Caveat emptor, my friends, if you should consider "joining" the Handyman Club as I did.
They put out a nice little magazine. I will give them that. Unfortunately, though, they also like to take advantage of folks with their "how-to" books (and from complaints I saw online, with fees for tools they never deliver). I returned the first book, decided I didn't need any more of them and canceled. Then they sent another one. I sent that one back, too. Only thing is, at the direction of the USPS, I marked it "refused" and turned it in at the post office. BIG MISTAKE. HUGE!
Had I spent $3 or $4 on postage as I did with the first ... my nightmare might have ended. (Of course, they would probably have just sent ANOTHER book.) B*stards. I wrote to them, put notes on my account messages and tried calling them many times. In the end, they siced a collection agency on me. Yeah. It doesn't seem right but they wore me down. I caved.
Despite the date, this is NOT a joke. I mailed this letter with payment last week.
Enclosed is payment for $29.98 for the defrauding organization HANDYMAN CLUB OF AMERICA. Here’s hoping your client chokes on it.
Why? Because they are NOT owed this money.
The item generating this “debt” was returned to them, unopened and REFUSED more than a year ago. A previous item, which WAS opened and for which I paid return postage, was likewise returned at which point the company was told to CANCEL and send nothing further. They ignored this direction.
What your closing line should read is: “This is an attempt to collect on a fraud.” Your client is a sham operation at best. Had I done a better job of checking them out BEFORE joining them, I’d have found that out. Shame on me.
Shame on them for continuing to perpetuate a fraud. This “debt” was from a book that was returned to them in February 2012. It’s a book I should NEVER have received because when I returned the previous book they sent, I had CANCELED!! I followed up with them by phone and in writing multiple times, all to no avail.
I know I sent it back. They know it, too. By now, they’ve probably used this same book to rope in some other poor sucker. Who knows how many times they’ve “sold” that very same book. And now, they’ve used their scam to help your company line its pockets. Shame on you, too.
You are receiving this payment for two reasons: 1) I refuse to let a $30 scam damage my credit and 2) I want your company TO STOP CALLING ME. STOP! Please pay attention as this, along with a canceled check, will prove that our communication is at an end.
You have your damned money, regardless of the fact that you don’t deserve it any more than the dishonest lot you represent. Calling my house multiple times a day and hanging up is not only childish, it’s harassment! CALL ME AGAIN AND I WILL SUE YOU on that point and report you to local authorities.
Hopefully, you listen and comprehend better than your worthless client.
A non-professional,faux home improvement blog dedicated to the insane yet diligent do-it-yourselfer,thoroughly peppered with random views and thoughts from me
2 comments:
I had the idea that if you tell a collection agency to stop contacting you, they had to stop. So I looked it up:
http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0149-debt-collection
However, I wonder if those people are actually a collection agency as opposed to some part of the handyman club, since they seem to be running a scam. If it were me, I'd write a letter of complaint to the FTC or their state attorney general (scroll down in the link.)
I got phone calls from a collection agency some years ago because a doctor's office said I had not canceled an appointment in time (I had), so they wanted me to fork out $25. I told them I had canceled it (I think I wrote a letter) and they stopped calling.
These people sound like unethical scum though (hang up calls) so maybe you were just well rid of them.
Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. What Karen Anne said. Grrrrrr.
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