topic Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case in Community Chat

My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

sfnative — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 02:05:29 GMT

Due to 3 total knee surgical errors and resultant moderate to severe pain, I've had a horrible time sleeping since May of 2014. Saw an online add for an herbel "Sleep Aid" called "Avinol PM," Extra Strength. This product purportedly "Helps you fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up refreshed." Distributed and/or made by Advanced Nutraceuticals, Dania Beach, FL, not the one in Singapore. I paid $4.95, plus shipping and handling for a pack of 30 tablets in early June, using my bank credit card. The purchase was for this pack of 30 tablets only.

But, yes, you guessed it. I received another box in early July, late July and now this month, August. Have been trying to get ahold of the Customer Service at Advanced Nutraceuticals, only to conclude that that phone # is a fake and the entire deal is a scam, just to obtain credit card #s to keep sending and billing at a whopping $84.00 plus shipping and handling per box!

I found a consumer group where hundreds have made complaints such as mine against this company, so have registered a complaint and filed for a refund.

In the meantime, we had to have something notarized today at our Chase bank, so decided to bring the sleep aid subject up (brought the last pkg along with info). Our CS person called Chase back east and opened a "Dispute" file. Though one would think of fraud, it could not be qualified as such, because I paid for the first box, so rather left myself "open." However! Chase started the ball rolling on a complete refund for me, which will result in a credit to our account within 7-10 working days and have tagged our account to protect it against any future attempts by the company to charge any amount of $$$ for a sleep aid or other products.

I did not expect this and am so pleased that Chase has such a program. It's quite possible/probable that most banks do as well. I'm just so grateful that Chase has this available for their clients.

Just a heads-up from this first-time "got scammed" to watch out for deals like this, including package receipts containing very little information.

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

QVCkitty1 — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 02:34:55 GMT

Something similar happened to me. I foolishly sent for a skincare sample for 4.95. I'm usually more careful and I don't order from those Facebook ads, but this time I did. When I got my CC statement, not only was I charged for the sample, but a separate charge of 89.95 for something I didn't sign up for or receive. Long story short, I called my CC company, they cancelled my card so at least they couldn't charge me for anything else. I disputed the charge and didn't have to pay. I then called the company to complain because I was so angry, and the woman was nasty, saying it wasn't their fault I didn't understand . I told her that .I could read. A week later I got an email from them saying they were cancelling the charge. Lesson learned, I will only order from companies that I'm familiar with.

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

OKPrincess — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 03:04:51 GMT

This is exactly why I don’t order from those “too good too be true” ads. It’s in the small print that you are authorizing the company to do such and such and charge you such and such when they want. It’s crazy and almost impossible to cancel. Learned my lesson long ago just don’t sign up for anything.

This practice should be illegal. I mean, who can read the fine print on TV in 2 seconds?

Glad the bank helped. I agree that bank is awesome.

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

Lindsays Grandma — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 03:43:13 GMT

Wow, familiar story. I ordered a bottle of lotion to reduce pain, also paying the $4.95 shipping and handling. About a month later another delivery was made and they deducted $89.95 from my account at the B ofA. I called the company and told them I did not order the product and told them to refund my money. All I got was some nasty woman telling me the small print said I would get another order, blah, blah, blah. I told her to remove my name from their list.

I then called my bank, told them what happened, they refunded the 89.95. A month went by and they did it again and the bank again refunded my money, they had no right to charge me since I had canceled the account. Yes, it is sad that we have to be so careful with these offers that sound too good to be true.

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

shaggygirl — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 10:57:00 GMT

There a ton of advertisements on TV for products at a very low price, deals that sound like such a fabulous bargain but if you look very closely somewhere in small print you'll see that once you order you are agreeing to AUTO DELIVERY. I have on occasion when these ads are on pressed the PAUSE button on my remote which gives you a chance to find and read that fine print. The Cindy Crawford skin care line is an example. Another one is that Keranique hair product for those who have thinning hair and want it back. I could be wrong but I think there was one for IT products than ran quite often but I don't recall seeing it lately. Guthy Renker is known for this type of trapping you in and then giving you a hard time getting out of it.

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

Imaoldhippie — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 11:02:52 GMT

If it were me I would close out that credit card and open a new one. No telling how many scammers they passed your credit card number to.

Happy that your bank helped you out.

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

Tribesters — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 11:46:55 GMT

@sfnative

Glad they got it all straightened out for you.

I must admit your 3 knee surgeries was what drew me to your post. My Dad has had 3 total knee replacements. Long story short he never recovered from 1st one- kept insisting something was wrong. Surgeon told him it was all in his head. He suffered for over a year. Finally went to different doctor & was told his kneecap was sideways. Apparently they did a total knee replacement but left his kneecap? Anyhow new doctor ended up doing his other knee first & then redid 1st one to replace kneecap. Fast forward several years & he still can’t walk & is in terrible pain. No one can find the source of his pain & second doctor insists the new knees are fine.

