BBB - Moving at the speed of... a snail in a molasses spill
Back in November of '06, I tried to buy a new camera. I picked out the make and model I wanted. I shopped around. I found a good price at fotoconnection.com, a store based out of Brooklyn, NY. I placed my order. I got an email that I had to call to "confirm" the order. Which turned out to be a way of getting me to talk to them so they could try to sell me more stuff. In particular, a "warranty." Which, upon double-checking with the manufacturer, turned out to be fraudulent. I declined that. And then went through weeks of waiting where they strung me along, saying it was in stock and would ship soon, that they'd run out of stock but would have it in a few days, that... etc etc. They tried to sell me a different model. More stuff that I barely remember. It was a mess. Finally, I canceled the order and got the right camera for slightly more from an actual reputable store.
Then I contacted the Better Business Bureau to file a complaint. I told them about being strung along and all that, but was more concerned that they'd tried to scam me into buying a fraudulent warranty. Since I hadn't actually bought anything, I filed an "information only" complaint. (I also signed up with a review site and posted a warning visible on Froogle/Google Products searches.) Not exactly satisfying, but the best I could do. Case closed. Move on.
Today, nearly three full years later, I got a letter in the mail from the BBB. They were working with the NY State Attorney General, which had entered into a settlement with the company and their three page list of companies, subsidiaries, and websites to provide refunds to any customers who had been defrauded.
They never got any money from me, so I'm not due for a piece of the settlement, but it's nice to know that their dirty deeds caught up with them... eventually.
Then I contacted the Better Business Bureau to file a complaint. I told them about being strung along and all that, but was more concerned that they'd tried to scam me into buying a fraudulent warranty. Since I hadn't actually bought anything, I filed an "information only" complaint. (I also signed up with a review site and posted a warning visible on Froogle/Google Products searches.) Not exactly satisfying, but the best I could do. Case closed. Move on.
Today, nearly three full years later, I got a letter in the mail from the BBB. They were working with the NY State Attorney General, which had entered into a settlement with the company and their three page list of companies, subsidiaries, and websites to provide refunds to any customers who had been defrauded.
They never got any money from me, so I'm not due for a piece of the settlement, but it's nice to know that their dirty deeds caught up with them... eventually.