American Standard Online Anchor House Scam/ Ripoff Ventura, California

American Standard Scam on Craigslist
$865 / 3br - 1537ft - Three Bedroom House with Fenced Yard (Seattle)
Date: 2012-11-02, 4:02PM PDT PostingID: 3382638657

My friend and I yesterday were looking for housing on Craigslist when we came across a posting of a house for closure that you could rent to eventually own. We thought it was too good to be true to eventually realize that too good to be true was right. 

We went ahead and called them and they told us that we couldn't look at their listings or see the house until we payed them $199 to access their website to see the houses for closure. We spoke to a guy named Richard Alan who took my information and he rambled on about what they could do for us while beating around the bush about their company's information. Not to mention he avoided telling us the name of the company and their website when we asked him. 

He insisted I needed to provide him with my billing address to give me any further information. Once I gave him my information over the phone and my billing address he got off the phone with me. I tried contacting their customer support and the people there were not professional and had no patience. I called their customer support telling them I wanted my money back and they told me that since I had already logged in I couldn't get my money back for another 90 days. 

Even though this Richard Alan guy I spoke to never told me I had to wait 90 days in order to get my money back. They told me I had to wait until Monday during their business hours to talk to a customer service representative. However, when I called this Richard Alan guy back who was from American Standard he never picked up his phone again.

I left several voice mails and he never got back to me. After realizing this was a scam I googled their company's name to find out whether this whole situation was a scam or not. Not to say the least,  I found all these reports and complaints from people who have previously been scammed by American Standard.

After getting scammed I was furious so I got a hold of a friend of mine who is a Real Estate Broker in Washington. She told me over the phone that anytime something is too good to be true it's because it is a scam. I mentioned to her that they charged me $199 in order to see their listings and she told me that you should never have to pay to see listings or to view houses. 

She advised me to report them at the Better Business Bureaucracy and I did immediately. After reporting them at the Better Business Bureaucracy I filed a complaint as well in order for them to investigate the scam and get a hold of them to get my refund or come to an agreement. Once I did that I contacted the chairman of Craigslist Jim and filed my complaint regarding my fraud.

When I tried going back to get a screenshot of their posting the posting had already been flagged. After realizing that I wasn't going to get my money back no matter what I did. I contacted my Bank and deactivated my card so that they couldn't commit a fraud again on me.