Delayed billing for Polar HRM, anybody else?

Swimgoddess

So, I ordered my HRM from them on June 2nd. Paid a little extra for the 2-3 day shipping, received my HRM on schedule, etc.

Well, it STILL hasn't posted to my account. Anyone else experience this long of a delay?

The weirdness doesn't stop there, not even close.

Last week I was woken up by an automated call from Dell asking me to call them back. I assumed it was a wrong number and ignored it. Last Friday a real person calls from their customer service department (obviously outsourced to India) asking for me by name *sigh*. He says my laptop order was placed on hold because my card got declined & if I just gave him a different card to try "we could clear all this up". HMMMMMM. I proceed to inform him that I never ordered any such laptop, which results in plenty of scrambling and apologies and getting transferred about 3x to get to the person who could cancel the order. I ask "out of morbid curiosity" what the last 4 digits of the card used were. Sure enough, same as my regular debit card (by this point I'm thanking god I opted out of the overdraft options the bank tried to sell me on to "avoid the embarrassment of being declined", if I don't have the $, I shouldn't be spending, period.) So yeah, that sucks. Called my bank, cancelled my current card, apparently Dell had been trying to run the transaction everyday for 4 days in a row. Dumb identity thieves shoulda tested it out on a stick of gum or a couple DVDs first. At least whoever it was used MY phone #.

Come to think of it, I should have played along initially and gotten the b@stard's address before I told them it wasn't me, because they got awfully tightlipped after that. Like protecting an identity thief's privacy was more important than invading mine.

Oh yeah, this is the ONLY thing I've ordered online in the past 4 months! Our home laptop has Kaspersky too.

MrsRobertson1005

O no! That really bites!! I'd be calling all my cards and banks and asking for my last transactions. I ordered my Polar from academy so idk if the delayed billing is normal or not, i hope you get it all sorted out!!

HotSouthernMess

yikes! that is super scary! i had a case of identity theft and had to go under theft protection for a year during which time i was not eligible for any kind of credit. which SUCKED because i had been saving to get a new car then couldnt even get approved. it was a pain, but thankfully it got sorted out. i hope it all works out for you (thanks to the really annoying reps at dell lol). sorry i couldnt offer information about your specific question though.

JodiS75

I had a friend who had his credit card numbers stolen and wound up having a bunch of stuff ordered online, too. They wouldn't give him any of the information, either! All he knew was that he'd ordered some pretty expensive music equipment. Weird how they protect that information :grumble:

crisanderson27

Get your card company on it hun. They will pursue it, and based off the shipping address they will often find a way to press charges.

That really, really sucks =(.

Swimgoddess

Well, I just got off the phone with Polar. They verified my order number and that the $ should have come out the day it shipped, which was June 3rd. Halfway through the phone call I realized that I couldn't give them the original card info because that card got cancelled Friday. They asked when I'd receive the new card and I told them 2-3 business days, so probably tomorrow.

THEN I REALIZED THAT I'D BE GIVING MY NEW "CLEAN" CARD INFO TO THE SAME COMPANY THAT PROBABLY HAS THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR STEALING MY IDENTITY WORKING FOR THEM!!!

Ugh! What do I do?!? I mean whoever it was HAS to be working for them. How else would you explain that I ended up with a "free" HRM only to have my info used to secure a $1500 laptop?

MrBrown72

paypal or western union.

Swimgoddess

I just got a cashier's check that I'll hang onto until somebody from Polar calls back asking for new card info. If they don't, ah well. Somebody had to have checked a "paid" box somewhere on my order when I obviously didn't in order for my HRM to ship. Betcha that person is wondering where their laptop is...

Swimgoddess

I went to my bank and basically they just give you a handout on how to flag yourself as a victim with the credit reporting agencies. They don't do squat to report it, so ID thieves have nothing to deter them from ever doing it again to somebody else. Ok, so instead of being passive and just correcting things on MY end, I got the ball rolling on several fronts to make sure whoever did this is going to be in a WORLD OF HURT.

I wrote out a letter outlining all the details and explaining it in such a way that the only logical conclusion is that the person responsible works at Polar and likely flagged my order as paid when it wasn't and shipped it when they otherwise shouldn't have, which voids the old "your computer must have been hacked" theory. Whoever it was wanted that $139 in my account still so it would be available for their later laptop order and they had the power to make it look like it was already paid on Polar's end.

It was emailed to Polar, the NY BBB in complaint format, the Lake Success PD so they can start a report and Dell (so they'll cooperate with the police report and cough up identifying info on whoever ordered the laptop).

*sigh* that should do it! I hope they can pinpoint who it was and that person gets fired and faces at minimum an attempt charge (well, they actually committed identity theft and almost stole $1500). Better yet, I hope it never happens to anyone else again! Polar has less than 250 employees, it shouldn't be that hard, right?

atsteele

Sorry that you had to go through all this. My husband once had a notice for a warrant for his arrest come to this address for something that occurred in another state! He ended up having to take a day off of work and get a lawyer and go to court to prove that it wasn't him... all at our expense. Lovely, eh?

Swimgoddess

^ OUCH

Well, as soon as I requested that Dell cooperate with the NY Lake Success Police Dept, they game ME the guy's name and physical home address. Pretty nice of them, huh?

Turns out the little twerp lives in Garden Grove, CA... thus blowing a hole in my Polar employee theory, unless it's a family member or something really complicated. *sigh*. Polar STILL hasn't called me back, guess their happy with their "fake" payment. Got in touch with the detective in charge of ID Theft at Garden Grove PD; it looks pretty good that they'll open a case.

atsteele

^ OUCH

Well, as soon as I requested that Dell cooperate with the NY Lake Success Police Dept, they game ME the guy's name and physical home address. Pretty nice of them, huh?

Turns out the little twerp lives in Garden Grove, CA... thus blowing a hole in my Polar employee theory, unless it's a family member or something really complicated. *sigh*. Polar STILL hasn't called me back, guess their happy with their "fake" payment. Got in touch with the detective in charge of ID Theft at Garden Grove PD; it looks pretty good that they'll open a case.

Go get em, Girlfriend!!