If you feel like a company you paid for a service has not delivered the best place to start to attempt to resolve the issue is to contact the company directly. If you’ve tried repeatedly to get your issue resolved by sending an email or leaving voice mail and that’s not getting any attention, send a letter by some traceable means that provides you with proof of delivery. A signature or name of who signed for it is even more beneficial.

The least expensive service to use of to send your letter through the post office by certified mail, return receipt requested. When the letter is signed for you will get back a green postcard showing when it was received and who signed for it. You may also decide to send your letter by FedEx or some other express mail service to get additional attention.

Keep the return receipt postcard or some other delivered proof with a copy of the letter you sent in a safe place. You’ll probably need it later if you have to escalate your dispute.

In your letter give the company 14 days to respond, keep a friendly tone, and state what your issue is and the resolution you would like to receive. There is no need to be mean or nasty in this letter.

Let the company know that if they fail to respond you will escalate the matter to state and federal officials but you want to come to a win-win outcome that is good for both you and reasonable for the company.

Sometimes a company will come back with a refund offer to help remedy the dispute. While the refund offer may not be for the full amount you feel you deserve, only you can determine if the partial refund provides you with a satisfactory outcome and not left feeling cheated.

You don’t have to accept less than you are owed but there must be a cost-benefit determination to figure out if more time, pressure, and escalation on your part is going to result in a better outcome for you.

If the company does not respond or you feel it is insufficient you can escalate your claim to your State Attorney General, the Better Business Bureau, your local consumer affairs office or other enforcement office. You can find a listing of all consumer protection offices online here.

If you’ve been ripped off or have a complaint about a company that has taken your money or made you promises for a loan or was selling you some money saving service, credit repair, or debt help and just hasn’t delivered there are plenty of places to file a complaint in hopes of getting help.

But you may want to consider wiling an online report using the scam report and consumer complaint submission form.

This free service is unique as compared to other online complaint portals in that it companies that are the subject of a filed complaint are contacted and asked to respond directly to your complaint.

The goal of a consumer complaint using this service is to create a conduit for a solution and the problem being resolved.

Without a doubt the effective route to a resolution is to be levelheaded, persistent, and do what you can to work with the company first. Give them a chance to do the right thing. Your documentation that you tried and they did not want to assist you in resolving the dispute will come in handy if you later file your complaint elsewhere.

While this guide is written more for people that feel cheated by a debt relief company, the detailed step-by-step refund directions are still good for almost any dispute.

Author: This article was contributed by GetOutOfDebt.org, a site that provides free help for people looking for advice on how to get out of debt or getting out of debt.
Source: Have You Been Scammed or Ripped Off? How to Get Help and Get The Problem Resolved.

“Dear Steve,

I received an envelope thru my post office box, front of the envelope no name only our mailing address which is PO. Box etc… as I open this envelope it was promotional brochure from sandstourism on their 9th anniversary and there is a 2 scratch and win promo ticket which I scratch the first one it said “thank you” and the second ticket I scratch ” 2nd prize USD 160,000.00 so I called the number on the brochure to claim the prize.

When I’m claiming my prize they told me to scanned the promo ticket so they can verified the bar codes if its valid. they call me personally that the ticket is valid so they asked me a clients#. which I don’t have.. meaning in order for you get this client number you have be a member on this company (hondings) they are investor in Hongkong.

so they research my name if I’m one of the investor in this company which my name did not show. so they called me again telling me because I’m not a n investor i may not be qualified to get the prize they told the major prize is hold for the investor and I ask them if this ticket is hold for one of the investor why did i get this in my mail?

they answer it got mixed up when they in put the promo ticket they accident put on my box number.. so i fight for it i told them no one can claim this ticket accept for me because i have the original ticket after how many days they called me that the company decided to grant the prize to me.. the company holding called me today for verification, and read me a letter of authorization of Hongkong in short ” in order for the company to release this big amount of money need to go in court for legal documentation they asking me a security deposit $3336.04, which after I received my prize they will reimburse the $3260.04, the $100.00 is process fee. I’ve been communicating them for 1 week I called them or they will call me.

should I send them the money? what if this is a scammed? How would i find out if this is a scammed?

Luena”

Dear Luena,

No need to do any more research, it’s a scam.

They are trying to con you to put up thousands of dollars in hopes of getting a big payday. It’s an age old scam. You dangle a big prize out there and make the victim think they only have to invest X to get Y. It seems like a variation of the Nigerian Oil scam.

If you would like to report the mailing, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service online, click here.

Save your money.

Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.

Big Hug!

@GetOutOfDebtGuy

Author: This article was contributed by GetOutOfDebt.org, a site that provides free help for people looking for advice on how to get out of debt or getting out of debt.
Source: Sands Tourism Sent Me Two Scratch Off Tickets and Say I’m a Winner. Is This a Scam? – Luena

Want Smooth Sailing for Your Tax Planning? Get Your CPA On Board.

