tidystorm

random techno-gab

Category Archives: Ripoffs

Backing up my router’s hard drive with Crashplan

I use Crashplan to backup the data from nine computers to Crashplan Central. It works great.

Recently I plugged an external USB hard drive into my router. I use this particular hard drive to store system image backups. I wanted it to be swept up by Crashplan, but even though I have it mapped as a network drive on my computer, Crashplan does not recognize it.

After some research, I realized I need to use the mklink command to create a symlink.

Here’s what I did:

1. Open command prompt as administrator
2. Type in: mklink /d C:\symlink_for_willow R:\
3. The response I got was: symbolic link created for C:\symlink_for_willow <<===>> R:\
4. The result is that I have created a symlink at the root of my c drive called “symlink_for_willow.” (Blue Willow is the name of my router, so I named the symlink after my router. Go figure.) The symlink points to my R disk, which is the router’s hard drive.
5. Close the command prompt
6. Now Crashplan will find the symlink

AMG Magazine Services scam

AMG Magazine Services called from a private number (red flag). They wanted to offer us a discount on Guideposts Magazine (red flag — it’s a safe bet as the largest selling magazine in the country) to which we already subscribe.

The male voice said “How are you?” before identifying himself (red flag). When I asked him who this was, he said, “I’m the guy that sends you your Guideposts” (red flag — Guideposts would never identify themselves this way).

He arranged for a callback from the supervisor (red flag).

Fifteen minutes later, the supervisor called back. When we questioned about her company’s phone number being private, the supervisor explained that she’s calling from a secure line (red flag) and then said “I don’t know why you saw that from the first call, though.” Yet we had never mentioned that the first call was private too (red flag) although it was true.

She told us we’re owed a senior citizen discount, yet never asked us if we were senior citizens (red flag). She said the Guideposts company had made a mistake when they charged us for our most recent renewal, and that we are owed money.

As she spoke, she kept referring to “last time” to explain that we already had taken this deal once before. They said “last time” was three years ago (very clever, as three years is enough time for customers to forget).

We asked her if she works for Guideposts, she said no, that they sell magazines. Yet the initial caller had said “I’m the guy that sends you your Guideposts Magazine (red flag).”

She mentioned that we used a Visa “the last time” (red flag — we haven’t used a Visa in many many years). When asked if we could receive the same offer by mail, she said no (red flag). She wanted our credit card number (huge red flag).

When we asked if we could call Guideposts to confirm the deal, and then call her back, she replied with a flimsy yes. But when we asked her for the AMG phone number, she said it’s on the bill from “the last time” (red flag). She couldn’t give it to us.

So we said, “You mean we are supposed to have that saved and dig it up from three years ago?”

She hung up (huge red flag).

Then we looked at the web site (http://www.amgmagazineservices.com). The web site fails to say what AMG stands for (red flag). It has no Google page ranking (red flag). And it has no “about” link (red flag). It has a copyright of 2008 (red flag because no legitimate web site that’s been around for two years has a page ranking of zero.)

I think that’s eighteen red flags.

Guideposts Magazine needs to know about this. Guideposts is a legitimate company.

Update on June 16, 2010

We sent this blog to Guideposts. This was their response:

Thank you for contacting Guideposts.

On behalf of Guideposts we apologize for any misunderstanding. The
solicitation you received was not authorized by Guideposts.

Please be assured that Guideposts does not require pre-payment by credit
card for magazine renewals or any other products. We always display our
Customer Service toll-free number, 1-800-431-2344, when calling. We
appreciate the information you’ve provided and will turn it over to our
legal counsel for further review

If we can be of further assistance, please let us know. To ensure your
future concerns are handled in a timely fashion, please include all
previous e-mail correspondence.

Sincerely,
Mindi

The Verizon store — incompetent or crooks?

The Verizon store told us that because a smart phone (e.g. Android or Blackberry) is the phone for the primary account, we have to pay the smart phone internet fee for the other three phones on the account. That amounts to $90 per month extra, for phones we were not changing.

