The last thing you expect, when eating out, is discovering that a restaurant has taken out more than what you expected. When the bill should total around $30, it can be a rather nasty surprise to see that nearly $70 had been taken out of your bank account. For an elderly Shawnee, OK couple, this is exactly what happened.
The elderly couple decided to treat themselves to Abuelita’s, located just off of US-177. For them, everything appeared to be normal, that was until they got the receipt. A bill that should have been roughly $30.00, ended up draining their bank account.
Upon seeing the amount, they learned that they had actually been charged nearly double what they should have been (image below.) Upon reviewing their bank account, they found that the establishment took out $69.10 for a meal that should had only cost around $30.00. At this point, they contacted the restaurant. Upon bringing up the fraudulent charge, the woman on the phone, who had been their cashier, suddenly was unable to hear them. She proceeded to put somebody else on the phone and, just as before, he abruptly became deaf as soon as the concerns were brought up. At this point, it was clear to the customers that this was a deliberate theft.
Merchant copy of the receipt, which conflicts with the customer’s copy.
With no alternative options, the defrauded customers returned to the restaurant and confronted them in person. It was at this point that they “returned” the funds, giving the customers the above copy of the receipt. However, this too would be proven false. In actuality, the charge still went through and the bank had received no indication that the bill had been reversed. The reason? Because the above voided charge, never left the restaurant’s register.
Bank charges, showing the bill was eventually reversed.
At this point, the customer’s were more than willing to bring law enforcement into the situation. They again, contacted Abuelita’s in attempt to get the unauthorized portion of the bill refunded. This time, however, they informed the employees that if it was not returned, charges would be filed. Only then did the establishment refund the additional $40.02 charge. However, they had also refunded the actual price of the meal.
While this situation did work out for this elderly couple, there is still a lingering question: how many other customers have they done this to, who didn’t notice the extra charge? More importantly, how long have they been conducting themselves in this form of theft? War on Corruption, LLC., reached out the restaurant, but have yet to receive a response. Should that change, we will add it to this article.
We, at War on Corruption, LLC. are not saying that Daniel Holtzclaw is innocent, we are fully aware that he violated multiple policies which ultimately assisted in his downfall. In this article, we are merely discussing the topics that have led to debate. While we do acknowledge that there are many more questions surrounding his case, it is a very complex situation and would require multiple articles to fully address. Therefore, we are simply opening a door for discussion. At the end of this article, we have added additional links of information. These are so that any person interested may conduct their research and come to their own conclusion regarding the case. The article does not cover everything. This is due to the complexity of the case; it simply would require multiple articles to address the case in full.
Introduction
The case of Daniel Holtzclaw, a former Oklahoma City Police Officer, has always been shrouded with debate. Starting with the questionable tactics used by the investigators, questionable witnesses, and even the evidence itself, there has always been scrutiny. For years, we have sat on this story, unsure as to rather or not it was one that should be written. It is very complicated, it may potentially open old wounds, or it simply may expose just how corrupt our justice system actually is. Either way, we’ve finally decided that it was time to write the article that will, without doubt, be our most controversial one. We’re going to discuss the Daniel Holtzclaw case and the problems within it.
Where it all began
Rather or not Holtzclaw sexually assaulted multiple women remains heavily debated. What isn’t debated, however, is the fact that he did initiate traffic stops to which he failed to report. While this alone does not prove guilt, it is a clear violation of protocol. Regardless of this violation, it was learned that Holtzclaw had initiated stops in, such as this, before.
Originally, he was faced with a total of 36 sexual based crimes. Among these were rape, sexual battery, forcible oral sodomy, and the list goes on. Out of the 36, Holtzclaw would be convicted of 18. With this conviction, began a very heated debate. This is a debate that is still ongoing. The only question to ask is why are people debating his guilt?
Originally, Holtzclaw was charged with more than 30 counts of sexually based crimes. However, by the end of his trial, only 18 would land convictions. Why is that? The simple answer is due to the lack of evidence and credibility issues with the alleged victims. That leads us to ask the most obvious question, “who are these victims?”
