My Letter To My Bank wrote:November 25th, 2002
Dear Mr. Collins,
My name is Jerry Ray, and my Visa debit card number is xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx.
This letter is in response to our earlier phone conversation wherein I requested a chargeback on an overcharge on my Wachovia Visa debit card, despite the fact that over 120 days have elapsed since the charge was first posted. In this letter and the attached documents, I will document my dealings with Another Universe that led to the current situation.
In the early months of 2002, Jason Rosenfeld of Dry Grass Partners, LLC partnered with AnotherUniverse.com of Sacramento, CA to produce and distribute a DVD box set of the television series My So-Called Life. This box set was to include 5 DVDs with the 19 episodes of the series, an additional bonus DVD with cast and crew interviews, and a metal lunchbox to serve as the packaging for the set. On February 9th, 2002, Another Universe began accepting preorders for the set with a $20 deposit required.
On February 11th, 2002, I placed an order with Another Universe, order number xxxxxxxx, and my Visa debit card was charged the $20 deposit. The $79.98 balance was to be charged when the set was ready to ship, estimated to be June, 2002.
On March 14th, 2002, my Visa debit card was charged the $79.98 balance by Another Universe.
On March 26th, 2002, Another Universe sent out an e-mail stating that they were having difficulties with their credit card handling and could not keep their authorizations open for as long as was required for the production of the DVDs. Therefore, customers had the option of authorizing Another Universe to charge the balance, or to cancel their order. I granted Another Universe permission to charge me the balance, because my only other option was to cancel my order, which I did not want to do. (Note that I had already been charged the balance before I granted them permission for the charge.)
In June, 2002, the release date for the set was pushed back several months. The next projected release date was September, 2002.
On July 25th, 2002, my Visa debit card was charged an additional $115 by Another Universe. This was a completely unauthorized charge. The $115 amount was the cost of the DVD set after the preorder period had expired.
I discovered this charge when I received my August, 2002 Wachovia bank statement, and I submitted a customer service request to Another Universe through a website set up by Jason Rosenfeld of Dry Grass Partners, LLC. On August 27th, 2002, I received an automatically generated e-mail indicating that my request for a refund had been read and processed by a customer service agent of Another Universe named Mike McCulloch.
On September 22nd, 2002, after reviewing my September, 2002 Wachovia bank statement, I sent a follow-up e-mail to Mike McCulloch requesting information on the status of my refund request. On September 26th, 2002, he responded that my request had been forwarded to the accounting department, and that I should receive a credit shortly. In the meantime, the DVD release had been pushed back to October, 2002.
In early October, 2002, Ross Rojek, the CEO of Another Universe, posted a request on the My So-Called Life DVD discussion boards at
http://www.mscl.com for everyone who had been overcharged to notify him, so that he could look into the matter personally.
On October 7th, 2002, I sent an e-mail to Ross Rojek summarizing my situation and requesting a refund, and received a response from him stating that he would look into the matter personally. In the meantime, amidst issues of non-payment from Another Universe to the various vendors that were manufacturing the DVDs and associated materials, the DVD release date was pushed back to November, 2002.
On October 21st, 2002, I received an e-mail from Jason Rosenfeld of Dry Grass Partners, LLC, indicating that he was pulling out of the project, and alleging fraud on the part of Ross Rojek and Another Universe. Rosenfeld continues to be involved in helping defrauded customers seek refunds from Another Universe, but has severed his business relationship with Another Universe. Rosenfeld filed a complaint against Another Universe with the FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center (
http://www.ifccfbi.org).
On October 25th, 2002, after reviewing my October, 2002 Wachovia bank statement and finding no refund, I sent a follow-up e-mail to Ross Rojek, recapping the situation and demanding a refund, or else I would file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center. Rojek did not respond to the e-mail, and I received no refund. On October 29th, 2002, I filed a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center.
Meanwhile, people that cancelled their orders with Another Universe (who by this time was no longer the exclusive retailer of the DVD set after making a deal to allow the manufacturer of the set to sell the sets, without bonus materials, to Best Buy, Amazon.com, and other retail outlets) were having no better luck getting refunds on their cancelled orders than people who were double charged. There were suggestions made to customers by Another Universe customer support agents that disputing charges with their banks could lead to having their orders cancelled.
In early November, 2002, Another Universe shipped the first wave of DVD sets, and I received the 5-DVD set with the 19 episodes of the series. The bonus DVD and lunchbox packaging, however, have not shipped. I received the DVDs (without bonus materials) from Another Universe in mid-November, but I still consider my order unfulfilled until I receive the balance of the materials that are owed me.
Ross Rojek and others at Another Universe are now making statements like “I'm sorry your credit hasn't posted to your account yet. We have submitted quite a few refunds, but they only credit them as more funds become available in our merchant account.” This leads me to believe that the money that Another Universe acquired by double and triple charging customers, and by withholding refunds from customers who cancelled their orders, has been squandered, and that they are currently either unable or unwilling to refund the money that they have illegally obtained from their customers. As of November 4th, according to Jason Rosenfeld’s records from the Dry Grass Partners customer support site, 529 people had been double charged by Another Universe, and an additional 92 had been otherwise overcharged. Only about 12% of those people have received refunds. (I have a request in to Rosenfeld for updated documentation of the current situation.)
I am requesting a chargeback of the $115 overcharge, understanding that more than 120 days have elapsed since the charge. I hope that the extenuating circumstances, in the form of the grossly fraudulent behavior of Another Universe, will result in special consideration for this case. Please feel free to contact me by telephone at (xxx) xxx-xxxx or by e-mail at
xxxx@xxx.xxxxxx.xxx if I can be of any assistance. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jerry B. Ray, Jr.