I think I am being scammed...

[Wendy Shoofitz]

Please, lawyers already. I highly doubt she will ever need one for this.

What I don't understand is why you guys don't see a scam a mile away and hang up on these people. Your first question should have been what is the name of the school, followed by how did you hear about me.

[justrightcandles]

I did get the name of the school and she got my info from the chamber of commerce.

[jrogers397]

I had the same thing happen to me concerning my "day" job as a fast food

manager, we thought we were helping out the local school by placing a

cost effective ad, well we were also billed over $200 and our ad was horrible, they were told to send a proof but never did, just printed it and billed. We never paid for it, the following year they called to see if we would

re-new I said I didn't agree to the first one and surely won't agree to the 2nd one so "NO" well they printed that one as well. Finally after about 6 months they sent a threatening letter blah blah blah, I ended up paying for the first ad and made them send me a letter stating that my "bill" was paid in full and I would never again be harrassed or never again be asked by their company

to place an ad. Now we were within 1 mile of the school and never got 1

custome come in and redeem anything in 2 yrs. so they are horrible advertising mechanisms in my opinion. The only reason we even paid for the

first one was just to be done with it, I wouldn't of paid any of it. I don't know why schools hire these idiot companies they really turn more people off than they help.

janis

[Fire and Ice]

I believe it is the law that if ANYONE records a phone conversation, they have to state that up front on the phone to you. Therefore, I seriously doubt they recorded the conversation. So they have absolutely NO recourse. They can threaten you all they want but they haven't got a leg to stand on in a court of law. They have no proof that you agreed. If they end up trying to sue to get the money, copy the BBB complaints against them and send it to them! When they know YOU know the truth about them, they SHOULD back right off.

If you get a lawyer invold, take a copy of the complaints by the BBB to him/her too.

Fire

[sharig]

I believe it is the law that if ANYONE records a phone conversation, they have to state that up front on the phone to you. Therefore, I seriously doubt they recorded the conversation. So they have absolutely NO recourse. They can threaten you all they want but they haven't got a leg to stand on in a court of law. They have no proof that you agreed. If they end up trying to sue to get the money, copy the BBB complaints against them and send it to them! When they know YOU know the truth about them, they SHOULD back right off.

If you get a lawyer invold, take a copy of the complaints by the BBB to him/her too.

Fire

I know in the state of NC & state of KY, you do not need to state that the conversation is being recorded; however, in the state of PA you do. The only reason I know this is b/c of a NASTY custody battle with my daughter's father. I am not sure if this only pertains to family matters and not financial issues. I really don't think the state laws would differenciate though.

I'm sorry to hear of your dilemma, I wish the best for you.

Shari

[pamperme]

I work for a large major company in sales and if you don't have PROOF someone agreed to buy something ...they don't have to pay.

We have had several clients state to us they did not agree to a particular contract and we had no signature to back it up from a very irresponsible sales person. So they got by without paying thousands after they got the advertising.

Who are we supposed to believe an irresponsible sales person who might have just wanted extra money or the client who said they did not want it or might be trying to get out of a bill?

Ask them to furnish the proof you agreed to do this?

1. Where is the signed paper stating you agreed to a $200 ad AND use of your information.
   
2. Where is the signed paper that said they could use your 'personal' phone number and your email address
   
3. Where is the signed proof you let them take copywrited pictures from your website. (Walmart even requires this if you have pictures to reproduce that even "LOOK" like they were taken by a professional...my husbands band 'owned' pictures taken by a friend that was a photographer and he did not charge them for the pics...just gave them the disk to do as they wished...Walmart would not let me get the pictures developed for they guys without written permission)

Tell them if they can't furnish all 3 of these then you are not paying the bill.

PERIOD! ...and will contact a lawyer about the copywrite infrigement and publishing your personal cell phone number.

Don't let these people bully you into paying for this. I had this happen with one of those long distance companies several years ago...they 'said' they were Sprint...when actually it was a no name company using Sprint's lines...I had Sprint and thought I was just getting a better deal..UNTIL I got my phone bill.