Taxes, tax planning, estimated tax payments, your CPA. Feeling nauseous yet? Need a brown paper bag?

It doesn’t have to be this way. Like most people, you are not wired to deal with this tax stuff. You are not supposed to be great at tax planning! You are busy doing other stuff.

You want to spend less time on this stuff and more financial independence? You want more control of your financial life? You need to know what to expect from your accountant and how to work with him/her for your tax planning. Once you find the right person, a big load will be off your shoulders and you will feel great!

Here are 6 things you should ask and expect from your accountant:

1) You want a CPA who will be proactive with you, especially if you’re a business owner. They should call or email you every 3 months and check in with you about your tax planning. Yeah, you heard that right. I’m talking about them actively serving YOU! They really need to know how you are doing in your business. The right accountants can brainstorm with you about building real value in your business. Ask them what their process is to stay in touch with you.

2) How do they price themselves? Hourly? Flat fee? Do they actually prepare the tax return or do they farm it out to a junior accountant in the firm and then just sign the final return? Either way could be fine for you. You just need to be clear about who is actually doing the work.

3) You need to make sure your CPA is a team player and can work well with other advisors like attorneys, financial advisors, etc. You need to feel like you are special to them — that they really care about your financial well being and are willing to go beyond the call of duty. Let them know that they need to work very well and communicate with your bookkeeper for your tax planning. Everyone needs to be on the same page.

4) Observe them when they answer your questions. Do they look you in the eyes? Are they smiling? Do you like what they do? Are they positive and easy to work with?

5) Ask them if they specialize in working with a certain type of client, like entrepreneurs, retirees, creatives, etc.

6) Tell them that you want them to be creative in coming up with ideas for your tax planning and saving you money. I am not suggesting you hire an aggressive accountant but a good CPA should call you and strategize.

If none of these work, take some Pepto, 2 Tylenol and call me on the morning.

This guest post was submitted by Justin Krane who is a Certified Financial Planner professional and partners with entrepreneurs to identify, clarify and meet goals for increasing their business revenue.

Here is a guide to help try to avoid being cheated or scammed by a business or company and check out or evaluate a company for free before you decide to pay them money for services.

Over the years a common theme has emerged where people feel they are scammed by a company or taken advantage of and it appears they have not checked them out before giving up their hard earned money for services. Here is my guide on what to do to help you from being a victim.

Checking out a company or business before you pay them a lot of money is smart and prudent. It can help keep you from being ripped off.

The largest issue I see when people are in trouble and looking for help is they tend to run to the first company that claims they can help them and they suspend commonsense or prudent measures and hope the company will perform the services they claim to be able to. It isn’t till later that people find out that the claims made may not have been true and then they are left in a worse spot and struggle trying to get their money back.

How to Check Out a Company or Business

There is no one surefire way to checkout a company so feel free to add additional suggestions in the comments below. Here is what I suggest doing.

1. What is the Company Address? Ask the company to provide the physical street address where they are located if you were to visit them. Many companies hide behind a mail drop or postal center address.While it is true that some start-up companies do legitimately use these mail centers to receive mail, it is also true that may fly-by-night outfits use them as well to shield themselves. They will close the mailbox and move on to the next thing.

   If a company is not substantial enough or can’t provide you with a physical street address then you may want to consider if they are going to be around if a problem occurs.

   If they do give you a physical street address with a suite number, do a Google search for that address and suite number. Many of those turn out to be virtual office spaces. They look like legitimate addresses but a little checking will show you they are just a fancier version of the mail drop mask.

   You might want to suggest you are going to be in the area and you’d like to drop in unannounced at their address. If they try to talk you out of that, that might make you wonder why.

   

   You can use the street address to take a look at it from the street using Google Maps. That can be extremely enlightening.

2. Is the Company Registered? It’s easy to check to see if a company is licensed these days. A simple Google search for ‘[state] corporation search’ will typically get you the link for the state you are searching so you can do a quick search of the the state records to see if they are registered.You will want to check the state in which they say they are located and your state. It is surprising the number of companies that are not licensed to conduct business in their own state. While a company may be operated as a sole-proprietorship and may not be a registered corporation or LLC with the state, that will at least give you a good idea how big they are and if they claim to be a “corporation, nonprofit, or LLC” they should be registered.
3. Is the Company Licensed? If the company is selling you some sort of financial service or debt help, the chances are that their state and your state require some sort of licensing. This is true for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations.If a company is selling you debt help or a loan, they most likely should hold a state license or be exempt from licensing. Ask them for their licensing information to be able to provide a service. If they claim they are not required to be licensed, you can use the free debt relief compliance module to check if that is true.
4. Recognize the Role of the Person is You Are Talking To. Typically the person you are talking to on the phone is either paid a commission or evaluated on one thing, making sales. The intentional or unintentional effort of a representative is to persuade you to use they services and enroll as a client with them. Don’t feel pushed. You need to understand the representative may say a lot of things that don’t wind up being supported in writing. They may engage in puffery or misrepresentation to get you to pay them money for services.If a company is attempting to sell you services and using the telephone, they must comply with the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule.
5. Ask the Company to Put Their Performance Claims in Writing. If a representative is willing to tell you they have a great success rate for the services they are selling, then they should not hesitate to share that data with you. In fact the Federal Trade Commission has some very clear guidance about how a company should do that.May I base my advertising claims on the experiences of some previous customers?

