Company in Nevada is a scam and offers a failed service

[txjeff]

Hi. I'm in TX. The company onestopmotors (onestopmotors.com) in question is in Nevada. The company scans Craigslist ads for vehicles for sale and if you put a phone number in. Then they call you, even though the ad says no commercial contact allowed. They have a good sales pitch that they can place an "ad campaign" that gets national and canadian notice at a better price then you are selling it for for a fee of $499. Since I needed to sell a boat quickly since I lost my job, I though this might be a good help. But I got a lower price of $399. I paid with credit card. You then supply pictures and a description. They also claim that they will place an Ebay ad. Ultimately, and after they got the money, they put up a bunch of crummy websites for ads, and most were non-functional or the search function didn't work. And they never placed an Ebay ad. I complained and they made a bunch of promises that amounted to nothing. In 4 months I never got a single call. I then searched for the company name and "scam" and found 100s of similar complaints. An obvious scam. I tried to dispute it and my credit card company turned me down twice after they told me on the phone that they could resolve the situation. They came up with the lamest excuses and were unmoved by the situation. And they said that they approached the company twice for arbitration and the company refused. So now I'm faced with either paying the card or small claims court.

I'm trying to figure out if I should simply sue the company in question or should I also ad the Chase credit card company to the suit? Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks. Jeff

 

[army judge]

Hi. I'm in TX. The company onestopmotors (onestopmotors.com) in question is in Nevada. The company scans Craigslist ads for vehicles for sale and if you put a phone number in. Then they call you, even though the ad says no commercial contact allowed. They have a good sales pitch that they can place an "ad campaign" that gets national and canadian notice at a better price then you are selling it for for a fee of $499. Since I needed to sell a boat quickly since I lost my job, I though this might be a good help. But I got a lower price of $399. I paid with credit card. You then supply pictures and a description. They also claim that they will place an Ebay ad. Ultimately, and after they got the money, they put up a bunch of crummy websites for ads, and most were non-functional or the search function didn't work. And they never placed an Ebay ad. I complained and they made a bunch of promises that amounted to nothing. In 4 months I never got a single call. I then searched for the company name and "scam" and found 100s of similar complaints. An obvious scam. I tried to dispute it and my credit card company turned me down twice after they told me on the phone that they could resolve the situation. They came up with the lamest excuses and were unmoved by the situation. And they said that they approached the company twice for arbitration and the company refused. So now I'm faced with either paying the card or small claims court.

I'm trying to figure out if I should simply sue the company in question or should I also ad the Chase credit card company to the suit? Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks. Jeff

Your small claims suit in Texas is useless against a Nevada company.

A Texas Justice of the Peace Court has no jurisdiction over a Nevada defendant.

You have also effectively argued against your own lawsuit.

You failed to do your due diligence before giving these deadbeats your credit card information and authorizing them to screw you.


You admit they violated your "no commercial contact" by calling you, and yet you aided them in screwing you.

You aided and abetted your own fleecing.

As far as Chase goes, they tried to assist you.

You had no case, and you won't win in JP Court, because you can't serve a Nevada defendant.

If the Nevada defendant consented to the court's jurisdiction, you might be able to get them into court.

But, that ain't happening , is it?

You're out $400, but it could have been $500.

Give up the ghost on this one, its going nowhere!!!

 

[txjeff]

I appreciate your reply, but your answers don't add up to what the TX JP told me today.

They said I could sue the Nevada company, call up the Las Vegas courthouse and find out who "serves" in that area. And then pay that person to serve the company. (I will call them tomorrow and see what they say about your comment that it's outside of TX jurisdiction. I would think that would have been the first thing they told me.)

As far as blaming me for not doing "due diligence", well, if everybody who was cheated did what you say, there would be no need for small claims court. If you find out it's a scam only "after" they are paid (in my case a week later) then hind sight is 20-20. Remember, the sales pitch is very convincing, and unfortunately, they stumbled upon someone, me, that was motivated to sell my boat quickly and so they hit on a nerve. Under normal circumstances, where I wasn't as pressured to get the sale completed, I would have been far more wary of the place and most likely taken my time, thought about it, and probably would have done more research. But that doesn't excuse a scamming company. The jails are filling with Ponzi scammers where people are lured with false pretense and only later pick up that they were taken. They don't always get their money back, but justice is served. I have the FBI involved as of last week since there are literally hundreds of people taken by this outfit. Do a search yourself for "onestopmotors scam" and you will see what I mean.

