When I was underage my mother had bought me some checks for my first checking account...
Six years later I needed a few boxes because I had run out. I went online and found a site for personal checks, designerchecks.com. I sent them an e-mail and they sent me a pamphlet to order checks. I filled out the pamphlet and made my order. There was a special indroductory price for first time users. Companys like this use your personal information and sell it so they can afford to give you this first time deal.
I received my checks sometime later. They didn't even look like real checks. My name which should have been in the upper left corner were indented so my name appeared in the middle of the check. My bank information (which I had sent in when I sent my payment, with an actual check with the correct information on it) was completely wrong. The street address was wrong, there was no town name, and no zip code. I could have made checks myself that looked more authentic.
I called the customer service line. The woman I spoke to was, to say the least, extremly rude. She had asked me all my personal information that would have been on the check then asked for my social security number to verify. I told her I had never sent her the number so how could she verify it? She then told me I had been a previous customer so they sale price did not apply and if I wanted usable checks sent to me I had to send designer checks money. I imagine if they already had my personal information it might have taken some tampering in order to send me the unusable checks I received. They should have returned my payment and sent me nothing in the first place. Needless to say, I ordered checks from another company which does not sell personal information.
Today I received a first notice of an outstanding balance with designer checks. I am to pay them in full. Pay them in full for checks I cannot use. I believe they sent the unusable checks to force me into paying twice what I should have. Twice what I ended up paying to another more savory company with better personal information polices. I was not trying to scam their company in any way and wish they had just sent me my money back and I would have delt with another company and avoided this mess.
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