ComplaintsforTrans World Entertainment Corporation
Family Entertainment
Current Alerts For This Business
Pattern of Complaint:
BBB reached out to this company regarding a pattern of complaints which was found to exist regarding falsely promoting the company’s Backstage VIP Pass and unauthorized charges appearing on consumer’s cards. A number of consumers throughout the country have reported that they were encouraged to sign up for a free membership loyalty program, however consumers later noticing unauthorized charges on their credit or debit cards. Complaints allege being signed up for this program without consent and having difficultly cancelling the membership once charges are noticed on their statements. Some consumer advise they are told they've earned free magazines only to later received multiple charges to their accounts. Many consumers report unauthorized debt or credit charges to their cards which they did not authorized. The company failed to respond to BBB’s requests.
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Complaint Details
Note that complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. See details.
Initial Complaint
05/19/2024
- Complaint Type:
- Billing Issues
- Status:
- Answered
FYE has been charging my bank account monthly for approximately 10 years for a “backstage pass.” I have not been able to get the charges to stop. I want FYE to stop charging my bank account.Business response
06/26/2024
To Whom It May Concern:
At the time of purchase a customer paying with a credit card is offered our membership
program. There is a pamphlet for our membership program which explains all the terms and
conditions of the program. The customer is given this pamphlet at the time of purchased.
There is a phone number within the pamphlet that allows them to cancel via phone.
We have confirmed the cancellation as of June 25, 2024 with the cancellation number being
**********. There will be no further charges for the membership due to the cancellation.
Thank you for allowing us to respond to this concern.
Sincerely,
Erin S******
Director - Store Operations
2428392 INC. dba FYE
38 Corporate Circle
Albany, NY 12203Initial Complaint
05/13/2024
- Complaint Type:
- Billing Issues
- Status:
- Answered
I have been charged $11.99 a month without consent for many MANY months now. I canceled a long time ago and just now signed into my credit card to find monthly charges since Christmas of last year! They had no right to keep taking my money. It’s not even showing I have an account stillBusiness response
05/15/2024
To Whom It May Concern:At the time of purchase a customer paying with a credit card is offered our membership program. There is a pamphlet for our membership program which explains all the terms and conditions of the program. The customer is given this pamphlet at the time of purchased. There is a phone number within the pamphlet that allows them to cancel via phone. We have confirmed the cancellation as of 5/14/2024 with the cancellation number being **********. A full refund of 17 months for $11.99 totaling $203.83 has been issued as of 5/16/2024. There will be no further charges for the membership due to the cancellation. Thank you for allowing us to respond to this concern.Initial Complaint
04/01/2024
- Complaint Type:
- Sales and Advertising Issues
- Status:
- Answered
I visited the FYE store in the Woodland Mall in Kentwood, MI on January 26, 2024. I purchased a book, and was offered to sign up for their rewards program. I agreed to sign up for their rewards program. Upon completing the form for sign up (which was only for information like my phone number and email address), I was informed they also signed me up for their "Backstage VIP" program, which is shared with other brands. They explained this program offered rewards with other businesses with monthly incentives. When I expressed that I was not interested in this program, they replied that I "would not need to use it." When I explicitly asked if there was a charge associated with this, they replied that there was no charge. I have since found a reoccurring charge on my account for this service. When I called the customer service to cancel, they explained that "there was no charge for the first trial period, and they were sorry if this was no explained clearly in the store." When asked how they were able to charge my card, which was only used to purchase the book in store, they claimed that by signing up for the rewards program, I was also giving permission to charge that account. The entire transaction is very deceitful. I am normally a informed consumer and do not regularly fall to such tricks. In this instance, the employers outright lied to me in order to entrap me into this reoccurring charge. I would like to see this practice stopped.Business response
04/05/2024
To Whom It May Concern: At the time of purchase a customer paying with a credit card is offered our membership program. There is a pamphlet for our membership program which explains all the terms and conditions of the program. The customer is given this pamphlet at the time of purchased. There is a phone number within the pamphlet that allows them to cancel via phone. We have confirmed the membership has been cancelled as of 4/1/2024 with the cancellation number being **********. A full refund of 8 months totaling $95.92 has been issued as of 4/2/2024. There will be no further charges for the membership due to the cancellation. Thank you for allowing us to respond to this concern.Initial Complaint
02/06/2024
- Complaint Type:
- Sales and Advertising Issues
- Status:
- Resolved
My teenage daughter was tricked into signing up for a membership. She was told it was a store credit card. She kept saying no but the cashier kept pushing it so she finally caved in and agreed. When she got home she gave me the paperwork and come to find out it was not a credit card it was a store membership card and she was charged $14.30 and also was signed up for a monthly membership. I have emailed several times with no luck. It says to call within 30 days to cancel. Well i've called every day since and it keeps saying they are not open so that is why I am here. I can not get in contact with these people. My daughter is back at college now, she has no job so why would she sign up for this with a monthly memebership fee? I feel the employee should be taught not to lie and trick people into signing up for this saying it's a credit card. I want a refund of the $14.30 and the monthly membership cancelled. Loyalty # ************ backstage passCustomer response
02/06/2024
My daughter is away at college. Her credit card is attached to my account so that is why I’m filing the complaint.Business response
02/15/2024
