Complaint Review: Specialty Mechandise Corporation SMC - Simi Valley California

This company is totally deceiving to the consumer. My experience with this has cost me several hundred dollars that I should not have been charged. Let me tell you what my story is.

First off I signed up online which is a total mistake for anyone. Their website makes it so easy to just sign up for either the monthly payment or the whole payment of $314.95. I chose the monthly plan and continued to the confirmation screen. I noticed that my address was spelled incorrect so I clicked their little back button to correct but what I didn't notice is that it defaults your plan choice back to the full payment plan. The confirmation screen does not tell you what plan so unknowingly I clicked submit and found that they charged me the full $314.95 rather than the $39.95 that I had signed up for. Now this was on a VISA card that was also a bank debit card. My account only had $150 at the time which should have well paid for the monthly cost, but since they charged me for the whole thing, you know what happened. Yes, my bank account went into overdraft so I was now charged an extra $34 by my bank for overdraft fees.

Ok this was only the beginning. I had also wrote a few small check also this week totalling $74 but the checks had not cleared as of yet. And guess what? Now those go through and again since SMC put my account into overdraft, I was charged another $34 for each of those checks as well. This was a direct result of SMC charging me for something that I did not order.

At this point now I have been charged a total of $102 just in overdraft fees from my bank, all as a direct result of the hold that SMC put on my account for the $314.95. So now my bank is showing a -$266.95. I called SMC several times to get this corrected but it took a little over a week for them to refund the difference of $275.00 that they overcharged me to begin with and did not get anything for the overdrafts that they caused.

During that week my paycheck, which is direct deposited went into my account which was eaten up by the hugh -$266 deficit that was waiting for it there.

So now I'm left with a meager $39 to live on for the week. This includes the normal cost of $40 gas to get to a from work, groceries and bills. Needless to say, I have a family of 3 and could not go hungry so I couldn't get gas and had to buy what few groceries I could get. (mostly those 97cent frozen dinners at Wal-Mart, you know the kind). So I had no gas and had to miss a couple days work. So now I've missed a couple days work which totals another $128 that I have lost, and Again, this is a direct result of SMC charging me for something that I did not order.

Total to this point that I am in the red for is $505. All this for me just wanting to sign up for a simple $39.95 a month dream of hopefully starting my own business.

They did finally come around a week after the fact with a refund of the $275 difference that they overcharged me which they plainly admitted was their fault. This still does not relieve the stress of all the other problems that I have had. I feel that I am still out $230 for the bounced check fees and because of lost wages from not being able to even afford gas for my car to get to work.

During that second week, I received my membership package in the mail which I immediately carried to the post office and sent back at a cost of $10. I also mailed the cancellation letter that same day they require to cancel an account and also faxed a copy just for good measure. This was all done well within the 30 day money back guarantee that they claim to offer.

I called them today to confirm that they had received it last Monday, which the USPS has confirmed it to be delivered, and they say that it can take another 30 days to process the cancellation request. In the mean time, the payments will continue to withdraw from my bank account. So I am somewhat at their mercy hoping that this gets cancelled.

What it all boils down to is this. It didn't take them but 5 seconds to withdraw the original $314.95 from my bank account, why does it take over a month to cancel an account?

They do not make it easy to get out either. They do not have any way to cancel through phone or website. It has to be done in writing which takes several days due to sending by snail mail. Secondly, when you call their customer service, they can't even cancel over the phone, even though you've verified all your information. It still has to be done by mail which I now find a little unprofessional.

I feel that they have a hard time keeping customers so they want to make it as hard as possible by making you jump through all these hoops just to get anything done. The fact that you can't even get any information about what they sell or what they have to offer without becoming a member first is evasive and sounds like they are hiding something. Of course this is after the fact but now that I know, I just wanted to make sure others know and don't get sucked into the same situation I did.

Because of this, I feel that SMC is nothing but a SCAM and that the company is dealing in borderline illegal activity. I think that the way they treat customers and the rude attitudes that their customer service reps have should when you talk to them is not in my opinion any business that I want to do business with ever!

Shawn

Orlando, Florida
U.S.A.

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