What happened to me in my dealings with TCL ENTERPRISES/aka Internetsmokes, etc. is exactly the same thing that the rest of you experienced and complained about on this site. Until the final two orders, placed on June 18 and 21 respectively (for 10 cartons of cigarettes each) which never arrived, I had a very satisfactory relationship with Internetsmokes stretching over a period nearly a year. I always sent e-checks for my purchases, and the orders went through without a hitch and arrived in the mail in a few days. In contrast, the final two orders never arrived, though the e-checks cleared my bank and my account was debited for the amounts, and Internetsmokes send me e-mail notification that my orders had been placed in shipment.

Knowing that June 30 was the last day that my orders could be mailed under the PACT act, I got worried and e-mailed TCL on June 29 to ask about my orders. I got a prompt response from them saying that “they are very sorry”, but due to their very high volume of orders they were unable to get my orders into the mail on time. They promised to send a refund “as soon as they can” but that they can’t say when that would be because the e-checking service they use, CHECKCARE, has “problems with their computers” and that they (TCL) has not been advised when the CHECKCARE service will be up again. I wrote back to say that in my case issuing the refund would not involve “a CHECKCARE problem because the CHECKCARE transactions were already completed when my bank honored the presented checks which had cleared the bank several days prior. Thereupon TCL replied with the information that US Assistant District Attorney, William Houser, had launched an investigation of all smoke shops and had restricted or seized (frozen) all CHECKCARE transactions and assets involving the smoke shops that are being investigated.

When I learned that on July 7, 2010, US District Court Judge Richard Arcaca ruled to extend to July 30 the existing Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against enforcement of the PACT act that he had earlier awarded to a trade group of Seneca Indian smoke shop owners (including I presume the TCL ENTERPRISES), I wrote to TCL to ask if they were members of the trade group to whom the reprieve was awarded, and if so, TO DEMAND THAT THEY MAIL MY UNFILLED ORDER ASAP. To my inquiry and demand, I got only this short one line response:
“The TRO granted in regards to the PACT Act does not affect our situation with CheckCare, they are two separate issues. There is no connection

Sincerely,
Will Welch
TCL Enterprises”

There is no denial that they are members of the Seneca Indian trade group affected by Judge Arcarda’s ruling. There is no promise to send the ordered cigarettes.

My sense is that Attorney Houser has been overzealous in his seizure activities. I realize that the federal seizure/foreclosure law and power is very unforgiving and one-sided. I know that the feds can seize assets simply on a showing of probable cause that the assets are connected to some illegal activity. Here however, Houser apparently seized assets that do not yet belong to the smoke shop (our orders have not been filled; so the money belongs to us—not the smoke shop), nor are our order-funds connected to illegal activity (it is and was not unlawful to order cigarettes from Seneca Indians).

I suggest writing to US Attorney Houser, and perhaps also to Judge Arcarda, to explain the situation and ask for their help in getting either our money back or our orders.