I purchased a printer at epsonstore.com during a sale. The price was favorable and they offered free shipping. I was pleased to be purchasing directly from the manufacturer as I thought this was safe. I placed my order and thought the printer would be shipped as expected.
Three days later I had a voicemail from epsonstore claiming that my credit card was declined due to a wrong address. I knew I had given them the correct information, so I called the 800 number and the representative said the credit card had been declined, but he could try again. He ran the order again and said it had been declined again. At this point I was very perplexed because I had given them a good card, good address, etc.
I logged into my credit card account and was horrified to discover two charges from epsonstore.com. One charge was for the (original) correct amount. The second charge was for a much higher amount, one that I did not authorize. Both charges had been given approval codes. I went back to epsonstore.com and looked at my account. Now there were two orders showing, even though I had only ordered once. Both showed "declined" so I called my bank. Sure enough, they had debited my account for two orders, which would not have happened if the order was "declined" as epsonstore.com alleged.
I am in the process of disputing both charges and I indicated to epsonstore.com that I would never do business with them again. The rep was clearly located in a foreign country and gave me all sorts of wrong information. I think this was an attempt by epsonstore.com to deliberately induce me into calling them and authorizing them to charge my account a second time for a higher price after the sale price had expired.
I am considering filing a complaint with the DA & AG but will wait to see the outcome of my disputes.
Moral of the story: Just because you see that the seller is the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) unfortunately does not mean you won't be scammed. I jumped through all the hoops to get this right, but I was still ripped off.in the future I will buy from Amazon.com as I have never had any issue with their service or resolving problems.
P.S. Epson is owned by the Japanese, who also own Toyota Motors. Seems they are all following the same deceptive practices.
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