Bottom Line books scam part 2
On December 12, 2008 I posted about Bottom Line Books’ attempt to defraud my mother-in-law. My statistics show there have been a great number of people reading it daily. This leads me to believe that at least twice that number of people have had the same experience.
If you are reading this because you are in the same boat, I must explain that Dear Hubby never talked to Bottom Line Books because they’d already sent the bill to collection. He called the collection agency and explained the situation. (She never ordered, received, and didn’t want any books.) They were very helpful in resolving the issue.
At present, we are in the process of filing a dispute for two more illegal transactions we found. It seems that both Betterman/Betterwoman and American Leisure helped themselves to my mother-in-law’s checking account. I looked online and couldn’t find out anything about Betterman/Betterwoman other than they sell vitamins that she doesn’t take, want, and didn’t order. However, there are a vast number of complaints against American Leisure.
Of course, we’ve changed her account and alerted her bank about these illegal withdrawals and they’ve red flagged any new transactions on that card number.
*See my earlier post Bottom line books scam
**See also Painvanish another scam and Painvanish problem settled
Posted on January 4, 2009, in My blog, Scams and tagged Author, Beads, Bones, books, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Scams, Writer, Writing. Bookmark the permalink. 16 Comments.
Doggonedmysteries 
I received three unsolicited, unwanted , snd unordered. I refused delivery and returned them with an email stating I had better not from hear from them again. It reminds of the Lost in Space robowho used to come charging up, screaming Wille Robinson. Just an alert beware of who you deal with on the internet. Its scary out there.
AMen! We have received repeated billing for the same book. We paid for the book the first month. Bills kept coming. Calls proved fruitless to try to clear up the problem. We sent a copy of the canceled check. Bills kept coming and one year later, they are threatening to ruin our credit! How can they get away with this????
Thing is, my mother-in-law has never used the internet. Somehow, somewhere, her name got on a list and I hope all the phone work DH did has cleaned her off of it.
As of this date I’ve had almost 500 hits on my posts about Bottom Line Books. I find this upsetting. That’s 500 people who have been scammed that actually took the time to look the company up. If you are having trouble with this company please report them to the Better Business Bureau.
Bill, I wish I knew the answer to that.
My husband recently received a set of books from Bottom Line Books and unfortunately did open them not knowing what they were. He thought they were sent by his mother and father. After opening them and seeing they were nearly identical to the ones his mom sent him previously ( she mailed them from HER home) he called to see if she had them sent. My father-in -law stated that he never sent them ( he is the only one in their household that even knows how to use and order from the internet. – my MIL is 88, he is 83)
We have been trying to contact BLB to acquire a return label ( I don’t feel we should have to foot the bill for return postage on something that was never ordered!!)
If my effort are futile then I will contact both the AG and the BBB.
BTW – according to the bill that came with the book, this was an internet order.
It took countless hours of phonework on Dear Hubby’s part to get the ball rolling on clearing his Mom’s stuff up. While he had the collection agency on the line he asked them if there were any other ‘outstanding’ collections on her address. There was one, from BLB in his Dad’s name. He told them, “good luck collecting on that one, he’s been dead for ten years…”
They removed that one too.
Sometimes it’s easier to notify the bank of the fraudulent charges and change the credit cards than to deal with some of these scammers.
Mr. Bill Bradford has the same problem I had and still am having with Bottom Line Books. Last year I ordered a book online, received it, paid for it and by March of this year, I was receiving regular collection and deliquency letters from them. I had to prove I paid for the book. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn my lesson and ordered another book which I promptly received and paid for right away (June 2009). In Sept. I received a collection letter and they have been harrassing me ever since, despite me sending them a copy of my bank check showing that THEY received and cashed my check in June. Not sure what their problem is, but I’ve had it and will report them to the BBB and possibly to the attorney general’s office in Iowa. Not to mention when you call their customer service, you will know right away your call has been outsourced to someone in India whose English is so bad you can’t understand what is being said!!!
Call the BBB and the AG.
As of this date I’ve had well over 1200 hits on this subject so be assured that you are not alone.
If you call their collection agency, insist on speaking to the person’s supervisor and don’t take no for an answer. Get names and keep a list as to whom you’ve talked. Stay calm, tell them you are reporting them to the BBB and the AG. Then do it.
I ordered the book online, and never received it. Worse, my first bill from them was to notify me that I was two payments behind on the three installments. Nice.
Good luck with that.
Will,
I wish you good luck, also. This company is on top of the scammer’s list! I have reported them to the BBB and also on the Rip Off Report site where they are getting flooded by customers complaining about BLB. I truly believe they defraud people at every opportunity. I tell everyone I know not to order ANYTHING from them. Trust me, if you do finally receive your book and you send them a payment, they will start sending you collection letters stating that they have never received your payment! I know this for a fact.
The worst thing is that they often target the elderly or, as in the case of my father in law, the long dead. Imagine my MIL’s horror upon receiving a bill saying he’d ordered a book 10 years after he died. Wow, he must have great telephone or internet service where he is…
My bottomline books scam posts average over 50 hits a week–50+ hits a week, think about it. What is going on here?
I too have had a bad experience with bottom line books. I clicked on a Hugh Downs link and in order to read the article I gave my email address. Read the article. That was all. A month or so later I get a book I never ordered. After being threatened with collection I contacted the Attorney General of Iowa. It has been around 8 months but today I received a mailing label from bottom line books to mail the dammed book back free of charge.The Attorney Generals Office contacted BLB . I advise everyone to go to the Iowa State website and fill out a complaint with the Attorney General.