Another of troubled predatory lender Household International and HSBC’s merchants, CompUSA Inc., has agreed to settle a government complaint charging the company with deceiving consumers who bought computer products but failed to receive promised cash rebates from $15 to $100 each, the Federal Trade Commission said Friday March 11, 2005. The FTC said CompUSA falsely represented to customers who bought QPS products that rebates would be paid within six to eight weeks, but it said some customers waited up to six months or never received money. It also accused CompUSA of continuing to advertise QPS rebates despite knowing about these serious delays, up until QPS filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2002.
“If you’re a retailer and you’re advertising someone else’s rebates, you can’t turn a blind eye to their problems fulfilling those rebates,” said FTC lawyer Kerry O’Brien.
The issue holds special interest for advocacy and watchdog organization Household – HSBC Watch because over 60 of HSBC’s merchants know HSBC causes delays in processing payments, and many of the merchants benefitted from ongoing compensation during the period from 1994 to 2004 as evidenced by Shea v Household. The merchants, including Comp USA, continue to benefit from delays in processing monthly payments made by consumers as they pay their monthly private label credit card bills. A CompUSA or Best Buy credit card is a private label credit card.
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