   Yes, but your sample must be representative of the entire relevant population of your past customers. To accomplish this you must, among other things, use appropriate sampling techniques, proper statistical analysis, and safeguards for reducing bias and random error. You can’t cherry-pick the most successful examples to inflate your results.

   If you advertise or represent that your customers will save a certain amount of money or reduce their debt by a certain percentage – for example, “We can settle your debts for 40% to 60%” – your statements must be truthful, and you must have objective proof to back them up. Your claims must accurately reflect the results you’ve achieved for previous customers. It’s important to consider the message your claims convey. Under the law, the FTC looks at claims from the point of view of reasonable consumers. Therefore, what matters isn’t the literal accuracy of the words you use, but rather your proof to support the “net impression” your message conveys. For example, claiming that your past customers have achieved “up to 60% savings” is likely to convey to new customers that they, too, will get savings of around 60%. If you don’t have solid proof to back that up, the claim is deceptive.

   Here are several important requirements for making sure your savings claims are truthful and not deceptive:

   1. State the savings based on the customer’s debt when he or she signs up for the program. You may not inflate savings figures or percentages by including interest and fees the credit card company adds after a customer signs up for your program.
      

      Example 8: Andy signs up with a debt relief service offered by Company H, owing $10,000 on his credit card. One year later, following negotiations with the credit card company, Company H negotiates a settlement allowing Andy to pay $6,000 to resolve the debt. However, since Andy enrolled, the credit card company has charged him interest and late fees totaling $2,000, so that Andy now owes $12,000. By getting a settlement for $6,000, Company H has saved Andy $4,000 ($10,000 minus $6,000) or 40% of the debt at the time of enrollment. It would be deceptive for Company H to claim to have saved Andy $6,000 ($12,000 minus $6,000) or 50% of his debt.

   2. Include the impact of your fees on the claimed savings. You may not inflate your savings claims by excluding the fees your customers paid you.
      

      Example 9: Betty owes $10,000 on her credit card, and signs up with Company ‘s debt relief service. Company J gets a settlement allowing Betty to pay $5,000 to resolve the debt. However, at the time of settlement, Company J charges Betty a $1,000 fee for its work. It would be deceptive for Company J to claim to have saved Betty $5,000 – or 50% of her debt – because Betty also had to pay $1,000 in fees. Instead, Company J may truthfully state Betty’s savings as $4,000 ($5,000 minus $1,000) or 40% of Betty’s debt.

   3. In calculating the results you’ve achieved over time, you must include customers who dropped out or otherwise failed to complete the program. Don’t base your savings claims only on customers who successfully completed your program.
      

      Example 10: Company K had 10 customers signed up for its service. Each one had $10,000 in unpaid credit card debt for a total of $100,000. Five of the customers completed the program, and each saved $5,000 – for a total savings of $25,000. The remaining five customers dropped out of the program, each one still owing the $10,000 they owed when they signed up with the program. Taken together, Company K has saved its customers $25,000 – or 25% – of the total $100,000 debt they had when they signed up with the program. It would be deceptive for Company K to exclude the drop-outs and claim that it saved its customers 50% of their debt.

   4. Include all debts enrolled by your customers, not only those that have been settled successfully. In calculating your savings claim, you may not exclude accounts you failed to settle, even if the failure was due to customers dropping out of your service.
      

      Example 11: Company L has 10 customers, and each of them enrolls two $1,000 debts in the program – totaling 20 debts or $20,000. Company L is able to settle 10 of the 20 debts, each for $500. However, it was unable to settle the remaining 10 debts before those customers either completed or dropped out of the program. Thus, Company L has saved its 10 customers $5,000 or 25% of their debts in the program. It would be deceptive for Company L to exclude the 10 accounts that weren’t settled and claim a savings rate of 50%.

   While the FTC examples apply specifically to debt settlement companies, the examples can also be used as guidance for other debt help. For example, the success rate of a mortgage modification or credit counseling program.

   Nearly all credit counseling programs will not put their performance numbers or success rates in writing. That should certainly make you wonder why.

