HAS THIS HAPPENED TO YOU TOO???

A few days ago I received a shipment from Macys.com that I didn’t order. In fact I have never ordered anything from Macys.com. I was immediately concerned and checked my bank account to see if I had been charged for it. And I had, for a total of $274! I called my bank, explained what had happened and cancelled my debit card. I was advised that I should call Macys.com to start a return-for-credit process with them. I was also told that I would need to file a “Regulation E” at my local bank branch as soon as possible.

I next called Macys.com. When I asked for an explanation as to how this could have happened I got the response that perhaps someone in the household could have placed the order without my knowledge. After I insisted that this was not the case, the service rep finally agreed to initiate a return-for-credit procedure but told me that I would also have to have my bank work with their fraud department in order to insure that I could get a full refund.

When I tried to initiate the Reg E paperwork at my bank branch I was advised that unfortunately this situation did not qualify as fraud since I had received the products. But they did tell me that I would have additional recourse in 30 days if I couldn’t get cooperation from Macys.com. Well, fine! In the meantime, Macys has got my money and I am getting no help from my bank!!!

After ongoing communications with Macys.com over the past several days I’ve learned a few things from a rather candid Macys.com service rep. Evidently, what’s happening to me is NOT unheard of at Macys.com. As a matter of fact, this rep had personally dealt with 5 identical cases in the past week and had heard of many more. She told me that the give-away on these fraudulent orders is erroneous customer email addresses and phone numbers. (Until I discovered this, all email confirmations of my communications with macys.com had been going to this “erroneous” email address). She also discovered that a false entry to my customer service record in their system had been made AFTER I had begun communicating with them, an entry that claimed I was refusing to return the free gift that came in the shipment. Not only did I not make this communication but there WAS NO free gift in the shipment.

This Macys.com service rep went so far as to say that she had seen UPS return-for-credit orders arbitrarily deleted from customer records and that therefore she would keep a close eye on my record until I got my money back. Unfortunately, the last time I tried to talk to her I was blocked by a supervisor and not allowed to communicate with her. She was just trying to help me and will now probably loose her job over it.

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE??! Is this some new form of fraud that even the banks are not prepared to deal with? If so, who benefits?? The only one benefiting here as far as I can see is Macys.com cause they’ve got my money. If a scam like this is done on a large enough scale I suppose it could finance a company’s payroll for a month.

Yah, I need this money back but I feel even worse for the elderly widow the rep told me about. She had received a shipment of men’s underwear, charged to her credit card of course. She, too, had never shopped online with Macys before. Will she have the perseverance to get her money back?

If this is happening to you, all I can say is DON’T GIVE UP and document everything. They should not be allowed to continue to get away with this!!