The Victims
The women who made accusations against Holtzclaw had a few key similarities with one another. To start, they were all lower class, they were all Black, had interactions with Holtzclaw, and criminal backgrounds. While this has shed light into their credibility, this isn’t the main discussion when it comes to his victims. The discussion is rather or not Holtzclaw did anything at all. According to one victim, Tabitha Barnes, he apparently never lay a hand on her, though she had testified differently.
During the trial, Barnes had testified that Holtzclaw had inappropriately touched her breasts. Ultimately, her testimony was among the charges to which Holtzclaw was found guilty. But there’s a problem with her accusation, an issue that would come much later. As though having a change of heart matters, Barnes has done a complete 180 on her original testimony, now stating that he never did anything to her. In simple terms, she sat in a courtroom, under oath, and fabricated a story that got the former officer convicted. For this, you don’t need to take our word for it, you can watch the video for yourself, we’ve included it below.
While Barnes ultimately recanted her story, she was not alone in having a retraction in statement. Sherry Ellis Smith would later admit to never seeing Holtzclaw prior to the trial. In total, Daniel would be accused of more than thirty sexually based crimes, but only convicted of eighteen, giving him a grand total of 263 years in prison. We can go on and on about this subject, but the article isn’t about the victims. Ultimately, the question is, could Daniel have been innocent of the crimes?
The original accuser, 57 Y.O. Jenny Wiggins, the woman who initially triggered the investigation, has also been a focal point of debate. Prior to her being pulled over, it was discovered that her license had actually been suspended for around thirty years, she had also admitted to using the controlled substance, Cannabis shortly before the encounter. Furthermore, there would be no evidence on this victim linking her to Holtzclaw. The only link is in the interaction, to which he was in policy violation by conducting. The violation being that he failed to notify dispatch and disabling the car’s computer.
During the encounter with Holtzclaw, Wiggins claimed that he had her place her hands on the hood of his patrol car. However, there was no evidence on his car that supported this claim. The investigators explanation for this lack of evidence? The car was full of trash and therefore finding a fingerprint on the outside would be impossible. This is alarming because most of us know that the inside of a vehicle does not affect the outside. With that in mind, we have to ponder on how they were unable to find a simple fingerprint. Beyond this, we cannot ignore the fact that Wiggins actually had changed her story several times. In fact, the description she had given of Holtzclaw was completely off. She described him as having blonde hair and being several inches shorter than what he actually is. It’s important to note that Holtzclaw stands at just over six feet, a hard to miss feature. But this isn’t the only issue within the case. We will link a video that further discusses this in the links below.
The Evidence
Looking at the evidence used, at best, it wasn’t the greatest. In other words, it left a lot of room for debate, and it has. Aside the accusers, many whom had been discredited, and the later retraction, there was nothing that we could100% state tied Holtzclaw to anything criminal. The only thing we can say concretely is this: he broke policy by turning off the computer system in his patrol car, but that doesn’t mean he committed a crime.
The trial was a very heated and emotionally charged one, this was clear to anybody who followed it. Being charged for multiple crimes, primarily on no evidence aside from verbal statements, is absolutely terrifying, but it demonstrates a phrase that we have stated multiple times before: “Sex based crimes are the easiest to charge because they do not require evidence.” Did they have any evidence aside from verbal statements? They had one thing: one sample of DNA belonging to a 17 Y.O. girl, as well as an unknown male. Regardless of its location, this DNA is up for debate.
Under normal circumstances, DNA is a fairly reliable source of forensics. It’s so reliable that it’s used in virtually every criminal case. For the Holtzclaw case, however, it’s been one of many targets for debate. The DNA was located on the outside of the former officer’s pants, near the zipper. For some, this is concrete enough to suggest his guilt. But is it? Well, no. While we wish it were that simple, it’s not. If the officer had any form of contact with the girl, regardless of it being sexual or not, it’s very plausible that this DNA, being skin cells, would have gotten onto the former officer, including his hands. If he had done something as simple as using the restroom, that alone would explain why they were in the location that they were.
What we couldn’t find, when looking at this particular form of evidence, was anything implicating that semen was located in the area. The fact of the matter is, if he had committed such an act, this would had most likely been present. If not, at minimum, pre-ejaculatory fluid, and yet we have found nothing implicating its presence, an abnormality in that he allegedly committed more than one crime while wearing them, and yet that florfenicol evidence was not present.
