Calling a Seven-Year-Old
AOL User SOCCERUTD Says:
"We had an unpaid bill because of a dispute in our retail business. Our sales rep doubled our order and then went on maternity leave, and [the company] said the only person who could fix it was her! A bill collector from Texas called over and over and I attempted to explain (the situation) to him ... The day before Thanksgiving he called and my daughter answered the phone -- she was 7 years old at the time. He said to her, 'Because of your daddy you are not going to be able to live in your house anymore and won't be able to have Thanksgiving there with your family, it is your Daddy's fault!'"

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Calling the In-Laws
AOL User Poolchick7 Says:
"These people are the worst. When they couldn't reach us about a car payment that was 10 days past due, they called our daughter's in-laws and left a message with them to have us call them back about a personal matter. We are talking about calling people whom I only see twice a year, and they somehow made a connection between my daughter, her in-laws and us. I can't think this is even legal!"

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Two Calls a Day
AOL User SBPFORD Says:
"I have been receiving calls twice a day from a collection agency. I ask them to send me a statement or something to file on insurance (medical claim), (and) they refuse. This bill is three years old and, they said, never filed on insurance. They call every morning around 9:30 and every evening about 8:30, seven days a week."

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Spiral Effect
AOL User RBettes941 Says:
"Do the credit companies and retailers realize they have created a spiraling effect on peoples credit? I have always had a score in excess of 750, and always paid my bills on time. Recently, due to my wife working on graduate school ... our debt to credit lines increased. We were at about 45 after (her) completion of school, then American Express dissolved our $25,000 credit line, which we owed nothing on. This moved our percentage of credit to debt to about 60, and lowered our scores to less than 700. This caused other creditors to follow suit by lowering our credit lines, which then lowered our score again."

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Fake Debt Collectors
AOL User A114Sieb011 Says:
"I make six figures a year, my wife makes six figures a year, we owe no one a penny, yet I get daily calls from Palisades Collection saying to call them on a bad debt. I had, and the first thing on the recording is, 'Enter your social security number.' Yeah, right. I checked my credit report and there is no unusual activity. Palisades, quit calling you stalker."

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No Way to Stop Them
AOL User ICANGELS Says:
"This company still calls my husband's work after receiving three written notices not to. Their representative also called our neighbors in her goal to embarrass us! They were calling my home up to eight times a day and hanging up on me, after I told them my husband wouldn't be home before 6:00 p.m. The problem? There's no way to stop them. They feel they are above the law and know there aren't any attorneys who will waste their time suing them."

Forgetting Their Promise
AOL User Gloqui5 Says:
"I got a phone call today from a credit card I couldn't pay 15 year ago. Back then I let them know that I just could not pay my balance of $300. They informed me that they would have to do a charge off, and it would show on my credit. They did, and it showed for seven years. Now 15 years later, they start calling and they want $600 or it will back on my credit. Can they do that?"

Fake Lawsuit
AOL User Mnmkid221 Says:
"A collection company used city official names and paperwork to look as if I was being taken to court. However, when I called, the court knew nothing of the paperwork or of any lawsuit against me. It seems that the collection agency wanted me to panic at the sight of the papers and call the phone number provided on the 'official-looking papers.' Then they could terrify me and demand payment."

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Police Assistance
AOL User Deeannafrancis Says:
"I get a call that I am 49 days late with my payment, and it is now in collections. I told her I overlooked the December 15th bill, but I will pay it online right now. She loses it with me and screams at me that I can only pay her. I hang up, go online and make the $35.00 pmt. My phone rings again, I explain that I paid it online. After that, they put me on auto call for every 15 minutes for two days! The last phone call I got from them, I nicely asked her to hold, and I called the local police station. When I got back on the line with them, (I asked for) her name so that I could file a harrassment charge. She hung up and no one else called me."

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Hospital Scam
AOL User KMKiaski Says:
"Even though I had insurance, and it paid between $8,000 and $9,000 for a one night stay, I got bills for an additional $2,700 from the hospital much later. They said if I didn't pay it they would send it to collection, so I did. I later found out they regularly did this, charging more than the charge accepted by insurance and then frightening patients into paying that extra charge -- hey free money for them! A person I work with said the same hospital came up with several old charges years later."

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A regulatory organization for the advertising industry demanded that Wrigley change its misleading packaging and advertising for Eclipse gum. The ads for Eclipse say that the gum's natural ingredient - magnolia bark extract - kills germs that cause bad breath. This has not been proven and the National Advertising Division Council of Better Business Bureaus asks that Wrigley clarify this in its ads. For more on advertisers caught misleading consumers, click through our gallery of Gotcha Moments of Retail Shame.

