Comments on: Protect Your Parents from Avis Budget: Direct Marketing Scumbags

By: Mario

Mario — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:46:10 +0000

I think there might be some confusion here concerning the ownership of Affinion/Trilegiant. This business is in no way owned by or affiliated with Avis Budget.

Trilegiant is one of the subsidiaries of Affinion Group. These membership/loyalty marketing services companies typically have a multitude of subsidiaries that they operate under. Affinion Group was purchased from Cendant a number of years ago. Cendant for many years was a large conglomerate with businesses spanning a variety of industries, such as hospitality, real estate brokerage, tax preparation, car rentals, etc. Businesses that Cendant owned include Wyndham (Ramada, Days Inn, Super 8, Howard Johnson, etc.), Orbitz, Jackson Hewitt, Avis Budget, Wright Express, Realogy (Coldwell Banker, Century 21, etc.), CUC, etc. Apollo acquired Cendant's loyalty marketing business when they were in the process of splitting up the company (this business adopted the name Affinion after Apollo bought it, but is probably better known by its original name, CUC). I think the Avis Budget confusion here exists because as Cendant split itself up, every business that Cendant owned was sold or spun-off, except for Avis Budget, and so Avis Budget is technically the former Cendant Corporation. Also, Apollo had acquired Affinion, and they later also acquired Realogy, but they do not own Avis Budget.

I agree that this is a terrible, despicable business. I thought it was important to clear Avis Budget of any wrongdoing here as the title of this post seems to vilify them. Fortunately, these businesses are finally receiving a bit of attention from regulators. The US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation actually recently released a report concerning one of the most prevalent distribution channels for these companies, which is post-transaction marketing with online retailers. That report can be found here: http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fus...

An interesting side note is that CUC, the former name of Affinion, is better known for being one of the largest accounting frauds in US history.

I hope this makes sense and clears things up a little.

By: Mario

Mario — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:46:10 +0000

I think there might be some confusion here concerning the ownership of Affinion/Trilegiant. This business is in no way owned by or affiliated with Avis Budget.

An interesting side note is that CUC, the former name of Affinion, is better known for being one of the largest accounting frauds in US history.

I hope this makes sense and clears things up a little.

By: Mario

Mario — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:46:10 +0000

I think there might be some confusion here concerning the ownership of Affinion/Trilegiant. This business is in no way owned by or affiliated with Avis Budget.

An interesting side note is that CUC, the former name of Affinion, is better known for being one of the largest accounting frauds in US history.

I hope this makes sense and clears things up a little.

By: Astor Place

Astor Place — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:36:14 +0000

Just awful. This is not clever business or marketing. This is pure fraud and should be treated as a criminal activity with huge. I am getting more and more tired of crooked business practices and less patient with them. Remember AOL and how impossible it was to cancel their subscription once you had it? A friend of mine struggled for a year to cancel them…. Total fraud. Look how bad their reputation is now! No one wants anything to do with AOL.

By: Astor Place

Astor Place — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:36:14 +0000

By: Jay Shirley

Jay Shirley — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:46:35 +0000

This is interesting, after the 2001 class action I was also billed on a card for “PrivacyGuard” (2 $30 charges before I caught them).

I didn't get any check in the mail, I just got a phone call saying they were from the bank and had my account information already, and I didn't implicitly agree to anything. They were asking if I was concerned with identity theft, and I said, “Sure, who isn't, that's why I follow the published best practices”.

Apparently that was enough for them to charge me.

Maybe we should do an Internet-takeover and buy out AINV stock, then work to get everybody fired? I already own some

By: Jay Shirley

Jay Shirley — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:46:35 +0000

This is interesting, after the 2001 class action I was also billed on a card for “PrivacyGuard” (2 $30 charges before I caught them).

Apparently that was enough for them to charge me.

Maybe we should do an Internet-takeover and buy out AINV stock, then work to get everybody fired? I already own some

By: jelliott

jelliott — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:29:12 +0000

Received a similar check from 1800-flowers. It initially appeared like a refund check of some kind, but instead it was a check that if cashed would subscribe me to a 19.99 a month service, from another company “Elite Excursions” (back of check http://www.ifileroom.com/temp/flowers-check-bac...). Looks like they may also be affiliated with Trilegiant. 1800-Flowers will not be receiving more business from me.

By: jelliott

jelliott — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:29:12 +0000

By: Ms. Thompson

Ms. Thompson — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:36:48 +0000

I have not had any problems in this area. I always try to be very careful and so far I have been. In my opinion I think Mr Lipman learned over the years how easy it is to take money from people just by working for those top companies. Also in my opinion those top companies are where they are not because of the cases they win, but because of the amount of money they get. I am not a fan of big business. I think there should be very stiff penalties, fines and jail time for companies who do this kind of low down, dirty scamming of our elderly and other people who don't know about these things. These folks are mostly trusting and scammers play on that trust.

Blog about anything you like. All my comments here are just my opinion. Thanks.