Sure Brad, why don't you do business with her and report back to us?
You might have noticed that on both the BBC Watchdog site and the Daily Record site no articles at all past a certain date are available any longer. But don't let me stop you from giving "L'Abeille Publishing" a chance. Some just have to learn the hard way.
The New York Post
September 28, 2003, Sunday
HEADLINE: PRACTICALLY ZIP; E-MAIL REAL ESTATE SERVICE ACCUSED OF FRAUD
BYLINE: ANNE BECKER
The company solicited apartment-hunters through the popular craigslist.com, promising to send daily e-mails of New York apartment listings for an annual fee of $195 - all but $15 of which it claimed would be refundable if the hunter rented an apartment through other means.
Now, dozens of former customers have complained on web sites, to government agencies and the Better Business Bureau and say the e-mails were spotty, the apartments dingy and the company's representatives unreachable.
The ensuing squabble has dragged in major credit card companies, government agencies and the owner of craigslist.com, the popular online community.
At least six Practically Rented subscribers who found apartments elsewhere said they tried filing for the promised refund, only to find a computerized voice mail and no responses from a generic bookkeeping e-mail address.
The customers say instead of refunding the $195, Practically Rented charged their credit cards an additional $195 fee a few months later.
"When I heard the money-back guarantee, I assumed they were so good they could make money, but I immediately put my guard up," said environmental consultant Charlotte Matthews, who filed with the New York State Consumer Protection Board.
Three former employees of the company say the woman behind the mess is Alexandrea Stewart.
"Stewart is the source of the problem," said Maggie Ocampo, who said she left Practically Rented two months after Stewart hired her to manage an office for the company.
"She was always stressed out. She always had an excuse." -- more...