I live in Florida, and bought a group of massages for $200. I thought it was a great deal. They said they had spa locations in my area, and that I would be able to make appointments to get my massages there. As I tried to make these appointments, I found it incredibly hard to make my bookings. Their phone system was supposedly having issues, and they were routing to a call center in Michigan. From here I would wait on hold for 90+ minutes multiple times to try to get someone to talk to, and would end up getting hung up on only to try again. Eventually I was able to get someone on the phone, only to find out that I would only be able to make "mobile massage" bookings, where someone would come to my house. This wasn't what I paid for, but at that point I didn't care and made the bookings. Of course, as soon as the first appointment came around, the masseuse didn't make the appointment, wouldn't answer her phone, and never emailed me before or after to say why.
My attempts to get anyone from their company on the phone were useless, with more hour plus hold times, and then being hung up on. This made me gave up. Because I paid with paypal, I opened a dispute with them about the $200 charge. NOW the company was very responsive. In the days after this I received emails from the company, as well as from the masseuse about how she supposedly tried to call and email me, but I never received either. While Paypal had the case open, and I believe the money was on hold, the massage company had been sending me invoices for money they say they were owed now that paypal had their money on hold. They claimed it was now $500 because their money was past due. They sent me invoices with a link to pay them and when I clicked that link, there was absolutely no way to send money through their payment system. Their emails also contained threats that they were going to send me to collections in 9 days if I didn't pay their invoices.
I just don't know what to do. I absolutely do not want to go to collections and have this potentially affect my credit. If that is going to happen I feel like I should just give them their $200 and call it a day. I can afford it, and a few hundred or whatever is far more important than a long fight in collections. BUT, I don't feel like they deserve the money, as I have given them over a month to try to use their services, and they're basically making it impossible for me to do so. Paypal initially closed the case, but after calling them I was able to get them to open the case again. I paid via credit card to paypal, so I still have the ability to contest that charge with my credit card company if paypal denies me once and for all. Any thoughts would be great. Are my fears about affecting my credit legit, or should I fight this as far as I can go? It's stressing me out every day.
Thank you for any advice you can give.
My attempts to get anyone from their company on the phone were useless, with more hour plus hold times, and then being hung up on. This made me gave up. Because I paid with paypal, I opened a dispute with them about the $200 charge. NOW the company was very responsive. In the days after this I received emails from the company, as well as from the masseuse about how she supposedly tried to call and email me, but I never received either. While Paypal had the case open, and I believe the money was on hold, the massage company had been sending me invoices for money they say they were owed now that paypal had their money on hold. They claimed it was now $500 because their money was past due. They sent me invoices with a link to pay them and when I clicked that link, there was absolutely no way to send money through their payment system. Their emails also contained threats that they were going to send me to collections in 9 days if I didn't pay their invoices.
I just don't know what to do. I absolutely do not want to go to collections and have this potentially affect my credit. If that is going to happen I feel like I should just give them their $200 and call it a day. I can afford it, and a few hundred or whatever is far more important than a long fight in collections. BUT, I don't feel like they deserve the money, as I have given them over a month to try to use their services, and they're basically making it impossible for me to do so. Paypal initially closed the case, but after calling them I was able to get them to open the case again. I paid via credit card to paypal, so I still have the ability to contest that charge with my credit card company if paypal denies me once and for all. Any thoughts would be great. Are my fears about affecting my credit legit, or should I fight this as far as I can go? It's stressing me out every day.
Thank you for any advice you can give.
