Merchant fabricates Customer's Order Record
Power Tan
dispute against the charge with the credit card company. Both sides
of the dispute provide reason for its own legitimacy. The credit card
company will make the final decision. But in order to justify the
charge, the merchant placed false information onto my order record.
It then sent the record to the credit card company, which in turn
passed it to me as the merchant's explanation.
I have solid evidence for the fabrication, and like to bring this
matter to court. My questions are: 1. is this a worthy case for a
lawsuit? 2. if yes, which specialty of lawyers deals with this type
of cases?
I am living in Orlando, FL, so like to find a lawyer in this city.
Thank for your expertise and help.
mm
<tan...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Believing that a merchant overcharged my credit card, I filed a
>dispute against the charge with the credit card company. Both sides
>of the dispute provide reason for its own legitimacy. The credit card
>company will make the final decision. But in order to justify the
>charge, the merchant placed false information onto my order record.
IAmNotALawyer Do you have a copy of the original order? Did they
deliver the additional merchandise they falsely listed? Will they
take it back, even if you have to pay the shipping cost? If so, it
would likely be worth doing that and perhaps suing them later for the
shpping cost.
When they delivered the stuff, did you or your agent sign for it? Do
you have a copy of that? Do the items on that match what they
actually delivered?
Even if they claim you ordered it, what proof do they have that they
delivered it? Do they claim they have already delivered it?
>It then sent the record to the credit card company, which in turn
>passed it to me as the merchant's explanation.
>
>I have solid evidence for the fabrication, and like to bring this
>matter to court.
Before you do that, why not send the evidence to the credit card
company? Do so before they have made their decision. Didn't the
letter they sent you say something about your providing evidence, and
a deadline date to do so? (I don't know first hand. I've never
disputed a charge.)
> My questions are: 1. is this a worthy case for a
>lawsuit?
If you're in the right and they're lying or mistaken, it is. If
it's only 5 dollars, I think it can be worthy but not necessarily
worth your time.
>2. if yes, which specialty of lawyers deals with this type
>of cases?
General practice lawyers. Contract lawyers. Is this more than the
3000 or 5000 or ???? dollar limit of Small Claims Court in your state?
Power Tan
was rejected because I didn't quote adequately. Let me tell the story
in a more detailed manner.
I am living in Orlando, Florida. The merchant company is in
Cincinnati, Ohio. I made the order online in response to an
advertisement for a medical supplement. The price was only $5.95.
Unlike all other orders I had made online, this merchant didn't send
me an email to confirm the order.
Several days after the ordering, the merchandise came. But in the
envelope there was no invoice listing the price, company name and
contact information. Then came another package about a month later.
Quantity of the medicine doubled. But again, there was no invoice.
I knew there had to be a charge, thus wanted to return the
merchandise, but didn't know the company's return policy.
Then came the credit card statement. $79.90 was listed as the
price. But the merchant's phone number was not listed in it. I was
still unable to contact it. Therefore, I Immediately disputed the
transaction to the CC company, which promised to investigate the
matter.
About a month later, the CC company mailed me a letter that the
merchant sent to the cc company in response to my dispute. Its phone
number was listed in a page of the letter. Only at that time that I
became aware of its contact information. So I immediately called and
cancelled the order. An Account Specialist did accordingly, and sent
me an email to confirm the cancellation. A cancellation number was
listed in the email. Here the date is important. It was Nov. 3, 2009.
In its letter, the merchant said that before I was asked to pay for
the product with credit card, I was notified of its policy that it
would send the product to me every two months with a charge to my
credit card of $79.90. And it had presented me of its contact
information and return and cancellation policy.
In my rebuttal, I told the CC company that the merchant did nothing as
it claimed to. This is the reason why it didn't send me an email to
confirm the order. Because if it had, it would have to confirm not
only the $5.95 order, but also the $79.90 bi-monthly commitment, and
knowledge of its contact information and return policy. But the
reason that I didn't cancel the order or return the product was that I
was not told anything.
Next comes to the fraud of the merchant. In a page in its letter to
the CC company, it said that I canceled the order on Oct. 8. As
mentioned above, I didn't cancel it until Nov. 3 when I got its
contact information from the CC company. After canceling the order,
the merchant sent me an email to confirm the cancellation. There was a
cancellation number in the email.
If, as the merchant claims, that I did have cancelled the order on
Oct. 8, the merchant should have sent me an email to confirm the
cancellation, including an cancellation number. I bet it cannot
produce evidence for its claim.
Why, then, did the merchant fabricate the cancellation? It intended
to prove that I knew its contact information throughout and other
things it claims to have told me, including the bi-monthly payment of
$79.90 and cancellation policy.
As said, the amount is not big, only $79.90. But the merchant did
fabricate information in the ordering record. I like to listen to
more of you advice. Thanks for coming to this point.