Regardless of all of the issues, we do know that Holtzclaw was trying to get close to some of the women he had contact with, however unprofessional that might be, it doesn’t necessarily mean he was trying to force anybody into such contacts with him. During his career, he had a couple of major issues involving Facebook messages and visiting a residence of a woman to which he had contact with while on duty. While this isn’t conclusive evidence to support he did anything illegal, it ultimately did come back to bite him at the worst possible time. Again, while the DNA is questionable, as mentioned, we can’t ignore that it was there and where it was located. For this, we would call that a double-edged sword; it doesn’t prove guilt, doesn’t prove innocence, but really looks bad for him.
Conclusion
While we cannot say with 100% certainty that he is guilty, we can’t say that he’s completely innocent, either. Holtzclaw violated policy, he was looking for intimate interactions, he had attempted romantic relations with some of the women he interacted with and appeared to act impulsively. His actions, especially in disabling the computer, does leave the possibility that he may have committed crimes, but it’s not absolute. Ultimately, his case was reckless and poorly constructed, at best. In many ways, the case appeared to an attempt to disarm any potential civil unrest rather than the actual seek for justice. The victims are questionable, with criminal histories, and potential motive for wanting to ruin an officer’s life. Of course, this is just mere observation, one that is heavily debated.
Links
The following links are for informational purposes only. The links are not representative of the platform’s views or opinions of the case.
The Tropicana Mobile Home Community, located in Moscow Mills Missouri, primarily consists of residents who are either retired or on a fixed income. Recently, and abruptly, the trailer park sold the Southern portion of its park. Under Missouri SB 753, the seller was required to give all tenants notice prior to the sell, they failed to do so. The resulting aftermath of this sell has created an uproar within the affected community.
Upon completion of the purchase, residents were met with notes, which were hung from their doors in plastic bags. The notes simply informed the tenants of the sell. Though the first letter was questionable, it wouldn’t be the only letter delivered in such format. A second letter informed the residents of rent increases, upwards of 36%. The letter continued to inform the residents that they were required to sign a new lease, one which has many residents questioning the legalities. Finally, the letter informs the residents that they are to provide a copy of their home deeds to the new owners, Jones Estates.
Upon lease signing, many residents have noted that the lease was backdated. Any resident who wished to review the lease was immediately threatened with eviction. In one instance, a resident was threatened for refusing to sign her husband’s name to the lease, who is currently overseas on deployment. When refusing, she too, was threatened with eviction. With threat, and under duress, many of the residents have signed the questionable leases.
According to another article, written by ‘Lincoln News Now,’ which will be linked below, one individual with cancer faces the possibility of losing her Emotional support dog. Although the dog has been signed for by her doctor, Jones Estates will only recognize a letter that is signed by a psychologist, potentially violating the ADA. If the previous act isn’t a violation, the fact that the company asked for medical documentation, without a doubt, is.
The company, as of this time, has remained silent. As a platform, we attempted to join the Facebook group, intended for residents. While we got no verbal response, we were denied and banned from the group by its admin, who currently manages the park. While there is speculation behind this, allegedly the employees having signed NDA’s, preventing them from speaking, it still leads us to question why we would be denied speaking to the park’s other tenants.
While there is much more to this story, much of it currently unfolding, it is clear this company is possibly after one thing: their homes. From everything we have seen thus far, there are violations within sections 441, 700 and senate bill 753 of Missouri’s revised statutes. As of this time, it is unknown what the final outcome will be. We will continue to update this story as it unfolds.
The below article merely explores a possible “what-if” scenario. It does not offer any medical advice, for or against the vaccine. Ultimately, that is a choice to which each individual must make for themselves. The article only explores the creation of this vaccine in contrast to how the process is typically done. As such, it does offer a viewpoint that conflicts with nearly every other media platform out there, we are fully aware of this controversy. We are also fully aware of the backlash that this article will most certainly bring. However, we are also aware of the fact that every individual has the right to express themselves. While this article may not represent the thoughts and feelings of every “WoC” admin, we all collectively decided to publish it.
