Customers of Titan International Logistics, LLC, might take issue with the first word of the company’s name except as it relates to the size of their losses from doing business with it.  Although the Better Business Bureau has received only 11 complaints against the company in the last three years (eight of those have been lodged since September 2011), total consumer losses are in the thousands of dollars.  And although Titan responded to the three earliest complaints, they’ve ignored the more recent eight. 

     Titan International Logistics, in business in Carson from December 2007 until recently, shipped automobiles and other vehicles almost anywhere.  One of the problems, though, was that they sometimes didn’t bother ...Click to view full post

As you probably know, California law does not allow you to “drive a motor vehicle while using a wireless telephone unless that telephone is specifically designed and configured to allow hands-free listening and talking, and is used in that manner while driving.” It also prohibits driving a motor vehicle while writing, sending or reading a text-based communication (that is, text or instant messaging or electronic mail).

     This latter law specifically does not apply, though, to reading, selecting, or entering a telephone number or name in your electronic wireless communications device for the purpose of making or receiving a telephone call.

     With this in mind, suppose, then, that while you’re stopped at a red light you punch a button on your cell phone to check your email, put the phone up to ...Click to view full post

Here’s the catch:  Consumers call legitimate companies for a variety of reasons.  Sometimes, though, unbeknownst to them, their calls are intercepted and they’re offered a $100 rebate or gift card for only a few dollars.  If they accept, they can get much more than they wanted and much less than they expected.  Their calls hijacked and their bank accounts hit by unauthorized charges, they yelp for help to oust Assist 123’s unwanted assistance.

     The Better Business Bureau has received eight complaints about Assist 123 since late last year, all but one ignored by the company.  As an example of what consumers may experience, a South Carolina consumer called the number given for warranty information on a Sally Hansen...Click to view full post

Here's the catch: Debt collectors are in business to reel in profits from their business clients, from debtors, and sometimes from both. Sometimes clients pay and pay but get nothing but excuses and runarounds, and debtors--even those who owe nothing--get hounded and harassed. Those indebted, whether really or only supposedly so, seem to be squeezed onto a sinking ship, while those who have high hopes of getting the pay they've earned through a collection agency come to feel like they can't bail fast enough to keep afloat. Neither has any idea of the rough ride they're in for or the troubled waters ahead.

A number of debt collection companies have been the target of Federal Trade Commission action in the past few months. Several of these have also been the target of Better Business Bureau consumer complaints for some time. Take, for example, Forensi...Click to view full post

Has one of your customers posted a TrustLink review about your business that's less complimentary than you'd like it to be? We gave you some tips for turning negative reviews around a few months ago, but here's one simple way that can be an easy and almost instant way to solve a review problem:

Apologize. That's it.

Why does it work? The answer seems to be that we humans want to forgive, and it's the apology that triggers that desire in us.

Research published in Business Week revealed that an emailed apology, which included a request to remove the negative review, generated a greater positive response than did an emailed offer of a cash rebate, which also included a request to remove the negative review (and which request was, in this case, a prerequisite to receiving the cash).

You can make your apology in a ...Click to view full post

Years ago [Business Link, January 2005] we wrote about Corporate Compliance Recorder, a company that sent out what appeared to be government mailings but what were really only solicitations, informing businesses of the California Corporations Code's requirements relating to corporate minutes and the consequences of not complying with them. The company could collect a minimum of $125 if the recipient accepted its offer to prepare company minutes for them and thereby avoid those consequences.

This solicitation inserted a required statement that they were not a government agency into some 10 lines of fine print, where it could easily be missed by the recipient.

At the time of that article, we had received no complaints about the company. Later, between late 2008 and mid 2009, we received eight complaints, none of which were an...Click to view full post

In the November Business Link article entitled “A Sure Way to Become an Award-Winning Business,” we listed “Talk of the Town Awards” as another name by which US Commerce Association does business.

We have since learned that that company has no affiliation with US Commerce Association. We regret any inconvenience this error may have caused Talk of the Town Awards.

If you buy something on sale at any retail store, you probably don't give a thought to the sales tax you'll pay on the item. Without thinking about it, you know you'll pay sales tax, and that, as with every other purchase you make, you'll pay a certain percentage of tax on whatever price you pay for the purchase.

That may not be true with all transactions, though. Take the case of Jessica Bower, who bought a cell phone from AT&T in January 2009. She paid $199 for a phone regularly priced at $399, on the condition that she enter a two-year wireless service agreement with AT&T. When she went to pay for her phone, though, AT&T charged her sales tax on the full price of the phone, thus costing her an additional $15.50. When she asked why she was paying the extra sales tax, the salesperson told her the tax was a mandatory tax on the unbundled price of the phone and that ...Click to view full post

If you're under the time-worn impression that it takes years of hard work to become a success in business, think again. US Commerce Association (USCA) can make you an award-winning business overnight--or at least as close to overnight as it can get the plaque that proves you've won an award to you.

The Better Business Bureau doesn't have a great deal of information about US Commerce Association, which also does business as Small Business Commerce Association. In fact, part of the reason for its “F” rating with us is that it has never provided the background information we've requested.

We've also not been able to come up with an accurate physical address or phone number for the company. Their website displays a Los Angeles address that is a mail box facility, but promotional materials indicate a New York base. Their website registration lists an address of ...Click to view full post

Here's the catch: Consumers sign up to bid on items sold on online auction sites at claimed savings of as much as 98 percent. Those who do lose money to previously undisclosed fees, “free” bids, merchandise won but never received, and more. Even if you don't count time and frustration, their losses can more than offset what they're supposed to save. Victims of the auction block, they see their money going, going, gone, leaving them losers, rather than winners, and decidedly bitter bidders.

Ordinarily I tell you about a particular company in each column, both to make you aware of what that company is doing and also to serve as an example of the practices you might encounter in doing business with other, similar companies. In this column, though, I want to talk about three penny auctions, all rated “F,” whose complainants have something to say that you should know.

Jum...Click to view full post