I responded to an email 'splash page' ad for a free 'make money on ebay' CD. Customer is billed $ 4.95 s/h chg. Not only did I never receive the CD, I found that I was billed 449.95 on my credit card. I am employed in a marketing capacity for 20 yrs, so I tend to look for disclaimers. There were no disclaimers or asterisks (*) in the ad leading the customer to look for additional information as required by the. Sellers Lounge appears to be an affiliate seller for EBay.
I emailed EBay directly regarding the matter, asking for a refund & did not receive a response. I then contacted my credit card company's fraud division & their customer service called Sellers Lounge (conferencing me in on the call). We got a 'customer service rep' named 'Erica' on the line. The credit card rep very nicely identified himself, as a fraud investigator for his company (a MAJOR cc company!) & advised Erica why they were contacting her & that I was also on the line. The rep alerted her that he would be handing the conversation over to me & that he would remain on the line as mediator.
I explained the issue very calmly & advised her that I never received the CD & asked for a refund. I was shocked at what happened next, She basically lambasted me! She started screaming at me & said that I did not read the ad correctly & that I was not going to get a refund period! She then said that I received an 'auto responder ' email outlying the offer & giving a login ID to EBays seller lounge area. She also stated that they don't actually 'ship' the Cd, that the info was on the website. I advised her that no such email was received. I also advised her that if I pay a S/H charge for something, that I expect it to come via US mail. I also explained my employment history in marketing & that I am fully aware of customer full disclosure & advertising laws & that nowhere in the ad did it clearly disclose membership in any club or a $49.95 charge or a website. At this point she made it very clear that she would not issue a refund & that she was hanging up.
This is where the fun begins. The fraud rep at that point advised Erica that he had all the necessary info & asked her to drop off of the call. Which we thought she did. I at that point commended him for his patience during this call & after reviewing the call we had with Erica, I made a simple statement how bad customer service is getting these days, no personal reference to Erica made. The next thing we knew, here comes Erica back on the line again!!! She never hung up!!! She came back on the call SCREAMING! This girl was unbelievable! The rep again asked her to drop off the line as she was supposed to do. She refused! I then asked to speak with her supervisor, she came back asking for the fraud reps supervisor! I at that point snapped & told her that she was the worse customer service rep i had ever spoken with & if anyone from my company EVER acted like that, we would be bodily separated from the phone & pushed to the doorm no questions asked. Having had enough at that point, I advised her to put her supervisor on the phone or hang up. Which she did.
Sorry for the rant, but I felt everyone needed to hear this just so you are prepared in case you decide to call sellers Lounge.in closing, I have read EBays T&c's for it's sellers, which advised them that they must abide by all FTC advertising laws.
Section 5 of the FTC law states basically that all advertisers must 'clearly' disclose all terms of the offer in the actual ad & must not hide any info. There must be 'something' in the actual ad to 'lead' the customer to seek out additional information and it must be place in a spot where it is easily seen.
This ad does not do that. Also, I don't believe that Erica is a customer service rep. She appears to be an affiliate, working for herself. Yep, I called back several times to try to get a different rep so I could ask for a supervisor to report her, but only she answered the phone.
Oh, and yes, she sounded very friendly & nice when she answered. Simply amazing!
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