Etwana
Fresno,#2Consumer Suggestion
Tue, December 14, 2004
I admire your courage and follow up. The reason they take threats seriously is because they get a lot of them! The State needs to know what's happening IN ADVANCE for exactly the reason you stated, if they don't act preemptively, then they'll get a whole heap of complaints later. That's the pattern across the English speaking world! I'd like to give you some more ammo to share with the Governor's office, but out of respect for the Ripoff Reports preference not to post links I'll provide you instead with some Google search terms that should yield gold: 1. Forbes Imergent 2. State Washington Storesonline 3. State Maine Storesonline 4. State California Storesonline 5. Kron imergent 6. pittsburgh channel storesonline I have so many many more. I'll be happy to provide them if needed. I've already contacted Channel 11 Alive in Atlanta to gives them a heads up that our friends are in town. You may want to follow up with time/place specifics since I could not furnish these. Do this via email (from their site) or call. You'll want to contact William J. Liss. He serves as Financial, Legal and CALL FOR ACTION Consumer Editor (Attorney) for WXIA-Television News, (NBC), Atlanta. He airs specialized business and consumer reports five mornings and evenings a week and CALL FOR ACTION Consumer Reports on early evening newscasts. Refer Mr. Liss to this website. Some of the search terms above will bring up past TV EXPOSE's. This is a hot story, he should be interested. With the help of concerned consumers like you, we can put an end to these egregious abuses. Keep them out of Georgia! I'm betting they'll end up rueing the day they messed with you!
Rev. lauren
Roswell,#3Author of original report
Mon, December 13, 2004
HI Etawana... Thank you for your suggestion. At 12:37 PM. ET today, I called StoresOnline and asked who I could speak to about a refund of both the $20.00 as well as getting back my credit card sales slip for SmartShares Vacations. I was passed to Heidi who at first argued with me about getting a refund saying they don't give them, that if I were to look at the receipt it says no refunds. I said on the contrary, that we have 3 days within which to cancel. She also said they wouldn't do a thing about the credit card slip. Even though I told 3 times that her I paid the $20.00 in cash, she kept on telling me it would take some time for my check to get there and clear before they would potentially send me a refund. I then asked for her supervisor. I was passed to someone named Shelly Taylor. Shelly told me it would take about 2 1/2 weeks to issue me a refund. SHe also said they wouldn't do a thing about SmartShares Vacations, that they were a different company, but that I would get my refund as soon as the paperwork came in. I told her point blank that if I didn't get my refund that I would show up at the conference with my 3 kids and make a stink in front of everyone about what a rip off company they are, so she of course threatened to have security there to throw me out. She said she "we take threats very seriously". I Said "Good you should because I am not kidding. I will not allow you to rip me off and I want my refund. I want you to tell me precisely how long it will take MAXimum before I get my refund." So she hemmed and hawed and tried saying things like "well it should be proccessed within 2 weeks." I said "that wasn't a good enough answer, I don't care when it will be proccessed by... I want to know when I will receive it by." We argued a few more times. She kept on insisting that there was nothing she could do to speed it up or to get me my credit card charge slip back regarding the vacation thing, even though it was StoresOnline's employees that had it in-hand. She tried a few more statements like that before finally saying that I will receive the refund of $20.00 by Dec. 30, 2004. I asked again and she said she guarentees that I will have my refund check by Dec. 30, 2004. I thanked her and hung up. At 1:02 PM. ET, I then called SmartShares Vacations (800) 835-9534 to ask them about getting my credit card sales slip back that had the charge for $98.00. I spoke to a person named Joe Kuhmes. I told him that I was not supposed to be charged until Jan. 11, 2005, and that instead of being charged and refunded or anything else that I would just like to have my credit card sales slip back. HE asked me if I still had my receipt to which I replied that I did and intially he said I would need to send it to him to get any kind of help. When I said I wouldn't do that because it was my only proof, he conceeded and said I could send a copy. I then suggested if that was the case, if they had a fax machine and I would fax it to them. HE agreed to that. He gave me a hard time about giving me my original sales slip back however. Three times he asked me why I wanted it back because "they keep it on file" and three times I told him that I have already been a victim of fraud and that there was no need for them to keep it. I said "if you aren't charging my card for anything there is no need to keep my credit card slip or number on file." He finally said he would get me my slip back. I then went through the same run around regarding a 'when will I receive it.' HE said it should take no more than a week or so if they get the paperwork by Thur. of this week. I said I want a guarentee. He then said I would receive it by Wed. of next week. I also wrote that on the original receipt that I faxed over to him at 1:27 PM. ET. I wrote that I wanted to cancel the contract as well as to get my original sales slip back along the bottom of the receipt and I called him back at 1:28 PM ET to verify that he received the fax. He said he did and once again I verified that I would receive the original in-hand by Wed. 12/22/04. He said I would. I thanked him and hung up. At2:02 PM ET, I then took your suggestion and called Consumer Afairs here in GA. The woman (Miss Lucas) who answered the phone at first seemed confused as to why I was calling since I didn't file a complaint nor was I planning on doing so (not until I see if they return my money/sales slip or not). She didn't understand why you would have me call 'just to give them info.' After explaining the weekend however, she then said perhaps they could use the information after all and asked me for my contact information. She thought it odd that they had us pay for day 2 of what was supposed to be 'free' information. Or that they were collecting money for 'another company.' I mentioned that I have no doubt that someone within the next couple of months will be in touch with them regarding this company, the fraudulent practices, deception and otherwise. When I told her they were going to be in town all week (yes I even got the alternate days they were hosting the conference), she was pleased and said they might be in contact with me before the week was up. I offered to give them my tickets so they could sit in the sales pitch. That is where it stands right now. I will let you know if I get either my money or the credit card sales slip back. I hope this helps someone else. Regards, Rev. Lauren
Etiwana
Fresno,#4Consumer Suggestion
Mon, December 13, 2004
Rev. Lauren Congratulations. I commend you on doing your homework before signing a contact with Storesonline/Imergent. I suggest that you contact the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs in the State of Georgia. This company is very slippery, and one of the hardest pieces of information to find out about them is where the "next meeting" will be. Notice that they post no schedules on their website. You have this vital piece of information. Share it with the Governor's Office, they just might be interested in dropping by to observe. Now that you know what you know, think about all of those poor souls who will be bilked out of their money next Saturday! Contact information follows: http://www2.state.ga.us/gaoca/ Joseph B. Doyle Administrator 2 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Suite 356 Atlanta, GA 30334 PHONE: 404.651.8600 (Metro Area) 800.869.1123 (GA only, outside Metro Area) FAX: 404.651.9018