If you are a registered member of Gunbroker.com, watch out. I caught them trying to sneak a $2 charge past me.
About a month ago they shut down my account, claiming that it needed to be "verified." I've been a registered member of Gunbroker.com since the site launched. I've done a bit of business through the site, I have perfect feedback, and all my fees have always been paid right away.
But for some reason, I needed to be "verified." The reasons were not explained to me, nor were the terms of what being "verified" would mean.
All they asked was for me to FAX in some address details. After I did this and they were satisfied that I was not based in Nigeria, they turned my account back on. I was able to contact sellers again and bid on items. All was fine.
Well, this week I received an email from them claiming that I owed Gunbroker.com $2. The CC# I had on file with them was expired, so they couldn't automatically process the amount they claimed I owed them.
When I looked into this, I found out that Gunbroker.com was claiming that this $2 was a fee for verifying my account. They also claimed that I had authorized this fee when I submitted to the verification process.
I found nothing when I searched Gunbroker.com for information about Verification (or Extended Verification, as they call it). Also, there are no details about this process in the "My Account" section of the site, or anywhere else that I could find.
Right now, Gunbroker.com has not resolved this issue with me. They're still claiming that I authorized the charge to my card. I have asked them to show me where & when I gave them this authorization.
You can see the back and forth I've been having with their lousy customer support in this screen shot:
Making small, automatic charges to a CC# is a common way people commit fraud on the internet. The perpetrator figures you'll never notice the amount charged, or if you do, you won't bother to follow up on it because it's too much trouble.
Gunbroker.com has added a little twist to this by added this "verification" BS. The only reason I caught it is because the CC# they have for me has expired.
Please pass this info around and post it wherever possible. I'm sure I'm not the only one they're trying to pull this on.
Thanks
OWD