Since its release, millions have lined up to get the Covid-19 vaccine. The thought of being immune to this “lethal” virus was simply to appealing to ignore. Regardless of the fact that the average vaccine takes roughly a decade to test, people happily injected themselves with this mixture of unknown medicine in hopes that they weren’t among the lucky thousands to not have serious adverse effects. For those who conformed to the will of the Government, the mask mandate simply vanished. That is, until now.
In a move that we expected, Pelosi decided to pass yet another mandate in the house. Rather a guest or Government worker, if you aren’t wearing a mask, you could be arrested. A move such as this will certainly raise questions, and it has. If this vaccine is so effective, than why the mandate? Why not just apply the mandate to those who aren’t vaccinated, or better yet, why not just allow people to choose what’s best for their own bodies? It’s simple: the vaccines are safe. But are they really?
After receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Brandon has been left in a paralyzed state. Sadly, he is not alone in utilizing Social Media to report these generally unknown side-effects.
Unfortunately for Brandon, he is not alone in having these serious side effects. While the mainstream media, political figures, and the big pharmaceutical companies, ignore this, thousands have suffered irreversible damage to their bodies. The mainstream media report on how safe the vaccines are, even your doctor encourages you to get it. But unlike any other vaccine, why are they not talking about the potential side effects? In fact, conducting research for potential side effects only leads to watered-down lists of minor effects. Eventually, with enough searching, you start to find the serious side effects. It’s almost as though they don’t want people to know this information.
But where did things go wrong with this vaccine? To understand that, we have to know the actual testing procedure that developing vaccines go through. According to the very CDC that promoted the Covid vaccine, the procedure begins at the “investigational new drug application.” Basically, this is just the application that is required to even begin the process. From there, you enter the “Pre-licensure vaccine clinical trials.”
According to Pfizer, there are currently 70,000 people who are participating in their pre-licensure clinical trials. However, this is a number that should be questioned. If only 70,000 people are participating in the Pfizer trials, than how is it that the Pfizer vaccine has had 346 million doses distributed in the United States alone? In the UK, the numbers drop down to around 85 million, and in Canada the number drops to around 49 million. Obviously, this is much higher than the 70,000 that Pfizer claims is participating in their clinical trials. If we were being more accurate with the numbers, it would be a safe presumption that entire societies are being unwittingly used to test this vaccine. The disturbing aspect, going beyond this fact, is that we haven’t even discussed the other vaccines.
Once we get through all of this, the final steps are:
In total, this entire process takes anywhere between 10-15 years. If this vaccine upheld this standard, it would mean that they started this process at some point between the years 2005-2010. This means they either already knew that the Covid virus existed, or they violated the guidelines that were created for how vaccines were to be tested. Of course, that is a fact that should be rather obvious.
Rather you are “pro” or “against” the vaccine, it is ultimately your decision as to rather or not you get it. Mainstream media will continue to pump out its propaganda, ignoring nearly every other event that is unfolding around the Covid situation. Dr. Fauci andhis recent, potentially very legal, situation. They won’t even discuss the adverse effects that people could suffer. Information is power, they know this. By filtering what information the general population obtains, they maintain their control to this power. But you have to ask yourself the very important question, “why are they doing this?”
Almost everywhere you go, there is a rental company just waiting to give you some product at an “affordable” price. But are these prices actually affordable or are these companies preying off of their customers? While in most instances, we expect there to be a specific percentage of interest, it seems that Aaron’s has taken this to an extreme. Thanks to a current customer of “Aaron’s,” we will get to see just how extreme they are.
According to the individual, who we will identify as J., he was in the process of buying two items: a computer and an Xbox one. According to this individual, they had already placed over $700 into the Xbox alone, that got the expected reaction from us: This person was trying to get some clout, or were they? We decided to humor this and we looked for ourselves, this is what we found from Aaron’s own website:
The first payment for all of their Xboxes are $25.00, okay, there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, that’s pretty low. But that’s not where they nail you. The trick comes in the other payments. Let’s break it down by Xbox type as they have various versions.
XBox One X:
12 monthly payments of $129.99
At the end of the payment period, you would had spent a total of $1,559.88 for an Xbox.
The lowest payment available is for the XBox One S
12 monthly payments of 79.99 Sounds affordable?
