Nice scam, glad *we* caught it

[BlitzPuppet]

Be careful of a company called "Tower Imaging", almost got scammed here at work. Apparently it's a pretty popular scam tactic that a lot of people get wound up in, I'd never heard of it before so I thought I'd throw some info out there for you guys.

Got a call from them back in June advertising a new toner that they were making that was super high yield for a printer they heard we have. Their promotion was for a no-cost-to-us trial of this toner in our printer, and to let them know how we like it. That's it. I agreed to give it a try and possibly use them in the future...so they sent one out. I sat on that toner since the printer that uses it doesn't see extremely high use.

I get a call in August from them asking what I thought of the toner, so I told the guy "Haven't used it yet, printer is still using the toner that it had when you first called". He said he'd follow up in a few months and that was the last I heard from him. Late Aug/Early September I receive a shipment for 3 more toner cartridges, but no packing slip/invoice what so ever. I give the company a call to figure out wtf they are sending me and I'm told "Oh your salesrep is just closing out your order, that's the last shipment you should receive. Enjoy the toner!" and I clarify that we didn't order anything and just want to make sure this is free, to which I'm told "correct".

Fast forward to today our A/P calls me and asks what this invoice from Tower Imaging for $719 is for. I call the company and am told that I agreed to a 4 for the price of 3 deal ($240 a cartridge!) and had agreed to close out the order back in August. When I told the customer service guy that I had never agreed to that and had actually told him we still hadn't used the "sampler" they had sent to us in August I was told "That's weird, they usually don't send out the additional if you haven't used the first yet". I told him I'm shipping everything back to them since none of it was used, not paying a dime to them, and don't want to hear from them again.

Crappy crappy crappy, guess they bank on Accounts Payable to just cut checks without checking who is actually ordering stuff.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Wow. At $240/ea It must be a plotter toner or something? The scary thing is I'm sure some companies bite the bullet without batting an eye.

We had a similar thing happen here with a company we buy cabling from (power plants, substations, etc.) that was charging us for say, 1,000 ft. instead of 100 ft. If our purchasing department didn't have their shit together, we would have been in the hole. The same company tried pulling this on us more than once. We've since moved away from them...

The lengths people go for money is amazing.

 

[HN]

sounds like your A/P caught it

 

[Carson Dyle]

Anyone dumb enough to fall for someone cold selling toner deserves to lose their money. Or their job.

 

[Rakehellion]

You should have kept it. If you didn't order it, they can't do shit.

 

[Squeetard]

Sooo much of that going on. Shady businesses sending out stuff no one ordered.
Had another one last week where they cold called me about computer supplies. I said I wasn't interested, they hung up and called Accounts payable saying they needed to set up a P.O. for some stuff I approved.
No scruples at all these scammers.

 

[Rakehellion]

And you didn't catch it. You just stopped it after it was already underway.

 

[Squeetard]

You should have kept it. If you didn't order it, they can't do shit.

Yeppers. I did that once. Sent shit back 3 times and finally told them I was keeping anything further they sent me. Pens or some shit like that. They sent me 3 more shipments until the account went into arrears, then they sent it to collections. Collection agent called me and I laughed in his face, explained what happened and said I would die before I ever gave them one cent.

 

[BlitzPuppet]

sounds like your A/P caught it

Correct, I'm glad she comes to me to verify purchases rather than assuming I okay every purchase.

You should have kept it. If you didn't order it, they can't do shit.

Considered that option, but far easier to ship it back,on their dime, and not have to deal with them ever again than to risk getting collections/scare tactics (even though they can't do shit).

Just quicker to wash my hands.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Anyone dumb enough to fall for someone cold selling toner deserves to lose their money. Or their job.

Your reasoning is? I started my own business about two years ago reselling toner along with printers/copiers and MPS. There are a lot of people reselling cheap Chinese cartridges that can mess up your machine for a quick buck but there are a lot of high quality 3rd party cartridges that can save your company a lot of money. It is not in my business to sell you toner one time and have you hate us to never order again. We want your business every month when you run out of ink.

 

[BlitzPuppet]

Your reasoning is? I started my own business about two years ago reselling toner along with printers/copiers and MPS. There are a lot of people reselling cheap Chinese cartridges that can mess up your machine for a quick buck but there are a lot of high quality 3rd party cartridges that can save your company a lot of money. It is not in my business to sell you toner one time and have you hate us to never order again. We want your business every month when you run out of ink.

Bingo. We've used high quality toner and we've used low quality toner that screws up the machines and makes them require service much sooner.

I'm sure they make quite a killing on people who aren't careful/don't check what department's invoices are authorized or not. Nothing is wrong with cold calling, it's how a lot of IT companies do their business now a days.

 

[skimple]

We had a similar thing happen here with a company we buy cabling from (power plants, substations, etc.) that was charging us for say, 1,000 ft. instead of 100 ft.

Sometimes that's legit though. I've seen Engineers spec out cable that is specifically listed as "made to order" and then get bent out of shape when they get charged for 1000' (or 5000') when they only wanted 100'.

There's fixed cost to setting up a machine and running an order. At low volumes, the setup cost exceeds the cost of materials.

 

[fenrir]

Your reasoning is? I started my own business about two years ago reselling toner along with printers/copiers and MPS. There are a lot of people reselling cheap Chinese cartridges that can mess up your machine for a quick buck but there are a lot of high quality 3rd party cartridges that can save your company a lot of money. It is not in my business to sell you toner one time and have you hate us to never order again. We want your business every month when you run out of ink.

