Unauthorized charges! No order was placed yet chrgd $79.00!!

ComplaintsScamsPoster Pass.com

Complaint

0
Trish
Country: United States
I just received a $79.00 charge on my credit card from this company and I have ordered NO posters or authorized ANY charges!!!!!! How can they get away with this ????

Comments

  • 0
    Doug K
    I cancelled my account in August. I got an e-mail with the confirmation number showing my account was cancelled. I was billed the same fee with no e-mail even telling me there was a shipment.

    The first person I talked to said there was nothing they could do until I returned the posters I had coming to me, even though my account was supposed to be cancelled (Apparently, they moved me to a bi-monthly charge?), they would re-cancel my account and that I could dispute it with my bank if I so chose.

    The second person I talked to said they'd issue a refund, but it could take 1-2 cycles to refund [seems cycle = month?]

    So I'm going back to the bank and going to start a dispute and cancel my card so they can't bill me again.

    Yes, I'm a little angry.
  • 0
    tj
    They are "cramming", using a teaser offer to get account information, then running through a bunch of charges.  They engage in deceptive marketing and fraudulently charging their "customers".

    If you find their charges against your account without even being suckered in by their teaser offer, report and dispute it as a fraudulent charge.

    https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/ObzrDzDohwDNVAjL124aMQ

    Immediately contact your bank to dispute all unauthorized charges, and close and block the account due to fraud to prevent additional future fraudulent charges.  Follow up with a written dispute sent to your bank's dispute address from your statement, to invoke your FRB Reg. E or FCBA dispute rights.

    Do NOT treat this as a "billing error", or attempt to get the merchant to reverse it.  They may try to string you along with promises of a refund, but if you let this go past 60 days from the statement showing the disputed charge, your bank may no longer reverse it, and your are screwed.  They know this.

    Dispute it through your bank, with follow up in writing, to establish the date of notification of the disputed charge.  And block the card or close the account, since your account number is in the hands of scammers.
  • 0
    tj
    See their BBB report.  Note that the categories with the most complaints are "billing or collection issues", "refund or exchange issues", "sales practice issues", and "advertising issues", all consistent with deceptive sales and unauthorized charges.

    http://www.bbb.org/chicago/business-reviews/p ... ton-il-36000239
    "...
    BBB Rating for Peel, Inc.
    Based on BBB files, Peel, Inc. has a BBB Rating of D+ on a scale from A+ to F.
    Reasons for this rating include:
    1448 complaints filed against business
    Business has failed to resolve underlying cause(s) of a pattern of complaints.

    Consumer complaints allege undisclosed or unauthorized charges, lack of clearly disclosed shipping and/or membership fees, and deceptive advertising. Consumers further allege receiving multiple orders of merchandise that has not been ordered and/or authorized, and subsequent difficulties obtaining refunds.

    Furthermore, many complainants allege purchasing posters from posterpass.com at a particular price, and report having been charged a much higher price and allegedly unknown fees for the transaction.
    ..."
  • 0
    Eudy
    We canceled over a year ago and found a charge of $79 pending on Friday to be deducted from our account. I left a message with PosterPass and have not received a response.  I have contacted my bank.  The $79 did clear.  I will be pursuing this further.  This is absurd.
  • 0
    Tim Horneman
    I got the "deal" also. I then immediately after ordering (in October of 2008) canceled my account. Starting in November of 2009 I have been charged $79.00 on three seperate charges to my CC. I recevied the first order and then for a year I received no other posters from them and thought it was done and over with then get hit with almost $240.00 in charges from them. I've tried calling their "customer service" for a week now and have left numerous messages for them to call back to no avail. Half the time when I call I just get "all cicuits are busy, hang up and try again".
  • 0
    tj
    "All circuits are busy" may just mean all the other people getting fraudulent charges are trying to call, too.

    You are dealing with fraud, not a "billing error".  

    Not only have there been MANY complaints of "reactivated" accounts closed months ago, with resulting unauthorized credit card or checking account charges, but as in your case, there are indications that the unauthorized charges are being crammed at higher rates that their past practice.  

    This change in M.O. indicates intent to push through a large number of fraudulent charges in a short period, compared to the former pattern of low levels of fraud using deception and delay to hang onto the money while keeping a low profile.  

    This may indicate a change of ownership or control, or possibly an intent to grab a lot of money in a short time, which may indicate the company is about to be shut down, go bust, or the people involved may be intending to skip with the money.

    It is of little use attempting to recover stolen money from a bankrupt company with no assets, or seized assets.

    Your protection from fraud is NOT in trying to contact a company with a long record of fraud and possibly about to shut down.  It is more effective to use your dispute rights under federal law to reverse the charges through your bank.  

    Immediately contact your bank to submit a fraud dispute and close the account to prevent additional fraud.  

    Your bank can just yank the money back due to fraud, even if the company has no assets, since then their payment processor is liable for returning unauthorized charges.  In addition, reversing unauthorized charges through your bank will result in their payment processor assessing them chargeback fees.

    If they are cramming another bunch of fraudulent charges, you can expect that they may increase the amounts as much as they can get away with.
  • 0
    Patti
    I was charged $79 for posters that I didn't even order nor receive.  This was on 11/27 and then on 12/2, I was charged another $79 for javadirect.com which I also did not order.  I just received the coffee shipment today but unfortunately, I didn't order it.  I've called all of the numbers that I could find for these charges and noone has yet to contact me.  I called my credit card company and they have opened a dispute and closed out my account so that no other charges will be made to my credit card.  Ugh, this is just crazy.  I can't believe there are companies out there like this.
  • 0
    Jake
    I had the same thing happen. The best thing you can do is cancel the card and fill out a visa dispute form and have the fraudulent charges refunded. we need to post a website that warns customers of this.

    good luck
  • 0
    tj
    Illinois Attorney General Madigan has sued Peel, Inc. and its president, Brian Dale.

    http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/pressroom/2010_02/20100217b.html

    If you lost money due to unauthorized charges, file a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General, but still make sure you dispute any charges through your bank immediately, since if the company turns out to be insolvent, bank disputes within 60 days may still push the loss back on this company's payment processor and retrieve your money.

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