What is the name of your state? California
The company I'm having troubles with is also based in California.
A website offering free items or cash in exchange for referring friends to complete offers lurred my friends and I into what I believe is a fraudulant operation.
The task initially was simple enough. One person signs up, refers 10 friends, they all complete offers, then the cash or item is sent. Basically it gives a 50% discount.
So, 10 friends and I got together to make this happen. We set out to do it totally legitimately because I had heard of some problems when people tried to be tricky.
However, we started having some of the offers never credit. The internet company claimed it was the referrers problem. We simply had those people complete new offers. Keep in mind - everytime someone completes an offer they are paying 20 to 30 dollars.
Now, once we finally got it down to what should have been all 10 offers - the internet company refused to accept the last offer as credited. Eventhough the referrer company insisted many times in emails that we DID complete the offer - the internet company insisted that they had no record of it and would give us various tasks to complete and then finally send out the same initial form letter they sent initially.
We would have completed another offer just to finish it up, but all of a sudden the only offers that were avaialble cost $100 to complete. They changed the offers for us. I complained - they said "just wait for new offers."
So we waited. Finally my friend happily informed me she was able to complete an offer for $20 and I went to check my status (and hopefully collect my payout) and now the internet compnay says I need 3 more referrals - they changed their rules! They said they are now offering new items (in this case mini macs) and so they had to add more referrals. However, I was not signed up for that, I was signed up for cash anyway. They increased the cash from 550 to 575 and claim that this is such a significant difference that they need 3 more referrals.
Obviously - I've been conned.
Their terms and agreement is very favorable towards them - though they do use the term "inventory" and as far as I'm aware, "cash via paypal" is not considered inventory.
My question is this - What can I do to pressure them to get my payment which I am legitimately owed now? We've spent a great deal of money now on these offers and a huge amount of effort in completing them (and dealing with the large amount of correspondance between us and them trying to solve the uncredited offers).
Are internet companies really allowed to advertise an offer and then put in fine print which will negate the offer at their own whim? That seems illegal to me. There seems like there would be a consumer law which would cover this. I claim that we did satisfy all their requirements even according to their Terms and Agreements - but some of those terms say that they can simply disqualify us for no reason.
I am sure that there are many other people who have been and are being scammed by this as well.
Advice is appreciated.
The company I'm having troubles with is also based in California.
A website offering free items or cash in exchange for referring friends to complete offers lurred my friends and I into what I believe is a fraudulant operation.
The task initially was simple enough. One person signs up, refers 10 friends, they all complete offers, then the cash or item is sent. Basically it gives a 50% discount.
So, 10 friends and I got together to make this happen. We set out to do it totally legitimately because I had heard of some problems when people tried to be tricky.
However, we started having some of the offers never credit. The internet company claimed it was the referrers problem. We simply had those people complete new offers. Keep in mind - everytime someone completes an offer they are paying 20 to 30 dollars.
Now, once we finally got it down to what should have been all 10 offers - the internet company refused to accept the last offer as credited. Eventhough the referrer company insisted many times in emails that we DID complete the offer - the internet company insisted that they had no record of it and would give us various tasks to complete and then finally send out the same initial form letter they sent initially.
We would have completed another offer just to finish it up, but all of a sudden the only offers that were avaialble cost $100 to complete. They changed the offers for us. I complained - they said "just wait for new offers."
So we waited. Finally my friend happily informed me she was able to complete an offer for $20 and I went to check my status (and hopefully collect my payout) and now the internet compnay says I need 3 more referrals - they changed their rules! They said they are now offering new items (in this case mini macs) and so they had to add more referrals. However, I was not signed up for that, I was signed up for cash anyway. They increased the cash from 550 to 575 and claim that this is such a significant difference that they need 3 more referrals.
Obviously - I've been conned.
Their terms and agreement is very favorable towards them - though they do use the term "inventory" and as far as I'm aware, "cash via paypal" is not considered inventory.
My question is this - What can I do to pressure them to get my payment which I am legitimately owed now? We've spent a great deal of money now on these offers and a huge amount of effort in completing them (and dealing with the large amount of correspondance between us and them trying to solve the uncredited offers).
Are internet companies really allowed to advertise an offer and then put in fine print which will negate the offer at their own whim? That seems illegal to me. There seems like there would be a consumer law which would cover this. I claim that we did satisfy all their requirements even according to their Terms and Agreements - but some of those terms say that they can simply disqualify us for no reason.
I am sure that there are many other people who have been and are being scammed by this as well.
Advice is appreciated.
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