Complaint Review: ClassicCloseOuts.com ThirdFree.com

My problems started in June of 2008 but I didn't realize it right away. I thought that my bank account had less money than I should have had but I didn't look into it. I just figured I missed something. I am on SSI so I have an extremely limited income It is so limited that I can usually keep track of my money in my head.

Anyways, it wasn't until I got an overdraft charge July that I knew something was really wrong. By the time that I called the bank there was another charge with another overdraft charge in the beginning of Aug.. I now had 1 charge of $49.99, with no overdraft charges, for June & another charge of $69.99, with an overdraft charge, for July & yet another charge of $69.99, with an overdraft charge, in Aug..

After I talked to the bank & got the dispute at least started I figured that I would try to call Classic Close Outs myself to see if I could get it settled faster in any way. You would think that with all the different phone lines that they have you would be able to reach a human being with at least 1 of the lines, but you'd be wrong. I swear they have a choice between 7 or 8 extensions to choose from & then each of those have about 3 or 4 extensions to choose from & so on, but no human being.

Well I did make 1 purchase from Classic Close Outs back in May of 2007, that is not a typo it was back in May 2007. I have not made any other purchases from that site since. In fact, I have not even used that E-mail address that they have on my account on their site in almost a year. I can not delete the E-mail address because it is my master E-mail address through my internet service provider. I just don't use it ever since I made myself a new E-mail address to use back in Feb of 2008.

When I very first started my dispute with my bank I kept offering them my sign in info to my account at Classic Close Outs because right on the site all it showed was that 1 purchase that I made in May of 2007. They kept telling me that they didn't need it. Meanwhile, I kept trying to call & E-mail Classic Close Outs & never got a reply at all, even though you couldn't reach a person on the phone you did reach a voice mail where I left many messages.

I also kept calling the bank to see what was going on. The bank sent me a letter stating that they gave me a temporary refund of all the charges from the site & from the overdraft charges, which was just around $275. The last time that I had talked to someone on the phone, the first time around, I was told that Classic Close Outs did not reply to them within the time they were supposed to so I had won my case. I didn't receive the letter stating that I did but I figured either they didn't send 1 because they had already told me over the phone or because it got lost in the mail. I had almost forgotten about the whole thing when I received a letter on Thanksgiving Day. It stated that I lost my dispute & that as of the very next day they would be taking all that money back out of my account.

I live on SSI so at the end of the month I don't have that much money in my account. On top of that all the money that I did have left was for my son's Christmas. I had finally saved more than I usually do to give my son a better Christmas & now I was going to be starting the month off in the hole instead of ahead. I couldn't get to the bank on that Fri so I went on Sat to file a dispute against the dispute. Even though I was able to get the dispute started the people in that department weren't there that day. I had to wait until Mon to call that department. When I first called they wanted to transfer me to the guy that had originally been working on my dispute. I told them in no way did I want to talk to him because he was a moron.

Oh, I forgot to mention that along with the letter stating that I lost my dispute they sent me a few copies of things that they had received from Classic Close Outs. They sent me 3 receipts for the charges to my card, which I never saw before the bank sent me copies, & they sent me a sheet of paper with the charges to my card & a bunch of other charges to other people, I can only assume that they threw that in to say hey all these other people bought this so why not her, they sent a copy of the E-mail that I supposedly replied to & bought this free shipping membership for a company called ThirdFree.com, I had never heard of this site until the bank sent me that copy so I went to that site to see if I could find the offer that I supposedly bought but not only didn't I see the offer they had nothing for sale. They say on the home page that if you buy 2 items under 1 of the 3 tabs of different prices you get the third item for free. I clicked on all 3 tabs & all 3 tabs said they had no merchandise for sale under that price. Why would anyone buy a free shipping membership to a site that sells nothing? They also sent me a copy of the letter that they got from Classic Close Outs.

In the very first paragraph the company has the nerve to say that as soon as I see a copy of the E-mail that I replied to they are sure that I will remember buying the membership & drop the dispute myself. They also stated that it was only a 1 time charge for this membership. Even if I was stupid enough to buy this membership why was I charged 3 different times? They also stated that they only sent this offer out to their customers who shopped 3 or more times in a year. HELLO, I only shopped there once over a year ago.

Another funny thing was that nowhere on any of the receipts or forms or anything did the company mention my name. They had my card number & the sites name on the receipts but they didn't even have my name on the receipts.

When I refused to talk to the same guy that took my case before they gave me his manager. The manager took my sign in info right while I was on the phone with him & went to the site while I was on the phone. I pointed out all the stuff that just didn't look right & all the stuff that I couldn't believe that the other guy over looked. The manager had my dispute done in my favor in less than a week. Ever since I got that letter on Thanksgiving I had been in tears because since they were taking money from me when I didn't have enough to cover it I was left with another overdraft charge so I was out over $300. I wanted to cry again when I was told & when I received a letter stating that I won my dispute & would be getting all my money back. Oh, the manager also looked up a different site but was basically the same thing as this site, I can't remember the name right now. He told me there were many complaints about both Classic Close Outs & Third Free, which are sister sites.

I am sorry about telling such a long story & getting into so much detail but shortly after these sites tried to hit me for my money I had another site hit me with a charge to my phone bill. Luckily the woman that I talked to felt sorry for me because I have been having a lot of problems with my phone bills lately so she took the charges off this months bill & I called the company that added the charges to make sure I wouldn't be getting any more charges. Again, this was supposedly an E-mail that I replied to that was sent to the E-mail address that I nolonger use. I placed a report about that on this site as well.

Vikki
Wtby
U.S.A.