Fingerhut They want to charge me over $30 for shipping and handling on a item I returned. Sausalito California
I ordered a slip cover from Fingerhut back in September. I measured my sofa and ordered the appropiate size cover. When I received the item, I immediately noticed it was about 2 feet too short. Not even close to the size stated in the caralog. I returned the item within a couple of days and also reequested a replacement item of the next largest size.
I never received the correct item, and today, Dec. 15th, 2015, I received a call from someone claiming to be Fingerhut, then a debt collector, then a Fingerhut employee. She said I had a balance of over $30 that was owed. When I asked her what the charges were for, she was EXTREMELY rude and would not answer the question. When I persisted, she hung up on me.
I immediately called Fingerhut to verify this. I called the 800 number listed on their website. After several questions, some asked more than once, the agent left the line and a recording started to play, indicating that this call was an attampt to collect a debt. I was already upset at this point, and this just infuriated me. I yelled "hello?" about five times and the agent got back on the line. I again asked what the charges were for, and was told that the charges were for shipping and handling for the incorrect item. I told him that there was no way I was going to pay charges for an item that they either misrepresented in their catalog, or an item that was shipped incorrectly. The agent practically ignored me and told me that interest charges were going to continue to be added to the balance. He gave me no indication that he was worried about an unhappy customer or providing any type of customer service whatsoever.
As far as I know, they purposely send out incorrect items just to make money on charges of this type. Do yourself a favor: stay away from Fingerhut.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Update
#2Author of original report
Tue, February 09, 2016
Fingerhut has now sent me a bill. The amount of the invoice is $54.04 The cost of the original item (which, apparently, they do not stock) was just over $70. Not only do they expect me to pay over $50 for nothing, but the have also reported this "account" to the credit unions.
To my knowledge, information required to report to a credit union is a SSN# and a birthdate, none of which I supplied to Fingerhut, which means this information was purchased illegally by Fingerhut from an information source of some kind. Despite all the security fraud and identification theft, these "information companies" still exist. And the fact that Fingerhut would use these types of sources speaks more to their lack of integrity.
My advice, as before, is to refrain from doing business with Fingerhut.