HOME

Credit Card Scams and how to avoid them for merchants.


This is a story of our small hot tub company that was victimized by seemingly nice people, who had a programmed agenda to try and get huge discounts our our extremely nice spas:

The first one was named Erik from Seattle.  He contacted me and seemed very strange from the beginning.  He wanted me to send all my emails by text and not in html format.  I found out later that he was planing on using the email logs he was keeping to extort from us.  He never said any of his extremely nasty comments in writing.  (He told me I would be sorry if I didn't give in to his demands) But it is obvious from his email where he asks for the Super Custom Fallsburg for around $4500 dollars, when it sold for nearly $9500 that year with a full package.
The simple version is this.  These guys use a credit card to buy their high ticket item. Then when the item arrives, they contact the credit card company and ask for a refund, because of several bogus reasons.  They never allow the merchant a chance to correct or warranty the problem.
But we tried as hard as we could to "make them happy".  Making them a satisfied customer was not the issue. They wanted to keep the "dissatisfied acting" going until they ripped us off. These guys missed their calling, because they can drop into fantasy rolls easily. They sould have been actors.  The common roll that sociopaths take is the "victim". If you get around these people you will feel bad, becasue they abuse you so much.

Erik demanded $4500 off or he would charge us for storage.   What sort of parents does this guy have that would allow this kid to do this to others?  We came and picked up the spa so fast, he could not belive it. Then we gave him all his money back just as fast.  I would never want to have to deal with an SOB like that for the duration of any warranty.  Because I called him on his scam, he put up this blog about how we were so horrible and he was so dramatic, like a friggin drama queen.  He sounds like a woman on crack.  He cost us over $2000 in shipping and losses. And he kept some of our products.  He is basically a thief and thinks that is OK.   So, what exactly did we do wrong?
NOTHING!  We gave him all his money back, so he would go away.  It turns out that he probably was paid to do this by another spa company, because other spa companies were helping him to spread the word.  This guy is evil and that is all.

The second one was Andy from AL.  This guy was just as repulsive.  He came to my store in Colorado and wet tested the Fallsburg.  Anyone who tries that spa will buy it.  He kept asking me for some sort of deal on the phone after that.  It just so happened that we had a one year old completely refurbished Super Custom Fallsburg that I could sell for about 1200 less than a new one.  Because I had been though this scam before, thanks to Erik,  when he started his scam, I kept his money for 10 months while I personally went out to look at this spa that was supposed to be so bad.  He said that the spa was dropped off the trailer when it was delivered.  He said that the wooden corner peices were broken because of this.  That there was structual damage to the spa.

Here is what I don't understand:  If the spa was dropped on the trailer and he was standing right there, why did he accept delivery of it? That is pretty fishy? He waited a long time before he started his complaints. That is another sign of a scam. This makes it look like we were not taking care of things for a longer time, when actually he never called us to "fix" anything under warranty.   (Erik kept us away from his spa for nearly two weeks, while he monkeyed with it.)

Because of Eric, I personally went to take care of this spa for Andy.

When I got there in July, (hotter than hell) I examined the entire spa for over 2 hours. (This jerk didn't even offer me a drink of water, while I was sweating my ass of working on his spa!)  I took off all the panels, removed all the extereror insulation, checked every piece of wood in the framework.  There was nothing wrong with the spa, but one air injector that had silicone in it.  It ran perfectly.  The control needed a temp calibration that the owners are supposed to do, but I did it for him. 

The redwood corner pieces were cracked because of my "non thinking" driver  put straps over the redwood and ractcheed them way too hard.  The idiot Andy said; "it was damaged when it was dropped".  The straps are never to be placed over the 1/4 inch redwood but to be only placed where there are frames. The cracked wooden corners were a strapping error.  It is physically impossible to crack the corners even by dropping the spa from vertical to horizontal with free fall.   So, we ordered a new corner peice and were waiting for it.  At that time getting a redwood part took six to eight weeks.
 
The jets were all discolored because this idiot put harsh pool chemicals in the spa and way overdosed the water with very concentrated pool shock and pool chlorine while using our copper ions and did not adjust the pH which was extremely low.  You never use pool cholorine and pool shock with ions because it stains plastic.  This combination is like an etching and staining acid bath. Andy purposely ruined the jets. Even so, we brougth out a complete set of new jets, and when my serivice guy was there replacing the jets, the ozone generator that Andy never ordered in the first place, the radio and the corner pieces, Andy refused to let the service person fix it.  Hmm??  We addressed all of his concernes and still that was not what he wanted.

Also, when I arrived I found the door to the stereo wide open and the radio was soaked in the strong rains of AL. That was Andy's problem that he caused.  Sabotage is part of this scam.  (Erik ran his spa with the Magic Valve closed on the heater and made sure he ruined something so he could complain about it. The service teck found the valve shut.)
Andy's spa is in Norht Carolina now for nearly 9 years. 

This guy is supposed to be an engineer, but he knows nothing about chemicals and structural engineering.(?) He was trying to ruin the spa on purpose.  

Here is what he demanded and would not take anything less.  He wanted me to build him a brand new spa and deliver it free of charge.
He bought a used spa and was planning this scam all along.  I don't understand how people can even remotely be like this, and then they have the gumption to play victim?  I hope they enjoy where they are going.