On January 13 I responded to a classified ad in my local paper thinking that the United States Postal Service was hiring in the area:
POST OFFICE NOW HIRIING! Avg Pay $20/hr or $57K/yr.incl. Fed Benefits and OT Placed by AD Source, not affiliated with USPS who hires. 866-772-1663.013009.
I called and talked to Cascandra Christensen (ID# - 10594) from Testing Authority. She listed off a bunch of jobs and asked if I was interested in any of them. I replied that two or three of them sounded interesting. She then went on to say that I would have to take the Postal Battery Exam and pass with a 70% or better to be considered for a job.
She said that she would be sending out practice test materials for a refundable price of $99.50 as long as I take the exam and I don't turn down a job if there is an offer, if I do not pass the exam, I'm not offered a job on my 1st interview, or after working for 1 full week.
Thinking that I was either going to get a job or get my money back I went ahead and charged the cost of practice materials plus $30 for shipping to my credit card.
Soon after the call I decided to do a quick search of Testing Authority on the internet now that I knew their name and was shocked to see numerous postings about how it is a scam. I quickly called the customer service number on my credit card to see if they could block the charge but it was already pending so they said I would have to wait until it goes through and then file a complaint.
I received my testing materials in the mail on January 27th and called the company back on the 28th for a refund.
I talked to John Jonty (ID# - 02335) and explained to him that I had not opened or used any of the materials, or accessed the website that they sent me in an e-mail. I told him I would be returning the materials and expected a refund. He kept repeating that they had a refund policy and returning the materials wouldn't constitute a refund. I went on to explain that I have been looking at the USPS website and there haven't been any job openings within about 100 miles of me since I first called. After repeating his refund policy a few more times I asked him if I he expected me to drive 100 miles to take an exam for a job that I wasn't even qualified for (the two jobs, 85 and 110 mile drives one way for me, are mail carrier positions and you must live near the office). He said my best bet would be to wait until a position opened up near me and there was no time limit for their refund policy. I then asked him what would happen if a position didn't open up in a reasonable amount of time like 3 years down the road. He never answered my answer directly, just said that they had their refund policy.
Being that are currently no jobs open anywhere near me like they imply by running an ad in a local newspaper, and being that there may not be an open position for quite a while I requested a refund but the company was unresponsive. My next step is filing a complaint through the credit card.
I also find it funny that it seems they have a full time position over at Testing Authority to look at websites like this and write rebuttals... I'm sure mine is coming, something along the lines of "YOU Agreed... We never forced you to pull out your credit card... Good luck to you.".
Well what you do is scam people into thinking that they are going to either get a job or get their money back... What you don't make clear to them is that there aren't even job openings near where you post your ads and the easiest way to get your money back (some of it) is to drive 100 miles to take a test that may be scheduled for next year and purposely fail it.
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