The following companies have a pattern of unfair or deceptive business practices. If you have a company that you would like us to investigate for possible inclusion on the list below, please contact us, using this form.
America Online
Where do we start with this company? When customers started leaving AOL in large numbers, AOL's uninstall program sabotaged the Internet functionality built into Windows, functionality on which most other ISPs rely. Once AOL was sued for that deceptive practice, AOL moved to requiring subscribers to call at the end of their monthly billing cycle to cancel. Once AOL was sued for that practice, AOL decided that while they had to accept cancellation requests, regardless of when the subscriber requested cancellation, AOL was not going to prorate the last month's service.
AOL is once again offering their $250 rebate on a new computer when the consumer agrees to a one year subscription. Of course this means paying at least $287.40 to save $250. Further, the last time AOL offered this type of rebate, consumers sued AOL for taking six months to pay the rebate and in many cases, not paying the rebate at all. The FTC and state attorney generals have investigated AOL’s rebate and cancellation practices on multiple occasions.
Charter One Bank
Charter One has run several misleading ads. First they advertise a 3.0% rate on a checking account. Only when the consumer arrives at the bank does Charter One disclose that you have to set up direct deposit to get the 3.0% rate. Charter One does not disclose this requirement when you call the branch or the 800 number. When the consumer rejects the money market, Charter One's employees suggest another account, which they assure you pays 1.75%. They also assure the consumer that the 1.75% rate is not a teaser rate. Sure enough, it is a 45-60 day teaser rate and when you go to close the account, they refuse because one of the fine print terms requires the account to remain open for 120 days. Charter One adjusts the statement period so that 120 days falls in between statement cycles, so when the consumer closes the account on the 120th day, they lose roughly 1/2 month's interest.
Lots of banks are bad, but the deceptive practices of Charter One exceed the norm.
CompUSA
CompUSA developed such a reputation for failing to honor rebates that the Federal Trade Commission took action. We have no data concerning CompUSA's rebate processing behavior since the FTC consent order was entered, but our own experience with CompUSA shows a continuing failure to disclose the number of rebates that are required to obtain the advertised price. In one instance it took three rebates to get $20.
National Association for the Self-Employed/MEGA Health and Life Insurance Co.
The NASE holds itself out as an advocacy group for the self-employed that also happens to offer a group health insurance plan to its members. The major selling points of NASE's plan are that the plan: is affordable, offers comparable coverage to a Blue Cross and Blue Shield policy, and does not suffer from the major increases in premiums and/or cuts in benefits that plague most other policies. Depending on your sales representative, the NASE claimed to audit the insurer to make sure that profits on the NASE plan did not exceed 5%. In reality, the NASE is a shell entity established by MEGA to sell deceptively limited health insurance at inflated prices to small businesses, the self-employed and those who do not get coverage through their employer. The first year's premium is a teaser premium that jumps significantly in each successive year. Regarding MEGA's claims handling practices, MEGA will not pay properly submitted claims under the correct portion of the policy. This results in insureds incurring greater out of pocket expenses because the insurer is ignoring the optional policy riders for which the insured paid an additional premium. We are aware of several cases pending across the nation in NASE/MEGA induced individuals to give up comprehensive coverage with other insurers, only to find out that when they filed a claim with MEGA, their policy had hidden policy caps. In many of these cases, the MEGA insureds have incurred in excess of $100,000 in unpaid medical bills. Only the litigious should buy a policy from MEGA.
|
