Although my situation is resolved, here is a warning and some tips to help those affected by these scammers to get some of their money back.
In September of I made the mistake of opening my door without looking out the peephole. A young man, whom I thought was one of the repairmen in my apartment complex, had violated the complex's no solitation rule and invited himself in to sell me some multi-purpose household cleaning agent. He gave a demonstration of how the product could work (only by heating it in the microwave it seems) and convinced me it was a good product. He also told me that Pumppers Trust got kids off the streets by giving them jobs and that I would be helping a good cause. "Cool, " I think to myself, tax write-off.
Eager to get him out of there, as I was home alone and not particuarly comfortable, I asked him what the price of the product was. It was about $40 for a liter, which I thought was extremely steep, but he reminded me that it was concentrated and that it would last for about a year, replacing all the products I have now.
I told him I couldn't afford it anyway as I didn't get paid until several days later. He insisted that I write a check, which he PROMISED to hold until after the date I postdated it for. He was annoying me, so I get out my checkbook to get him out, and he tells me not to write the check yet, as he needed to "fill out" an invoice. WARNING: when he means "fill out" what he really means is add a nice commission for himself and charge you sales tax.
Now since Pummpers Trust is not a business incorporated in my state, they have no business charging tax on ANYONE. He then went on to say, "Dag, don't you have any cash? I need to buy some cigarettes." By the time he wrote it up, the bottle of weak purple water came up to $52 and some change.
I gave him the check, took the bottle, which wasn't even new, and waited for him to leave. He refused to leave until after I offered him a drink because it was "hot outside" and solititing for a picture of myself for him to keep.
Now, remember when he said he would hold that check? Well, he didn't. He cashed the check the very same day, which is odd, as his name isn't "Pumppers Trust" and because he had to MAIL the check back to Sumpter, SC. So, to my surprise, the check bounces, and on top of that, the purple water he gave me didn't clean ANYTHING.
Supposedly, according the the receipt which contradicted itself, you have about 3 days to cancel the order BUT you have to do it in writing—no email, only through snail mail. They also hold your check for a while. Rather than them waiting around for me to return the product, like they probably knew I would, they didn't wait 3 days for me to contact them.
To make matters worse, Telecheck calls me to ask when funds would be available for them to tap the account again. I tell them that they WOULDN'T until the company contacted me back to respond to my complaint, which they didn't. Ms. Gregg merely sent a postcard saying that the check had bounced and that I could be charged a fee. I try to get in contact with them to obtain an address to send the crap back to, and have my husband call to reason with them. Ms. Gregg proceeded to argue that I wrote a rubber check regardless of the fact that the salesman said he would hold it and that I had the product and had to pay for it. She didn't care that the salesman had lied or given me bad product.
Meanwhile, telecheck goes ahead, with Ms. Gregg's authorization I guess, and taps my checking account again, causing more fees on top of the original ones. At this point I filed a BBB complaint against them, which was unresolved. Then, as soon as I get my checking account out of arrears, I go to the post office, pack the bottle in a box padded with plastic bags, and had it sent back to their dungeon—with signature confirmation allowable ONLY by Ms. Gregg.
They receive the product back, and I assume the worst is over. NOT! Telecheck taps my account again about two weeks later.By now, it's March and I haven't been able to get any resolution about this shoddy product. I then decide to file a BBB complaint agaist Telecheck and THAT's when I got resolution. They contacted Ms. Gregg and asked if the product had been returned. She had the nerve to tell them that yes the product had been returned, but I had bounced a check and she was charging a $52 fee. They pretty much disregarged that, and reinstated the money plus fees back to my account.
In conclusion, if talking with the Pump-It-Off idiots is useless, work to have their business uprooted by complaining to the BBB, Chamber of Commerce, and whatever else there is in the town. They get paid off of pushy sales tactics, lies, and products that aren't what they promise for them to be. Don't open your door to strangers.
Suckered
A Town In, North Carolina
U.S.A.
0 comments