There's always someone who's got to ruin it for everybody! Grr! Where's 20/20 when you need them?

So... I'm steaming a little right now. I'm an avid online shopper. I do most of my shopping online. I hate malls and parking lots and southern people who can't drive. So to me, a great shopping experience is sitting on my couch shopping online with no lines, no crowds... just me and my computer. I am also a paperless billing type of girl. I don't like to get my bills in the mail. I pay all of my bills online and manage my bank accounts online (am I asking to be hacked right now?). It annoys me that I still have to pay my water bill through the mail -- come on Columbia, get with the times.

So this past weekend I was checking my checking account online and noticed a random charge of $79.99 from a company called ClassicCloseouts.com. That's weird -- I didn't buy anything Wednesday night, let alone from that company. Maybe they are just a supplier for another company, like Amazon, and I bought from them. No -- I didn't buy anything online this past week. So I called my bank to see if they could put a stop payment on the charge. The lady informed me that it would cost me, the victim, $30 to stop the payment. And she said, "You don't want to change your card without knowing if you actually made that purchase anyways -- it would be such a pain on you. You should really just call the company and confirm what the purchase was." Evidently the bank lady thought I did make the purchase and forgot what I had bought -- I was beginning to doubt myself.

So I called this company... ClassicCloseouts.com... every day this week... ok, Sunday, yesterday, and today. Each time I called, I chose a different path through their options, always ending up with a voice mail. Same if I just hit '0'. I was getting frustrated.

So randomly I did a google search: Click Here.

Apparently this company is no stranger to charging random people random amounts on their cards. Evidently if you've bought from them before a long time ago, they are using your information and charging you! I have no idea when I ever bought from them -- they sell through Amazon, so it's possible I did a search on Amazon and found an item they were selling. But this could have been years and years ago...

So... I had to spend the next hour or so on the phone with my bank making a claim on the charge and canceling my debit card. And guess what, they actually pointed out that there was another fraud charge from the same company on my card last month! So if I hadn't noticed this, it would have continued I'm sure! And I'm sad...I had this card number memorized -- so boo. Now I'm without my debit card (which I constantly use) for the next five to ten days waiting for the new one. I also now have to remember which Web sites and companies I have set up for auto draft on this card and change them to the new card number -- once I get it, so I guess I need to change everything to charge to my credit card -- urg -- and then change it to the new card number once I get it. Pain in the you know what!! And all for this sleazy company's shady practices!

So, it got me really angry. This company is doing this to tons and tons of people (see link again above last paragraph) and getting away with it! They don't return phone calls, they don't return emails... And I just think about the people who don't check their card statements on a frequent basis and miss these random charges -- or pass them off (like I almost did) as "Oh, that must be something I bought a month or so ago...". I think that a lawyer needs to gather all of us victims together and sue the hell out of this company for the money they took from us as well as the cost of our time to fix it with our banks, time we had to wait for our new cards, set up our bill pays, etc. -- not to mention psychological grief!

So buyer beware! I've already emailed the local news station... but I wish I could go bigger, maybe contact someone with Fox News, or 20/20.... Quit laughing at me, I'm serious. Somebody needs to take this company down!! Who's coming with me?!?!


P.S. Almost done with my diet -- Wednesday, Thursday, and half a day Friday! I'll post when I can report how much weight I lost this time around. I don't know if it will be as high as last tie since I kept it of mostly since last time.... so we'll see. I'm not getting my hopes up.