10 Actions For Unsatisfied Clients & Fraud Victims
Probably less often than the general public thinks, but still more often than I’d like, I have clients come to me with a horror story of a bad experience with another psychic. They may feel as if they have no recourse for poor service. On the contrary, there are many actions that can be taken, and some are listed here in order from most reasonable and advisable to more drastic and potentially less appropriate for a given situation! Even if you are ashamed of being tricked or just want to put the experience behind you, I encourage you to follow-up to protect more vulnerable clients who may be victimized and the image of my proud industry as a whole.
- Sleep on it. Especially if your reading was bad news, it can be easy to shoot the messenger. When you’re unsatisfied, you might feel hurt and angry, and it is hard to be appropriately assertive when your emotions are running high. You may shoot yourself in the foot when you could have had a peaceful resolution! Things may feel different in the morning. Write a letter and don’t send it yet if you need to vent.
- Try to resolve the issue directly with the psychic. Calmly explain what your expectations were, why the reading did not meet those expectations, and ask what the psychic intends to do to make things right. Many professionals offer full refunds that are unadvertised so as not to attract unscrupulous clients with no intention of paying. On the other hand, there may have been an honest misunderstanding and a follow-up may be all you need to be completely satisfied.
- Lodge a complaint with the company if your psychic is a contract worker. If your psychic works for a larger company, web-site or hot-line, go above the psychic’s head if you can’t resolve your dispute directly and contact the company’s customer support in order to request a refund of your money.
- Dispute the charge with your credit card company. If you can’t get your money back using either of the above methods within thirty days, if you used PayPal or any credit card to pay, your money can be returned directly to your account. You can contact your bank to see what options there are to stop payment on a cheque or debit card transaction.
- File a Complaint With the Better Business Bureau. Visit BBB.org and request their free conflict mediation help! You may be able to get them to get results as an impartial third party. If your psychic turns out to be a fraud, his or her reputation can be ruined in this way and further action can be taken or advised.
- If you feel you’ve been scammed, contact the police. Fraud is a crime, and if you feel that you have been robbed, file a police report. Remember to contact the authorities in all areas in which the crime took place, so if the fraud works out of another city at a distance from you, you must contact your local police department and the police department in the other city.
- Contact the state Attorney General if you feel a business has scammed you. Fraudulent business practices should be reported to the Attorney General. Again, if the fraud works out of a different state, contact the Attorney Generals both in your state, and in the state in which the fraud is working.
- If you were scammed by mail, contact the Postmaster General or if by an ad, the FTC. Mail fraud is a federal crime. If you report it, the FBI may be involved if necessary. The Federal Trade Commission regulates advertising, so if your purchase included plagiarism, false reviews or other false advertising, lodge a complaint.
- Sue. If you are advised that you have a civil case on your hands and you could not recoup your losses by the actions above, you’ll need to get an attorney to see what your options are. Your community will almost certainly have pro bono lawyers available for your use if you cannot afford one, so find those local resources!
- Warn others. If all the above avenues have been exhausted, it can sure feel better to try to keep others from falling into the same misfortune. If you received the reading from a site that has a rating system, leave a negative rating with as rational and objective feedback as you can muster. If you think you've been a victim of a larger scam routine, consider contacting local news sources in both the area in which you reside and work and the area in which the psychic works. Post a report on RipOffReport.com if you must, but realize that, as with other avenues, if any of your public statements are found to be speculation or even simply don't have sufficient evidence to be proven entirely true, you may have legal action taken against you, so stick to only the facts that you can prove.