Re: Got a story for ya

Quote
MamaRAMa

<snipped>

This happened to me just yesterday. It doesn't equate to your story RamBRO because I didn't lose any money.

(LOL!) I didn't lose any money. In fact, I made money on this incident.

This is kinda long...


So, I actually purchased $1,620 worth of Visa gift cards - the 3 $500 cards I mentioned...and a 4th card for $120.

As I previously-mentioned, 2 of the 3 $500 cards had been compromised (the 3rd was still good). I had the 4th gift card (the one valued at $120) to use to order flowers for the funeral. It, too, had been compromised - these scammers were quick!

Anyways, I contacted the gift card distributor/managing company and initiated the fraud claims process with them. It took about 60 days, but they eventually reimbursed me $1000 for the two $500 gift cards. Cool...I was able to take care of the widow first (which was my main priority). But they had yet to reimburse me on the smaller $120 gift card - telling me that this part of the claim was still under investigation and that they'd need 90 days to straighten things out. I thought this was odd as it was part of the same claim, but...do what you need to do, right?

Well, 90 days came and went...then 120...and 150 days. As each month went by, I'd send them requests for updates on their case. Each time, they kept responding that they were still investigating the matter. That is, until day 180 passed and they stopped responding to me altogether. I know that we're only talking about $120, but getting ignored really upset me.

So, I did what any self-respecting man might do for $120...I filed a small claims lawsuit against them for $711.28. This included the amount of the gift card ($120); compensation for the amount of time I spent during work hours over the previous six months (11 hours) to correspond with them on this matter ($550); and, the cost of fuel to drive to/from the courthouse to file the suit ($41.28). Again, this was a major pain to do as I had to serve the suit on the gift card distributor which is an online company based in Silicon Valley.

Anyways, within 48 hours of them being served...guess what? The company sends me an email advising me that they'd concluded their investigation and that they'd be reimbursing me the $120.

I'm thinking to myself, Great! But what about the rest of my claim? Because the company never asked me to withdraw the lawsuit, I simply kept cool and showed up to court on the designated trial date. Because I hadn't heard from them, I thought that they'd be a no-show and that I'd get a judgement verdict. But when they called my case, the company "appeared" via phone. I gave my spiel in front of the Judge followed by the company.

And what did they say? Well, they confirmed everything that I'd said and confirmed that they're constantly fighting security breaches from online hackers that result in the Visa/MC gift cards that they manage getting compromised.

But their defense as to why they took so long to reimburse me?

Well, they claimed that, although the $120 portion of my claim "fell through the cracks" on their end at some point, they nevertheless declined to respond to my requests for updates because I hadn't followed the other process to "escalate the matter to their customer service unit designated to handle such issues." I'm like, Huh? They went on to explain that this process was clearly laid out in the terms of the gift card service agreement (i.e. the fine print info that comes packaged along with the gift card...the info everyone throws away along with the packaging upon receiving said gift card) and that it was MY FAULT for not following it. They said that if I had, this whole thing would've been more than happy to address this matter several months ago.

Needless to say, the Judge was neither impressed nor amused by this argument.

Within the week, I received a letter from the Court - Judgement to the plaintiff in the amount of $591.28. When added with the $120 the company had already sent me...the Judge gave me what I'd asked for. Truth be told, had the company called me before the court date, I'd already decided that I'd settle for $500 (including the $120 gift card they'd already sent me).

That little trip we took up to Seattle a couple of weeks ago to catch the TNF game? No, we didn't pay for our travel or lodging with the settlement. But let's just say we ate pretty good while up there!

ETA: and BTW, mama...I know you got upset and hung up on her, but I think you let your scammer off easy. Time is money for these clowns. I'd have kept "your daughter" on the phone for an hour. You know...wanting to help her, but needing to find your purse...and then your wallet...and then your credit card in your wallet...but then needing to find your glasses to read the numbers on said credit cards. These clowns prey on people they believe to be elderly. Well, OK...they shouldn't be mad if we act like it!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/2021 06:53AM by ramBRO.