>>The fact that I "admit" they violated your "no commercial contact" by calling you, and yet you aided them in screwing you.<<
Yes, I was taken quite by surprise by the phone call. I didn't know what to make of it. I had just placed the ad in craigslist 10 minutes prior to their call. They admitted that was where they got my number. The first thing you hear is a recording pitching how "we can help you sell your vehicle, etc. Please hold. (or similar)". This was the hook to catch the initial interest and, as I said earlier, I was motivated to sell quickly and thought, well, it's worth a listen. But I think, by human nature, most of us are programmed to trust that it's a legitimate call until it sounds so fishy that you want out. They are very good salesman and know how to keep you interested. Does that make it any less a scam? Does OSM scouring craigslist for victims make them any less slimy? I think not. My willingness to listen does not excuse their wrongdoing nor is it a very good legal tactic to attack me as if it's my fault that I was victimized. Nice try though.

>>As far as Chase goes, they tried to assist you.<<
That's your assumption, and it is wrong. I finally had a supervisor from Chase yesterday, and I tried to explain to him how all of the websites they "say" they have the ad in are bogus and made by OSM. They send links to a page they make with your ad, but if you go to the primary site, like say Ebay, you would search for what you want to find. In my case a pontoon boat. The search provided either zero results or results did not include my ad. Many of the sites were motorcycle or car sites only. It is a sneaky tactic. (As a web page designer in a prior job, I know exactly the trick). I walked the Chase man through these steps and, hmmm, he was dumbfounded at first. Then he came back after putting me on hold and sent me to this freebie website, adpost.com. He went through steps of putting the word marine in first, clicking on advanced and choosing vehicles from a list, then coming to another page and putting the specific model of my boat in and found the ad. So I said, "let me get this straight"; if you wanted to buy a pontoon boat at Ebay, you would type the word "marine" in the search square?" Who would do that? You would type "pontoon" or the model name of the specific boat or the mfg name (none of which worked at that site). But he was satisfied that he could prove that you could get to the ad in his half arsed way and that was good enough. That in spite of the fact that 3 of the other sites they offered were completely dead or expired. And these are all BS sites that no one would ever know about or look at. I've never gone to "adpost.com" in my life. And, when I told the man to go look at the rest of the links, he refused. I asked to speak to someone else, but he refused to let that happen. Lame.

>>But, that ain't happening , is it?<< Sarcasm is futile. I've sued UPS in past, corporate office in another state. One week before the case, I got a call from UPS. They were so nice and delivered a check from Dallas to my front door (a one hour drive one way).

>>Give up the ghost on this one, its going nowhere!!! <<
Like I said, I've heard that comment from people in the past. If you give up, you're right, you've lost. Even if the case does ultimately fall short, I will continue to pursue the situation with the FBI and I will continue to post at as many sites as I can about the scam. But I see you ignored my original question whether to sue Chase along with OSM. Now that you see how they were uncooperative above, I am looking for my agreement with the credit card that defines my protection. If I find that they were negligent in cooperating with my request to look harder at the evidence, and the unwillingness to get me to a second opinion, this may answer my own question. Humorously, I went to Chase bank, where they have my mortgage, checking accounts, saving accounts, and other loan, and the floor manager, coincidentally had received a call from OSM herself and knew exactly what I was talking about. She got the credit card bunch on the phone, and they were playing their violin with patronizing songs. And the lady could tell that. But, she was powerless to do anything since the CC company is fully separate from the bank. I left saying, "I guess it's time for me to find another bank." There was no effort at all to try and reach for a better solution. Ultimately, that is exactly what I will do. Never liked Chase. But that's another whole series of stories. This is just the icing on the cake.

 

[army judge]

The JP Court makes money when you file a lawsuit.

The JP court itself is a 19th century Texas scam, gone high tech in the 21st century.

You do what you wish to do.

You will only spend more money chasing your $400 loss.

But, it's your money, pal.

I appreciate your reply, but your answers don't add up to what the TX JP told me today.

They said I could sue the Nevada company, call up the Las Vegas courthouse and find out who "serves" in that area. And then pay that person to serve the company. (I will call them tomorrow and see what they say about your comment that it's outside of TX jurisdiction. I would think that would have been the first thing they told me.)

As far as blaming me for not doing "due diligence", well, if everybody who was cheated did what you say, there would be no need for small claims court. If you find out it's a scam only "after" they are paid (in my case a week later) then hind sight is 20-20. Remember, the sales pitch is very convincing, and unfortunately, they stumbled upon someone, me, that was motivated to sell my boat quickly and so they hit on a nerve. Under normal circumstances, where I wasn't as pressured to get the sale completed, I would have been far more wary of the place and most likely taken my time, thought about it, and probably would have done more research. But that doesn't excuse a scamming company. The jails are filling with Ponzi scammers where people are lured with false pretense and only later pick up that they were taken. They don't always get their money back, but justice is served. I have the FBI involved as of last week since there are literally hundreds of people taken by this outfit. Do a search yourself for "onestopmotors scam" and you will see what I mean.

