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“Toner Phoner” Call Caught On Tape
Two days ago we reported on an office supply scam. Telemarketers offering expensive toner supplies at cut-rate fees. A woman claiming to represent a Missouri company.Our recent report..beware of anyone calling who claims to be your office supply company offering great deals on toner products for your copy machines. One unidentified woman had the audacity to call our newsroom, not once but twice. She said, we have cartridges for your machine, “Hewlett Packer Laser Jet 4200 CN” The unidentified woman tried to pull a fast one. The latest call was intercepted by News Director Dennis Smith. And our cameras were rolling. The woman said, “We have the same machines. We ordered some cartridges for our machines here at Laser Work and then we got them in and switched machines. That’s why I’m calling you, I wanted to give you a few at discount.” Smith asked, “how much is that again? Her reply, $297 a cartridge for helping us out. Normally they are $347.40” That’s over twice what they are worth. Each cartridge cost us $125.00. Little seemed to deter her. So we played along.Dennis asked the carller “Have you ever hard of the term “toner pirates?” Toner parts, she asked? No toner pirates. Dennis: People who make calls like you and never leave their telephone number, basically scamming people. You can go to our website (Wlbt.com) and you can see what we’ve accomplished warning people how ridiculous this is. We’ve done stories on this.”Local businesses have been targeted recently by the office supply telemarketers. Troy Lambert emailed us. One of his customers was contacted by a toner pirate Wednesday. She had seen our news report …warning about this ripoff. She replied that all of her supplies were includedin her contract and the guy just hung up on her. Her last comment was “sure was glad I paid attention to that story on the news.” Our caller persisted, telling Smith, “Well you need the cartridges.” When he asked for her name and number she hung up.The Federal Trade Commission urges businesses not to order from suppliers they don’t know. You could be stuck with inferior overpriced supplies and no way to get your money back.
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