Rupizmedia.com and Chase Bank - My very sad, but true story
I hired RupizMedia.com to do web design services from Getafreelancer.com. I was naive and inexperienced at this. They told me the services would cost me $2700 approxiately for the whole design. In no time I was promised all these extra things with special software and included photos which I would have needed to buy myself. I was promised extensive article services which would also cost me. The price skyrocketed to $35,000. Anyway as bad as it sounds the services were pretty extensive and I thought at the time that this was reasonable considering how they promised me thousands of photos which cost thousands of dollars in itself (and US companies were charging $100,000). So, knowing that I was going to pay this money and have everything taken cared of was ok, because the website is huge and would have been a big business so I actually took a loan out to pay for this **great Business idea*** (still working on it with honest people).
The first payment was for milestone 1 which consists of the framework of the website, the mockup pages, images, html pages etc. The first payment was $8000, the second was also for $8000 one month apart. The first payments would prepay for a lot of these special software and photos that I was promised, and let me point out that I didnt receive. The company was terrible, bad communication, untimely updates and after one whole month there was nothing to show, but i was patient and tried really hard to work with them. They told me the entire website could be done in 2.5 months which now that I know better I know there is no way that could have been achieved but I know that the company realized that I am naiive. After a couple months of dealing with someone, all the employees began to quit the company. I couldnt reach anyone, their number didnt work, no emails answered. Please note that I used a VISA card which is why i hired them to begin with, is the ability to use VISA, thinking I had good protection if I didnt receive my services.
Anyway, after about 4 employees disappeared and while giving them good chances to make things right, I decided that I had it with that company. They of course wouldnt refund the money so I filed credit card disputes. The company being unethical as they are was actually trying to fight to keep the money a whole $8000 they wanted to keep for providing me with nothing but a few jpg images and a couple html pages, all together worth about $50 US dollars. Now, Chase is to be blamed because they had no clue about the dispute because it was technical in nature and they didnt understand the dispute. The thief at RupizMedia.com used an email that i sent to them after receiving one very tiny part of the project, tiny enough to be considered negligible, that says how pleased I am and sent that to the credit card company as proof that they did the work. The thing is, I knew the company was going to do that and I didnt warn the credit card company because i thought what a joke, who would actually buy that. Chase Dispute services just saw the email that they sent and was glad to see it because they didnt understand the case, so they were happy to see the email to come to a conclusion in a case they didnt understand, so they gave the company the money. Of course I am in the process of suing Chase Bank and I am in the process of filing complaints through the Federal Trade Commission for Chase Bank for their negligence (which Chase Bank has not answered to, because they cant, and now they are in big trouble for actually avoiding the government).
The lawyer I hired just thinks a big bank like Chase is just unbelieveable in how simplistic their dispute department is, and the evidence is there but they obviously has no clue what they were looking at. Web design terms may have been technical for the dispute respresentative so she really didnt know what she was looking for and why. There were documents that showed clear deadlines and milestones, the company couldnt show that they provided the services that they provided me in a contract as well. I have well documented proof of what I was supposed to receive from the company and by when, but Chase obviously didnt even see that. I sent them so much paperwork which is clearly obvious they didnt even read, or read carefully.
The key part to this is that a previous employee wrote me via SKYPE and told me upfront that the company is in a lot of money issues and are trying to see if they can manipulate the credit card to decline my dispute and award them the money ( I even sent this to Chase Bank, so isnt this a case where Chase do not care, or the dispute representative didnt read it). He told me exactly that the company is trying to scam me ( I have about 30 pages of conversation about the scammer company). He said that the company have not paid their employees in months and they all left, which is why all the emplpyees disappeared while working with me. Now, I am sure this company, Rupizmedia, and all their sister companies (see below for the list) will try to do the same for other customers because here is a good indication that it is easy to win cases like this even through the several layers of protection thet comes with using a VISA card.
So, here I am with an $8000 charge on my credit card that I am unable to pay because RupizMedia.com are dishonest and a cheat, and Chase Bank just gave $8000 to a scammer in India, just like that. I want the world to know and is doing whatever i can to spread the world that they are cheats, and Chase Bank are deliberately violating the fair credit billing act laws. I have reported this to the FBI, and pretty much every authority I can think of. These companies want to see multiple requests though before they take action.
I have reported Chase to the Federal Trade Commission and the Attorney General for my state and Chase has ignored everyone. they have not responded because they do not have a case and probably do not know what to say. I have also written to the Better Business Bureau and received no response from Chase at all about this matter. Obviously something is wrong here, the Federal Trade Commission is not to be ignored since they regulate them. All this is a clear indication that Chase Bank knows they made a terrible mistake and don't know how to answer.
I am so distraught over this and Chase has also unbelievable reduced my limit overnight and have me next payment due to be $2800. they did this because I was barely making the minimum payments each month while I contacted lawyers and the FTC and other government bodies. So, I am guessing reducing my credit limit is a good way to force me to pay the debt, or take a hit on my credit. So, not only did they charge me for services that I didn't receive, they have reduced my limits to less than the balance and are forcing me to pay the difference. Now I have something on my credit that says I am over the credit limit.
All the fair credit billing acts have been ignored for this disputes, even the one thta says they cant take longer than 90 days to do the the dispute investigation. Check this out, Chase took a whopping 7 months to investigate this claim and rebilled me months after they had refundd me the money.
It is absolutely astonishing to me to see this behavior from what may be the biggest credit card company in the country. I have had Chase for at least 5 years and never late, except for one or two times for maybe a day or more. I have perfect credit and now Chase is trying to ruin that.
I am warning folks out there, this is not one of the typical **Credit card companies are bad** post, this is a blatant and deliberate act from Chase to strip a consumer of their rights. I actually always think credit cards are given a hard time for nothing, but this experience has taught me so much. I will highly advise anyone to stay away from Chase and especially do not use their credit card to make a large purchase. This is an obvious case of how big companies like Chase don't care one bit about customers and they think they are even bigger than the laws out there. This is abuse from Chase bank that still leaves me in shock and bothers me every day. I have a dinky Macy's store credit card with the VISA attached and had to file the similar dispute with the same company, and it was flawless.
Whats even worse is that after Chase took 7 months to investigate the case they wrote to me telling me that they have no more dispute rights because the time passed. Keep in mind that by the time I got this, the money was already refunded to me months ago and was re-billed, after the time limit has passed. It was no fault of mine that there were no more dispute rights, after all they took more than twice the amount of time to close the case.
The rep's name is Latisha Gordon or Latisha Johnson (cant remember which one) and I hope she reads this report and knows the pain her negligent action caused a consumer.