Continuing the fight against alleged travel agency scammer Daryl Turner

Being made whole, one customer at a time.

We’re talking about those who did business with Daryl Turner, the alleged scammer who would open a travel club, solicit membership fees costing thousands of dollars, and shut the company’s doors before customers received promised discounted travel packages, authorities said. He’d then do it again under a different company name.

Turner signed a more than $3 million settlement with the state’s Division of Consumer Affairs related to 11 such companies. Although he was banned from the travel business in the state for five years, authorities later alleged he continued the same practices under new company names.

The government has not yet collected a dime on the settlement, but Turner was arrested in July on a charge of fraud by deception, and some of his assets, including luxury cars and a bank account, were seized.

There’s nothing new to report on the criminal charge, but Consumer Affairs director Thomas Calcagni said he’s met with a number of banks about returning customer money through chargebacks.

"They have refused to budge from their position that those charges are appropriate and they’re not willing to allow any chargebacks," Calgagni said. "But we haven’t given up."

Some customers have appealed to their credit card companies directly, armed with court filings and copies of Bamboozled columns about Turner.

That’s what Jay Schlesinger did in an attempt to recoup a $4,893 charge on his Chase credit card in June 2009 by Dream Vacations International, one of Turner’s companies.

Schlesinger said his requested travel dates were never available so he canceled his membership. Then he disputed the charge with Chase.

The dispute was denied without explanation in June 2011. Baffling, because that same week, Chase refunded money to Robert and Marlene Miller, Chase customers who disputed their membership charge with Modern Destinations Unlimited -- another Turner company.

It’s possible that Jay Schlesinger’s fight with Chase isn’t over yet.

Reader Patricia Dreibelbis of Wallingford, Penn., who charged more than $4,000 for Travel Deals -- another Turner company -- on her Chase card, wanted to share her chargeback experience with other customers.

Her initial dispute was denied. Dreibelbis said the Chase rep explained the dispute was coded as a "Code 30 - non-receipt of services." The merchant had 45 days to respond, during which time Dreibelbis’ account was provisionally credited. Once the merchant responded, citing the contract Dreibelbis signed, the money was returned to the merchant, she said.

"We refuted the validity of the contract, and we also provided documentation of the arrest of Turner, etc.," she said in an e-mail. "At that point, the Chase rep changed the reason to ‘Code 53 - quality of services.’"

According to Dreibelbis, Chase explained it was now up to the merchant’s bank -- Wells Fargo -- to decide the case.

Wells decided in her favor, and $4,264 was credited to her account.

Very interesting, indeed. Consumer Affairs’ Calcagni said the lenders told him that when a merchant receives a substantial amount of chargeback requests, the liability lies with the merchant bank that holds the account, and that’s exactly what happened here.

Bamboozled told Jay Schlesinger of the success, and we encouraged him to try again, recommending he find out how his dispute was coded.

He said he called Chase, but the rep couldn’t tell him the coding of his dispute because it was from 2009. She promised to call back, he said.

An hour later, another rep called, saying there was nothing more the bank could do because of the contract, Schlesinger said.

"I tried to explain to her that it doesn’t matter what I signed, a fraud is a fraud," Schlesinger said. "There are no words to describe how angry I am."

We asked Chase if a change in dispute coding could help.

Within a few days, without explanation or answers about dispute coding, Schlesinger got a call from someone in Chase’s executive offices.

"She said, ‘I have good news. I’ve been spending the last couple of days reading the documents and stories about this, and you’re been a customer of ours for more than 15 years. We’re making an exception and we’re going to credit that money to your account,’" Schlesinger said he was told.

Awesome. Chase said it was also working on one other case was made aware of by Bamboozled, but there was no comment about the Schlesinger refund.

One customer at a time. We’ll stay on it.

Mark Conca’s modification and foreclosure ordeal with Bank of America isn’t over yet.

Conca applied for a modification on the mortgage for his three-bedroom Caldwell home.

While he waited for approval, he kept making his mortgage payments, in full and on time.

When he heard from the bank, it wasn’t with a modification offer. It was to say he was two months late on this mortgage. Bank of America reported it to the credit bureaus, Conca said, and one of his cards lowered his available credit because of it.

But he had never missed a mortgage payment.

Despite assurances and reassurances from the bank that the errors were fixed, nothing was corrected. Then Conca started to receive foreclosure notices.

After we asked Bank of America to review, we learned that Conca was approved for a trial modification program -- which Conca said he was never told about -- and the bank credited his payments to the wrong account.

Bank of America corrected the errors and ceased foreclosure proceedings.

Conca still wanted the modification, and the bank said it would look into it.

It did.

Conca’s modification request -- which had previously been approved in a July 19 letter from Bank of America -- was denied in October.

Bank of America did say it made corrections with the credit bureaus, but it could take 90 days for changes to appear. While he waits, the black mark is making it impossible for him to refinance the loan with another lender, he said.

Conca’s credit card issuer also has a copy of the letter, but no changes have been made to his credit limit, he said.

"That doesn’t bother me as much as the fact that we wasted almost two years working on this and they made me believe they were going to work this out for me," Conca said.

When Conca’s credit is repaired, he plans to continue searching for a better loan.

