Scams of the 21st Century!

It seems we have increasingly pervasive rot out there in the form of liars, cheats, and confidence gamers.

What happens when a little guy pulls a big one? If he gets caught, he gets thumped.

What happens if you lie to the government? If you get caught, you goto jail. Unless you are Hillary, of course...

What happens when a big guy pulls a little one? Nothing! Read the T-mobile story below for more proof!

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When is sex not sex? When a US President says it isn't!
When is cash back not cash? When "American" Express sends you scrip good only at Costco, and says it is cash!
When is a rebate not a rebate? When T-mobile executives order rebate company to reject it and lie about it!

Now we have a "cash rebate" that is neither cash nor a rebate, and a "family owned" company that says it is good and proper.

What is the difference between these scoundrels and the con-game running 409 scamsters?
I would say it is a matter of racketeering. These guys aim to pilfer small amounts where the 409 guys want just a few big pay days.
These guys calculatingly cheat hundreds of victims out of amounts too small to draw much attention.
The Organized part of the Crime makes nickel-and-dime acts yield good money.

Now today, we have a masterful deception. It goes like this:

Cash Rebates from PrepaidOnline.Com!

What is wrong with that you say? Well at GPA, Inc, (http://www.gpa.net) DBA

PrepaidOnline.Com, cash rebates are neither cash nor rebates!

How can that be? First you get a come-on with the offer above. {The BAIT}

Then you have a request for the rebate: "Per the terms of your offer, I have made a qualifying purchase. Order number is xxxxxx. Please send along my Cash Rebate as you have offered in the email."

PPO: Your $5.00 cash rebate has been posted to your account and can be used at anytime! {The SWITCH}

Tszefr: Since you offered the $5 as a Cash Rebate, I presume this is just an error on your part. Credit to my so-called account is neither cash nor a rebate. Such a credit is not what you offered and is therefore unacceptable. Please either mail me the check for $5 or issue the rebate back to my charge card.

PPO: There is no error on our part, we issue a $5.00 rebate in the form of a cash discount credit to a customers account which they can then apply to a future purchase. Because we are the issuer of the promotion, we get to define how it works.

Tszefr: The promo I accepted specified "cash rebate," not "discount credit to a customers account." Your substitution is completely unacceptable. If you had offered "Future Credit" there would be no objection. "Cash rebate" and "future credit" are two completely different things. ... Your offer of account credit or scrip fails this definition too. I do not accept scrip where cash was offered. As previously requested, I expect and demand my cash rebate as described. Convertible to money and usable anywhere, not just in some account that I cannot even get to. ... I executed my end of your deal: I bought and paid for product. Because of your "cash rebate" offer, I spent more than I otherwise would have. Now it is your turn to do what you advertised and issue the five bucks in a form consistent with what you offered. At this point I am growing weary with companies that refuse to make good on their offers. What is it called when you offer one thing and substitute something else? I trust you will take the high road and issue my "cash rebate" in some usable form. Account credit is not what I bought.

PPO: The rebate terms that we offer to all customers including you, stands and will not be changed. Your $5.00 rebate was already been applied to your account...

Finally, we go to see if the alleged "cash rebate" exists. Lo and behold, it isn't even denominated as money but as Points, and usable only when buying more product.

This you see further demonstrates the treacherous behaviour that signifies this seller.

My friends, if you you want to have a Bait & Switch confidence game played on you, by all means do business with these people! But if you expect "cash rebate" to be what is says, any such offer from this outfit is not worth the electrons to get it to you because it is a sham, and they stand by its counterfeit nature!

Sham Sham, a.:  False; counterfeit; pretended; feigned; unreal; as, a sham fight.
     [1913 Webster]

Rebate Fraud!

We have chronicled various acts of customer abuse, incompetency, and overcharging. This one take the cake though.

First let's review some rebate examples briefly:

Several years ago I bought an Acer USB 4x CDRW from Best Buy. Came with a $40 rebate. Only took me 18 months to get it, but I did. As a result of the experience I didn't set foot in a Best Buy for many months and have yet to buy another Acer product. The original CDRW still runs though and I still use it. Needless to say, we are meticulous in applying for rebates owed. Periodically if one gets to be late I visit Fry's and complain, letting them know that the owed rebate is delinquent and my policy on such matters is, no more shopping here until I get my check!

Fast forward to 2007... Earlier this year, our star of this show, T-mobile, issued a marvelous offer a prepaid Nokia 6030 phone. $30 plus tax, with free shipping, a $25 airtime card, a $30 mail-in rebate, and yet another $30 from a straight-up referral site called Deal King. It all happened too, as offered. Like a T-mobile rebate I did a couple of years ago, it happened within about 2 months. Punctual and exemplary handling of an MIR.

Those days are over though, and I see my story is not the only one. Rob at http://tmobilerebate.blogspot.com/ has one with a happier ending.

In June 2007, the same prepaid Nokia 6030 phone was offered at $30 plus tax, with free shipping, a $25 airtime card, a $30 mail-in rebate. No referrer but still a nice deal, right?

WRONG! That rebate form is only an illusion. Let us just say it is fraudulent. The victim can do everything timely including purchase in appropriate time window, not from one of the stipulated invalid sellers (Sam's, Target, etc), activate and use, send the form and the bar code, etc. We have not been subject to any outright abuse from Young America or from T-mobile. Only refusal, denial, and a pack of lies.

The claim was acknowledged as timely received, and every condition was met but it is still rejected.

We have heard a number of lies, including
1: t-mobile.com is not an authorized retail outlet
2: You got your rebate in the price of the phone
3: We sent you a rejection letter
4: You did not qualify for the rebate
5: You got it cheap enough so we don’t owe you
6: It is not valid in conjunction with any other promo
7: We never offered any such rebate.

Something like “free shipping” could easily be interpreted as a promo, so ALL T-mobile rebates can be rejected at their rebate processor's whim, with or without orders from T-mobile. How on earth they can say their own store is not authorized is unknown. And saying they did not offer such a rebate all the while the form is available from T-mobile, for the world, is preposterous.

At this point we have an unresolved BBB complaint, two letters from Executive Response (one a response to the BBB and one a response to message to the CEO), an Attorney General's Fraud division complaint entered, and an FTC complaint. The refusal to honor their own rebate appears to be coming from the highest offices of T-mobile USA, not from the rebate processor. Considering the number of similar issues out there, this one looks ripe for a Class Action barrister. After pursuing Acer for 18 months and prevailing, surely they don't think we are done do they? Not before porting out and pursuing every venue we can find to get some justice.

Meanwhile, if you see a mail-in rebate that says T-mobile on it, consider it to be worse than worthless. I think it is fair to ask, "Do any T-mobile rebate claims get fulfilled?"

Fidelity Update

Well, you know how it took an act of Congress to get Fidelity to behave?

The new news is,

Even with an act of Congress, Fidelity will not behave!

Yes Institutional customer, we will mail your quarterly statement at the end of the month.

End of the month!!! What is this? Other financial institutions mail statements out shortly after a period closes. You can bet if you were an individual customer, Fidelity would do likewise. But since yours is an Institutional account under MHT Corp rules, they can and will take up to a full month before mailing it out! No doubt they will point the finger at MHT Corp too.

What to do? Here is my recommendation:

If you have a choice of what company handles your investments, don't choose Fidelity because they exhibit crass disregard for customers. If you don't mind this kind of treatment, Fidelity is your company!