Synopsis: received product we did not order (had never had contact with this company), immediately called to resolve issue, with a lot of difficulty and after having our bank call them we were given a return authorization # for the product and were credited the $3.95 shipping charge (all seemed resolved), four months later they are threatening to send us to a collection agency for $79.90 and claim to have no record of authorizing a return or receiving the returned product. I've been unable to make any progress with resolving the issue on the phone. My bank is going to give it a try next. GNS may not have originated the fraud but their failures to resolve the issue are starting to feel like they operate fraudulently.
We had received spam from GNS - Slim Seduction and had always deleted it without reading.in April I noticed a $3.95 charge from them on my online bank statement. I called GNS to ask what it was and was told that I had placed an order for their product and had authorized the charge - all online. I told them that I had not originated the order and asked how to resolve the issue. They said I needed a police report in order to have the charges reversed.
Note: During the same week two other unauthorized orders/charges were made using the same information (debit card, email address, name). One of the companies caught that it was fraudulent immediately and reversed the charges and canceled the order without being contacted by us. The second company resolved the issue during the first phone call. It seems like these fraudulent orders were the result of a malicious virus? Products and services were ordered in our name and sent to us - so it wasn't benefiting a third party. What is that called?
I spoke with my bank immediately. The first thing they did was close our checking account so that no further unauthorized charges could be made. A representative from the bank called GNS to resolve the issue. GNS agreed to reverse the shipping charge and told us to return the unopened product with an authorization #. We did so and thought the whole creepy episode was resolved.
In August we received a call from GNS threatening to send our account to a collection agency if we did not pay a $79.90 balance. They have no record of authorizing a return. I hadn't documented the authorization #. Now they say they will only cancel the balance and close the account if we send them a "finalized complete affidavit" from the bank or send them a police report regarding the original claim that this was a fraudulent transaction.
I got a copy of the notarized affidavit the bank had us file in April. I called GNS again to be sure this was the document they wanted. The terminology the customer service agent used was unintelligible to me. I asked her to explain but she could only repeat the same phrases. I read to her what the affidavit said. I was unable to determine if this was the legal document they required. My bank is working to reach them directly now.
When I asked exactly what information the police report needed to contain I was told that it would need to show that they had investigated my claim and that it would take them about a week. I haven't contacted the police yet. It seems like an absurd waste of public resources.
GNS has extremely rigid policies which do not accommodate the possibility of error on their part: inability to detect orders of fraudulent origin, no record of return authorization or of receiving the product. I was told that there was no supervisor or manager who could make a decision which deviated from this policy because they have to protect themselves from fraud. I am SO frustrated. They are like obtuse, polite teflon.
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