'I got a call from a senior exec at their head office practically licking my boots with apologies': Company hits customers with hidden charges prompting man to expose them on LinkedIn

Author image for Isabella Penn
Isabella Penn
Jan 17, 2024 12:00 PM EST

The next time you make a purchase from a company that treats you unfairly, consider putting this revenge strategy to the test. A man found himself facing hidden fees long after ordering a product from a questionable company. Despite thoroughly checking the company's website and finding no mention of these fees, he remained calm and decided to contact customer service. Initially hopeful for a simple refund due to the company violating his consumer rights by not warning him about the fees, his experience took an unexpected turn.

Instead of a resolution, he encountered repeated dismissals from multiple customer service representatives. Unable to speak to a manager, he took matters into his own hands and decided to expose the company. Using LinkedIn, he shared his entire story, even tagging all the senior executives at the company. Despite the company attempting various tactics, he continued to unveil their actions in the comments of his original post. Long story short, he got his money back. And then some. 

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  • 01
    Posted by u/predtech 2 days ago Stick me with hidden charges? I'll show you... ^
    via u/predtech
  • 02
    So this past Christmas, my missus and I purchased one of our 9yr old son's Santa gifts from a certain UK sports retail company that also have many stores here in Ireland as well. It was a football rebounder,
    via u/predtech
  • 03
    kinda like a trampoline that you kick the ball at and it bounces back to you. Anyway we purchased it from their Irish website and thought nothing more of it. A few days go by and we get a notification from a certain brown uniformed courier company that there are customs charges due on
    via u/predtech
  • 04
    something, and as you can imagine we've bought many things for the kids so we had to double check what we've ordered and we didn't have anything left that was being imported so we naturally assumed it was a scam, so I told the wife to call the company and find out who
    via u/predtech
  • 05
    shipped it and it was a different courier company based in the UK. After a bit of digging and investigating it turns out that it's our rebounder. They had shipped it from the UK, via a local carrier, to the brown uniformed guys to deliver to us.
    via u/predtech
  • 06
    Now, my wife and I are both on disability so an additional charge of almost €50 when you're both already on a fixed income is harsh, especially at Christmas so I told her to pay it and I'd deal with the retailer. The first day I called I had to call 3 times being stuck on hold for at least 20 minutes each
    via u/predtech
  • 07
    rights i'm going to give your company 1 last chance to make this right. Have your manager call me within the next 60 minutes or I'm going to post this entire debacle on LinkedIn and link every senior officer in your company!" Then I hung up the phone and waited........ Yet again, no call.
    via u/predtech
  • 08
    annoyed so called back, waiting even longer on hold and finally wasn't taking this S any longer. I told the rep that all I wanted was the €50 back because our consumer rights in Ireland dictate that a person must be informed of any additional charges on a purchase, at the very latest, by
    via u/predtech
  • 09
    the final checkout screen, and in this case there was nothing to show that, and I could easily replicate that issue by putting the same item in my basket and going all the way to the checkout screen again and there was nothing saying we'd have to pay import charges.
    via u/predtech
  • 10
    The rep was indifferent to the situation but tried to "help" and what he said sent me over the edge. He offered me a measley €20 gift voucher to use on their website, but more importantly he read a statement to me. He said "we advise our customers that there may be DDU charges
    via u/predtech
  • 11
    (Delivery Duty Unpaid, i.e. customs charges) on any item that gets shipped outside of the UK." Then I asked him where it states this information and he paused, then said he didn't actually know. I said "Well I know 1 thing, it doesn't say it anywhere on this transaction because I've checked and because this is a violation of my consumer
    via u/predtech
  • 12
    rights i'm going to give your company 1 last chance to make this right. Have your manager call me within the next 60 minutes or I'm going to post this entire debacle on LinkedIn and link every senior officer in your company!" Then I hung up the phone and waited........ Yet again, no call.
    via u/predtech
  • 13
    The next day I went on LinkedIn and followed through on my promise. I created a post detailing what they had done by sticking us with hidden charges and that they were ignoring our requests for a manager, and everything they said and did. Then I tagged EVERY senior officer at that company from the regional managers, through the
    via u/predtech
  • 14
    European directors, all the way to the CEO, and I shamed them for how they operate their company. This, ladies and gentlemen, was now an act of war. Shortly after I posted that I noticed that they took down the item from their website in an attempt to hide this but
    via u/predtech
  • 15
    they must have thought in a simpleton that doesn't understand how the internet works. They didn't realise that when you searched for "rebounder" on their site, that it shows the item in question so I took a screenshot of that, then another of the item page that was now "missing", but
    via u/predtech
  • 16
    then I did a Google cached search for the same page and found a version from 2 days prior happily showing the item. Then I added a comment to my original post highlighting how they were trying to hide it, with the evidence, and trolling them for their heinous behaviour ESPECIALLY at Christmas. Then
    via u/predtech
  • 17
    I tagged and shamed all the senior officers again, and at this point it was really starting to get some attention, not only publicly, but 3 people in "incognito mode" viewed my profile....I wonder who they could have been....... So naturally I took a screenshot of the 3 mysterious visitors listed on my profile and did the same thing. Commented on my own
    via u/predtech
  • 18
    post highlighting it and trolling them for their incompetence. The next morning I got a call from a senior exec at their head office in the UK practically licking my boots with apologies, asking what she can do to make this right. I told her I originally only wanted my €50 back as it wasn't fair, nor even legal, that I had to pay it, but
    via u/predtech
  • 19
    since I had to go to such lengths to get their attention now I wanted my €50 back, a full refund on my entire purchase, AND I wanted to keep the product. That was the only thing that would make this go away. She asked for a couple of hours to fix it and I said ok.
    via u/predtech
  • 20
    About an hour later I got another call from her again apologising. She asked for my PayPal address where she sent the €50, then she refunded the whole purchase, and she let us keep the product. Obviously I thanked her for her help because at that stage I was just happy it was over, but I'll be fi d if I'll let anyone walk all over my family, even if they are a £58,000,000 annual company.
    via u/predtech
  • 21
    The most of the story here is, don't take b t from anyone. I may be just 1 man, but my sons view of Santa is FAR more valuable to me than the opinion of some retail chain that doesn't care about it's customers nor how it operates ethically.
    via u/predtech
  • 22
    pd 06
    via LinkedIn Sales Navigator

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malicious compliance senior petty revenge linkedin exposed entitled misleading executive bad bosses company payback fees
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