On Sept. 10, Rajeev Borborah purchased a Sonata from Brad Benson Hyundai in South Brunswick. The car was supposed to have a factory-installed navigation system. It didn’t.

The dealership promised it would install one within five days. It didn’t.

Why? The GPS installation would cause the car’s Blue Link system -- a system that implements features such as emergency alerts and maintenance reminders -- to fail, the dealership said. The two systems wouldn’t work together.

When Bamboozled called, the dealership said it was getting Borborah a different GPS, but it never explained why one system would work and the other would cause trouble.

Despite that, Borborah brought his car for the installation on Oct. 20.

Borborah gave us a post-install report via e-mail: "Lost the Voice Command System driven by a button on the steering wheel. Not the ideal case but since I do not use it I just let it be," he wrote.

He wondered if the dealership told him ahead of time that some functionality may be lost upon installation.

No, they did not tell me beforehand," he said. "In fact, when I dropped car off in the morning I asked them if all existing things in the car will work and the service lady said that yes, everything would work."

I am telling you, it is not the customer who is important for these guys, but the bottom line," Borborah said.

G2 Web Services, LLC Secures Strategic Investment from Primus Capital

G2 Web Services, LLC, the leading provider of merchant compliance monitoring and e-commerce risk management services, today announced a strategic investment from Primus Capital. The investment will significantly expand G2’s global presence and accelerate the launch of revolutionary new services to manage merchant risk.

G2 Web Services provides acquiring banks, independent sales organizations (ISOs), payment service providers (PSPs) and other acquiring value chain members with the tools and services they need to identify, mitigate, and monitor risk in their merchant portfolios. Over the past seven years, G2 has built the world’s largest map of relationships between merchants, websites and e-commerce service providers. G2 persistently monitors millions of e-commerce websites for compliance with laws, acquirer policies and card network rules. The company leads the payments industry in the identification of third-party merchant agents, and provides merchant investigation and analysis services for hundreds of the industry’s largest financial institutions.

“Partnering with Primus Capital enables G2 Web Services to further support our clients globally with an expanded presence in Europe and Asia. The investment also allows us to accelerate the introduction of our new Global Boarding service, the first in a suite of new services under development, which will transform merchant risk analysis at boarding and throughout the merchant life cycle,” said Kevin Omiliak, General Manager of G2. “My partners and I are pleased to align ourselves with an investment partner that shares our vision for the future of merchant risk management.”

Primus Capital’s Managing Director, Jonathan Dick, said of the investment, “G2 Web Services combines a long history of strong financial performance and growth with a unique market position and an immense database map of merchant information. We are confident that G2 is changing the way the financial industry identifies and mitigates risk, and also believe there are a number of other companies that could benefit from being part of the G2 platform. We look forward to working with G2 to help the business continue on its rapid growth curve.”

About G2 Web Services
G2 Web Services, LLC is the recognized leader in merchant compliance monitoring and e-commerce risk management. G2 works globally with acquiring banks, independent sales organizations (ISOs), payment service providers (PSPs) and other acquiring value chain members to identify, mitigate and monitor risk posed by their merchants’ online presences.

By monitoring millions of merchant websites worldwide and collecting billions of data artifacts, G2 Web Services has built the industry’s largest e-commerce relationship map that provides a comprehensive and global view of e-commerce across the entire industry. From analyzing the risk involved with boarding a new merchant, to the regular review of website content for compliance violations, to third-party and account data compromise (ADC) risk mitigation, G2 provides a comprehensive set of tools and services to effectively manage acquiring organizations’ risk throughout the merchant lifecycle.

American National Bank Chooses Clearent as Merchant Services Provider

Today Clearent announced a partnership with American National Bank to provide merchant services to the bank’s commercial customers in North Central Texas.

American National Bank embarked on a search for a new merchant account service provider to help them grow and manage their program. “Because of the issues we experienced in the past, finding a partner that was dedicated to providing superior customer service was at the top of our list,” remarked Roy Olsen, SVP/Cashier of American National Bank. “Our customers expect their questions to be answered quickly and accurately, and Clearent helps us do just that. It’s easy to see that their experienced team is committed to providing the same level of service that our customers have come to know and expect.”

Clearent’s innovative technology was another driving factor behind American National Bank’s decision to change providers. “We now have access to an intuitive, graphical interface for boarding our merchants. Clearent’s system is so easy to use that we’ve been able to get merchants up and processing faster, and even reduce the amount of time it takes to train our employees,” said Olsen.

In addition, American National Bank now has access to a suite of online tools that makes it easier to manage their program and provide better service to their merchants. Olsen continued, “With our last provider, it was very difficult to get the data we were looking for. Clearent’s online reporting tools are unlike any in the industry. We get the answers we’re looking for quickly and easily.”

American National Bank was also extremely pleased with their conversion to Clearent, including how quickly it was completed and the hands-on support they received throughout the process. Olsen commented, “Thanks to Clearent, we were able to convert 95% of our merchants in just a few weeks. They were right here, helping us manage the process and reaching out to our customers to make sure each step of the plan was executed smoothly.”

“We’re excited to have the opportunity to support American National Bank as their merchant account service provider,” remarked Dan Geraty, CEO of Clearent. “Now more than ever, providing superior customer service is a critical focus for banks. We’re committed to delivering exceptional support, along with a full range of products and services to support American National Bank’s growing portfolio.”