The grand total for this console is: $959.88
The question at hand is can they legally charge these outlandish prices? Well, the simple answer that we have found in our research is: Yes. They can. I know, some of you guys are calling it price gouging, believe me, our own team went that direction. The problem is in the definition of price gouging. It reads:
Price gouging refers to when retailers and others take advantage of spikes in demand by charging exorbitant prices for necessities, often after a natural disaster or other state of emergency. In most states, price gouging is set as a violation of unfair or deceptive trade practices law.
The keywords in this are “often after a natural disaster.” and “necessities.” Which would bring the question down to this: Is an Xbox One a necessity or a luxury? This is a very important concept to have in mind when determining rather or not the company is price gouging. However, there is a second definition for the term. This to must be mentioned. The other definition reads as follows:
Price gouging occurs when a seller increases the prices of goods, services or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair. Usually, this event occurs after a demand or supply shock. Common examples include price increases of basic necessities after natural disaster
If this definition were to be used, than we can establish that Aaron’s is price gouging its own customers. But this shouldn’t be to shocking. Holding a consumer rating of 1.27 and ranking at 147 among home appliance stores, it’s safe to presume that most of their customers are anything but satisfied with their service. According to the Better Business Bureau (BBB,) Aaron’s, as of the time of this article, has 1,107 complaints against it, and that’s just for one store. Though it states “usually after a natural disaster,” the phrasing implies that this isn’t always the case.
To find out the estimated rating for the company itself, we had to only look at their Facebook page. Holding at a 2.2/5 stars, it appears that their low scoring trend continued. So, we began looking at the reviews to find out why. One complaint stood out specifically to us. Though the complaint is alleging some very questionable things, it’s the fact that the rental store ignored this complaint, while responding to a reply of the review.
In another review, an Aaron’s employee is accused of being belligerent toward a customer. Something this extreme would normally have me raising an eyebrow, except for one thing: this all happened on video, which we are linking here. It’s not surprising that the company had no response to this video.
The bottom line is this: There are many options for renting an item to own. However, you have to do your research. Getting yourself into a trap, or predatorial contract, because you failed to conduct research isn’t the company’s fault. When looking into a company, you want to look at specific things: reviews, ratings, complaints, and if possible, check the BBB site; find out how many problems they’ve had in a short time. Every major company will have something negative, but when it’s a constant theme, it’s no longer a situation of a few unhappy customers. It’s a habitual environment within the company itself.
Considering everything that we have already heard about the trucking industry, it should come as no surprise that we are targeting a specific trucking company. Because the individual who contacted us is currently employed, we have taken precautions to keep their identity anonymous. With that out of the way, let’s dive in.
John Christner Trucking, LLC. is a company based out of Sapulpa, Oklahoma. Although it is a fairly small company, they are no stranger to abusing their drivers, leaving them just enough money to buy food each week. Aside from extreme low pay the company provides, it has also seen its fair share of lawsuits. In the past three years alone, John Christner has seen nearly a dozen legal actions against it. Before we get into the most recent whistleblower, let’s review some of these lawsuits.
Feb 2020
In February of last year, JCT found itself in the middle of a “misclassification” lawsuit. This case stemmed from more than 3k California based drivers who made multiple accusations against the company. Among the accusations: Working 70-100 hours a week while making less than $500, drivers owing the company money, and violating multiple state and federal labor laws by classifying drivers as “independent contractors” rather than employees. This wasn’t the only lawsuit JCT was faced with.
Mousavi v. John Christner Trucking
In what has to be the most controversial case, among it’s countless others, is this one. On 04-19-2019, Iranian American, Kazem Mousavi filed a discrimination suit against JCT. In the complaint, he alleged that the company had placed a “in-cab” camera system in his truck, without his consent. He noted that his vehicle was the only one to receive this system. While the company assured him that the camera would only be used in emergency situations, that apparently was not the case.
According to Mousavi, when arriving at the terminal, individuals working in the JCT office made comments regarding his conversations via the phone. In one instance, he was informed that they enjoyed hearing him speak Iranian. All of this, if accurate, would had been a violation of multiple privacy laws. In order to have these cameras inside a truck, the driver must sign a consent form to being recorded. If he had not signed any such form, JCT could had gotten more than a lawsuit. If you wish to read the case in its entirety, you may do so at this link.
