Service Care Blog

See Part 1, or you will be a little lost as to what I'm talking about:

Okay, at last post, I had replied to our possible business contact (or scammer) and we were wondering if he would give us more information.

Here is the reply:

-----Original Message-----
>From: Terry Lane 
>Sent: Oct 2, 2009 12:27 AM
>To: Toxey McDavid 
>Subject: Re: Appliance Refrigerator repair inquiry
>
>Hello Toxey,
>Thanks for your mail, well this are what needed to be done on each appliance
>below:
>
> REFRIGERATOR:
>
>Not as cold as usual
>Not cold at all
>Frozen in the freezer side
>and warming up in the fridge side
>Frosting up?
>Pooling water or ice on the floor
>Whistling, warbling, chirping, clicking, buzzing or making other funny
>noises
>
>
>IS YOUR DRYER:
>
>Too hot
>Not as hot as it should be
>Not heating at all
>Getting warm, but just not drying as well as it used to? Or not drying at
>all
>Not doing anything
>Rumbling, rattling, squeaking, clacking,
>or making grinding or other noises
>
>WASHER:
>
>Not spinning
>Not draining
>Not agitating, or agitating weakly
>Not filling, or filling too slowly
>Not doing anything
>Leaking water or oil
>Overflowing
>Leaving your clothes too wet at the end of the cycle
>Vibrating uncontrollably
>Spinning and agitating at the same time
>Screeching, squeaking, clattering, knocking, buzzing,
>or making grinding or other strange noises
>Do you smell smoke when your washer is running
>
>
>WASHING MACHINE:
>Not draining
>Not filling
>Not doing anything
>Stopping in mid-cycle
>Buzzing or making grinding or other strange noises
>Spotting dishes? Or even etching dishes
>
>I want you to email me the total quote for repair service for the appliance
>and also i will like to confirm you accept credit card by mode of payment.
>
>Thanks
>Terry Lane

As you can see, he did not answer the pertinent questions, but he did seek to clarify what was wrong with each unit... or did he?

There was something suspicious about the complaints he had listed, so I copied a few and google them to see what I could find.

Bingo.

A quick search of google shows that these complaints are taken, word for word, from various online appliance repair websites.

Okay, there is no longer any doubt. This person is not legitimate.

Basically, I have a few options:

1) Stop replying and ignore this scammer, and forget about it. (What fun is that?)
2) Send him a nasty-gram, and tell him he's been spotted. (Like he cares.)
3) Reply as if he is legitimate, and press him for information and see what I can do with it. See where this goes and what happens (without giving him any money, of course).

I'm choosing 3, for better or worse, because I don't like scammers. This kind of preying, cowardly thievery really gets my goat. So to speak.

So, here's my reply (bear in mind that these estimates, as I explain in the reply, are basically worthless and made up off the top of my head):

Hello Terry,

Based on this unusual set of complaints, I can give you general estimates
for these repairs. These are only guesses, as it is impossible to determine
what the real cost of a repair will be until the diagnosis is complete.

Refrigerators: $150-300
Dryers: $100-175
Washers: $100-200
Washing Machines: $100-200

I do not normally accept out-of-state credit cards, but I might be able to
make an exception for such a large set of repairs.

I'm still curious to know a little more about who I am dealing with. What
is the name of your company, and where do you operate your business?

Thanks again,

Toxey McDavid

Let's see what happens.

Will the scammer read our blog and run away? Will he reveal the location of his secret lair? Will the Penguin triumph over a caped duo?

Tune in for Part 3 to find out... if you're really bored, of course.

Labels: appliances, scams

Just a cautionary note to other appliance and television servicers.

We have been contacted by a person, possibly originating out of Port Lavaca, Texas (but who knows, really?) who was interested in getting service on 20 units.

From the beginning, I was suspicious about this contact, but I thought I would play it out and see what happened.

Here's the original contact:

"Greetings, I got your contact On Google.com and i was just
checking if you will be available to repair some Appliance
(5) Refridgerator. Get back to me for more details if you'll
be available as soon as possible. Thanks, Kind Regards. Terry Lane"

This was from a gmail account, which is automatically suspicious if this is supposed to be a legitimate business. But I responded courteously, because you never know.

My response:

Hello Terry,

Thanks for contacting Service Care.

We are available for any appliance repair, and we've also been repairing
televisions for over two decades.

As of this minute, I have several calls available tomorrow, and many more
available Friday. If this sounds good to you, can you provide more information
about the refrigerator and also about the location where the repair will need
to take place.

Thanks again for your contact,

Toxey McDavid

Service Care, Inc.
Toxey McDavid
2812 5th Avenue South
Birmingham, AL 35210

** Save Money! Sign up for our free, do-it-yourself **
** maintenance reminders on www.servicecare.net **

Pretty soon, I get this reponse back:

-----Original Message-----
>From: Terry Lane 
>Sent: Oct 1, 2009 12:54 AM
>To: Toxey McDavid 
>Subject: Re: Appliance Refrigerator repair inquiry
>
>Hello Toxey,
>Thanks for your mail, below are the appliance i will like to repair:
>
> 5. Refrigerators
>5. Washers
>5. Dryers
>5.Washing Machines
>
>Those are what i will like to repair and i will handle the shipment of the
>appliance my self, and my shipper will bring down the appliance down to your
>place. However,get back to me with your last price for the 20 appliances.  I
>await your urgent response so that i can put the arrangement in order. And
>also i will like to know if you accept credit card for mode of payment.
>
>Regard
>Terry Lane

#1 Why the increase in appliances from original request. Why 5 each?

#2 What legitimate business person thinks you can quote a price to repair these appliances with no complaint, no models or brand names, nothing.

#3 Credit cards from out-of-state (or country) strangers are bad, bad news.

#4 Most of all... 5 each of washers and 5 each of washing machines? Does he (or she) not know that these are the same product type? **Klaxon bells, red flashing lights, a voice saying Warning! Warning! **

My powers of suspicion on high alert now, I send the following response:

Hello Terry,

I will do the necessary research to get you an estimate of what
these 20 appliances would cost to repair. This will be a very
general estimate as I do not know the models of the appliances,
nor do I know the problems and symptoms associated with each appliance.

By the way, which company are you with and where will you be
shipping the appliances from?

Toxey

At the end, I ask direct questions... What company are you with? Where are the appliances coming from?

Can you guess if I will get an answer to these questions?

Stay tuned to find out how this continues in Part 2 (unless of course this person reads this blog avidly).

Labels: appliances, scams

If you own a business website like www.servicecare.net, and you only serve a single country (or a state, even) you may find that you are frequently contacted by a few honest people from countries that you do not serve. But more likely, you will find your inbox stuffed with contacts from dishonest scammers from all over the globe, wanting to use someone else's credit card to buy services from you... or share the wealth from a Nigerian president/queen/emperor who's recently been mauled by vampire bats.

If you, like me, see no reason why anyone from Ghana, to pick a random example, would have any real need to view your website (since you don't ship any product overseas, for example), then why not go to a website that allows you to block an entire country from viewing your website.

In fact, you can block a whole bunch of countries if you like.

If this seems to defy the whole free internet, world-wide-globe idea, ask yourself if you would advertise in Australia for your shoe repair shop in Texas. Would you send mailers to Egypt for your hotdog stand in Newark.

No, you wouldn't.

I would be careful to advise that you might want to avoid blocking other states (if you're in the U.S.), but that's up to you. Frankly, I'm only blocking the countries that keep sending me spam and scam.

For those that didn't see it, go to www.blockacountry.com and consider making a donation, or at least a link (like I did, you see?)

Labels: business, scams, spam, web