Complaint Review: Stanford's Who's Who

Some months back Stanford Who's Who contacted my wife on her cell phone in violation of the DNC registry (her phone has been in the DNC registry for years). They had her believe that they were calling on behalf of nominations made by her work peers and she had been approved to receive special recognition in their "Black Book" of who's who in her profession. For a "one time" fee they offered her publication, two airline tickets, a wall placard, among other merchandise.

She received a welcome folder with a welcome letter and personalized paper certificate in it that my companies could have printed for 25 cents. After reading through the folder she realized she was going to be charged a monthly fee for a membership which was not disclosed earlier. We checked our bank account and discovered that they charged us an additional $29.00 for the welcome folder - a charge that they did not disclose and we did not authorize.

She then received a phone call from some woman in their shipping department telling her that they needed to send her some additional merchandise and needed a $99.00 payment. She expressed concern over all of the additional charges when she was told there would be only a one time fee. She was told that she either pay up immediately on that call (strong arming her) or loose all of her previous money and merchandise she already paid for. She advised the woman that she would call their headquarters. Upon hanging up she checked her account and discovered the $99.00 had already been taken from her account.

We called Standford's headquarters and spoke to an account representative and demanded that the charges be reversed and my wife's account with them be cancelled for grounds of unethical conduct and unauthorized charges. We were told that the charges would be reversed, the account cancelled, and all moneys refunded.

After coming to this site and realizing that Standford Who's Who is a scam and people don't get their money back, we cancelled the credit card they were charging and went to the card's bank to request a Merchant Chargeback. The bank followed through and requested the chargeback from Stanford. What followed was an amazing round of lies, fabricated documents, and twisted (and even conflicting) stories that Stanford provided to the bank.

They stated that they sent us merchandise which we refused to return. That was an outright lie. We received none of the merchandise promised. They claimed that my wife contacted them to advertise her business - another outright lie. My wife owns no business. Besides, I own three successful international technologies companies. If my wife had a business, we would use my marketing and advertising services and wouldn't contact a two bit Who's Who for advertising. They then presented a document that they claimed my wife filled out asking them to contact her - like she pursued them. Not only have we never seen the document, the information on it was wrong - the document was an outright fake. 

They provided the bank with a professional profile "Proof" they claim to have obtained from my wife, was approved by my wife, and sent to publication. We've never seen it either. The information on the "proof" was a professional embarrassment, full of factual errors, references to associations and journals that don't exist. They listed my wife's private cell phone number (the one thy contacted her on) as the business telephone number of her employer - a violation of our personal privacy. They even listed my wife's profession wrong. These area all mistakes we wouldn't have made and certainly did not approve as they claim. It became obvious that someone pulled information from my wife's Linked-In account, didn't understand the information, and did a total 4th grade hack job creating this very unprofessional professional profile. If this is what they published, as they claim, then they have clearly harmed my wife's professional reputation by making her out to be a total professional idiot.

They went on to accuse my wife of taking advantage of them by contacting them for professional advertising of her business (the one she doesn't have) utilizing their professional marketing services, then reneging on the contract knowing that Stanford Who's Who could not undo all of the services already rendered (which weren't rendered) and recover all of the personalized merchandise she supposedly received (which she never received). They played the victim. They provided no professional service nor did they deliver any merchandise to us. But they did take our money, lie to the bank, bear false accusations, fabricate documents, and fail to send the merchandise they promised. Their lies and fake documents were enough to convince the bank my wife was in the wrong. We're out the money.

Stanford's Who's Who operates out of a virtual office in Islip, New York. In all "official" correspondence with them, in dispute resolution, they never list an individual's name - no one to accept culpability or hold accountable for their egregious behavior, false accusations, and fabricated documents they claim you filled out. Even when responding to the bank their letter was anonymous - no name, no signature, no one to hold accountable for the lies and fabricated documents.

Our next step is to file a claim against Standord Who's Who with the New York Better Business Bureau. In looking into the NY BBB's claims process, we discovered that Stanford has an "F" rating with an impressive number of claims for deceptive and unethical business practices filed against them.

Don't let them take your money! The provide no professional service and will be constantly charging your credit card for undisclosed fees, services, and merchandise that you won't receive. Once they have your money, your SOL with no recourse against them. Your bank won't help you but it appears the NY BBB has had some success in getting people's money back.