The whistleblower that we have been talking to, has made multiple accusations against this company. According to him, they are using threat of income as a means of forcing him into a medical test, one that would violate his religious beliefs. Although he has made this very clear to the company on multiple occasions, they still bring it up. Utilizing his legal rights, he informs our platform that he went for a second opinion, which the company than proceeded to deny accepting the two year medical card. Their reason? They didn’t like the field of practice the doctor was trained in. As with so many other drivers, who have filed lawsuits against JCT, he stated that he drove 3k miles, only to receive a paycheck that wasn’t even $400. He than proceeded to show us his check stub, proving this claim.
We mentioned that he was being pressured into a medical test. Let’s dive a bit more into that. In the trucking industry, there are doctors who try to force drivers into a sleep study; this test is not a federally required test for drivers. Furthermore, it is a test that the driver has to pay out of pocket for. Due to religious beliefs, which prohibit our whistleblower from being connected to machines that may alter/change his life, he opted for a second opinion. During the entire process, he states the company did everything in its power to force the sleep study. When he got the second opinion, they simply refused to accept it, effectively shutting down his source of income until he complied. So, what is religious discrimination?
The U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines religious discrimination as:
Religious discrimination involves treating a person (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because of his or her religious beliefs. The law protects not only people who belong to traditional, organized religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, but also others who have sincerely held religious, ethical or moral beliefs.
Under this act, they require companies to make reasonable accommodations to their employees, if their religious beliefs prohibit certain things. In this instance, in our opinion, JCT not only failed to do so, they took the extra initiative in preventing the employee from obtaining an income, resulting in his soon to be resignation.
Behavior like this, regardless of the industry or company, is absolutely atrocious. To treat any person in the manner to which this company’s history implicates is enough that they should had been investigated ages ago. However, like most companies within the trucking industry, there is simply no accountability. Thankfully, our platform has branched out into the business review world. With that, we will happily bring accountability when and where it is owed.
When customers check into a hotel, they have the expectation that the rooms are going to be safe. For customers who dare to visit the ‘Executive Inn,’ located at 2323 Boren Blvd, Seminole, Ok, checking in is literally placing your life in immediate danger. The hotel, from our investigation, is infested with roaches. However, the roaches are the least of your concerns. Black Mold, which is known to be lethal, is rampant within the rooms. How can this situation become worst? The hotel knows about it but continues to check customers into these rooms.
One individual, who wishes to be identified as J.S., recently visited the state for a wedding. After spending many hours aboard a train, he was looking forward to having an actual bed. However, this simple desire ended with him being rushed to the local emergency room. We met up with J.S. as he was getting his belongings and leaving the hotel. When entering his room, we were appalled, and sickened, by the site. Black Mold had covered multiple areas of the room, more than an inch of water had seeped through the carpet and surrounding floor. The most shocking of all was the mushrooms growing near the bed, located to where it would be located out of the sight of most customers.
We had also made contact with a woman, identified as R.D. She had informed us that she too had become very sick after staying at this hotel. Like the room of J.S., her room was infested with roaches and black mold. But it doesn’t end there. Google holds many reviews from customers warning of the conditions of this hotel. So, doing what we do best, being that we were on site, we went to the hotel staff to get answers.
The hotel staff not only made it obvious that they did not care, they went as far as to admit that they were fully aware of the black mold. They knew that these rooms were a death sentence waiting to happen and yet they did nothing to resolve the problem. Armed with photographs I did the only humane thing possible: I made a claim to the State health department (we will post updates to this article.)
Negligence of this kind is something I have never witnessed before. The fact that the hotel is not only fully aware of this problem, but choose to continue placing customers into a situation that may very well kill them, is absolutely inexcusable. Until the legal process is complete, hopefully with their closure, it is important that the word get out; people need to be aware of what danger they are in while staying at this location. We have included some of our photographs below.
Water rises from the floor, simply from stepping down.
Potential black mold, located in the restroom.
The stem of one of several mushrooms we located within the room.