Would be interested in hearing more about your surgical errrors- if you feel like sharing. Always looking for anything that might help my Dad. He’ll be 82 this month so I doubt he’ll ever recover. The only time he’s not in pain is when he’s laying down so that’s what he does most of the day. My Mom tries to get him up & about but he is just in too much pain.

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

Montana — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 17:35:25 GMT

@Tribesters wrote:
... Fast forward several years & he still can’t walk & is in terrible pain. No one can find the source of his pain & second doctor insists the new knees are fine ...

@Tribesters, I’m so sorry your Dad is suffering. Has he been to a pain management facility?

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

Tribesters — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 17:40:27 GMT

@ Montana

Yes- he’s had pain shots a few times now. They don’t seem to help much.

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

chickenbutt — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 17:40:54 GMT

It seems like, back in the day, you could order products from infomercials, or other types of ads, or just regular tv ads, and not get burned.

Now, you couldn't pay me to order from any of those sources, including of course an online ad, because they lie to you in every way.

One of the things I've seen the most is the 'auto delivery' that you didn't know you signed up for. If that weren't enough, I've heard just as many stories from people who tried to get out of it and it was virtually impossible.

There is the BOGOF deal they do and the worst part of it is that, although the second one is 'free', there is a huge shipping charge attached to it.

I guess the only solution, in such cases, is to kill your credit card and replace it with another (new # of course).

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

sfnative — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 18:13:35 GMT

@Tribesters wrote:
@sfnative

Glad they got it all straightened out for you.

I must admit your 3 knee surgeries was what drew me to your post. My Dad has had 3 total knee replacements. Long story short he never recovered from 1st one- kept insisting something was wrong. Surgeon told him it was all in his head. He suffered for over a year. Finally went to different doctor & was told his kneecap was sideways. Apparently they did a total knee replacement but left his kneecap? Anyhow new doctor ended up doing his other knee first & then redid 1st one to replace kneecap. Fast forward several years & he still can’t walk & is in terrible pain. No one can find the source of his pain & second doctor insists the new knees are fine.

Would be interested in hearing more about your surgical errrors- if you feel like sharing. Always looking for anything that might help my Dad. He’ll be 82 this month so I doubt he’ll ever recover. The only time he’s not in pain is when he’s laying down so that’s what he does most of the day. My Mom tries to get him up & about but he is just in too much pain.

@Tribesters

I am truly sorry to hear of the absolutely horrible, terrible knee replacement surgery gone bad for your father.

Up front I'll tell you that I have not had 3 surgeries on my knee replacement knee. Perhaps I was not clear on that. However, as with many others, did not require the surgery due to an arthritic and painful knee. Actually, my knee didn't hurt at all. Thing is it keep buckling/collapsing, causing me at work walking down the hall with a large and heavy tray of surgical instruments to crash into the wall to my left. Or, fall crashing into cars, while walking to my car in the employee parking garage, etc. Found out I had developed a valgus knee, which would only get worse, hence the knee replacement.

The morning after surgery I was doing a self-assessment of my lower left extremity and realized I could not move my toes; my foot was numb; and, I had very limited range of motion of my left ankle. Asked for the Charge Nurse to get my surgeon in here and in the mean time, get the Neurologist on call in here. The first to show up was the anesthesiologist who was in the O.R. with me. He did a comprehensive evaluation, left, came back to repeat it with additional items to do. My surgeon did not show until Day 3. He sort of grumbled through his 2 minute stay, indicating he wanted to see me in his office in 2 weeks. At the time of that visit, he had arranged for me to have an EMG and nerve conduction study on the nerves from behind the knee and below. Of great import: The neuro conducting these 2 studies could not get a read on the tibial nerve. Try as she might, she told me, "This is very strange. I simply cannot get a read on the tibial nerve. In TKAs, if there's nerve damage, it's usually to the peroneal nerve." My take-away was that my surgeon had injured the tibial nerve to such an extent that no signal could pass through it. It's also possible that during the process of using the electric saw to remove bone and dissecting through the field, it was actually cut through, to put it simply. This neuro also indicated she was getting a minimal read on the sural nerve. This accounted for the issues in the foot and ankle, which exist to this day (4+ years later).

Now to the huge pain in my knee. I returned to my surgeon during post-op rehab to complain of at least moderate pain on the lateral or outside aspect of my knee, a bit on the front and slightly below a line drawn across the front of the knee parallel to the crease in the back. This pain was and continues to wake me at night (except when I use new CBD ointment #5). My surgeon took a look, poked around, etc., and said, "It appears that the ITB insertion retraction during surgery was a bit aggressive." What he meant was that (I know from professional experience) in retracting the soft tissue, the person doing that, probably using a Richardson retractor, caught the ITB insertion, which is never, ever supposed to occur. It became mangled. It now hurts more than it ever did.