So we tooled on over to Best Buy and learned that it’s not true. Instead, they charged us only $10 per month per non-smart-phone instead of $30 per month for each of the three phones.

And Verizon was rationalizing the sudden change of rate with the fact that we were changing two phones on lines that didn’t have upgrades associated with them. Yet Best Buy said not only is this not true, but they pointed out that a second of our phones in fact did have an upgrade.

Moreover, the Best Buy guy really understood our plan, and was more helpful. He even changed our plan to a newer better plan with more features for the same price.

Big win. Don’t buy from the Verizon store. Buy your phones and your service plans from Best Buy.

So, is the Verizon store incompetent? Or are they crooks? Does it matter?

Audible dot com is another scam company

Found another scam on my card, and this time the parent company is Amazon.com.

It’s called Audible, and the charge was the first of what would be monthly fees for $16.00.

I always follow this list when calling these gadblame companies:

1. What other names do you go by?
2. Please refund all charges (they will usually cancel only a few)
3. Please CLOSE the account. This is different from canceling the charges.
4. How did you get my credit card?

Here’s what I got from Audible:

1. They go by no other name. Their parent company is Amazon.com
2. The rep was happy to cancel the charge, and said the membership “had not been used for anything.”
3. When I asked her to CLOSE the account, she informed me I can never open another account with them again under that credit card. Good riddance. She said this action would delete the billing information including the address and the credit card number. Yay.
4. She said the account was opened as a trial through a television commercial.

What misleads people is that these kinds of businesses are legitimate businesses. But they gouge unsuspecting customers, perhaps especially minors, which is what happened in this case.

Amazon.com would do well to reconsider.

When a legit company looks like a scam

The outdated “fine print” approach to marketing doesn’t fly on the web. Why? Customers can alert the world. Social media keeps businesses on the up and up.

Because of social media, companies are held to a higher standard than “we told you in the fine print.” They must be truly meeting customer needs or they get dissed out of business.

Customers should expect no less than a full refund if they find recurring charges on their credit card, yet never used the business. When a company does not comply with that request, it deserves negative publicity in cyberspace.

So here’s a real email letter from this week from a stunned customer to the President of Stamps.com, and below it is the reply. When a legitimate company looks like a scam, then it’s a scam.

If, down the road, stamps.com refunds the remainder the customer is out, this blog will be updated to say so.

Dear Mr. McBride,

I know that stamps.com is not a scam, but its treatment of customers looks no different from:

NBM Services
Instant Forms
Post Exam Office
Discountbooksale
Bestbrandvalues
Discount Book Sale
DBS Books

My credit card has been scammed by all the above companies. In each case, the resolution involves calling a customer service rep, arranging for a refund, then escalating the call to get a few months’ worth of charges
refunded. For that, the customer has to listen to an annoying pitch to get them to stay. And you never get all your money back. And they all have one more thing in common — an occasional change in name on the credit card.

Your company does that too.

From my perspective, then, my experience with stamps.com is no different than that of those other companies. And as you well know, customer perception matters.

I recently started a new technical blog, which will also contain occasional reports of sloppy business, outright fraud, and maybe even some stellar service when I see it. I know how to do search marketing, so my blog will soon rise to the top of search results.

I have not yet blogged about my experience with stamps.com, as I have not yet talked to you. I did arrange a cancellation today with a stamps.com phone rep, and a supervisor has credited me for two billing cycles. The total I’ve been unwittingly charged is $287.20.

So that means I’m out $251.30 for a service I never used. Would you please refund me that remaining amount?

Please don’t explain your trial period policy. I have learned my lesson and will never fill out a survey again, will never respond to any purchase page beyond the actual purchase and will never trust stamps.com. But the price for ordinary busy people to not understand fine print is steep, and that makes your business’s tactics look too much like fraud.

If you google these words: “stamps.com scam” you will find a plethora of conversation. In the long run, this negative publicity can’t be good for your company. If you really are in this for the long haul, and by what I can tell from the web, you are a legitimate company, then perhaps it’s time to make your fine print bigger and to learn about how social media impacts your business.

This may interest you: Why Don’t You Listen to Social Media.

