I never thought it would happen to me, but I’ve fallen victim to an internet scam!

When I heard news that Al Howell was in hospital with appendicitis, I decided to send him some flowers through the internet. Unfortunately I chose UrbanFlorist.com, and while I was charged the second I completed my order, the goods were never delivered and nobody’s returned my calls requesting a refund.

I was going to harass them again today with another phone call, but decided instead to poke around the internet and see if anyone else had dealings with them. Lo and behold, I found this post from blogger Greg Froese with his horror story, along with similar bad experiences by others and a link to even more bad press at Epinions.

So that’s that. Lesson learned. Sixty bucks down the toilet, right?

Wrong.

I immediately called my credit card company inquiring about a stop-payment. They couldn’t do that, but they offered something even better—to dispute the charge with the scammers themselves. It’s a lengthy process that can take up to 45 days, but if VISA is satisfied that the scumbags at Urban Florist didn’t deliver what I paid for, then I got all of my money back directly from them, without so much as a service charge!

So from now on when someone tells me that shopping online isn’t safe, I’m going to tell them they should get a better credit card…

Hey, don’t let a small technicality like the December 25th statutory holiday stand between you and your favourite Boxing Day sales—thanks to RedFlagDeals.com you can see Boxing Week flyers from all the big chain stores right on your ‘puter, right now!

Oh, and a Merry Christmas to all of you from all of me at AC.ca…

Me and the missus whooped it up Friday night at Highway 400 and Rutherford Road. What can I say? We’re party animals!