To Whom It May Concern: At the time of purchase a customer paying with a credit card is offered our membership program. There is a pamphlet for our membership program which explains all the terms and conditions of the program. The customer is given this pamphlet at the time of purchased. There is a phone number within the pamphlet that allows them to cancel via phone. We have confirmed that the membership is currently at the free trial stage still and is set to cancel after the free trial is over. There have been no charges for the membership and there will not be any charges once the free trial has ended. The $14.30 charge was the cost of the purchase in store that day and I have attached an image of the receipt as well. The customer purchased a ***** **** that was priced at $14.99 and the membership trial took of 10% which came out to a total of $14.30 for the ***** ****. Thank you for allowing us to respond to this concern.Customer response
02/17/2024
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me only if the membership is indeed cancelled and there are no additional monthly membership fees charged to my account. Regards, ***** ******Initial Complaint
01/26/2024
- Complaint Type:
- Sales and Advertising Issues
- Status:
- Answered
On October 13, 2023, I went in and purchased one small item under $10. When I got home, there was a VIP Backstage Pass booklet in there and my receipt says I will be charged monthly. I called and spoke to supervisors and they assured me, they had zero record of my information or debit card on file and I did not have an account and would not be charged. THEN, on January 22, 2024 - my bank account was charged $11.99 for the VIP Backstage Pass! They stole my credit card information and waited months to charge me so they could try and hide it!Business response
01/29/2024
To Whom It May Concern:At the time of purchase a customer paying with a credit card is offered our membership program. There is a pamphlet for our membership program which explains all the terms and conditions of the program. The customer is given this pamphlet at the time of purchased. There is a phone number within the pamphlet that allows them to cancel via phone. We have confirmed the cancellation of the subscription as of 1/26/2024 with the cancellation number being **********. A full refund totaling $11.99 has been issued as of 1/26/2024. There will be no further charges for the membership due to the cancellation. Thank you for allowing us to respond to this concern.Initial Complaint
01/24/2024
- Complaint Type:
- Sales and Advertising Issues
- Status:
- Resolved
In late December, I went into a *** store and bought an album. I vaguely remember the person who checked me out asking if I wanted to sign up for their Backstage VIP program. I'm sure I was like "yeah, whatever". I got an email later to complete my membership and ignored it because I could care less Well, I'll be ****** if the credit card I used for purchase wasn't just charged 11.99 by *** and it said "recurring charge". It was pure luck that I happened to recently setup alerts on my card or I probably wouldn't have noticed for a few months. This is outrageous! What a dirty low down trick to play on customers. Incredibly deceptive! I should need to opt out of something I never knowingly authorized? I didn't even sign in and complete my membership!Business response
01/26/2024
To Whom It May Concern: At the time of purchase a customer paying with a credit card is offered our membership program. There is a pamphlet for our membership program which explains all the terms and conditions of the program. The customer is given this pamphlet at the time of purchased. There is a phone number within the pamphlet that allows them to cancel via phone. We have confirmed the cancellation of the membership as of 1/24/2024. A full refund of 2 months totaling $23.98 has been issued as of 1/24/2024. There will be no further charges for the membership due to the cancellation. Thank you for allowing us to respond to this concernCustomer response
01/26/2024
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. Regards, ***** ******Initial Complaint
01/21/2024
- Complaint Type:
- Service or Repair Issues
- Status:
- Answered
I recently noticed recurring charges on my account from FYE since November. I visited this store October 14, 2023 and made a purchase. I was offered the rewards program but declined because I do not shop there often. I gave my email address to send the receipt. They used that and my credit card information to sign me up for the FYE Backstage Pass without permission. I did not catch the billing until the 3rd month. I am disputing it with my credit card company as an unauthorized charge.Business response
01/24/2024
To Whom It May Concern: At the time of purchase a customer paying with a credit card is offered our membership program. There is a pamphlet for our membership program which explains all the terms and conditions of the program. The customer is given this pamphlet at the time of purchased. There is a phone number within the pamphlet that allows them to cancel via phone. We have confirmed the cancellation of the subscription as of 1/22/2024 with the cancellation number being **********. A full refund of 3 months totaling $35.97 has been issued as of 1/22/2024. There will be no further charges for the membership due to the cancellation. Thank you for allowing us to respond to this concern.Initial Complaint
12/29/2023
- Complaint Type:
- Service or Repair Issues
- Status:
- Answered
I went to FYE in Hanford on December 1st. I purchased a few items and the person at the register kindly offered me a free (keyword: "free") pass for discounts. I thought it was the kind of place that just wants your phone number (like ********, so I gave it and she gave me a pamphlet with a card I never activated and I thought that was that. I checked my bank account today and found that my card was charged $11.99. They are using my debit card information, not from me providing it to them, but from the purchase I made at their store. They never asked me for consent to pay this subscription, I never even gave them my card info. I can't afford this, but any attempts I have made to cancel are ignored. I tried the website, and emailing them. I will try going tomorrow but this mall is not within walking distance and I don't have a car. I feel like I have been cheated.Business response
01/04/2024
At the time of purchase a customer paying with a credit card is offered our membership program. There is a pamphlet for our membership program which explains all the terms and conditions of the program. The customer is given this pamphlet at the time of purchased. There is a phone number within the pamphlet that allows them to cancel via phone.
