not deal with PetCare Rx or recommending it.

I too did the free shipping code with a smaller order that day but since then I have placed another order for $24.99 plus shipping which never would have happened if I didn't get to try the service first - also my $24.99 order is a repeat every six weeks - maybe $25 doesn't sound like that much but in a year that is $225.00 just from one customer YOU brought to them. It's also pet medicine so I do not get credit from Sunshine or any other reward program so I can shop any place and I choose PetCareRx because they gave me the bonus and it worked well but I could use any online pet place or my vet. I never thought what I was doing was fraud but a good deal and it was nice to try the site, happen to like it and then order again. I won't now - I bet most of your members will show an aversion to PetCareRx.

Like all of your other posters so far said - take the credit back - we'd rather you did that then get in trouble or have any grief over this. You run a good honest company and I think that is how we are here as users of your site - good and honest. Heck 90% of us are just trying to earn a little extra vacation money by trying products and services along the way.

I was thinking about this last night, and do remember buying a ball or something with free shipping. After I just said I didn't, I actually DID:confused: . I honestly do not remember where I bought it though. This site or another. Wherever it was, I just assumed since it was taking the shipping code because it was legit. It did get me to buy my pup's flea meds later, so they DID get more business because of it. I am sorry Tricia that I participated in something that has caused you some stress. I would have never thought of it as fraud.

Angela

I'm still really torn about this. Part of me wants to contact PetCareRx directly to talk to them and explain what happened and how they really DID get a lot of new customers and word of mouth advertising out of it.

I was feeling really bad about this, but when I was checking thru my files to see if I had done an offer, I found that I had ordered a $7.00 item, paid .50 shipping, so now I don't feel bad. I was happy that I had broke even:rotfl:

I did use the free shipping but ordered about $15.00 worth of stuff because their prices were good on what I ordered. I agree that they should have stipulated a minimum for the free shipping or discontinued the coupon while using the reward sites. Did they not think that people look for coupons?? Or maybe they did and this is their convenient excuse for not having to pay out? Well, I won't be shopping there anymore.

Petco will get my order this weekend (some of their online prices are better than instore prices). And, I always get free shipping too. :rotfl: