pat b.

SOCIALYUM.COM – THE NEW AGE SCAM ARTISTS

I own a small business in Tampa, Fl ( www.tunduree.com) specializing in fast casual Indian Cuisine. Over a month ago we were approached by a local agent by the name of Eric Bolli of the above mentioned company for an online couponing campaign through their website and email network (www.socialyum.com). It was no different from scores of Groupon wannabes and other social media companies out there. After a brief analysis we decided to give them a try for a month for a fee of $199.95 after which we were free to choose if we wanted to continue with them depending on the results they generate.
I signed off on the paperwork for the trial run on May 03rd and gave them a check for $199.95 with a promise that they will run the advertisement the following month. They sent me the advertisement proof on the May 31st to be run on June on their website. To my utter horror the day they run the advertisement on their website (04th of Jun), they fraudulently debited my checking account for $2400 using the account and routing number from the check I had previously given them!
When I contacted both the local agent and their supposed corporate office, they were very unresponsive and evasive in refunding the charge. After a ton of phone calls and emails to them, One ‘John' from the ‘accounting department' calls me and tells me that he doesn't appreciate the tone of my emails and therefore, he did a little more research on my file and has realized that all the charges to my account are legitimate and therefore will not be refunded!
In hind sight, they never intended to do any thing in the first place as they have never sent me any coupon redemption data, access to who bought the coupons or any such information till date.
I am currently spending my time and energy away from running my business and instead trying to get my money back from scamsters like these. Times are tough and I, along with my employees work twice as hard to earn every dollar and keep our business going so we can feed our families. It is really painful & frustrating to see that big companies like these can walk in and scam us and there is not much we can do about it as small players.
Please spread the word and inform every small business you know to stay away from all these clowns and If any of you have any better ideas/ suggestion to get back at these corporate, PLEASE let me know.