I tried to purchase a gun safe on 16 May '03 from an online store in business as A1-Locksmith.com.

I paid immediately by credit card over $600. The safe had not arrived by 9 June and I started trying to contact the merchant by email and phone. I received no response after several tries until 12 June, when I got hold of the merchant on the phone. His reason for not responding he said was that he "didn't know what to tell me" and that the safe was still being manufactured and that it could be a 10-week wait. Knowing that this safe is a mass produced item (AMSEC USA, 60,000 safes per year) I canceled the order verbally with him, through emails, which I still have, and in coordination with Chase MasterCard, whose customer service personnel assured me that as long as I didn't receive the safe, a full refund was no problem. In a few days my card had been completely refunded, and I was happy.

Then on Oct 24 '03 I received a letter from Chase stating that because of the cancellation policy of the merchant I had to pay an 80% restocking fee, which was also applied to the state, tax by the way, and shipping charges, even though the safe was never delivered. The total was over $450.00. I paid this, in good faith thinking that since I could prove that the merchant was lying to them I would get the money. I have prepared a detailed PDF document, 12 pages, which state my case (I believe) pretty cut and dry. I have mailed it to Chase certified mail, I have emailed them and faxed it to them several times. They are ignoring it. I have sent the case to the FBI Internet Fraud Database, but have not heard back from them yet. Please consider reviewing my PDF document of this case.

Steve

No I don't want to read a 12-page story about your safe, neither will anybody else.
All of the information needed for anybody to help you can be condensed into 3 paragraphs or less. Date the purchase was made? Who from? The fact that the merchandise was never shipped. The $450 dollars you naively paid for a restocking fee.

Was the $450 charged to you credit card if so you only have 60 days from the date you received your statement showing the charge to dispute it? Calling the bank doesn't protect your rights. The only way to protect your rights is to mail a notice of dispute to the address for billing disputes listed on the back of your statement. This is a Federal Law. Keep it simple with just the facts making a short story about your situation will only turn people off.

I checked A1's web sight and they are located in the San Francisco Bay area, their return policy is 15 days after receipt and the restocking fee is only 20%. Go to their web site, click on returns and print out the return policy then take them to small claims court.

Good Luck

Tim

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