It’s good to know that there are organizations out there that are willing and able to fight the good fight. The Kleargear fiasco is so outrageous as to beggar belief.
Sounds to me like there should be a criminal investigation going on for fraud. Of course, the prosecutors are too busy persecuting stoners and dissidents to waste time going after something like this.
Yeah, I feel so much better knowing that the couple might see some restitution, and the company might have to cough up some dough, but they really should be prosecuting for fraud.
That’s the best news I’ve heard about Public Citizen since Ralph ran.
A desperate attempt by some part of Public Citizen to regain respect? I wish them the best and hope this is the first of many successes.
kleargear is a shady outfit, the more you try to understand who owns/operates it, the less it seems like a legitimate operation… Some kind of racket…
There’s some media company that funds movies with a import business in Texas, but a parent company in France, some distribution center in Michigan. Some president that has no online presence, which seems like a fake name… fake bbb grades, (which have been removed from the site) among other fake badges on the site… Which claims that it can’t keep up with all their orders…
It’s an odd one!
What are you, a PI?
Or is it just mad google-fu?
Just a hardcore case of Google-Fu. It simply started as a simple query on who owned the kleargear domain, that’s all.
Then I discovered the domain was registered to a proxy service, the owner wanted to be anonymous. So that made me even more curious…
Although it is difficult to find the other side of the story, the company had a product fulfillment problem and they gave a refund when it became apparent they or their supplier couldn’t fill the order. As I understand it, the customers unfairly described the ill fated transaction and posted false accusations on the internet.
If people have a legitimate beef against the business, they should sue.
Customers posting lies on the internet that languish for years is a huge problem for businesses. Ever watch Hardcore Pawn? Half the country is like that, pushy, whiny, harassing calls, screaming and swearing at customer service reps., etc. America’s scumbags sit on their hinies getting back at a legitimate business for a busy phone line, or phone disconnection is waaay too easy. A guy standing on a sidewalk in front of a store all day for years yelling at the top of his lungs to browsing potential shoppers, DO NOT SHOP THERE. THEY WILL KILL YOU!!! would result in arrest, but it’s OK on the internet. I’m impressed at the number of rat packers eager to attack a long established business like this without hearing anything from the other side, but that’s the leap to conclusions America that I know.
What fraud? They gave them a refund.
Anthony,
Do you really think it’s a good idea to post your name, address, phone number and e-mail address on the net?
Product fulfillment is accomplished with a great number of suppliers. It doesn’t mean the storefront is shady. It’s just a magnet for the overly suspicious Dick Tracy wannabe, without anything to do.
I disagree, it’s quite exceptional when a bussiness hides behind a domain proxy service. It’s not like Silk Road selling crack, needing to be anonymous. It’s not like the owner has to put their personal home phone number and address on it. (If it would involve personal info, then I’d agree with you.)
Additionally, I simply said that hiding behind a proxy was a red flag. They clearly demonstrated their shadiness when they had all these fake badges, fake bbb ratings and so on.
Seriously, they had themselves an A+ BBB rating, but it was a fraud, they then took it down after getting a cease and desist from the real BBB.
And most importantly, they took this woman’s money over a non-disparagement clause, but looking on archive.org, it appears the language wasn’t in the terms when the woman bought the item in the first place.
And since they’ve been in the spotlight, that non disparagement clause has since been removed from the site.
As far as someone with too much time on your hands, isn’t that kind of a relative statement?
My company has been trying to track down a real person from KlearGear, but the maze goes very deep. One web sleuth connected a bunch of dots (http://www.blagnet.net/2013/11/18/my-review-of-kleargear-com/) but unfortunately all contact numbers lead to a dead end.
KlearGear, and whoever is behind it, stole a bunch of intellectual property from one of our web sites and they’re using them on their web site. They’re even trying to trade on our trademarked name, while selling a counterfeit version of our product. I hate to think about how many people have been duped by them, although I can cite one specific case that I dealt with personally.
A customer called us after having purchased an item from them (but never received it.) Out of curiosity I asked where it was bought from, and the customer directed me to KlearGear. It’s weird to me, because I remember hearing about the $3500 lawsuit story before. Until this morning I didn’t realize that we were having issues with the same company!
Usually from what I’ve seen and Dealt with, these types of Seedy Businesses like “Klear Gear.Com”, who knowingly like to Hide behind some phony Internet proxy, are NOT on the up and up in the 1st place.
and from looking at the Building their operating out of at the “Supposed” Physical Address of the supposed Klear Gear. Com, looks Phony .
I see this a lot with “Foreigners” who come to this country thinking this is how they can Operate, by setting up web sites with “Phony” Badges on their web sites to lure potential customers into thinking their legit, when they are not.
The Majority of those attempting to pull these types shannigans are from Countries like :
CHINA
NIGERIA
Phillipines
Elsalvador
Pakistan
INDIA
those types of 3rd World Countries where there is either NO Enforcement or very little !
Doesn’t take long for somebody in this country to catch on to their act & schemes and then they run & hide and change their web site constantly as stated above.
See this with Foreign owned Restraunts all the time as the City issues code violations to the Majority of Chineese restraunts and seedy Massage Parlors.
Then theres the “Middle Eastern” bunch who attempts to manage the convience stores, BUT, Secretly sells that Illegal Synthetic Drug “K-2” behind the counter, till their caught, which is what happened recently with over 35 convience stores being raided & Busted for selling that K2, all owned operated and managed by “Middle Easterns”.
The Stores were fined $50,000 dollars for selling the Illegal Drugs and the owners & managers sent to Prision for a 10 year stint !
They might operate this way over in their countries of Pakistan or Nigeria or CHINA and get by with it , but NOT here their Not, least not for very long !!
What got my attention on this story, is the fact they tried to Extort $3500.00 dollars out of this couple and then put a collection agency on them for NOT paying the Extortion fee !!
I would highly Doubt that “Lee Gersten” is a real Name of the Idiot & Moron hiding behind this Corrupt & Phony company !
Lee Gersten, “supposedly” the Companys President & CEO, “Supposedly” ???
They list their Physical address as :
2939 Wilson Ave SW
Grandville, MI 49418-3502
Which may be a Phony front as well !
After Actually GOOGLE EARTHING the physical address, the building looks run down and old.
located in Michigan.
but that could be a fake / Phony address ??
Beware of these types of businesses owned operated by Foreigners, they don’t know the laws in this country, but will attempt to scheme you right out of your money till their caught, then they run hide !
A Through Investigation of the Owner(s), of this company needs to be done !
using phony fake Web Site Badges on a web site is usually the 1st clue, that somethings definetly wrong !!
I’m talking about the part where the business took their bad review as an excuse to bill them for $3500, and then referred that “debt” to a credit agency when they refused to pay it. Did you not read the article, or does that not strike you as fraud?
What refund? We’re not even talking about their poor business practices - that’s completely beside the point. Nor am I even going to go into all the shady misrepresentation that they were involved with (the fake BBB rating, Truste certifications, etc) on their website. What’s at issue here is that Kleargear attempted to illegally extort money from this couple* by means of a retro-active, bogus “non disparagement clause,” and failing to do so made fraudulent claims about unpaid debts that destroyed the couple’s credit rating. They’re not just a crap e-tailer, they broke the law. For someone so eager to see “both sides of the issue” you seem to be completely ignorant what the issue even is.
- Who simply had truthfully pointed out that Kleargear didn’t fulfill their placed order, were unresponsive and were impossible to contact via phone to resolve the issue. So no, no lies were involved on the customer’s part.
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