Store:Chase Bank

Accusation: In late March, the bank rescinded a $10 monthly fee it had imposed for several months on hundreds of thousands of credit card accounts, after New York's attorney general decried the practice as a bait-and-switch for customers seeking low interest rates.

Results:The settlement could save customers $22 million over the next year.

Amy Sancetta, AP

Store: Burlington Coat Factory

Accusation: In March, a Connecticut TV station found inexpensive coats being sold as Perry Ellis and Joseph Abboud designs. The new labels had been pasted over the original label of the cheaper garments.

Result: Burlington blamed a vendor, which blamed a lone employee. The coats were pulled and refunds offered.

Burlington (Part 2)
Accusation: Selling coats made with dog fur. Burlington's coats came from China in 1998 and were labelled as "coyote fur." In 2006, Macy's was found to be selling Sean John jackets called "raccoon fur" but actually trimmed with "raccoon dog," which is indigenous to Asia. The Humane Society also found that items from Tommy Hilfiger, Andrew Marc, and Nordstrom.com were labeled as "faux fur" but actually came from dogs.
Result: Pulled the coats immediately, issued refunds, tried to track down who was tricking them.

Jeff Zelevansky, Bloomberg News / Landov

Store: Petland

Accusation: Does Petland use puppy mills? The Humane Society has filed suit in U.S. District Court against Petland, accusing the pet store chain of selling puppies raised in puppy mills that forced animals to live stacked in "filthy, barren cages reeking of urine, with inadequate care and socialization" and that they are raised "like a cash crop" and sold at stores for as much as $3,500.

Result: The plaintiffs want Petland to change how the puppies are bred and to pay back customers for the veterinary bills. In November, Petland said that stores are individually responsible for choosing healthy pets for sale.

Petland

Store: Circuit City and Linens n' Things

Accusation:
Fake discounts. When major retailers go out of business, they hire liquidators to clear their inventory. Liquidators hike the prices before discounting things, making deals looks better than they are. Circuit City's and Linens n' Things "going out of business" prices were often higher than the ones the stores charged before.

Result: Nothing. They're in bankruptcy, the liquidator can set prices wherever it wants, and so it's your problem.

AP

Store: Best Buy

Accusation: Misinformation. Customers complained they were tricked into believing that an item was no longer on sale after store associates directed them to an in-store computer running the Best Buy website listing a higher price than was expected. What customers didn't know was the website wasn't public, but a store-only version that looked identical to the one you'd pull up at home -- except with higher prices.

Result: After the Connecticut Attorney General sued it and customers sounded off online, Best Buy slapped a disclaimer on the in-store site.

Gary Malerba, AP

Store: Office Depot

Accusation: Lying to money-saving customers. This month, customers who didn't splurge on high-yield add-on products such as a warranty complained that they were told the laptops they wanted to buy weren't in stock, even if they actually were. In-store sales quotas were blamed.

Result: Office Depot said it was "reviewing the situation."

Douglas C. Pizac, AP

Store: Dollar Tree, Greenbacks, 99 Cent Plus, Dollar Power, Dollar Super Store, 99 Cent Dreams

Accusation: In 2004, countless dollar stores were revealed to be selling Crest and Colgate toothpaste that appeared to be a standard U.S. product, but actually reportedly contained ten times the fluoride of drugstore toothpaste, making it poisonous if swallowed. It was reportedly made in Africa, where water supplies are not already fluoridated. In 2007, poisonous counterfeit Colgate from China was discovered at dollar stores in the Northeast.

Result: After F.D.A. recalls, the clone toothpastes were removed from shelves.

Michelle Patterson, Lexington Herald-Leader/ MCT

Store: Kmart, Ashley, and World Market

Accusation: Deceptive furniture labeling. In an on-camera investigation, Good Morning America busted Kmart for selling a Martha Stewart "dark cherry accent" table. A power sander revealed it was mostly fiberboard, which the attached descriptions didn't disclose. The morning show also exposed Ashley for selling a "horizon maple nightstand" that didn't contain any wood, and World Market for selling fake leather chairs.

Result: Kmart said full product descriptions were available online, Ashley defended its wording as a description of color only, and World Market acknowledged that a quarter of its supposedly leather chairs were actually synthetic, and it pulled them from sale.

AFP/Getty Images

Store: Wal-Mart

Accusation: Overcharging California customers by marking items at one price, but scanning them at a higher price at the register.

Result: After the California Attorney General's office filed suit, Wal-Mart settled, agreeing to give customers $3 back every time it happened, unless the item cost less than that, in which case it would be free.

Lisa Poole, AP