We ordered the special trial offer for the e-Bay Success System, for only $1.95 shipping. Not only did nothing arrive, the charge did not even hit our account for a week. When it did it also included an additional charge — and an additional international transfer fee of a couple of dollars.
When my wife called the Customer Service number she waited on hold for 35 minutes. The music in the background while on hold was some jazzed up Indian style music. While she did that I tried to find more information about the company. The domain name is registered through NameCheap.com, and the actual owner of the Domain name is protected through WhoIsGuard.com encryption. The "Contact Us" link for WhoIsGuard.com reverts to a contact page for NameCheap.com, so the one appears to be a service provided by the other.
When Customer Service finally answered, my wife spoke to a man who did not listen to her complaint at all. He just kept repeating that the trial period was over (and we hadn't received anything).in my turn on the line I had to get loud in order to be able to speak at all. If I did not shout he kept cutting me off and talking over what I had to say. Could not even get him to repeat my complaint back to me, he kept asking why. I repeated what he had told us back to him, he agreed that was what he said,
He kept insisting nothing could be paid back, and then after extreme insistence, and another hold of at least 15 minutes, he came back and told me the charge would be reversed in 3-5 business days, and gave me a confirmation number (not patterned consistently with the normal pattern for credit card transactions). When I pushed for immediate reversal he eventually hung up.
I called back. Waited another half-hour on hold. I thought the CSR had the same voice, though a different name (they both had subcontinental accents — India/Pakistan, I mean). My wife thought the voices different. We received none of the same rigamarole. We were quickly put on hold for another 15 minutes, and offered the same thing with a different confirmation number, though the same pattern as the one before.
I think it significant that we were NOT told that our refund had already begun processing and given the same number. Should we not dissuade our bank from making this payment, I do not expect to see this money again.
This second call was the one in which the CSR represented to me that the company EBay Success System is formally associated with eBay (I have the name and employee ID number he provided).
Aside from the RipOff aspect, I have some additional concerns:
1) Namecheap and Whoisguard are tightly associated with each other, and their active participation in concealing contacts with an organization operating this way seems arguably collaborative and conspiratorial.
2) Thw website designer is WPThemedesigner.com, If this company is completely ignorant of what its client is doing with the work it has produced, it worries me that waht appears to be a little guy trying to make an honest living might unwittingly be caught up in this complicity.
3) Given ALL FOUR (and I re-emphasize ALL FOUR) of the following — the virtually nefarious method this company has of doing business AND the fact that the large payment involves an international transfer AND that the organization conceals its contacts so thoroughly AND the accents of the alleged eBay Success System CSRs with whom I spoke — it concerns me where exactly these funds are going, and what the real purpose of the organization might be.
I usually think the FCC and FTC should look into these things, but I'm beginning to wonder if it is a matter for Department of Homeland Security. I'm just one victim of of a scam that, my bank charges tell me, funnels at least $40 per victim out of the country. How much is this organization siphoning away for its own purposes?
Peter j
Dillon, Colorado
U.S.A.
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