Bench Craft Company credit card fraud, misrepresentation, dishonest sales people, high pressure tactics Portland Oregon

I'm not sure I would have paid them a dime.

I would have used the "wrong agency name" as your out.

actually

actually, I didn't pay them the $100 because the controller of the company turned it down. I haven't paid them anything at this point, and I wasn't going to file a ripoff report against them if they would have accepted the $100. Not only did I finally put my story on ripoff report, I'm also going to add it to realtychat. and a few others. I might even spend alot of money to email other agents and let them know my story, and how Bench Craft operates. The problem is that by the time people start looking around the internet to investigate a company, it's typically too late. They have already parted with thier credit card information.

I could pay them the $400, but I don't feel that they were honest in thier business practices. I also felt some responsibility to share my story with others. 180 complaints at the BBB is some sort of record and speaks volumes as to the type of business they run.

Bench Craft Company

I received a call from a salesman at Bench Craft Company on 7/30/07. We discussed advertising on a bench at a local golf course. $400 to get my name on a bench for 2 years sounded like a pretty good deal. He said he would fax a contract for me to review and sign that day. The contract never came over, so I called him back to let him know.

He said he would fax it the next day as he was leaving the office. I never recieved it the next day, so I called him back again. Again he promised to re fax it. By the third day I hadn't recieved it, so I told him to forget about it. At that point he explained to me that I had already purchased.

I asked him how that was possible. He said since I had given him my credit card over the phone, I had already agreed. He was able to get my credit by saying he needed to put it on the contract to fax it to me.

I never recieved the contract by fax, but did finally recieve it by mail. It was stapled to a letter dated 8/1/07 that states in gigantic letters that Contract Shall Not Be Cancelled.

The contract is not for bench advertising as we discussed. It is for a small ball washer sign. In the signature line, the salesman has written in: per phone.

I disputed the charges with my credit card company, and easily won the dispute. The controller of Bench Craft still plans on sending this to collections. I have told these guys over and over that I don't want to do business with them at all. They tried to redo the contract and sell me bench advertising. I told them no.

They state they have already put up my sign, with the wrong agency name and if I pay them an extra $50 they will put the correct name on it. I finally offered them $100 to settle the matter.

Although I enjoy reading thier collection of preprepared letters to scare people into buying things they didn't order, it's worth $100 to not have to deal with the collection agency.

The BBB has 180 complaints on them in the last 6 months. The controller at thier company didn't seem to think that was alot of complaints. In comparison, housevalues has 178 over the same period. In my opinion, housevalues is the biggest scam ever perpetrated against real estate agents. The general public is duped by housevalues also, but the agents have to pay for the priveledge where the public gets duped for free.

Bench Craft Company Attorney Response

This law firm represents Bench Craft Company in its dispute against Mr. Gareth ---. Charlie Cobb, President of Bench Craft Company, has instructed us to respond to Mr. ---' post on Ripoff Report.

In response to Mr. ---' post, Bench Craft contracted with Mr. --- of Windermere Real Estate on July 30, 2007, to advertise his business on a ball washer at the Newport Beach Golf Course. Bench Craft entered into a binding contract with Mr. ---- and the company was paid in full in advance for its services. As part of the contract, Mr. --- supplied Bench Craft with information to be incorporated in the advertisement. Bench Craft completed performance of their obligations under the contract in reasonable reliance on Mr. D---' payment for their services and the ball washer was delivered to Hole 12 of the Newport Beach Golf Course. Mr. --- has been benefiting from the advertisement that he designed and placed at the golf course.

Mr. ----responded by breaching the contract and reversing his credit card payment to Bench Craft. It is possible that Mr. --- overextended himself due to the downturn in the housing market. However, Mr. --- is still responsible for his binding contract.

As to Mr. ---' allegation that Bench Craft has 180 complaints . . . in the last 6 months, Bench Craft strongly disputes Mr. ---' allegation since the facts simply do not support his contention. Bench Craft does a very large volume of business and is proud to report over 99.9% positive feedback on their services. Of the .1% that filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, Bench Craft was able to satisfy the majority of those customers. In other words, Bench Craft works hard to make sure that their customers are satisfied. The Better Business Bureau record speaks for itself. Please see the record at: alaskaoregonwesternwashington.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=114&bbb=1296&firm=79000455

While Bench Craft regrets that any customer is unhappy with their services and strives to make all of their customers' experiences positive, Bench Craft maintains that Mr. --- is liable under the contract for the full contract price of the advertisement that he intentionally placed.

Thank you.

Dennis Steinman, Attorney at Law

Attorney:Thanx You for you Response

I will concede a few points to Bench Craft Company.

1. They do provide an advertising service and have relationships with golf courses nationally to advertise. I talked with the manager at my local golf course and he said he had never heard of any problems with them, and they had handled the advertising for the course before he arrived, which I believe was 15 years.

2. I had a tough time finding anything negative on Bench Craft Company, until I went to BBB. I went to BBB again last night and found a large number of complaints against the company, but not as large as I found originally. I suggest the attorney go to the national BBB site. I didn't look hard last night, but I can't prove my original statement of 180 complaints in 6 months at this point and withdraw that comment.

3. The prices quoted to me for advertising seemed more than fair, and had Bench Craft Company faxed me the contract the day we talked and had it been for Bench advertising, I would have been a happy customer.

I wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy, so I went to my cell phone records.

mon-7/30/07-4:31-11 minutes:
bench craft salesman calls me to sell bench advertising. says he will fax contract over immediately for me to review and sign.

mon-7/30/07-4:52-1 minute:
I call salesman back to tell him I didn't receive contract, he said he had already left the office and would fax it in the morning.

wed-8/1/07-11:17-3 minutes:
I call salesman again to tell him I still haven't received contract by fax. he promises to fax it again.

wed-8/1/07-12:04-4 minutes:
I call salesman and tell him I am no longer interested as I still haven't received fax. he tells me I already bought when I gave up my credit card over the phone, and sends me to the controller. Controller isn't interested in anything I have to say, just wants to explain to me that they have a valid contract that I have never seen.

wed-8/1/07-3:02-11 minutes:
I believe I called back to again present my side of the story to the controller and again was told that they have a cashable contract or something to that effect.

Approximately-8/9/07- I receive contract by mail for advertising on a ball washer. Attached to the contract that was dated 7/30/2007, was a letter dated 8/1/2007. It went on to explain Bench Craft's cancelation policies. There was also some interesting verbage that implied they had sent a sales rep to my office, designed artwork, and so on. Basically the only contact I had ever had with Bench Craft outside of the calls that I initiated, was the original 11 minute call from the salesman. Also a string of letters specifically designed to scare me into buying. We never discussed artwork, the cancelation policy was not discussed, and we never discussed ballwasher advertising. I called from home phone to reiterate that I didn't want the advertising and we never talked about ball washers. I was transfered to the sales manager who tried to upgrade me to Bench advertising, but I told him I wouldn't buy a gumball from his company, and he hung up on me. In addition to these phone calls flatly stating I don't want anything, I had sent many emails to Bench Craft starting 8/1/07 that basically said the same thing. They are definitely in receipt of these, and I have proof.

THU 09/20/2007 2:36PM 5 minutes:

I receive artwork in the mail from Bench Craft. None of this artwork was submitted by me, they decided to design it on thier own. It has wrong company name. It has my home address. I call and email benchcraft to let them know not to use the artwork as I don't work for that company and never have. At the time I didn't notice it had my home address on it.

To shorten this up. At some point after 9/17/2007 they state they posted my artwork on the golf course. At that point I called and offered them $100 to leave me alone. I called both the salesmanager and the controller. I really didn't care if they posted my ad or not but thought I'd derive some benefit from the ad being up so I made the offer. I also told them again I didn't work for the company on the sign and they offered to put the right company name on the sign for $50 above the original $400 they want from me.

As of today (friday-11/9/07) I notice the artwork was designed by them 9/17/2007. As of today I realize my home address is posted on a golf course. They spelled my city wrong so it makes me look dumb. As of a few days ago I was notified by my credit card company that they were able to get the $400 back from my card. I am redisputing this charge. Also, my credit card company says once I win the dispute, Bench Craft cannot send me to collections. The controller at Bench Craft states that my credit card company is misinformed. As far as me complaining to BBB or other places, I won't, as I complained about housevalues and it didn't seem to make any difference. Outside of my credit card dispute, the only complaint I have made against Bench Craft is on this site. And this is after I believed I had won my my credit card dispute and Bench Craft stated in writing that they had sent me to collections.

Everything in this posting is 100% true to the best of my knowledge. There are a few more calls that I made to Bench Craft from my home phone, in response to each and every letter I received from them. There are absolutely zero calls or faxes to me from Bench Craft outside of the original 11 minute sales call.

This week I called the credit manager at Bench Craft when I saw the paperwork they submitted to my credit card company and tried to point out some statements in thier papers that weren't true. She wouldn't let me talk at all.

Had I known how ferocious Bench Craft Company is, I would have paid for the difference between the bench advertising and the ball washer advertising and not spent so much time on this. I just felt like every step of the way, Bench Craft Company has told me to sit down and shut up. Including the recent letter posted by thier attorney.

Bench Craft Company B E W A R E

This is the individual that contacted me .
I blasted him back with information I obtained from Oregon BBB as well as Ripoff report. He originally called from an "unavailable" number and I suspect has tried contacting me several times since I cancelled by ad. ID slways shows "unavailable".

I would think a reputable company would want to display their phone number;
DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT give ANYONE from this company your credit card number OR any of your hard earned money.

Attached is a copy of our agreement for the Course Guide out at the Brentwood Golf Course and our Art Guidelines. Please review it and return confirmation to us that it looks good either by faxing back the signed agreement to 503-445-1786. Or, you can simply email confirmation that it looks good to purchase@benchcraftcompany.com If you have any questions or concerns please call customer service @ 800-824-8311 ext.240

Thank You!

Gene Varshavsky
Customer Service Manager
Bench Craft Company
800.824.8311 ext 240

Attorney response???

It is absolutely mind boggling that the attorney for this fraudulent company has the stones to contact ripoff report in support of the company.

I have a background in law and can tell you without hesistation that this company does business in violation of the law. The attorney general's office of Oregon has contacted me for information pertaining to the company's illegal behavior.

You may see the bulk of my complaint on the following blog (note: the person who authored the blog has been defrauded as well)...

Blog: Cameron Novak's Real Estate Blog

Link: http://www.myagentgateway.com/2007/09/bench-craft-company.html

I agree with his advice to: Steer clear of this biz.

I'm the original poster.

I thought it was funny when the attorney accused me of wanting my money back for the advertising because my business had slowed down. I was thinking of being petty and saying maybe business is so slow for you, you gotta work for people like this.

Also, in my original post I stated that Bench Craft posted my artwork on the golf course. I'm not sure that they did, and at the time took their word for it. There's also another post on here from an employee but to find it, you have to type Benchcraft as one word in the search engine.