It took me more than 4 years, but I finally found the one knee surgeon in this city who will see failed knee replacement surgeries. Though pleased to have found him, he has me in PT (which has increase my pain 10 fold) and told me, "We're going to start with physical therapy." Then, in closing, he said, "You have a lot going on in your knee that shouldn't be going on..." I added the "..." because he only explained that the knee is clicking and shouldn't be clicking. Nothing else was explained. I didn't ask, because I didn't want to place a negative spin on his recognition of the fact that there is indeed 'stuff' going on. I'll return to him, once PT has concluded, which shouldn't be too much longer, due to the fact that the swelling and pain in my knee increase with each PT visit.

I don't know if you've found this helpful. My advice would be to ask around for the ortho large joint specialist in your county who will evaluate failed/problematic total knee replacements. I found my new doc by asking who is THE best knee surgeon in my rather new city (been here only 4.5 years) and got a referral to him. When I called that office for my first appointment and spoke with that surgeon's assistant, he told me Dr. J does not see failed TKAs. He always refers them to Dr. F, who sees all failed or problematic TKAs. That was my a-ha moment. Of course, I still can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, but am hopeful. Hope you've found something here helpful.

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

kitty60 — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 18:53:07 GMT

Chase is great! I have them for one of my credit cards and they called to verify a charge on the account. Not mine, but when I went into the account (I had not accessed it in a week or so) there were several other charges. Chase was awesome! All charges were reversed, the account was given new numbers and I had cards within a day or two.

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

Montana — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 19:04:34 GMT

@Tribesters, has your Dad tried the Coolief procedure for knee pain?

This is a recent article about the pros and cons:

https://www.noblepainandsports.com/blog/coolief-radiofrequency-treatment

Google: Coolief: Does Cooled Radiofrequency Treatment Work? (+ Side Effects)

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

Tribesters — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 23:53:17 GMT

@sfnative

Thanks so much for taking the time to discuss your experiences. We live in a small town and he has been to all 3 knee doctors/surgeons in the area. I will have to check to see if I can find someone outside our area that specializes in failed surgeries. I am not really sure how much, if any, of this is his fault. He wasn’t overly aggressive with PT. He did go 3 times a week for an hour each time. Other than that he didn’t do much towards rehabing. He always said it hurt too much. He did have a machine that bent the knee & he used that right after the last 2 surgeries. I truly think he felt that after surgery he would wake up pain free & start walking.

I hope you find a solution to your ongoing knee problems. You have definitely been through a lot.

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

Tribesters — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 23:54:29 GMT

@ Montana

I have never heard of that. I am going to show this to my Dad. Thanks. It sounds promising...

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

Lindsays Grandma — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 02:24:49 GMT

@Tribesters wrote:
@sfnative

Glad they got it all straightened out for you.

I must admit your 3 knee surgeries was what drew me to your post. My Dad has had 3 total knee replacements. Long story short he never recovered from 1st one- kept insisting something was wrong. Surgeon told him it was all in his head. He suffered for over a year. Finally went to different doctor & was told his kneecap was sideways. Apparently they did a total knee replacement but left his kneecap? Anyhow new doctor ended up doing his other knee first & then redid 1st one to replace kneecap. Fast forward several years & he still can’t walk & is in terrible pain. No one can find the source of his pain & second doctor insists the new knees are fine.

Would be interested in hearing more about your surgical errrors- if you feel like sharing. Always looking for anything that might help my Dad. He’ll be 82 this month so I doubt he’ll ever recover. The only time he’s not in pain is when he’s laying down so that’s what he does most of the day. My Mom tries to get him up & about but he is just in too much pain.

I don't want to take over the initial post but after reading your post I felt compelled to reply. I can sympathize with your father. I had 3 back surgeries, all failed, which left me in more pain than I had before the surgeries. My MRI, according to doctors is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Bottom line, I suffer back and sciatic pain in my right leg, take pain meds that don't help much after 20 years of taking them. Hope your dad finds a solution. Life is tough enough without having pain 24.7.

Re: My Bank Rocks: Superior Assistance in a Scam Case

bathina — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 03:14:26 GMT

Reg E governs all electronic funds transactions. Banks are required by law to provide customers relief from unauthorized charges to their accounts. Whether you initially approved a one time charge but then were charged again subsequently, or someone/ some business fraudulently accessed your account. There was a scam going round not that long ago where fraudsters got a hold of debit card numbers (frequently done through skimmers attached to atm card readers) and bought gift cards in small denominations at Dunkin Donuts. Maybe $5- hoping the cardholder wouldn't notice. Unfortunately it worked. Card holders didn't realize it until they noticed in excess of 20 $5 charges on their account. Banks had to refund that $$, then seek restitution from DD. DD in turn invalidated the fraudulently purchased gift cards.

This kind of thing happens every day, so banks are more proactive in looking for anomolies and immediately contacting the customer.