Please arrange for my $251.30 to be refunded to my card. My account number is XXXXXX. Hopefully, in exchange, I’ve helped you.

Thank you. Sincerely, Mrs. YYY

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting the Stamps.com Office of the President.

We certainly appreciate your concerns, Ms. YYY. We provide and disclose terms that we do expect all potential customers to read, review, and agree to before they create their accounts. Accounts cannot be created without customers indicating that they have read the terms by clicking on the “I Agree” box. We provide our terms on a single webpage so you do not need to click on additional links or buttons to read our full Terms.

During the registration process for Stamps.com we disclose how much your service fee will be and how often you will be billed. In addition, following registration, we send you a Welcome E-mail that states if the account is left open beyond the 28 day trial you will be billed the applicable service fees.

Our records show your account has been closed and two months of fees have been refunded as a courtesy by the supervisor with whom you spoke.

We have carefully reviewed your account history and have found the service fees that were applied are in accordance with the Service Agreement to which you agreed. However, your satisfaction is very important to us and we have determined that an additional credit will be issued. As a courtesy, we are crediting an additional four fees to your Credit card. This would bring the total credit to six months.

Please allow 3-5 business days for this additional credit of $71.80 to be applied to your account. The credit may not be reflected immediately on an online statement. Please allow one billing cycle to pass before it is reflected on a paper statement.

We appreciate you taking the time to contact us and apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. If you would like further details on the Terms and Conditions of the Service Agreement, please visit the following link:

http://www.stamps.com/conditions/

Please let us know if the Office of the President can be of any further assistance.

Respectfully,

Nicole
The Resolution Group
Stamps.com
Customer (Customer Emailer) 04/13/2010 03:56 PM

Beware of online cash back incentives

The ads look like the image to the right. You see them immediately after you pay for a legitimate product from a legitimate company.

They now have your credit card number, and if you click the button to enroll, they will take you to a target that looks something like this:

https://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N3446.Meadwestvaco.com/B3340789;q=F0B090B0B05CC5C5855554BC0676EC94D5A 5349544946DB6A69D0445A56524340E410212C7E72773A 7F774C6A542661604D3D5D566B5B4C7C653AF26660726;

They will use your credit card number to enroll you in their program for which you will pay a recurring monthly fee.

They go by several different names, which makes it harder to spot the charge on your charge card bill.

Beware. Either read the fine print (which will make you turn it down) or better yet, don’t click on it. Your charge card company will view it as a legitimate charge that you agreed to. The only remuneration will be up to three month’s refund from this scam company (not from your credit card company), and sometimes only if you’re painful on the phone.

Tell them you want both cancellation and a full refund. Also ask them what other names they go by. They will tell you. Write them down, and be on the lookout for all such names on your credit card in the future.

The frustrating part is that the company, Doubleclick, is owned by Google. The image example above appeared with a purchase from At-A-Glance (a company that makes calendars).

Is Google participating in click fraud?

NBM Services Scam

Companies that defraud customers often go by several names. This one goes by:

NBM Services

Instant Forms

Post Exam Office

When you call their number, they answer as “online services.”
This charge is caused by enrollment in a rewards saver program.

They seem used to getting caught. The first thing said when you connect with a live person is “what is the charge?” They look it up, and offer you a refund and cancellation without first being asked.

For this writer, the charge was a one-time fee of $19.69.

Discountbooksale scam

The company goes by at least four names:

1. BBV* Discountbooksale

2. Bestbrandvalues

3. Discount Book Sale

4. DBS Books

One of their service reps, when confronted by a customer about the legitimacy of the company said this on March 17, 2010: “I don’t scam people personally.”

Look for repeating charges on your credit card. They can be 19.95,  $9.95, or a mix, or maybe some other amount.

When you call, request immediate cancellation of your account. Then ask for the “refund department.” They will “assure you” that they have now canceled your account, but it doesn’t mean you’ve been refunded. They will try to refund you for only one month. Some of the reps say two. And if you escalate it, they’ll say no more than three. Request that the refund department review your account for a full refund.