Since the start of the pandemic, many people turned to online merchandisers to buy Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as masks, face shields and sanitizers.  Unfortunately, some online merchandisers who promised customers quick delivery either did not deliver the products in a timely fashion, or, even worse, failed to send anything at all.  In August of 2020 I told you that the FTC filed lawsuits against the companies Glowyy and American Screening, LLC alleging these companies failed to deliver their products as advertised and in some instances did not deliver the products at all.  According to the FTC, these companies also failed to notify customers of delayed shipments, failed to offer refunds, failed to honor refund requests and in some instances sent defective items.

Federal law requires a seller to ship orders within the time indicated in their ads or within 30 days if no time is indicated in the advertisement.  In addition, if a seller doesn’t ship within the promised time, the seller is required by law to offer customers the opportunity to cancel their orders and receive a full refund.

Now two years later, the FTC has won its cases against both Glowyy and American Screening.  Pursuant to the court’s judgment they will be required to pay more than 17.6 million dollars to the FTC to be refunded to defrauded customers.  As more details become known about the specifics of the refund program, I will report them to you.

TIPS

It is always a good idea when ordering something online from a company with which you are unfamiliar to do a search engine search in which you type in the company name with the words “scam” or “complaint” and see what comes up.  Also whenever you buy anything online, you should not use your debit card, but instead use your credit card.  Federal law provides you with the right to dispute charges for late shipments and have the charges removed from your credit card while debit cards do not provide the same protections.