harassment?

[Raparks]

virginia

i felt pressured to buy frozen steaks from a door to door sales person. they advertised payment by discover card on the truck and in the brosher. So i gave the card and he said they dont take that. i gave a mastercard that expired last month and i did not know this. The next day i went out of town for 4 days and when i got home there was about 20 messages from this co. stating that they were calling the us marshalls office for credit card fraud, and that they were putting a warrent out for my arrest. I called that night and left a message with a different card and he called back the next morning saying that my card is no good, i checked with the credit card co. and the card is fine. I am very frustrated with this rude man. I am tired of trying to solve this. Am I allowed to return the steaks and pay for the 2 missing? i only signed the credit card slip. the brosher says customer satisfaction garuanteed. I feel like i am being harrased.
please help
rebecca

 

[JETX]

Most states provide for a '3 day cooling period' for door-to-door sales or sales made in your home. However, that period has expired.

You have two problems on your hands. First, is your giving a dead credit card to them. On its face, this could be fraud, but based on your message of offering a valid card upon notice of 'error', the chances of action is slim. Also, the sellers claim of US Marshall is totally an intimidation tactic. They have NOTHING to do with enforcement of the laws, federal law enforcement is handled by the Secret Service (Treasury) or the FBI, so I wouldn't worry about that threat.

Second, you say that the seller has a 'satisfaction guarantee' statement. What, if anything, does it say that you have to do to avail yourself of that guarantee??? If nothing, you should send the merchant a certified letter (RRR) detailing your disatisfaction with their product. Ask them to confirm your refund and to advise what to do with THEIR merchandise. (From personal experience, they cannot take the food back due to health concerns. You could have tampered with the food while in your possession, etc.).

In any case, be prepared for a few phone calls etc. from the merchant. These 'frozen food' scams are fairly common.
Here is a list of online sites with information about them:
http://www.state.sc.us/consumer/material/news/releases/1999/1999_meat_scams.htm
http://www.bbbsouthland.org/topic019.html
http://datcp.state.wi.us/static/cp/cpnews/cpnews_meat.htm
http://www.enigmatist.com/free/john49/confaq.htm