Scammed out of 7 grand, whaddya do?
 

Just looking for initial suggestions, don't need it hangin out forever....thanks everyone for their input. I did get it back from the bank though - but still alot of work to do.

Are they close by? I'd want to speak to them face to face.

"Don't worry about crediting my account, we can go to the bank around the corner together."

3 hours from my house, and I've thought about that. That's not gonna shut them down though, and realistically - until I come to terms with the fact that I'll probably spend the rest of my life in jail if I do that, probably not gonna happen. I'm still tossing the idea around in my head though.

I suggest contacting consumerist.com with your story. Maybe they (or their readers) will be able to help you out.

Better business bureaus are a good resource, if the company in question plans to stay in business, and isn't just a scam operation.

Did you pay with a credit card? Credit companies actually do some good by giving protection to the consumer. Call the credit card company and dispute the charge. Bank cards don't (always) provide the same protection, but if you've already talked to your bank, I guess you've done the best you could.

However, in the end, if they charged you a *second* time for something, if it's anything like a legitimate business, you should end up fine. You might have to wait awhile for everything to work out, but at the absolute worst you'd have to take them to small claims court to get things straightened out.

If they're some sort of fly-by-night scammers that vanish on you, you might be screwed, but I'd think your bank will help you out.

Thanks again NG, yellow

I have put one business in the ground and got another fined over $100K, so I think I can maybe help ya out here.

Contact your state's Attorney General's office and tell them you want to file a formal complaint re: the business practices of this outfit. Make a log of all conversations, copy the emails, etc. and include them in the report.
Attempt to get their tax ID, the owner's name, etc., any and all information about them. Write to theirbank and/or credit server and tell them what happened. You can probably find this information out by seeing who actually charged your account-the transaction goes bank to bank. Insist you will NOT be held responsible for the double charge and tell them that all information has been forwarded to the state AG.(But do NOT tell the company you have filed the complaint-at least not right away.)
Should this place try to contact you to get both charges, do NOT talk to them once you have the complaint filed-tell them your attorney will be in contact, even if you don't have one. If you do have to contact them, do it by certified, return receipt mail only, NOT email.

State attorney general and department of consumer protection on the legal side, The Consumerist and local media if necessary from another angle.
The worst they can do is revoke BBB membership, and only if the company pays for that nice little BBB badge to put in their window. It really doesn't mean shit.
A legitimate company would solve customers' problems before it ended up in court.

We did contact the New York State's attorney generals office, and this is another thing I'm going to follow-up with tomorrow.

Your ideas are good, but many of them are things I would guess, or hope, my bank is doing. My role so far has been to document my requests to cancel the order, and the "company's" ridiculous responses and provide all of this to them.

I filed the claim 3 days after the original order. I also confirmed with my bank it will not put their investigation in jeopardy if I keep trying to get the money myself. If I'm successful the claim is closed.

I'm curious why you say "do NOT talk to them once you have the complaint filed". I quite treating them like a ligit business and have been calling them nonstop. Quite frankly, loosing my shit on the phone with them. Any chance this will work against me?

MSD, is it okay if I post the company? Not sure the TFP wants to get into that, but if anyone is here considering buying furniture.....

I'm 2 states south of this company by the way, which further confuses things from my end.

Yeah...just talk to your bank. If you paid on line you used a credit/debit card, yes? Just dispute the charge.

good point NG

Yeah she definitely eats babies.

I can't really add anything to this other than I have always used credit cards when doing... anything. Hope it works out and these f'ers get taken down.

Yeah, the AG and other gubment resources sound like the way to go here.

Oddly enough, the few times I've had to deal with issues from small local companies, the BBB dispute process was all I needed to do - for whatever reason, they seemed to respond. Maybe the BBB secretly has mobsters threaten to break their kneecaps or something.

By 'legitimate', I just meant that he can actually find someone responsible. IE, they didn't just pack up and vanish.

Once you get in touch with the state AG, let them handle it. Losing your head at them doesn't help your case; if you say something even totally innocuous during anger, they could claim you threatened them.
I wouldn't post their name-it could be used against you as slander. PM it to anyone who asks. edit: too late there.
Don't rely on your bank to totally take control of the situation-you're one of thousands of customers and your bank isn't going to inform theirs of their thievery-it's just going to try to get the money back. By going to their bank or creditor and telling them exactly what's been going on, you are red-flagging them, not good for their business. No creditor wants to hear they've been doing business with a shyster that may then rip them off at some point. That's how you get the lowlifes-in their wallets.

