Complaint / Review
Face To Face Technologies
Cancelled same day, yet $59 check cashed, refund pending

03/05 - My husband was scammed into purchasing a magazine subscription by a door-to-door salesperson named "Sunshine," who posed as a student selling for reward points in order to win a trip. She alleged that the average subscription price was $25 annually. She went on to say that she was referred to our house by our neighbor and even named that neighbor's first and last name. She lied, saying that this friend of ours had purchased 5 subscriptions, and listed them to us in random order. Feeling that this was legitimate, my husband chose a magazine, Glamour (which, by the way, is only $12 per year if you purchase it through Glamour itself). She wrote up the receipt while talking away about a whole bunch of nonsense and asking about my pregnancy, clearly noticing my obvious protruding belly. Her distractions were quite clever, as she managed to increase the bill to a whopping $59 due to so-called processing and handling fees and the like. My husband felt leery of this but continued with the transaction and wrote out the check anyway.

After Sunshine left, I called the friend she had mentioned. Our friend stated that she did not purchase anything from this girl and that it was probably a scam. Fearing that we had just been victims of identity theft or something similar, and outraged at the deceitful actions of the salesperson, we immediately sent in the cancellation form attached to the back of our copy of the transaction, along with a note complaining of our anger with the salesperson's actions. The cancellation was dated 03/05, the same day as our transaction, so we were well within the 3-day cancellation period.

By March 24th, we had not received our returned check. I went online to check our bank account, and sure enough, our account had been debited $59 on 03/14, showing the copy of the check we had written.

I called the number on the receipt to complain, and the woman on the line looked up my receipt number. I was told that they were aware of my cancellation, but checks are deposited immediately. She told me to wait for a postcard they had sent that instructs us on how to get our refund. We never received this alleged postcard. So I sent another letter of complaint, along with proof of the transaction (a printed record of the cashed check from my online bank account). On that same day, I also filed a complaint with the BBB.

Our transaction was dated 03/05. The date is now 04/02. I was told that the refund will be issued within 4 to 6 weeks of proof of transaction, so I will be on the lookout. Our bank is a US federal bank that issues accounts solely to government employees and active duty military personnel. We will get our money back. If this is truly a scam and/or an example of identity theft, prosecution will be sought to the fullest extent. There is absolutely no doubt about that. I will be back soon to update this case.