>>The fact that I "admit" they violated your "no commercial contact" by calling you, and yet you aided them in screwing you.<<
Yes, I was taken quite by surprise by the phone call. I didn't know what to make of it. I had just placed the ad in craigslist 10 minutes prior to their call. They admitted that was where they got my number. The first thing you hear is a recording pitching how "we can help you sell your vehicle, etc. Please hold. (or similar)". This was the hook to catch the initial interest and, as I said earlier, I was motivated to sell quickly and thought, well, it's worth a listen. But I think, by human nature, most of us are programmed to trust that it's a legitimate call until it sounds so fishy that you want out. They are very good salesman and know how to keep you interested. Does that make it any less a scam? Does OSM scouring craigslist for victims make them any less slimy? I think not. My willingness to listen does not excuse their wrongdoing nor is it a very good legal tactic to attack me as if it's my fault that I was victimized. Nice try though.

>>As far as Chase goes, they tried to assist you.<<
That's your assumption, and it is wrong. I finally had a supervisor from Chase yesterday, and I tried to explain to him how all of the websites they "say" they have the ad in are bogus and made by OSM. They send links to a page they make with your ad, but if you go to the primary site, like say Ebay, you would search for what you want to find. In my case a pontoon boat. The search provided either zero results or results did not include my ad. Many of the sites were motorcycle or car sites only. It is a sneaky tactic. (As a web page designer in a prior job, I know exactly the trick). I walked the Chase man through these steps and, hmmm, he was dumbfounded at first. Then he came back after putting me on hold and sent me to this freebie website, adpost.com. He went through steps of putting the word marine in first, clicking on advanced and choosing vehicles from a list, then coming to another page and putting the specific model of my boat in and found the ad. So I said, "let me get this straight"; if you wanted to buy a pontoon boat at Ebay, you would type the word "marine" in the search square?" Who would do that? You would type "pontoon" or the model name of the specific boat or the mfg name (none of which worked at that site). But he was satisfied that he could prove that you could get to the ad in his half arsed way and that was good enough. That in spite of the fact that 3 of the other sites they offered were completely dead or expired. And these are all BS sites that no one would ever know about or look at. I've never gone to "adpost.com" in my life. And, when I told the man to go look at the rest of the links, he refused. I asked to speak to someone else, but he refused to let that happen. Lame.

>>But, that ain't happening , is it?<< Sarcasm is futile. I've sued UPS in past, corporate office in another state. One week before the case, I got a call from UPS. They were so nice and delivered a check from Dallas to my front door (a one hour drive one way).

>>Give up the ghost on this one, its going nowhere!!! <<
Like I said, I've heard that comment from people in the past. If you give up, you're right, you've lost. Even if the case does ultimately fall short, I will continue to pursue the situation with the FBI and I will continue to post at as many sites as I can about the scam. But I see you ignored my original question whether to sue Chase along with OSM. Now that you see how they were uncooperative above, I am looking for my agreement with the credit card that defines my protection. If I find that they were negligent in cooperating with my request to look harder at the evidence, and the unwillingness to get me to a second opinion, this may answer my own question. Humorously, I went to Chase bank, where they have my mortgage, checking accounts, saving accounts, and other loan, and the floor manager, coincidentally had received a call from OSM herself and knew exactly what I was talking about. She got the credit card bunch on the phone, and they were playing their violin with patronizing songs. And the lady could tell that. But, she was powerless to do anything since the CC company is fully separate from the bank. I left saying, "I guess it's time for me to find another bank." There was no effort at all to try and reach for a better solution. Ultimately, that is exactly what I will do. Never liked Chase. But that's another whole series of stories. This is just the icing on the cake.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I'm sorry to hear about your predicament. I'm truly sympathetic. Here are my thoughts.

1) army judge is accurate on all accounts

2) Either the Justice of the Peace is wrong or you misunderstood. I have never heard of any small claims court that can exercise jurisdiction beyond a very limited area, usually only over a defendant located within your county. The defendant is not only not located within your county but is located in another state. There is no way that you will be able to sue locally in small claims court - unless, as army judge says, the agreement you made includes consent by the defendant that they consent and are willing to be sued in your state and local court. I'm willing to bet everything I have that this clause is not in your agreement but, if you would like to check, you should but don't be too disappointed.

3) What grounds do you have to sue the credit card company - your bank Chase? What did they do wrong? What is your "protection?" They are not the judge and jury. They almost certainly didn't say "we'll take care of it or we'll give you all your money back." It seems they tried to help you by putting pressure on the merchant. Do I think this is fraud? Yes. But the problem for the bank is that they need to make their own judgment calls and, as of right now, you agreed to purchase this listing service and it is debatable about whether or not you received the benefits of your bargain. It's not as clear as though you were buying a car and didn't get the car.

Now if there is a clear cut policy and find that you are clearly within the protection, you should see if you can pressure them into a chargeback as it seems some banks and companies (Paypal is notorious for this) can issue chargebacks several months after the original charge. You should also file a report with the Attorney General of the State of Nevada and provide this documentation to Chase.

