billbenson
09-17-2008, 02:40 AM
This is kind of similar to the ebay ripoff thread, but kind of different as well. I got a PO from a company in alaska for just under 6k. We do business up there for the oil drilling industry, so its not an unusual PO. No terms were stated on the PO. That's unusual. We went back and forth on the quote changing quantities, parts etc. That's normal.
So I did a D & B on the company after receiving the quote and they showed frequent late payments. Hmmm. Went to the website in the last half of the email address of the person I have been dealing with ie if its bob@gm.com you can type in www gm.com and see who the company is. It was a hotmail sort of address.
Then I went to google maps and did the street view thing and looked at that. It showed a building that housed either retail or offices. Could have been a ups store type of establishment there as well. I couldn't read the names of the companies on the bilboard out front or on the front of the individual stores, but none had names short enough to be this company.
It probably is a legitimate order from someone like me, trying to appear like a bigger company. Probably reselling to the oil industry. Certainly I'm not going to take terms from them, but do I want to take their credit card.
This relates to the ebay thread. The merchant is always the one at risk unless you have a bunch of money behind you. If I take a credit card order from them and they dispute it, its my responsibility to prove that the order was delivered and was the correct product. I've been through this probably 10 times in the last 12 months. It's like going to traffic court. The merchant is guilty until proven innocent. I could stand to loose about $4k if they simply say they didn't receive it or order it.
I have very little fraud in my product line and have usually just gotten different credit cards to charge. The engineer that buys something in the field doesn't pass the receipt on to accounting and accounting simply contests the charge because they have no record of it. Private individuals can do the same thing. Costs me time and money.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do on this one. I may have to ask for a check or wire transfer. It's a nice order to...
So I did a D & B on the company after receiving the quote and they showed frequent late payments. Hmmm. Went to the website in the last half of the email address of the person I have been dealing with ie if its bob@gm.com you can type in www gm.com and see who the company is. It was a hotmail sort of address.
Then I went to google maps and did the street view thing and looked at that. It showed a building that housed either retail or offices. Could have been a ups store type of establishment there as well. I couldn't read the names of the companies on the bilboard out front or on the front of the individual stores, but none had names short enough to be this company.
It probably is a legitimate order from someone like me, trying to appear like a bigger company. Probably reselling to the oil industry. Certainly I'm not going to take terms from them, but do I want to take their credit card.
This relates to the ebay thread. The merchant is always the one at risk unless you have a bunch of money behind you. If I take a credit card order from them and they dispute it, its my responsibility to prove that the order was delivered and was the correct product. I've been through this probably 10 times in the last 12 months. It's like going to traffic court. The merchant is guilty until proven innocent. I could stand to loose about $4k if they simply say they didn't receive it or order it.
I have very little fraud in my product line and have usually just gotten different credit cards to charge. The engineer that buys something in the field doesn't pass the receipt on to accounting and accounting simply contests the charge because they have no record of it. Private individuals can do the same thing. Costs me time and money.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do on this one. I may have to ask for a check or wire transfer. It's a nice order to...