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View Full Version : Beware of Infomercial Scams!



dasunst3r
August 7th, 2006, 04:35 AM
One Saturday night (7/8/2006), my parents saw the Sweep 'n' Mop commercial on TV. Initially, they thought that it was a good deal. I mean, for $10, you can get one of these lovely things. But wait! There's more! You get another one of these mops for free and get free replacement heads for life! With that, they happily sent me to punch in an order for a set of the two mops and a set of 6 replacement heads. Now that I think about it, there were many red flags that we should have noticed. Here is a few:
1.The system asks for your credit card information upfront.
2.There is no way to revise or cancel the order once you have started it.

In any case, our order turned out like this:
$10 – 2 mops
$7.95 * 2 – Shipping for 2 mops
$3.95 * 6 – Shipping for the set of 6 replacement heads
TOTAL: $49.60

After we figured out that something was not right, my parents had me cancel the order first thing in the morning (7/10). During the call, they claimed that they are unable to cancel the order because it has already been shipped out, and that I can obtain a refund by refusing the package. Their claim that the package has been shipped out is shady at best because they cannot provide me with a tracking number. Additionally, it was 8:30 in the morning when I made the call. The post office could not have opened that early and I know that no sane company would go and individually take each package to the post office as they come along.

The package came on 7/21. We refused the package as the postmaster tried to deliver the package, and she took it back.

Out of curiosity, I checked the delivery records and the credit card records today (8/6). It turns out that they billed me on 7/13, and started the delivery process on 7/18. If I remember correctly, they promised to not bill until they started the delivery process. The thing that infuriated me most was the credit they put to my account: $10.00. These scoundrels took $39.60 for “shipping!”

I have photos of the package we wrote “REFUSED” on it, a log of what happened, and printouts proving all their dishonesty. Even if we do not get our money back, this lesson is absolutely free to those willing to read. Go forth, be wiser, and save yourself from having to graduate from the School of Hard Knocks!

TravisNewman
August 7th, 2006, 04:46 AM
You should take this as far as you can without having to pay for lawyer's costs. If it gets enough publicity, they might even just give you the 2 mops and the 6 replacement heads and credit you back the 39.60

That's an outrageous shipping charge.

rjwood
August 7th, 2006, 04:48 AM
Sorry to hear about your mis-adventure. I got caught up once a few years back on one of those scams. Just consider it a $40.00 education if you don't get the rest back. Good Luck!!

em3raldxiii
August 7th, 2006, 06:55 AM
Incedentally, the same applies to Ebay shopping. There are a very large number of vendors who charge outrageous "standard" shipping costs in order to recoup low profits from poor auction performance. It is in your best interest to arrange shipping yourself if possible.

Unfortunately, because of the way they documented the shipping and purchase process, you don't have much legal ground. The only thing I can think of is "false advertising", but you'd have a shaky case unless you have a high-paid lawyer. :/