What is the worst time you have been ripped off by a company?

1. 72

   Luke M Simmonsposted 10 years ago

   What is the worst time you have been ripped off by a company?
   
   We have all been victims of scams, whether it be a company offering a free trial and then billing your credit card, or something perhaps more sinister.  I would like to hear recounts of these experiences, with all the gruesome details, please.
   
   

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2. 88

   Austinstarposted 10 years ago

   I recently had a huge run in with a solar power company. We called them to put solar panels on our home. They ripped us off to the tune of $10,500! Never provided service or even came out to survey the house. They just asked for our credit details and proceeded to take out a very expensive credit card advance. They took that money but never sent anyone out. But I got the money back by threatening to take the case to the attorney general. Basically amounted to identify theft.
   It took about three months to get everything straightened out. Now, I still don't want to call another solar company.
   But also recently, we had a plumbing leak underneath our house and our water heater went out. The plumbing company fixed it all for under a thousand bucks! Needless to say, we will be calling them in the future for all our plumbing needs.

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   1. 72

      Luke M Simmonsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      That's a huge bummer considering considering solar is one of the best ways to isolate yourself from a possible collapse of the power grid.  Could come in handy if one of them CMEs comes splashing out our way.

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3. 76

   word55posted 10 years ago

   Yes, when you use your credit card for a trial period be sure to look for how you can cancel after the period or how you can cancel after a 30-90 day membership period to run. Never go for any scams where you put up $2,000-$20,000 in order to receive a million dollars or more. Don't go for it no matter how good it sounds. That's how scams work. I'm a witness!

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   1. 72

      Luke M Simmonsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, I also remember those Nigerian prince scams that started back when I was a freshman in undergrad.  Seemed so legit too, haha.  Thanks for answering word.

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4. 80

   chuckandus6posted 10 years ago

   We rented a camping cabin at koa campground.my husband and I were away on our annivescary, we wanted to sit up late by campfire.We were told we needed to buy firewood so we bought 3 bundles.and marshmallow sticks that were 3 dollars a pc.because you could cut any branches on the trees. they were supposed to deliver the wood. never got them By the time we got back from store the office was closed. we asked for a partial refund and got nothing Except the cost of the firewood.

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   1. 72

      Luke M Simmonsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Man, seems like everyone's out to get each other these days.  Sad.

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5. 85

   peachpurpleposted 10 years ago

   we had our cellphone registered under DIGI one of he biggest cellphone company in Malaysia. It charges us internet access even though we had not turn on the WIFI. I called DIGI and was told that by default, our cellphone are set to WIFI accessable and if we are at WIFI areas, our cellphone are charged per hour of $3 even though we did not access to internet and turn off the WIFI. We had been charged $3 everyday and we told DIGI to disable the WIFI access function. Now, we cannot use WIFI with our cellphone.

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   1. 72

      Luke M Simmonsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      @PP: we had a similar issue in the states.  There was a huge public upheaval about it so they made some public statements about it.  They probably wised up and figured out another, less transparent way to con us.

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6. 77

   alancaster149posted 10 years ago

   I was called by Indians (Mumbai or Delhi) who maintained they would rid my computer of malware, saying they were contracted to Microsoft. Somehow they got hold of my Paypal account and set up a debit to one of their operatives through my bank to the tune of £300-ish. Luckily I spotted the scam in time, (had to change my Paypal password, they'd even wangled that) and phoned my bank to cancel the debit. I also had to convince Paypal that I hadn't given these people the go-ahead to help themselves to my finances.
   They phoned again when I was away and my wife nearly had kittens, ringing around to cancel her credit card and what-not. There'd been a rash of Indian-based computer scams at the time. I think that's subsided now, even the Fraud Squad at the Metropolitan Police were involved.
   There's also been a rash of scams by people pretending to be police, ringing people to say they'd arrested someone using a cloned card. They'd hoped for victims to divulge their account details etc, even giving false police badge numbers, holding onto their phones whilst the victim called their bank, and pretending to be bank call-centre staff.
   It's enough to turn you off computers and banks!

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   1. 72

      Luke M Simmonsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I actually got called by some guy pretending to be the IRS, he even recorded the IRS automated response on a burner phone to really sell it.  Weird thing was, he didn't ask for personal info or anything, just said that the IRS was coming with police.

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7. 82

   tamarawilhiteposted 9 years ago

   When I was eight months pregnant with my first, my company changed health insurance providers.
   The new insurer tried to say it didn't have to cover me because pregnancy was a pre-existing condition.
   Of course, it wasn't MY choice to change insurers.
   
   It was resolved after a few weeks, but not until we started to get bills for the kid's delivery.

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