From: Mil-Veh Co. (milveh@sbcglobal.net)
Date: Tue Mar 29 2005 - 09:12:30 PST
When you read the following it is intended to be the
first page introduction and it will have some GL like
logo stuff and resemble in a way the GL site, just to
give you the picture of what you are in for... of
course this is just a sample of what we could do, you
guys may have better ideas. Your comments will be
appreciated.
I know there is some risk that the evil GL will try
some legal scare tactics, but we need to stand fast
because we are right. GL is an arrogant giant and has
ruined the experience of buying surplus for many of
us. OK here goes:
This pro-consumer, "anti- Government Liquidations"
site was created to expose the nightmare of doing
business "GL" way.
Post your complaints, troubles, fraud stories,
lawsuits, and other dissatisfaction in the forums.
Read the faq pages for help in resolving your GL
troubles and complaints.
To enumerate the complaints:
1. According to GL accepting their ToS (Terms of
Service) in effect means you waive your rights to
credit card consumer protection laws if you want to
use their service, and that you may not issue a
chargeback for unauthorized use of your credit card
and PayPal account, or if you do, then they have the
right to permanently ban you from their site! Is this
legal? We don't know, but it's how GL operates. See
GL's TOS for more information, its in there, but you
practically have to be a Philidelphia lawyer to find
it..If you have a problem with "GL" or they feel your
actions are questionable, then GL is the investigator,
judge, jury and executioner. "Telling your side" of
what happened, in most cases seems to be irrelevant
and is met with a stonewall corporate attitude. Try
to get the details of their investigation or documents
they relied upon to make their decisions, ha!
2. Their customer service is horrible. They make you
call on their dime to resolve problems they caused.
Once you get there expect the process to be tedious,
fraught with obstruction and you likely get bounced
around from person to person. If that was not bad
enough, chances are you will get zip, just a lecture
on why it's YOUR FAULT.
If you feel you have been treated unfairly by this
corporation, you need not feel alone, nor helpless.
This time the "little guy" is taking a stand against
this huge monopoly. Like you, we're fed up with
"Government Liquidations" arrogance, rudeness and
highly questionable business practices.
If these tactics were done by you or your small
business operation, you would would soon be out of
business, however GL's doesn't have to worry about
customer satisfaction because they are the only game
in town, so to speak.
GL has a monopoly on a good deal of the US military
surplus they are selling around the world. The loss
of a few hundred customers due their shoddy behavior
is no big deal. They know there are thousands of
others who will take the place of those angry
customers because buyers are virtually forced to do
business with them or do without. So, you to do it
their way or no way and if they are wrong you better
just get over it or you're not going to be doing
business with them again. Apparently GL never heard
of, "The customer is always right." Now it's more
like "GL is always right!"
Case in point, awhile back I had been buying surplus
on a fairly regular basis from GL. Since their suplus
pickup points vary with individual auctions and times,
I occassionally had to wait weeks, sometime even
months if a release form was needed from the
government. Then I would make my rounds and retrieve
the items I bought, so far so good.
This worked for a time, then one day I was told some
property I had bought thru GL had been placed back
into "inventory" and resold without any notice to me!
I think about 5-6 weeks had passed from the time I
bought it and when they resold it. Seems how long
they hold property changes from location to location
and it depends on who you know.
This was a stunner and the lack of courtesy involved
left me feeling pretty flat. Heck, I was a pretty
good customer and I knew many people at the site where
the property was warehoused. Is that legal to resell
already sold and paid for property without noice to
the buyer? I don't know, but it sure is unethical.
It's not like they couldn't contact me, they had all
sorts of email, phone and address information on me
from my many prior contacts.
I protested of course this VISA charge and they said
they would take it under consideration. Well, weeks
passed and nothing happened. I made several more
frustrated inquiries and felt like I was just getting
the runaround. Finally, I decided to protest the
charge made to my card with VISA and see what happens.
I was totally unaware of that GL policy about not
being able to use this option or else! GL's response
was its in the TOS, more like it's buried somewhere in
the pages of TOS!
When I did file a complaint with VISA and GL became
aware of it, I was bluntly informed by them that
filing such a protest was akin to "thievery" in their
opinion and I was now forbidden from using GL's
auction for life. Of course at the time of this
incident GL held all the cards. I never got my
property, they threatened to keep my money, they
dragged their feet on making a decision to refund it
and they had the audacity to say I was a thief for
protesting this charge?
No rational appeal was welcomed by GL, although I
really tried. I laid it all out on the phone and in
writing and I got precisely nowhere. Funny, this
whole thing could have been avoided if they had just
notified me before reselling my property. That was
pretty rude! Or if they had responded in a timely
manner for my request for a refund of my money.
Well, they wouldn't budge, it was all my fault
according them and they got pretty nasty with me,
reminding me of what a terrible thing I had done to
protest the VISA charge. The audacity of that poor
treatment still raises my blood pressure.
Yes, I finally did get a refund from GL when they got
around to it, but I also got the boot for simply doing
what the VISA card says I can legally do, according to
my cards TOS! Well, never mind the vendor VISA
contract agreement either, apparently GL is big enough
to get away with NOT abiding by the rules most others
must.
VISA said they would not revoke their vendors account
because of this practice, never got a clear reason
why.
This was ONLY one incident, but since then I have
conversed with my friends on the internet and found
many other stories of what I consider to be "consumer
abuse." I would like you to read some of those
stories as time permits that I can post them here.
UPDATE: I've heard GL is actually a French owned
business with many of their top execs are NOT
Americans which seems odd since this is US government
military surplus we are talking about here. I'm
looking into this part and if its true I am going to
ask my Congressman why isn't an all American business
handling American surplus? And why isn't their some
sort of appeal mechanism for disatisfied customers
like me? Seems like fair questions to me and I'll let
you know what I find out as soon as I can.
Till then, I urge anyone doing business with "GL" to
"read the fine print" and be very careful about what
you are buying and the local terms and conditions,
which can vary widely. Make sure you inspect the
item/s if at all possible to prevent a switch. Have
something in writing about when you intend to pickup
your property too, so the kind of incident I had
doesn't happen to you. I guess I trusted GL too much
and took too much for granted as I couldn't envision
them doing what they did...well, live and learn. But,
it's not over because I want people to know the kind
of stuff GL is doing to people and when you read the
reports from other customers here, you'll really
appreciate my warnings. Who knows maybe we will have
enough clout to effect some positive change at GL?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat May 07 2005 - 20:41:26 PDT