   Here is a good example of a credit counseling group that does put their performance measurements in writing and you can use that to evaluate what you should expect from other credit counseling groups.

   For example, if a company is trying to sell you mortgage modification help for thousands of dollars, certainly they should be willing to provide you with documentation to show how successful they have been. And even supply performance data with your specific large lender should be on file. If they are unwilling or unable to provide you with such data, that should make you hesitant.

   Remember, their data must show the performance of all clients enrolled, not just successful clients.

6. Check With the Attorney General Office. You can find the current Attorney Generals’ listed here. The links to their websites will be there as well. You can contact the Attorney General office in your state and their state to inquire if there are any complaints on file. The Attorney General office may also be able to help you determine if the company should be licensed to provide the services they are selling you and check if the company is licensed.
7. Check With the BBB. Don’t even get me started on the BBB. While there have been some valid criticisms of the BBB, they still remain a well recognized repository of complaints and company information. You can search a company here.A BBB rating is not in and of itself the singular clue you should check. I think the companies response to previous complaints is more important. Check to see if previous complaints resolved satisfactorily? Does the company have complaints they’ve never responded to? For me, that’s more disturbing.
   

   Also look for how many recent complaints the company may have and the type of complaints. If they are complaints about the product or service that should be a big red flag for you.

8. Search GetOutOfDebt.org. If the company is going to sell you debt relief assistance and people have had a problem with them in the past, they may have already appeared on the GetOutOfDebt.org website in either an article, reader question or a consumer complaint. The search box for the site should be somewhere up near the top right.
9. Is a Lawyer Selling You Financial Help Services? If you are being asked to pay a large amount of money for financial help services like mortgage modification or debt help by a lawyer, it is only prudent to find another attorney licensed in your state and pay for a second opinion, first.A second opinion will allow you to get a better idea if the claims being made to you are realistic and reasonable. There should be no problem in any attorney being comfortable with their claims when reviewed by another attorney licensed in their state. Think about it like this, do doctors complain when you as for a second opinion about a medical condition? No.

   You can also check to see if the attorney is licensed to provide legal service by going to the website for the Bar association in the state.

10. You MUST Read and Understand the Contract Before You Sign It. Long legal agreements are boring to read. That’s a fact. The average person easily gets lost in all the tiny print and legalese. That’s normal. But you need to understand that the contract you are signing is what you are agreeing to, not what the representative told you on the phone.I’ve seen plenty of contracts that say No Refund even though the representative told them there was. I’ve also seen plenty of contracts that make you agree that there are no guarantees or ask you to waive some of your rights away. And then there are the contracts that even say that everything you were told on the phone is not valid.

    If you are being asked to agree to pages and pages of text, you must understand the agreement is written to protect the person selling you the services, not you. You absolutely must understand what you are agreeing to before you sign the document. If you don’t understand, ask for clarification in writing or take the contract to a lawyer licensed in your state and ask for a second opinion. Consumer advocacy lawyers can be located through NACA.net.

11. Print Out The Company Web Pages. If you feel you are going to use the services of a particular company and you have relied on statements on their website or their website as a whole, print out those pages and keep them in a safe place. They will come in handy if you have a problem with them in the future. Also, save every email the company sends you and print all documents they send you and keep all that information is a safe place you can get to it if a problem arises.
12. Do a Web Search. Before you do anything, do a search of the web for consumer complaints. You can search by company name and also search for their phone number.Individual consumer complaints may not be real, valid or accurate but it won’t take long for you to recognize a pattern of complaints. It’s the overall pattern that creates a red flag for me.

    For example, not every customer is going to be happy. That’s a fact. But it’s how the company handles those customers that’s more important for me. I even wrote a guide on companies can handle upset customers and it’s a good guide on what you should look for and expect from a good company. Read How to Handle a Consumer Complaint Like a Pro And Come Out Smelling Like a Rose.

    What I have observed is online consumer complaints that are then followed by glowing comments. People that are unhappy, complain and shout. People that are happy may post some comments on review sites but they don’t typically run around responding to every unhappy complaint. That’s the mark of someone trying to neutralize complaints, not respond to them.

    In my opinion, ideally what you want is a company that will work hard to resolve any issue that might arise, not get upset over it and attack.

    Use the complaints you may find online and the responses as an example of the integrity and professionalism of the company.

That should be an excellent start for you to check out a company or business before hiring them. If you follow my advice above you will have done more than 98% of people do before hiring a company.

The information you learn will help you to make a well informed decision if the company is right for you.

@GetOutOfDebtGuy

Author: This article was contributed by GetOutOfDebt.org, a site that provides free help for people looking for advice on how to get out of debt or getting out of debt.
Source: How to Check Out a Business or Company to Avoid Getting Scammed or Ripped Off