The customer had reached out and cancelled the membership on 12/29/2023 and we have confirmed the cancellation as of 1/4/2023. We have processed a refund of $11.99 that may take a few business days to reflect in their account. There will be no further charges for the membership due to the cancellation.
Thank you for allowing us to respond to this concern.Initial Complaint
12/20/2023
- Complaint Type:
- Service or Repair Issues
- Status:
- Answered
I have been trying to cancel the “FYE VIP” membership that I was duped into signing up for, for weeks now. I called, emailed, and tried to use their faulty app to cancel and even with “confirmation” it was cancelled im still getting emails saying when I’ll be charged. If I’m charged I will be contacting my credit card company. This is a predatory business practice and they are simply not going to remove my membership despite constant pleading.Business response
12/21/2023
To Whom It May Concern:
At the time of purchase a customer paying with a credit card is offered our membership program. There is a pamphlet for our membership program which explains all the terms and conditions of the program. The customer is given this pamphlet at the time of purchased. There is a phone number within the pamphlet that allows them to cancel via phone.
We have confirmed that the membership was cancelled by the customer over phone on 12/9/2023. The cancellation confirmation number is **********. There will be no charges for the membership due to the cancellation during the free trial.
Thank you for allowing us to respond to this concern.Initial Complaint
12/15/2023
- Complaint Type:
- Product Issues
- Status:
- Answered
I went to the ********* Mall on June 11th, 2023 and decided to go to Fye. I purchased some shirts there because there was a sale going on. At checkout, I was asked for my email to sign-up for a rewards program. I was not told that I was agreeing to pay for anything and assumed it was a free membership. Afterwards I received a pamphlet for the Backstage VIP program. I thought this was odd, as they did not mention any sort of paid membership. I reviewed the contents of the pamphlet and it instructed me to go to a certain link to activate said membership. I assumed that just meant I had the option to opt in to the VIP if I wanted to, which I did not. I did not think much of it until about a month ago or so when I saw a $11.99 charge from Fye on my debit card statement. I did some digging and found out that they have been charging me for the VIP membership every month since my initial purchase at the store. As was stated before, I was never told that I was going to be charged, I never activated the VIP membership, the only thing I gave them was my email. They seemed to have taken my card information from the purchase and used the email I provided them at checkout to automatically sign me up for their membership without my consent. After doing some digging, it appears I am not a one off case. From the BBB reviews and various statements on other websites, this seems to be a very common occurrence with this store. I think it is very slimy and deceitful to unknowingly sign people up for your VIP program without their explicit consent. Even if it is part of the employee training to properly explain the program and that you will be charged, clearly said training is not being implemented if so many people are running into this issue. I would like the total amount charged to be refunded.Business response
12/20/2023
To Whom It May Concern: At the time of purchase a customer paying with a credit card is offered our membership program. There is a pamphlet for our membership program which explains all the terms and conditions of the program. The customer is given this pamphlet at the time of purchased. There is a phone number within the pamphlet that allows them to cancel via phone. We have confirmed that the membership was cancelled by the customer on 12/6/2023. A full refund totaling $59.95 has been issued as of 12/18/2023. The refund will show as separate $11.99 credits. There will be no further charges for the membership due to the cancellation. Thank you for allowing us to respond to this concern.
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Customer Complaints Summary
69 total complaints in the last 3 years.
25 complaints closed in the last 12 months.