[funkymonkey66]

"We have had several clients state to us they did not agree to a particular contract and we had no signature to back it up from a very irresponsible sales person. So they got by without paying thousands after they got the advertising.

Who are we supposed to believe an irresponsible sales person who might have just wanted extra money or the client who said they did not want it or might be trying to get out of a bill? "

Not to get off track but this has happened to me before.

Last year I got a phone call from some agency that represented the local police department, they told me that my husband pledged $200.00 and they wanted to know when we were planning to mail a check. I politely told them there was no way that my husband would pledge that amount of money to ANY organization. As a matter fact he never did nor even got the initial phone call even asking for money. Obviously this was some jack ass penciling in whatever dollar amount to get a commission. Can you believe that they threatened to send us to collections if I did not mail in the "donation" !!!! I lost my polite voice and told them to shove it. When I hung up on the guy my next call was to the local police department. I told them what the company that represented them tried to pull. I never heard another thing about it.

[justrightcandles]

What gets me is that I have been trying to reach the school that they apparently represent. And they have not even bothered to call me back. At first I wanted to verify that it was real but i called the lady in the ad next to me and she did agree to be on it. Now I want to tell them what kind of people they are doing business with. I have not heard back from them. They did leave me a message after i emailed them saying they did not have my permission but that has been it. so we will see.

[sockmonkey]

Just because someone else actually agreed to place an ad with the company doesn't makes them any more legitimate. Maybe the person who agreed to it is quite happy with it. But maybe they aren't aware, or don't care if the school receives any proceeds from the sale of the ad.

I'm not saying this is the case with the calendar people, but I had solicitors from a "phone book cover" company. They implied the Chamber of Commerce had authorized them to sell ads for them. I happen to be friends with the Chamber's secretary, and asked her about it. She said they had nothing to do with them, they did not authorize them to sell ads on their behalf and they didn't receive any money from them. The only connection was that the Chamber allowed them to place their covers in their office, available for free to anyone who stopped by and wanted one.. The secretary told me that she still had a big stack from the year before, because nobody ever wants one.

[justrightcandles]

GOOD NEWS! The school finally called me back and they are saying they use a totally different company BUT that is not to say that one of the teams did not go out on there own and do a calender but they handle all the money and they have not recieved any monies from that so they want to look into it as well. I am dropping of the crappy calender to them tomorrow. I wonder what we could do at that point if they are illegially using the school name and illegially soliciting on their behalf. I hope the school sues the crap out of them!! AND i am going to call all the ads on the calender and tell them about it to. And who know where this calender is even being placed if it is at all. They should get their money back just based on the fact they misrepresented the fact they are working on behalf of the school

[blazerina]

That will be interesting to see if you can find out where the calendars are being distributed at/to. It's very likely they 'sell' you an 'ad', send YOU and only you a calendar and you've just bought a $200 calandar.

[Di_in_AZ]

I am glad you are finally getting some resolution to this. Hopefully the school will take action and stop these idiots.

[TheQueen]

Get an attorney quickly and put an end to this. It will probably cost you $100 or so for the attorney to write a letter, but you have to do this to protect yourself.

[blazerina]

Yep, for about $100 you can put a lawyer on 'Retainer'. This is just a term that means... you've been in touch with a laywer, and when and if the time comes, if need be, he is working for you. He doesn't really 'Do' anything - you are pretty much just paying for the right to throw his name around to scare them and he will himself on your behalf if he needs to... usually by letting them know hes on the case and that any further communication is to be done between them and him. He essentially becomes your go to man. But it works because usually once you give them your lawyers number, they generally don't want to push it any farther. It would become too expensive for them, and they see $$ signs going out of their greedy fat pockets when you tell them you have a lawyer on Retainer. That is usually the end of it. (One can only hope they are smart enough anyways. :rolleyes2 )

[bells4shells]

Even IF you agreed -- for $200 they should have sent you a PROOF! There is absolutely no reason a good and honest company selling advertising space cannot provide you with a proof and wait for YOUR go ahead. You have nothing to worry about.