Can’t Afford Em Buttons – Scam?
Can’t Afford Em Buttons (run by Patrick Stanley and Angie Spitzer) sell T-shirts, buttons and other cottage industry crafts online. Screenprinters by trade, the couple are working out of the Bronx in New York and they have a number of outlets online including their own CAE Buttons website.
The business use PayPal and I bought 15 T-shirts from them in October last year. About one week before the PayPal dispute resolution cut-off date (when you can complain to PayPal about not receiving your goods) they contact you to say the product has returned to base with a mail address error. They do this so that it will be too late to open a PayPal Dispute and get your money back.
I complained about them (as they don’t return emails) to The Australian ACCC. You can make a complaint about an Australian company here but not US companies. This is the letter I received in reply.
Dear Mr Lynch,
Thank you for your email of 9 February 2010 to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) concerning the goods you ordered from Can’t Afford Em Buttons.
By way of background, www.scamwatch.gov.au is a website owned and maintained by the ACCC. The role of the ACCC is to ensure compliance with the Trade Practices Act 1974 (TPA), which is designed to encourage fair trading and discourage anti-competitive conduct through a specific set of competition and consumer protection rules in Australia.
Generally speaking, the TPA applies to corporations trading in Australia. Whether CAE Buttons is considered to be operating in Australia is ultimately a question to be determined by a court. It is not the role of the ACCC to provide legal advice.
However, it would appear that Can’t Afford Em Buttons is situated in the United States which means that the company may not be subject to the operation of the TPA. While the ACCC may not have jurisdiction to act on a particular matter, the information may be transmitted to the appropriate international authorities if necessary.
As this Can’t Afford Em Buttons is situated in the United States we would advise that you contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to see if they are able to assist you. You can visit their website at www.ftc.gov.
The information you have provided and other complaints received through our SCAMwatch website greatly assists us to monitor scam trends and take action where appropriate. The analysis of this information also enables the development of targeted educational campaigns and provides valuable information for the ACCC’s ongoing cooperation efforts with other government agencies.
Thank you for contacting the ACCC with your inquiry.
Yours sincerely,
Fraser
ACCC Infocentre
Ph: 1300 302 502
This company has been registered with the ACCC Scamwatch anyway and both the US-based Federal Trade Commission and Better Business Bureau.
The internet is getting better in terms of online scam reporting.
STOP PRESS
Can’t Afford Em have recently agreed to send through the T-shirts I ordered. When they arrive, I’ll be happy to remove this post and withdraw my complaints.
