When is it a Scam?

Back in April, my husband who never gets calls from unknown people on his cell phone fielded a call from  Consumer Direct Warranty Services selling a warranty product from Vehicle Services, Inc. that cost us $495 and could have ended up costing much more. The caller told him his warranty was ending soon and to save on costs, would he like to sign up for a new warranty. Mind you, I manage all of the paperwork, financials, insurance, and related correspondence and he didn’t ask me. Actually, he didn’t tell me about it at all.

A box came in the mail that looked like something you might find with sample products like shampoo or dryer sheets in it. He had left it open and I was curious. Once I realized what the paperwork said, I called him to check what he signed up for but really thought it was at most a $39.95 problem.

The van in question is a 2000 and we wouldn’t put extensive repairs into it so a warranty extension was not something we needed. When I asked, he told me that he was trying to cancel it. Alarmed by then, I asked him to get the process moving and called to initiate the process myself. We were instructed to mail the package back and we followed the directions. We were assured we would get the money back.

As a precaution, I called my credit card provider and cancelled the card it was charged on to prevent future charges. The agreement my husband signed had a cancellation clause but the end costs could have been over $3000 according to MSNBC’s Herb Weisman’s research, much more than the car itself is probably worth. At the same time, I initiated an investigation with the credit card provider. They set up the paperwork and instructed me to work with the warranty company first. I also googled and found out I was not alone and tweeted and found that people were being targeted all over the country with these warranty calls regardless of whether they had warranties or not.

Normally, I wouldn’t post about a company in this way but we have done due diligence to try to get our money back, calling regularly to hear things like, “the computers are down”, “We should be able to refund your money next week”, etc.

The credit card provider’s investigation said we took too long to file the claim and would have needed a notice from Vehicle Services, Inc as to why they would not refund our money. We did initiate the process right away, but because we tried to work with the warranty company, we lost the battle to get the money back through the credit card.

If you thought you were safe from scams on your cell phone, think again. These are random calls that go to numbers whether you have a warranty or not. At this point, I doubt very much we will ever see this money again and in this economy, it was money we could have used to do much more.

My message in this is to beware, do due diligence and never say yes on the phone to anyone who you did not initiate business with. If it is a product you really want and need, get contact information and check it out before committing.

Investigations continue into these vehicle warranty companies, according to MSNBC and you are advised to call the Federal Trade Commission if you are bothered by these calls. By the way, my husband called them again yesterday and they said the payment department doesn’t take incoming calls. Wonder why?