4) I understand that the sell was very good. I'm sympathetic. But before you opt to spend $400 with anyone, you should certainly check them out. IMHO, anyone who tells me that the deal I am getting on the phone is going away if I hang up and they don't allow me to do any research is a deal that is a sham and scam.

In short, you may be better served in trying to get your pound of flesh against these scammers in ways other than taking them to court. You can try to publicize information about who owns the company and what happened to you. You can certainly call the Justice of the Peace or try to file but I think you'll find this is accurate. Best of luck and let us know what happens.

 

[txjeff]

Thank you for your reply(s). I will verify with the JP that this out of state direction is incorrect.

This paragraph makes the most sense to me:

>>Now if there is a clear cut policy and find that you are clearly within the protection, you should see if you can pressure them into a chargeback as it seems some banks and companies (Paypal is notorious for this) can issue chargebacks several months after the original charge. You should also file a report with the Attorney General of the State of Nevada and provide this documentation to Chase. <<

At least the Chase bank is in this state, in spite of the fact that the CC company is separate, Chase is who is represented on the CC, and, regardless, it's all JP Morgan today, right? What troubles me with the CC group is, they feel helpless since onestopmotors will not cooperate in any way, so they simply give up. To me, that should be a red flag that something is wrong. If all is on the up and up, why not cooperate? Shouldn't their interest be with me, the customer, to get to the truth, and not dig for some crumb of excuse to let OSM off the hook? I think they could argue the case for chargeback quite easily if they followed 'clearly' what I was telling them. In fact, on the billing for the ad campaign at the OSM site, it has a partial fee of $99 for a site that only sells cars; no boats. Hello! I don't understand why they are so unwilling to see the scam, especially with the tons of victims that are obvious in a simple google search for the scam. I can't imagine how this place has skated this long without action. (But that brings to mind the 60 minutes report on the stem cell scammer who was preying on terminal patients. And there are dozens of other websites that do the same thing.) And somehow we are powerless to do anything about it? How sad.

I think it will be complicated to pressure the CC company at this point since I've pushed them multiple times now, but it is only during the writing to you guys that I thought to dig into how much protection the CC offers. And where the line ends. True, Chase, the bank, has specifically nothing to do with this, but it's the only place I can look a person in the eyes and get less patronizing attitudes like the CC group gives me on the phone. I won't digress into how many times Chase has disappointed me over the years. Let's just call this the stimulus I needed to finally kick them to the curb.

I will report this to the Attorney General. Thanks for that as well.

I'll keep you posted as to where this all winds up.

Regards, Jeff

 

[Michael Wechsler]

What troubles me with the CC group is, they feel helpless since onestopmotors will not cooperate in any way, so they simply give up. To me, that should be a red flag that something is wrong. If all is on the up and up, why not cooperate? Shouldn't their interest be with me, the customer, to get to the truth, and not dig for some crumb of excuse to let OSM off the hook?

Time is money. army judge has a point - being prudent would have been simply doing a search online and easily finding out this company's reputation. If the bank was responsible to do your due diligence every time you spent money, they'd be instantly broke. There is a limit to what they will do after you've spent the money and now want them to bear the loss of not getting it back.

I think they could argue the case for chargeback quite easily if they followed 'clearly' what I was telling them. In fact, on the billing for the ad campaign at the OSM site, it has a partial fee of $99 for a site that only sells cars; no boats. Hello! I don't understand why they are so unwilling to see the scam, especially with the tons of victims that are obvious in a simple google search for the scam. I can't imagine how this place has skated this long without action. (But that brings to mind the 60 minutes report on the stem cell scammer who was preying on terminal patients. And there are dozens of other websites that do the same thing.) And somehow we are powerless to do anything about it? How sad.

It is not as simple as you think it is. Most importantly, what is the reason why you were denied a chargeback? FYI, some companies do not include services and other specific items as being eligible for chargebacks because they are extremely difficult and not cost effective to make a decision whether a chargeback is clearly justified.

What is sad is that companies like this can continue to do business, with what seems to be clear fraud (a) without the State AG or any other authority being able to shut them down without potentially time consuming litigation and (b) someone continuing to grant them the ability to take credit cards payments. What about the "card services" scam that continues to make a mockery of our state and federal government? Creating law for this issues isn't so simple either (e.g. potential abuses unscrupulous individuals looking to shut down competitors) but yes, we live in troubling times. Perhaps it's not any more brutal than it was 100 years ago, just old spoiled wine in a new bottle.

I think it will be complicated to pressure the CC company at this point since I've pushed them multiple times now, but it is only during the writing to you guys that I thought to dig into how much protection the CC offers. And where the line ends.

There you go. With regard to law, that is the point. Let us know how you make out. Good luck.