If you are a Verison user - or not

[wdfifteen]

$1 charges appeared on both my AMEX card and my Visa card this month. The vendor is Subscribe Me Inc. 212-302-4263.
I called the place twice (once for each card), the same male voice answered "Hello" each time. No "Hello, XYZ Inc., how can I help you" or anything professional sounding.
When I called about the AMEX charge two weeks ago he said I must have signed up for some free coupon deal. This sounded right, because a few weeks ago two coupon companies installed email accounts on my iPad.
I called this morning when I discovered the charge on my VISA the same guy answered
"Hello." Again he offered to take the charge off, no argument. But this time he said he got the card from my phone carrier. "Verison?" I asked. He said, "We work with several different phone carriers." In the end he asked for a callback number, and like an idiot I gave him my phone number. I supposed it is being sold to a few hundred call lists now.
I figure there were one or more of three things going on here.
1. He got my card numbers somehow and was testing to see if he could use them before hitting the account with big charges
2. He got the numbers and was just trying to hit a lot of cards with $1 charges hoping some people would not notice
3. This was a way to harvest phone numbers to sell
It's a frikkin' jungle out there.

[GH85Carrera]

Yep, I have been using Quicken for my financial accounts since 1989. I don't remember how long I have been downloading my checking account, credit cards and investments into Quicken. I then look over the accounts. Over the years I have seen a few weird charges on credit cards that when investigated were bogus. I don't bother calling the vendor, I usually just call my CC company and tell them that one is bogus and they just send a new card.

Watch your accounts!

[legion]

I put all of my CC receipts in a pile. When I get my statement, I check them off. I've been doing this for years and am very religious about it. Any charges not in the pile are charges I did not make. I've never found a bogus charge yet, but if I do, I will have 100% confidence in contesting it.

[ckelly78z]

What my wife and I have noticed here lately is that.....if you don't call back for a refund, and go through the whole process, they won't refund, this holds true for rebates as well. She had to spend some quality time on the phone trying to arrange for an advertised $100 rebate on a recent gun purchase, which I question of just how many people will actually follow through with the hassle.

Most people will just say it's only $1, but when you are speaking about the potential of millions of accounts, someone, somewhere is siphoning off a huge bankroll one dollar at a time. Like you said, selling phone #s, and setting up a potential account for a large hit may also be in play.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

...which I question of just how many people will actually follow through with the hassle.....

Depends, on a $100 rebate may get as high as 50%

$10 rebate, typically single digit redemption.

Also kind of depends on how difficult, read, how many steps there are to the process.

The more hoops you make the consumer jump through the lower the redemption attempt rate and the fewer that actually get issued because the consumer missed a condition of the redemption requirements.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

What my wife and I have noticed here lately is that.....if you don't call back for a refund, and go through the whole process, they won't refund, this holds true for rebates as well. She had to spend some quality time on the phone trying to arrange for an advertised $100 rebate on a recent gun purchase, which I question of just how many people will actually follow through with the hassle.

I follow through just on principle. I don't care if it's one cent.

It's a different subject, but you have to watch rebates. Look at the fine print. When most of us think "rebate" we think about getting a check in the mail. Often the "rebate" is a gift card that's only good at the store where you got the rebate. I bought my mom a lawnmower at Sears and the "rebate" was a $50 gift card for some lawn care company to come spray poison on my lawn. Totally useless.

[Por_sha911]

I bought some Bosch Iridium plugs for the daily driver. $2 rebate per plug. Scanned everything I sent. Sure enough, they never replied and when I called they claimed I didn't submit a valid claim. E-mailed them the scans.
"Oh shoot I guess we have to pay you after all..." Got my big $8 check shortly thereafter. Like others have said, the principle...

BTW, don't they spell it Verizon?

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

I bought some Bosch Iridium plugs for the daily driver. $2 rebate per plug. Scanned everything I sent. Sure enough, they never replied and when I called they claimed I didn't submit a valid claim. E-mailed them the scans.
"Oh shoot I guess we have to pay you after all..." Got my big $8 check shortly thereafter. Like others have said, the principle...

BTW, don't they spell it Verizon?

Ah crap! I knew I forgot about something!
You just reminded me that I bought the same plugs and forgot to send the rebate form in. Dang it!

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

I bought some Bosch Iridium plugs for the daily driver. $2 rebate per plug. Scanned everything I sent. Sure enough, they never replied and when I called they claimed I didn't submit a valid claim. E-mailed them the scans.
"Oh shoot I guess we have to pay you after all..." Got my big $8 check shortly thereafter. Like others have said, the principle...

BTW, don't they spell it Verizon?

Good for you for holding their feet to the fire.
Yes they spell it Verizon. So should I, I guess.