Amex pulls back Cyberrebate credit
 

Amex today pulled back the Cyberrebate credit from my account stating rebate was not a term of the transaction.. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Did anyone have a similar problem? What next?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif

Weeeell........what did you honestly expect?

Did you honestly expect that AMEX or any other bank to actually FOOT THE BILL for one's mistake of buying a $700 toaster? AMEX isn't going to take a several million dollar dive--especially when they are in the legal right.

This subject has been discussed here & on many other boards.

Bottom line of those discussions:
1.) If you have the product, DON'T send it back.
2.) Dispute it with the CC company, though it's been already almost unanimously agreed that they won't help.
3.) File with the Attorney General's office in NYC to get a portion of the bankruptcy liquidation proceedings---though, if you see anything, you'll perhaps get much less than 10 cents to the dollar.
4.) AND above all else, take this as a life experience that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is--this Ponzi scheme stepchild is a perfect example of this.

[and know this........if you believe in karma, the guy who created this con-job will get his just due in EQUAL proportions in this or future lifetimes]



[This message has been edited by Wolverine (edited 06-25-2001).]

It's no surprize that the credit card companies are not helping people get their refunds for their $6,000 monitors or $300 DVD's.

In addition to what Wolverine said, the only thingn I would add is to keep checking the cyberrebate, attorney general's and cyberrebate sites on a regular basis, if a settlement is reached you want to make sure you get your paperwork filed early. I think you should file the claim paperwork with the court as soon as they say you can, just in case there isn't a settlement. The court's site when this all started said you didn't have to file a claim yet, the instant that comes off I'd have the prefilled form in the mail.

Well, I'm glad we have some lawyers helping us idiots out!! Your knowledge of the FCBA seems a bit lacking. I wouldn't be suprised if the cc companies lose this one in the end, especially the ones that profited from cyberrebates scheme with partner advertising. It's new ground and very interesting stuff for those who care to think about it!!

[This message has been edited by pactab (edited 06-25-2001).]

I would definitely suggest joining http://communities.msn.com/Cyberreba...coveryAlliance . They have different discussion boards for the different credit cards. It seems others have had similar problems with AMEX. Good luck!

You are probably right, with a defense like the credit card company made me do it because they put a flyer in the bill sending me to the cyberrebate site, and there I figured I just had to pay ten to forty times what I knew it was worth will most certainly work.

I can't believe that anybody can be shocked that it happended, and try to put the responsiblilty on anybody else but their own greed. It was the credit card companies fault? Don't think that one will hold up. Get a jury of local working people to whom $6,000 is four or five months wages and try to explain to them why you bought the monitor, and how it was Amex's fault.

Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of stuff in the house from cyberrebate, but that was back when the prices were only 10 to 25% above the going rate, and I was concerned back then about not getting the rebates. $12 DVD's at the local electronics store selling for $200, ande $150 monitors selling for $6,000? Time to stop playing the rebate game, something was about to give.

The idea of selling things for 20 times their real cost and then rebating the full amount 3 months later seems far more likely to me to be sustainable than the original scheme. It's possible to make 5% on money in 3 months, especially if you get the goods in bulk cheap and profit there.

So many interesting questions here: Where is all the money that they should have been making by charging 20x the cost of things and not paying the rebates? What's the deal with the government authorities and banks who obviously had no clue this was a sham? And so on.

As for the credit card companies, whether they are responsible for the loss isn't the main point. The market credit cards as being a safe way to shop and not be ripped off. When an airline, Compass, crashed in Australia, the credit card companies promised to refund the money. It wasn't their fault, and I don't know how much (if any) of their money they got back.

The financial institutions make a fortune out of interest, exchange rates, merchant charges, etc, with a promise that customers will be safe from fraud. Now, if they are only willing to be part of the upside and not willing to compensate customers when a fraudulent business goes bust, who is being greedy?

It is important to remember that the credit card companies are not refunding charges by taking the hit against their revenues just to be nice guys. They will refund customers if they can charge back the merchant. The merchant has to have pending charges or assets available to do this.

I don't thinnk it was a sham, they just ran out of money. Nobody was ripped off, you purchased an item for an agreed upon price, and you got the item. They were giving people rebates, and continued to issue checks right up until they went under. In theory, anybody who filed previous to four or five months ago got their refund.

It's not up to the banks or credit card companies to keep you from buying a $6,000 monitor. In reality, you looked at a monitor that cost $6,000, you paid the $6,000 and you got the monitor. Banks don't care about rebates or any of that, and in most cases, the state won't either. A rebate is an extra, it's not part of the purchase price (which is probably why so many people are having hassles getting the money back).

There wasn't any fraud here, there wasn't any scam, you purchased a very over priced item, and that was what was delivered to you. Unfortunatly, they ran out of money before many people could get their checks.

The answer isn't for the banks and government to step in, people have to use some common sense. If I was able to sell any of the monitors in my basement for even $1,000 I would. Had they stepped in, I guarantee you the same people who are not asking why they were not protected from themselves would be screaming because they were not able to purchase their $6,000 monitors anymore.

I don't know why this is being discussed in Buzz. This is being discussed extensively at other sites - e.g. http://communities.msn.com/Cyberreba...e/general.msnw

BTW - cyberrebate was not issuing checks right up until they went under.

[This message has been edited by PG (edited 06-26-2001).]

Cordelli,
I respectfully disagree with you.

Cyberrebate was a classic Ponzi Scheme--using money promised to others to pay ongoing operations. The pyramid of debt escalated to such an extent that they abruptly closed shop.........If they were honest, they would have set a pool of money aside for all those buying products, so they'd be covered. If they saw that they couldn't cover their debt, this "bookie" should have closed shop well before putting consumers MILLIONS of dollars in debt, with no hope of full redemption.

Ponzi schemes always advertise the fact that they're legit to draw more people in until the house of cards crashes unto the foundation. This owner, didn't have ANY long-term plans to take the company public when interviewed on CNNfn.....again typical behavior from a shady character who used funds to buy himself a huge house in CT.

Not true at all. The main and most important time that credit cards will refund customers is if fraud has occurred or if the merchant has gone bankrupt and failed to live up to some part of the deal.

Hence my example of when Compass went bankrupt. I suspect the credit card companies would have been lucky to get 10c in the dollar back from that one.

It's like insurance: Most of the time, the insurer takes money for nothing and occasionally they have to pay out. (And, just like insurance companies, banks try very hard not to pay out.)

[This message has been edited by Kremmen (edited 06-27-2001).]

Anybody know why I keep getting page cannot be displayed at the cyberrebate recovery etc. website?

Never mind, it was an msn site problem.

[This message has been edited by sgosline (edited 07-02-2001).]