I assume you do not sell toner that magically prints 10,000 more pages than a high yield cartridge from the manufacturer.

Anyone that falls for the 'super high yield' scam should be spanked. This scam has been around for a long time (at least 16 years). You get to try the first cartridge for free, but it really isn't as you have just '"agreed" to buy cartridges at a huge markup.

 

[kranky]

Last time that was tried on us, the scam company simply sent an invoice. No prior contact, nothing ever delivered. Our A/P people are pretty sharp so it was detected.

A similar scam from years ago was sending bogus invoices for yellow pages ads to small(er) businesses who actually did have YP ads. They would send the bogus invoices a month or so before the legit invoices came out. Probably a lot of them got paid by overworked and tired small business owners who didn't notice the slightly different payee name.

 

[CZroe]

Toner/ink slamming offices is a very common scam, OP. They usually call to find out what printer you have then send it without permission hoping someone signs for it. Someone in your office signed for it. You need to make sure that they NEVER do this again.

The "free" toner was just a scam to find out what printer your had. They do this other ways too. They often call some random person in the office pretending to be "support" and they ask for the model, then they hang up and someone shows up with supplies later.

You should have kept it. If you didn't order it, they can't do shit.

Everyone should know this scam. Part of the way it works is that someone in the office signed for the delivery and that signature implies that they CAN "do shit."

 

[BlitzPuppet]

Tony/ink slamming is a very common scam, OP.

First time I'd ever heard/experienced it. Thought I'd spread the word just in case there were other people they haven't hit yet.

I seriously wonder how many people they hit and actually get away with it?

 

[CZroe]

First time I'd ever heard/experienced it. Thought I'd spread the word just in case there were other people they haven't hit yet.

I seriously wonder how many people they hit and actually get away with it?

Made a big edit above.

 

[Carson Dyle]

There are a lot of people reselling cheap Chinese cartridges that can mess up your machine for a quick buck but there are a lot of high quality 3rd party cartridges that can save your company a lot of money.

A "lot" is relative. It's never been worth the bother, IMO. How exactly am I supposed to tell what I'm being sold when some random calls on the phone? Frankly, I don't even care. I've been in the position of buying toner for several companies and simply bought OEM cartridges and everyone was happy.

 

[Rakehellion]

Everyone should know this scam. Part of the way it works is that someone in the office signed for the delivery and that signature implies that they CAN "do shit."

Signing for a package is evidence the package was received, not that it was requested.

 

[BlitzPuppet]

Made a big edit above.

That's exactly what happened to our receptionist 5 years before I started with the company . A company called her posing as support and asked for the serial number of our printer...then continuously got packages delivered (she had actually given them our CC # )to the point that our warehouse guy had to keep an eye out for any shipments that were coming from the company she spoke with.

It got so bad that packages were bouncing back and forth between our office and theirs since no one would take delivery. The company finally gave up and no more were received.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I managed a store in 2001 & it was hit with a similar scam toner supplies sent and enormous invoice sent to payables. This stuff has been going on forever.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Got a call from them back in June advertising a new toner that they were making that was super high yield for a printer they heard we have.

Unsolicited calls are a pretty big red flag.

Were you looking for a super high yield new toner??

No? Then hang up the phone.

 

[SlitheryDee]

That's why you stick to the rule of thumb:

Except for girl scouts, anyone who comes to you unasked trying to sell you something has nothing you want to buy.

 

[JimKiler]

Be careful of a company called "Tower Imaging", almost got scammed here at work. Apparently it's a pretty popular scam tactic that a lot of people get wound up in, I'd never heard of it before so I thought I'd throw some info out there for you guys.

Got a call from them back in June advertising a new toner that they were making that was super high yield for a printer they heard we have. Their promotion was for a no-cost-to-us trial of this toner in our printer, and to let them know how we like it. That's it. I agreed to give it a try and possibly use them in the future...so they sent one out. I sat on that toner since the printer that uses it doesn't see extremely high use.

I get a call in August from them asking what I thought of the toner, so I told the guy "Haven't used it yet, printer is still using the toner that it had when you first called". He said he'd follow up in a few months and that was the last I heard from him. Late Aug/Early September I receive a shipment for 3 more toner cartridges, but no packing slip/invoice what so ever. I give the company a call to figure out wtf they are sending me and I'm told "Oh your salesrep is just closing out your order, that's the last shipment you should receive. Enjoy the toner!" and I clarify that we didn't order anything and just want to make sure this is free, to which I'm told "correct".

Fast forward to today our A/P calls me and asks what this invoice from Tower Imaging for $719 is for. I call the company and am told that I agreed to a 4 for the price of 3 deal ($240 a cartridge!) and had agreed to close out the order back in August. When I told the customer service guy that I had never agreed to that and had actually told him we still hadn't used the "sampler" they had sent to us in August I was told "That's weird, they usually don't send out the additional if you haven't used the first yet". I told him I'm shipping everything back to them since none of it was used, not paying a dime to them, and don't want to hear from them again.

Crappy crappy crappy, guess they bank on Accounts Payable to just cut checks without checking who is actually ordering stuff.

I am surprised more scammers do not try to do stuff like this and pretend to be a reputable company selling every sort of household item a company needs.

 

[CZroe]

Signing for a package is evidence the package was received, not that it was requested.

If only it were that simple. Office supplies are ROUTINELY delivered by office supply companies and not 3rd party couriers. Staples, for example, delivers to local offices. Read the document a little closer and you'll see that signing is a much bigger problem than you think.

Also, keeping a package you didn't pay for is not OK just because you didn't request it. The law is on their side with that one.