Is this a scam, or am I being paranoid? [more inside]
posted by pullayup on May 7, 2008 - 13 answers

I had a paid consultation with an attorney, and decided to hire the firm. I signed the agreement and sent the form for the credit card authorization. I didn't hear from them for a few days, and after a number of calls, I was sent a waiver form to sign, before they would start working on my case. This was in addition to the agreement I'd signed earlier. They also sent me some templates for letters. My card had not yet been charged. Needless to say, my confidence with this firm wasn't very high at this point. The waiver letter I was signing said something about getting advice from independent counsel. I did exactly that. I contacted another attorney, found his strategy much better and found that he was more confident. I decided to go ahead with the new attorney. I contacted the old firm and told them, that I did not want to continue with them. They asked me to send an email, which I did. The next day, they went ahead and charged my card for the first payment (half the full amount). We talked a few times and now they tell me, that I'm not entitled to a refund, the amount charged covers the additional consultations and the letter templates. I don't have a problem paying for the additional consultation and any time they spent on my case, but charging this for the templates doesn't seem right. Should I chargeback on the credit card?
posted by naveed on Nov 13, 2005 - 14 answers

CollectionAgencyFilter: I bought an item on eBay in July and paid with my Visa debit card using BidPay. When it became clear that the seller was a scammer and wasn't going to deliver, I contacted my bank and they issued a chargeback on BidPay, and I got my money back. Today I received a somewhat threatening email from BidPay saying that I still owe them the full amount, and if I don't pay they're going to sic a collection agency on me. Do I have to pay it? [more inside]
posted by reflexed on Sep 1, 2005 - 7 answers