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puma1552

Suspended
Original poster
Nov 20, 2008
5,559
1,947
In April, my wife sent away for some free cosmetic samples from a company called Sheer Cover Daily Plus. She received the samples, and part of the offer was that they were going to autoship vitamins from GRC Vitamin every three months if I didn't cancel the account.

As soon as my wife received the cosmetics, I called and cancelled the account. That should have been the end of it.

The next month, I received an $80 supply of vitamins in the mail that they autoshipped but were not supposed to (I had cancelled well before the autoshipment).

I called them immediately, and they told me my previous account cancellation hadn't went through properly (conveniently), so they gave me instructions on how to return the vitamins and assured me my account would be cancelled. I received a refund for the vitamins.

A month later, I notice a $5.98 charge on my account from GRC. Long story short, I called Sheer Cover/GRC several times over the next few months because this mysterious charge kept showing up. I demanded a refund each time, and never got one. I demanded to know what the charge was for, nobody could tell me or seemed to know. I asked why the account hadn't been cancelled, it was a perpetual "mistake" and each and every person along the line assured me that THAT time it would be closed. Each time I asked them to confirm that the account balance was zero, and every single person did every time.

July 21st I got another $5.98 charge. Pissed off, I called and spoke with a supervisor. This was the sixth time I had to call this company. Same song and dance from the supervisor, but she was at least able to confirm that the $5.98 was a recurring shipping charge for products they were not shipping. She told me she too would refund the $5.98. Didn't happen. I don't care about the $5.98, I care that the account is closed and the balance is zero.

After that, I never got another $5.98 charge on the account. I thought I was done with them finally after six calls and having to more or less assertively unload on a supervisor after being nice and giving them the benefit of the doubt four times more than I should've.

I thought I was done.

Last Friday night, my wife received a notice of collection agency involvement from an agency retained by Sheer Cover. I was absolutely furious. My credit score is in the upper 700s, and not from lack of usage. I've used credit extensively, and been immaculate with it, and my wife is that way too, and we've been working hard in the year since my wife came to the US to help her build and maintain flawless credit. Every year I pay for a full blown three bureau credit report/scores from Equifax and I had done this not three weeks ago for myself, and was about to do it for my wife. Credit is the most important thing, and we realize that and work hard for that.

I called Sheer Cover and spoke with an account specialist. I asked what the hell the $80.88 delinquent charge was for, he told me it was for the GRC Vitamins they shipped in MAY, which I had returned IMMEDIATELY.

Well guess what? Sheer Cover never processed the vitamin return. They also never once told me that my balance was anything other than zero. The account specialist told me that the notice I received last Friday was the sixth one they had sent out. This is the first one we've received, bar none. They also have something wrong with their computer system, because even the first couple times I called them to cancel, they could never locate my wife's account in their computer, and always had someone different listed at this address. Something's wrong there too.

So he tells me that he is going to zero out the account balance since it was Sheer Cover's mistake. He then confirmed (for the first time ever) that my account was indeed closed as of July 21st, when I spoke to the supervisor. So this guy then tells me that despite staring at a "Statement of Collection Agency Involvement" notice from North Shore Agency, it hasn't gone to collections (WTF?) and will not go to collections, and that they don't report to the credit bureaus (?). Sounds like pure ********* to me. Pretty tough to sell me on the idea that a collection agency doesn't report to the credit bureaus, and that the collection agency isn't involved when I'm staring the notice in the face.

He then confirmed that he would send me a zero balance statement. I have not received that, it's been seven days.

Not willing to waste any more time with these incompetent, sleazy clowns, I wrote the Attorney General a letter to get their involvement, and I'm waiting to hear back. At the same time, I followed the instructions on the Attorney General's website writing a letter to the collection agency telling them to validate the debt, the idea being that they wouldn't be able to since the balance would be zero per my conversation with the account specialist. If they can't validate a debt, it HAS to be removed from any credit reports.

Given their piss-poor track record, I just called Sheer Cover again to get someone new on the phone and to just ask what they show on my wife's account. They said the account was "inactive." Then they said that the balance for the vitamins was $80.88.

The account specialist conveniently didn't clear it out. No wonder I never received that zero balance statement in the mail.

I asked to speak with another account specialist just now. She showed notes in her system that I spoke with the other specialist, and she said that he cleared the balance but surprise surprise, it didn't get processed. Another convenient "mistake" like the ten+ before it over the last six months. She also told me they don't report to credit bureaus, that this supposed sixth collection notice is a "soft collection" but that they don't report to the bureaus until "the ninth or tenth notice."

She said she was going to zero it out and process it a different way, and that she would follow up with my by Monday at the latest either way. She said if it doesn't zero out on her end, she will get her superior involved.

I don't buy it, nor should I given their track record. I'm not expecting a return call, and if I do I can't trust what they say.

I pulled a credit report for my wife on Sunday, and so far the collection isn't showing up, but credit reports can lag by up to two months in my experience. Just because it isn't there now, doesn't mean it won't be so I'll still have to check several months from now. As far as North Shore Agency is concerned, I still owe them.

I'm pretty pissed because now that I've sent the collection agency a notice to validate the debt, they'll be able to and then we're screwed. I should've waited to receive de facto confirmation via a zero balance statement from Sheer Cover before that, but I wanted to interfere in the collections process as soon as possible also. More importantly though, I only have thirty days from the date on the collections notice to notify them in writing to validate the debt, so I had to get it out.

What else can I do? I've called these *******s 8 times, been told what I want to hear eight times, and every single follow up call from me tells me they didn't do their job. Not one person in the line did their job, and not one of them had the decency to tell me I had a supposed delinquent (errant) balance. They told me I had a zero balance all along.

