Onespirit.com-A Never Ending Headache From A Site Providing "Spirit"
Written: Aug 27 '02 (Updated Dec 02 '02)
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Onespiritcom is a book club dealing with the mind, body and spirit. I was thrilled to find an offer for this book club, and enthusiastically joined. Not only do they offer books, but also videos, cassettes, CDs, and other merchandise. I love this genre, and am working at really adding peace, relaxation to my life, to alleviate stress, and a tendency to worry excessively. Little did I realize that this club would add to my aggravation, not help to reduce it.
Their introductory offer:
You can select five books, or CDs/videos for just $2.00. Of course shipping and handling is additional, and in my opinion, excessive at $14.25. Your obligation is to then purchase four more choices from books, CDS, cassettes or videos, from the club's catalog over a period of two years. They state that you will save up to 40 percent off publisher prices.
Their website:
The website is initially attractive to the eye, with pleasing pale pastels, and a feeling of overall peace. If you look closer, they have perhaps tried to accomplish too much. At any rate, you will find tabs at the top for Home, Search, (by title, author, keyword, or item number), Browse, Featured Selections, Sales and Specials, One Spirit Community, Tools for the Journey, and the oh-so-scary, Account Status. It is reasonably well organized, and easy to navigate.
Categories included:
* Health & Healing
* Animals
* New Age & Divination
* Sacred Space
* Self-Help & Psychology
* Spirituality
* Sacred Sex
Some books presently offered:
Conquer Pain the Natural Way- Club price: $13.50 Publ:$15.95
The Voluptuous Vegan- Club price $15.99 Publ: $10.00 (that is what it says)
Power Healing- Club price $19.99 Publ: $25.99
Angel Animals- Club price $10.99 Publ: $12.95
Multi-Orgasmic Couple- Club price $17.99 Publ: $24.00
The Well-Read Witch- Club price $13.99 Publ: $14.99
Shipping & handling charges as noted on the site:
$5.49 for the first item in an order, and $2.19 for each additional.
Catalog:
You will receive it every three weeks whether you want it or not. I've asked to just receive email notification of offerings. I was advised I couldn't do that.
Note: One day after this review was published I received a cursory note from customer service, noting I won't receive their catalog by mail any longer.
Selection refusal online:
Yes, you can do this by regular mail or online.
Return policy:
You have ten days.
Sales tax:
The site states that you will be charged sales tax if you live in Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania.
Open to: U.S. residents, its territories and military personnel with APO/FPO addresses is indicated on the site also.
My experience:
Let me state from the beginning here, that I really wanted to love this website, and to write a positive review of it, and have tried to resolve problems over the last few months. I am still angry and frustrated, and am trying my hardest to write an objective review. I did receive the initial offering, and that went fine. I paid what was due. I then received their snail mail catalog, and asked them to please email me instead, as the catalog came with numerous other inserts, and it was just too much. Initially, they did not have the capability of emailing the selections. They now do, but refuse to just send that without sending the catalog by regular mail also (see update note on this). I have just purchased one book so far, and paid for that. I decline their featured selections as most do not appeal to me at all. They apparently aren't aware I've declined the featured selections, or ignore it and send them anyway. I return them, and they state they never received them. My account with them indicates I owe over $60, and I have no idea what that charge is for.
Titles are not listed at all, they just note the amount allegedly owed. They do not have an 800 number to call them, and dealing with customer service is like hitting my head on the wall over and over again. Their customer service either does not respond at all, or their answers have absolutely nothing to do with what I asked. At this point, I just want to have my account cleared up ($60 charge removed), and want to order what I need to, to get away from this company. It is simply more trouble than it is worth. They are a business, and I understand they need to recoup their monies from sending the free books, but competent customer service personnel could have resolved this long ago, and made me a happy customer. I'm sure there are consumers out there who just want the free books, and don't wish to meet their end of the commitment. That isn't me, and hopefully it isn't most people. But, I expect a company to treat me fairly, respond to my concerns politely, and expeditiously, and I think that is a perfectly reasonable expectation.
The positives:
Great concept, nice selection, and a great genre (for me).
The negatives:
Customers should have the option of receiving the featured selection and catalog every three weeks by email, snail mail or both. People are inundated enough with online SPAM, and excessive mail to their homes.
Books are sent without approval, and when they are returned, apparently customers are not credited. Customer service in my experience has been unresponsive, and/or simply not helpful.
Final thoughts and recommendations:
Perhaps you will have more success than I have had. The genre is wonderful for those interested, and they have a wide variety of choices in books, and offer CDs, videos, cassettes, merchandise. If you decide to take them up on their offer, I strongly suggest you keep very careful records. You should be open to receiving their catalog with all the other stuff included in it. Basically, what I am saying, is that dealing with this company may require a lot of time trying to rectify your account with them. On the other hand, I had success with a record club many others had difficulty with, so you may be pleased with them. Me? I am trying to decide whether to write a letter through planetfeedback, or take stronger measures as I am so fed up that they make little or no effort to correct problems. If you can deal with all this, they do appear to be honest, so that is not an issue, but have very serious customer service problems in my opinion.
My recommendation is to go to an online bookstore, and just purchase books on sale. This is just not worth it. I am giving this website 1 star. I cannot recommend them after months of aggravation. Thanks to Andrea for adding this website to the database. I wish my review could have been positive. I am still open to editing this review, if they will help me resolve the issues I'm been trying to take care of for months, but they just don't seem to get it. Perhaps they should read their own books.
Update:
After about 8 emails I received an email noting the titles I allegedly ordered totalling around $40. The other title I did order/receive. Neither of the other books were ordered by me, and are on their way. I am soooo disgusted.
Additionally I recently received a card saying how important I was to them as a customer (?) and they wonder why I've returned books. Duh, I wonder. . .
Thanks for reading!
Suzi
Recommended:
No
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About the Author
Member: Suzi
Location: Southern Calif.
Reviews written: 588
Trusted by: 826 members
About Me: Compromise-Art of slicing the cake so each person thinks they have the biggest piece.
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