A business has committed fraud by taking money from me. They claim that they are charging a restocking fee for a product I never ordered. The say that it is under product information on their web page which it is but was not previous to them taking my money. Can I find out when it was added later?

Did you order ANY item from this site ?

Before you start throwing fraud accusations around. How are they charging you a fee if you never ordered anything? Do you have copies of your invoices?

I ordered a barn via email. The owner would not provide a contract or delivery date and kept making excuses. I later found out via the web, she had several online complaints against her for fraud. I told her I wanted my money back. She had not ordered anything for me at that point. She told me she would be charging a 25% restocking fee. I looked at her web page along with two other people and it said nothing regarding the fee. When I informed her of this, she said it did. We noticed that the font was different but it had been added under her product information tab. She ended up stating that she would not charge me but ended up doing so.

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

Before you start throwing fraud accusations around. How are they charging you a fee if you never ordered anything? Do you have copies of your invoices?

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I ordered the product via email with the owner promising to send a contract the following day which she would not, even after several requests. She kept making excuses. She would not give me a delivery date on my product (a barn for my horses). I found several complaints against her online for taking money and not delivering a product. I then asked her for my money back. She agreed but said I would have to pay a 25% restocking charge. She said it was on her web page. I looked and it was not. Two other people looked with my same result. When I notified her of this, she said that the charge would not be placed but it was on her website. I looked and it had been added. She ended up charging me the fee because she was angry that I complained to the BBB.

A barn? You mean like a shed?

Did you give them any payment? If you paid by credit card, call your card issuer and cancel the charge. Let her try to making the restock fee stick.

Yes it was called an Open Air Barn with 6 horse stalls.
I gave them payment via wire through my bank to theirs.

Contact your bank and see if they can rescind the wire. Otherwise you will have to sue her.

I can't imagine a "restocking fee" involved in this type of purchase. Even if the barn is prefab There should not be a restocking fee unless the pre fab components were delivered to you. But I can't imagine a court agreeing with such a fee in this case. The fact that you paid does indicate a contract, but until items are delivered... On the other hand, if she charged a cancellation fee, that might be different.

Why did you a) pay money until you had a signed contract and b) pay by wire transfer unless the company was reputable.

My bank did do a recall of the funds but she had to okay it. It took her two weeks to do it. She was sending me nasty emails calling me "stupid." I guess I was for trusting her. She wired back the money yesterday.

I wanted to find out if there is anyway of proving that she added the restocking charge later to her website.

I should have asked for the contract right up front but the woman had a good rating with the BBB at the time.

So did you get all the money back?

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

So did you get all the money back?

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No. It was originally $9000 and she took out the 25% restocking fee. I am filing in small claims court

Do so. And you have a good chance of collecting if you get a judgment since you know where she banks. Unless she is smart and closes the account.

Like I said, I can't imagine a court allowing a restocking fee on an item like this.