I'm not going to get anywhere at all with this company, and my wife's credit is on the line. Like hell if I'm going to put up with a collection on her account for the next seven years when I need a car in the spring and we need to buy a house in the next year or two, especially after working so hard and doing everything so right in being responsible with credit.

If the attorney general doesn't help me out, what can I do? Contact a sleazy attorney and pay out the ass? I'm at my wit's end, there's only so much I can do.
 

swiftaw

macrumors 603
Jan 31, 2005
6,328
25
Omaha, NE, USA
You could also contact the BBB.

Also, some local news stations have an investigative reporter, they love stories like these.
 

FallenRook

macrumors member
Oct 19, 2012
36
0
Wow, that is a horrible story. As the poster above said, you should contact the BBB. I wish the best of luck for you in ****ing that company up the ass. They deserve it.
 

puma1552

Suspended
Original poster
Nov 20, 2008
5,559
1,947
Is the BBB worth a **** though? Seems like every time I hear of or experience a pure garbage company, I go to their website and sure enough they end up being an A+++ or whatever the hell company according to the BBB...:confused:
 

Macky-Mac

macrumors 68040
May 18, 2004
3,488
2,531
Is the BBB worth a **** though? Seems like every time I hear of or experience a pure garbage company, I go to their website and sure enough they end up being an A+++ or whatever the hell company according to the BBB...:confused:

google the BBB and you'll find plenty of people who think they're worthless when it comes to actually resolving a problem. Keep in mind they're a private operation and not a branch of government with any sort of enforcement powers.

if you file a complaint with them then they'll do little beyond sending your complaint to the sleazy company and forward any reply back to you. If enough people file complaints and the sleazies fail to reply, then that might ultimately get a negative rating from the BBB, but that's about all you can expect.
 

Roller

macrumors 68030
Jun 25, 2003
2,852
1,966
It's hard to tell from your post how these charges are supposed to be paid. Are they being automatically charged to a credit card account? If so, I would contact the credit card company and have them fight the battle for you. They're generally very good at that.
 

puma1552

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Original poster
Nov 20, 2008
5,559
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It's hard to tell from your post how these charges are supposed to be paid. Are they being automatically charged to a credit card account? If so, I would contact the credit card company and have them fight the battle for you. They're generally very good at that.

They charged the vitamins to our bank account, but when I returned them, they processed the refund as they should have, yet didn't process that I actually returned the item, and sent it to collections.:rolleyes:

Complete idiots. Refund my money upon return of the items, then send it to collections. Unbelievable.

As for the $5.98, I don't care, Ive got bigger fish to fry at this point.
 

rhett7660

macrumors G5
Jan 9, 2008
14,219
4,294
Sunny, Southern California
If it is coming out of your bank account, I would go to the bank and let the know what is going on. I would also, see about having them stop payments to the company and if possible close the account and open up a new one. I know it is a pain in the butt, but something tells me this is not going to go away given the record you have with them and their inability to properly close down the account.
 

Roller

macrumors 68030
Jun 25, 2003
2,852
1,966
Why would you give an unknown company your banking info for a trial ?

Have to agree with this comment. I authorize automatic debits from my credit card account for vendors I trust - it's a good way to accumulate points for stuff I'd have to pay for anyways. It also helps if there's a dispute.
 

puma1552

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Original poster
Nov 20, 2008
5,559
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Why would you give an unknown company your banking info for a trial ?

Had to pay for the initial shipping of the free stuff.

You guys are missing the point, this isn't about the petty $5.98 shipping charges that stopped back in July, it's about my wife's credit. Like I said, I have bigger fish to fry here, the bigger issue is the collections notice on the desk for the $80.88 they themselves willingly refunded back in May.

They aren't charging anything to our account anymore and haven't for some time.
 
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leenak

macrumors 68020
Mar 10, 2011
2,416
52
I had something quasi similar happen to me a few years ago. I had a medical exam performed that included lab tests and everything should've been covered under insurance (ps, this was a preventative procedure that should be free for every woman but I digress). I tried to get everyone coordinated to bill the insurance company but the lab company didn't bill it right, repeatedly. It actually went to collections. In the end I paid it because I was trying to get a mortgage and after explaining it to the mortgage broker, they said it was better to pay it.
 

imaketouchtheme

macrumors 65816
Dec 5, 2007
1,097
4
Had to pay for the initial shipping of the free stuff.

You guys are missing the point, this isn't about the petty $5.98 shipping charges that stopped back in July, it's about my wife's credit. Like I said, I have bigger fish to fry here, the bigger issue is the collections notice on the desk for the $80.88 they themselves willingly refunded back in May.

They aren't charging anything to our account anymore and haven't for some time.

I'm so confused. Did you give them your SSN for free makeup?

Also, there IS a good possibility that collections company doesn't report to the credit bureaus, so it may not show up on any credit reports. I know for a FACT that Comcast doesn't, although they'll send delinquent accounts to collections.
 

puma1552

Suspended
Original poster
Nov 20, 2008
5,559
1,947
I'm so confused. Did you give them your SSN for free makeup?

No idea, my wife ordered it, but I doubt she had to give them that; still it's not like they couldn't get it based on her name and address I would imagine.

Lo and behold, I actually just got a call back from the girl I talked to Friday night, she told me the balance has definitely been cleared out. I missed the call but I'll have to call her back tonight and make sure she sends out a zero balance statement.
 

stonyc

macrumors 65816
Feb 15, 2005
1,259
1
Michigan
BBB is worthless, don't even bother.

You did the right thing by going through the AG first.

Was this done through a credit card? You could have tried a charge back on the vitamin shipment, as they were goods not ordered by you. That would have put the company on notice with your credit card company, who would have then flagged any subsequent charges by that company.

Hope everything works out.
 
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