We withheld writing this article, pending a response from the internet company, ViaSat. Well, after waiting, we did finally get that response. However, the response isn’t what you would expect from a company, who is being accused of deceptive business tactics. These tactics include “accidently” placing people into contracts without their knowledge, misrepresentation of their services, and overall misrepresentation of their return policy. This is isn’t close the complete list of problems with ViaSat. On the BBB, the internet provider has a rating of 1.04 out of 5, this is extremely low.
Since the time of our last article, we received documentation from one of their, now former, customers. This customer accuses the company of placing him into a contract that he knew nothing about. In fact, he stated to the WoC team, that he had made it clear that he did not wish to be under contract. To this, the company had him pay a fee. It was only when he attempted to terminate service that he learned of the contract. As a result, he was forced to deactivate his debit card. But this individual didn’t stop there. He went as far as to send us email discussions with the internet provider, along with their replies. With permission, we are quoting them below.
I’m not worried about “keeping the equipment.” What I’m concerned about is the fact that your company lied to me when I initially setup the account, about the contract. I specifically stated, prior to setting up, that I did not want to be under contract, something I was assured would not happen by paying that fee. For me to be placed into a contract, under a false pretense is not only illegal, but nullifies the contract, something to which I am willing to go into litigation about. This situation, I assure you, has lost my business, A complaint with the FCC due to the fact that deceptive tactics were used against me, and from what I’m finding, I’m not the first to go through this. This is where we stand, we either need to resolve this contract situation, I return the equipment, and we both move forward, or this can escalate and we end up in a courtroom. I’m not negotiating this, what was done to me was deceptive and unethical.
The above is the second email sent to the provider, who seemed to be under the impression that the individual wanted to keep the equipment. In the email, this was quickly cleared up. But this isn’t where the interesting part is. To find that, we have to look at their response. We have taken the courtesy of highlighting a very important part of their response, something they may not have realized at the time of sending.
Thanks for reaching out to us, I apologize for the delayed response.
The Lifetime Equipment Lease Fee does not purchase the Viasat equipment, and it does not void the 24 month agreement. All it does is prepay the lease fee for the first 24 months of service, and guarantee that the lease fee will not be charged for the life of the account. The equipment is still expected to be returned when the service is discontinued. As the equipment is designed to work with Viasat only, is attached to your account when activated and cannot be used on another account, there isn’t much reason to keep the equipment in any event.
If your intention was to have a service with no contract, that the lifetime lease fee was selected instead of the no contract option was likely a mistake at the time of sale. Unfortunately, as the company that sold and built the account are a licensed dealership, we don’t have access to any call recordings.
Thank you for choosing Viasat as your internet provider. We appreciate your business.
Sincerely,
Social Media Specialist
As mentioned, they had accidently given this customer a bit more than they intended. In their email, they outright state, “If your intention was to have a service with no contract, that the lifetime lease fee was selected instead of the no contract option was likely a mistake at the time of sale.”
What makes this so interesting? To put this into simple terms: the company acknowledges that a mistake was very plausible. But does this obligate the customer to the contract? No. In fact, it would void out the contract, therefore whatever ETF charge they applied to this specific individual, should had been equally nullified. But it wasn’t. Instead, they attempted to enforce this illegal contract and then abruptly terminated contact with the customer. Meanwhile, on various review sites, ViaSat’s image continues to plummet toward the ground.
So what about that response? We’ve shared one customer’s experience with ViaSat but we haven’t discussed the response. We went to ViaSat’s Facebook page, where we brought the various accusations to their attention, expecting to get a response. Today, they did give us a response. I was abruptly blocked from their page. Being that many of the accusations are criminal, I won’t lie and say that I’m surprised by this. The best hope the company has is to block anybody who brings this to their attention. This move doesn’t come without risk. In blocking, some may take this as an admission of guilt. Some may think that the company is trying to cover up their fraudulent acts, but I believe they are trying to deny responsibility to the many people they have defrauded.
Though ViaSat may try to hide this from the Facebook, and other social media communities, they cannot hide their “F” rating with the “BBB.” Furthermore, they can’t stop the complaints, which are rolling in by the day. Them blocking me for asking simple questions only showed me that I, and my platform, are a threat to them. Given the large quantities of fraud, misrepresentation, lack of service complaints, and poor customer service, I think I live with being a thorn in their corporate side.
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