Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Beware of CompUSA OVERCHARGING!

I just sent the letter below to Bill Lockyer, the California Attorney General, and suggest you take a close look at your credit card statements after purchasing anything from CompUSA.

I ordered two items, priced at $9.58 and $34.99 from this company's website on 9/21/2006. The total as quoted was $53.26. The $9.58 item was shipped on 9/25/06, but a $10 charge for "ewaste fee-ca large screen-a91" was added on. This fee is charged for items that contain screens - such as TVs, monitors, dvd players, etc. The item I purchased was a wireless computer PCI card with an antenna, and there's not a single screen anywhere on the product. The other item was shipped and charged properly the next day. This is either a case of bait and switch (the environmental fee was not listed, and should not apply), or CompUSA is blatantly charging customers additional fees without warning. I only found out by looking at my monthly charges. Please prosecute this company to the full extent the law allows.



I ordered a MIMO wireless pci adapter for $9.58, and a CD-RW drive, both CompUSA brand items, as I needed inexpensive parts. When the WiFi card arrived, the packing list listed the adapter, as well as a $10.00 large-screen E-waste fee. The e-waste fee is a recently-enacted California fee charged to buyers of TVs, monitors, or anything else with a screen - however, this is a wi-fi card. The online order status to this day lists nothing about a fee, but sure enough my credit card was charged for an extra $10.00. I'm about to dispute the charges with my credit card, but here's my letter to CompUSA:

Please take a look at order #WBxxxxx and call me immediately! Even though you list $53.26 as the order total, the two items on the order were shipped separately, and according to order #RPxxxx, invoice #xxxxx, I was charged an additional $10 for product #317932, "ewaste fee-ca large screen-a91", even though the product in question (#339027, CUSA WRLS MIMO PCI ADAPTER-N09) contains no screens whatsoever, and does not fall under the waste fee category. Besides, the fee, if applicable, should have been listed on the item webpage. I submitted the following complaint to the California Attorney General:
I ordered two items, priced at $9.58 and $34.99 from this company\'s website on 9/21/2006. The total as quoted was $53.26. The $9.58 item was shipped on 9/25/06, but a $10 charge for \"ewaste fee-ca large screen-a91\" was added on. This fee is charged for items that contain screens - such as TVs, monitors, dvd players, etc. The item I purchased was a wireless computer PCI card with an antenna, and there\'s not a single screen anywhere on the product. The other item was shipped and charged properly the next day. This is either a case of bait and switch (the environmental fee was not listed, and should not apply), or CompUSA is blatantly charging customers additional fees without warning. I only found out by looking at my monthly charges. Please prosecute this company to the full extent the law allows.
I am also disputing the charges with my credit card. I suggest you fix this immediately. I will take every step possible to make sure as many people know about this as possible.
Here's some reading material:
CompUSA Consumer Issues
Overcharging Bulletin (PDF)
My 3 Cents CompUSA complaints
HSBC/CompUSA complaints forum

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