On May 14th, I saw a commercial for a computer for $35.00 per week. All you needed was a home phone and checking account number.
So I called the company and asked what the terms were, they explained about this wonderful Gateway computer and all the extras I was to receive. All I needed to do was pay $99.00, by giving them my checking account info. After they received the payment they would mail me a contract.
So on the 19th of May they removed $99.00 from my account. On the 21st of May I got the contract. When I sat down to read it, it asked for alot more information and stated I would get a computer after I had made three months of payments to them and their auditors approved me. If they did not approve me than I would not get a refund and they would hold that money as a credit until I had paid 66% of their $2000.00 cost on the computer.
The papers also stated that by signing them I would not agree to be in any class action lawsuit against them and that I would agree to pay their monthly payment at 14.99 percent interest.
So I called the company, told them I wanted to cancel this and not have any funds removed from my account in the future. That I also wanted a refund of my $99.00. They said no refunds and that they would cancel it but, it would take until the 2nd of June to get them out of my system.
Of course, I argued I would get my money back one way or the other. Originally they agreed not to take payments on a weekly basis from my account until June 9th.
I did not sign the contract!
I immediately called the bank and put a stop pay on my account. I explained to them what happened and asked them if there was any way I could get my money back ($99.00). They told me it would take 10 days to investigate, by they thought they could.
I than called the local BBB and filed acomplaint against them, which was forwarded to Maryland. I also filed a complaint with the local district attorneys office. Upon which, I found that in Kansas a verbal contract is not valid, when a paper contract is to follow and most especially if they don't give you a period of time to cancel the contract in (i.E. 72 hours).
On May 26th, I called to balance my check book and found that Blue hippo had tried to pull a payment of $40.98 from my bank account, however my stop pay prevented them from getting any funds. I again called the Blue Hippo and told them to stop taking payments that I had not even authorized them to take out of my account. She said I had to fax a request. I told her I had a the original contract they sent me and it stated no payments to be taken til June 9th.
The lovely lady told me I was welcome to do what I wanted to get them to stop but until the 2nd of June they could draw the money out and guess what? It's non-refundable!
The following week on June 2nd, they tried to take $40.98 from my account. Thank god, for the stop payment.
Mt bank did refund my original $99.00. They have sinced stopped trying to take money from my account. It was a very time consuming and hard lesson to learn but, NEVER give your bank account information to anyone. I agree with the gentleman who said pay cash, if you can't get it save for it.
I pride myself on being slightly intelligent and I am grateful for this venue to let people know about my story, of being stupid. I hope this will prevent someone else from getting burned by this company. They are being investigated by BBB and I contacted Gateway computers to let them know how Blue Hippo and there association with them is going to hurt their good reputation.
I got my money back, it was a job, learning experience and a nightmare I never want to relive. Blue Hippo Funding is a thief! If they told you when you were talking to them on the phone no refunds, any reasonably intelligent person would have hung up. I would have.
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