If a charge of about $14.95 to $16.52 a month appeared on your statement after an online cigar order — under a name you don't recognize — you are not alone, and you probably never agreed to it in any way you'd remember.
Reviewers across several storefronts describe the same pattern: somewhere in checkout, an add-on "rewards" or "value" program is attached — a pre-ticked box, a post-purchase pop-up, a line in the fine print. The cigars ship. Then the monthly charge begins. Cancelling is reported as difficult; some reviewers describe being charged after cancelling, one to the tune of $300 or more.
The storefronts where this pattern is documented — Cigars International, Thompson Cigar, and Cigars.com among them — are not independent competitors. They are brands of one parent company, Scandinavian Tobacco Group. The program names differ by storefront ("PuroPerks" at one, "Value Plus" at another). The pattern doesn't.
The charge descriptor on your statement is the program's billing name — search it exactly, in quotes, with the word "cancel."
Cancel through the program's own channel and keep the confirmation. Reviewers who relied on a phone promise report the charges continuing.
If charges continue after cancellation, dispute with your card issuer and attach the cancellation confirmation. Card issuers know this pattern.
Ordered from more than one store in this group? Each storefront runs its own program name — check for more than one enrollment.
Under the Standard, an unresolved surprise-billing pattern earns an automatic Do Not Recommend — no score, however high, and no price, however low, offsets it. The retailers running these storefronts are listed as Do Not Recommend until the pattern stops and affected customers are made whole. That is what a standard is for: a line that money can't move.