I submitted a rebate request for $75 to Columbia Telecommunications (Columbia Telecommunications, 174 Milbar Blvd., Farmingdale, NY 11735,631-501-5000; president David Giladi) for $75 on 12-8-03, and have not received my rebate yet.
The rebate contract states that rebates will be received within 10-12 weeks. After persistent calls, they finally said they would send out the checks, which they did, issued from Suffolk County National Bank, 955 Little East Neck Rd., West Babylon, NY 11704 (631) 669-7300 (Branch Manager William Miller; Vice President Robert Ellerkamp, 631-580-0269), in the form of three checks for $25. All three checks subsequently bounced and, adding insult to injury, I incurred bank fees of $18 for these bounced checks.
Regarding Suffolk County Bank, I spoke with Branch manager William Miller and asked him why he allows a company to deliberately and repeatedly issue bad checks. He told me he couldn't answer because of banking privacy laws, even when I posed the question as a generality. I think they should be reported to the state banking commission and may do this.
The fact that Columbia has not paid this per the rebate terms represents false advertisement which are of a deliberate and criminal nature to defraud customers of their rightful rebate or the timely payment of rebate. I am not alone. There are numerous others similarly defrauded (see http://w3. Usacomplaints.com/results.Asp? Q1=ALL&q4=&q6=&q3=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=0&submit2=Search! &q5=Columbia Telecommunications Group&submit=Search).
I spoke to other personnel at Columbia, including Nancy (employee ID 10251), Veronica, Alicia and Barbara. The president, David Giladi, refused to talk to me, and they began to be rude and started hanging up on my phone calls.
Since I purchased the product at Fry's, they gave me two Fry's contacts: David or Randy Fry, 408-487-4500, or Mike Adnani, 408-487-4665. I spoke with David. He led me to a girl named Ginger Batista, who is supposed to call me this morning. Mike expressed stated they had numerous other complaints about Columbia, that the problem was Columbia's (this is obvious by the bounced checks—it would be better to send no check than a bad one, since the bounced check actually costs the consumer additional money) and that they had discontinued their rebates.
However, Fry's is negligent in not properly screening their consumers from criminals and is responsible for repayment. I am insisting that Fry's pay me the rebate amount, the bounced check fees and an additional $200 (minimum) for my time and aggravation and expense (e.G., numerous calls to NY); I told them a gift certificate would be okay.
I was wondering about filing a suit against Columbia, possibly class action. I have also contacted Reader's Digest concerning publishing a story on this criminal practice, and 60 Minutes (haven't heard back from them).
These people are criminals and should go to jail.
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