Been a long day - but things are panning out. Thanks again for everyone's input.

Is it bad if the first thing I thought of was Denial of Service attack?

Aside from that, I agree with the AG office route...and I agree with ng that you don't need to be in touch with them further. If you're pushing it to the legal system, let the legal system handle it. I'd make use of any friends you might have who are attourneys. Buy them a nice bottle of scotch or wine or whatever, and then have them deal for you. I don't think it will take much work on their end, but you don't need to say shit to these people after you've started the process. All they can do is fuck you.

Sue them for inconveniece and mental anguish if you want to. I know, I'm contributing to the litigious society...but in cases like this I don't feel bad about it.

It seems to me like you've done everything you can do except for raising hell. Spread the word around town. If a enough people hear about what happened, this company may loose a ton of business. Hell, you could always do a protest kind of thing, although I'm not sure what good that will do. You might just end up getting "escorted" of the property by the police.

Personally, I'm in Willravel's camp. I'd go down there to the store and make them wish they never met me. *shrugs*

I missed this when it was first posted and am now curious as to what the scam was. It might be useful for other members to know about so we can avoid such scams... why were they deleted?

I'm glad to hear that your bank was willing to work with you. Also good to hear that you're still motivated to put a black mark on this company's record for how they've dealt with your order. What a nightmare.

What distresses me the most about this is how powerless the system forces us to be. Maybe I'm just a violent person, and maybe this is why I'll never be a judge, but people who run a business like this deserve some time hanging from their toes in a rordent-infested 3rd world prison.

Wait... 3 hours away and 2 states away? I drive 6 hours South and I'm still 3 hours away from the nearest border. I know there's a lot of states that are smaller than California, but this really messes with my mind.

LOL come to the Northeast.

Yes. I've spent quite a bit of time west recently, driving around northern arizona. What messes with my head a 3 hour drive in that part of the country will get you through the desert, the mountains with white out conditions, cows randomly walking across what the west considers highways, and really cute, well behaved stray dogs hanging out at gas stations.

Enough hijacking my own thread. I really do appreciate the input, and sorry for those who took an interest at the thread title and were let down. Though i gravitate toward the politics board for whatever reason...there's a lot of good resources here, so I thought I'd take advantage for once.

NG, as an afterthought, why would mentioning their name here be considered slander, as opposed to voicing your complaint on anywhere else on the internet, which is all you find googling them?

Because if the matter is resolved as just an error in bookkeeping, you've spread what amounts to a lie about them. Until something is resolved, it's best to not stir their pot. Seek your "revenge" legitimately and thoroughly first, then you can say what you want about them, specially if they haven't learned their lesson.
Think of it this way: We go out, you stiff the waiter out of his tip-total oversight but I didn't see it that way and go on here and say "Matthew is a jerk, he stiffs waiters out of their tips." Was I being informative or slanderous?
When dealing with a business, even a shady one, if you are deviously business-like, you usually win.

If you don't say anything untrue, you're fine. If you post the company name and tell people to search and draw their own conclusions, I don't see how that could hurt.

Only if it's bad that the first thing I though of was how nicely furniture burns.
I can't drive more than 150 miles without hitting another state, and it's only half an hour to the nearest border. Living in big states is weird.

Just to clarify my previous post - I wasn't necessarily requesting a company name, but perhaps what actually took place in the scam. E.g. company X advertised Y, and I paid Z and got nothing. Then my bank... etc

Holy crap! i know people that would kill for less cash than that.

Thats not advice by the way.

Texas rancher visiting Maine asks a local Maine farmer how big his spread is.

"Ayup," says the farmer, "well, do you see that stone wall? It goes down to theya, then back up this-a way to that big Pine tree, then back this-a-way to the dirt road...Ayup...that's all my farm."

"Shoot, boy. I've got me a ranch in Texas so big it takes me ALL morning just to drive 'round it in my pick up!"

Mainer says, "Ayup, I've got a truck like that, too!"

?!

Did you mean to create a new thread?

Nope, it fits. Barely. Go back a few posts.

Ahh. Tenuous link. :P