SPOKANE, Wash. – A Nine Mile Falls woman said she ordered a t-shirt from a company she never dealt with before and it turned into an infuriating ordeal that is now going to court.
There are a lot of fans of the movie American Sniper. Claire Snodgrass initially ordered a t-shirt from the Chris Kyle Foundation, in honor of the American Sniper.
"It got some stains on it and I wanted to replace it," she explained.
But, the t-shirt was no longer offered on the Chris Kyle Foundation website.
"So, I found it on Fallen Hero Bracelets," Snodgrass said.
The non-profit company sells decals, hats and t-shirts honoring our fallen heroes. According to the site, the Tacoma company has more than one million sales worldwide with all profits going to veteran organizations. Just over a year ago, Snodgrass ordered a t-shirt and waited several weeks.
"I realized we hadn't gotten anything yet so I placed two phone calls and sent two emails and never heard back from them," she explained.
Snodgrass said she waited a couple more weeks after that. When there was still no response from Fallen Hero Bracelets, she told her credit card company to cancel the $40 charge. She thought that was the end of it, until several months later when she finally received the shirt.
She said the t-shirt was accompanied by a threatening letter from Michael Friedmann, identifying himself as Fallen Hero Bracelet's Chief Legal Officer.
"This correspondence will serve to notify you that your account has been sent to collections. On the date of September 30, 2017, you committed bank fraud. Bank fraud is a crime," the letter read.
Instead of $40, the letter insisted she now owed them $180, an extra $140 for bank fraud.
Shocked, Snodgrass promptly returned the t-shirt to Fallen Hero Bracelets and gave them a call.
"I said I just wanted to let you know the reason we had canceled it was because we tried to call you twice and email you twice and I never got a response. And he went right into, ‘Well I'm charging you with bank fraud. This is against the law. I'm going to send you to the collection agency,’" she said.
True to his word, the collection notices started to arrive.
"I was shocked. I never had anything like that happen before," she said.
It turns out Snodgrass’ experience is not entirely unique. KREM 2 spoke with the Better Business Bureau where Fallen Hero Bracelets has an "F" rating. Not only does the BBB note a pattern of consumer complaints, the bureau issued an alert noting an image touting an A+ rating on the company’s various websites is not affiliated with Better Business Bureau.
A records request with the Washington Attorney General's office also shows 10 formal consumer complaints. A customer out of Missouri said he did not get the bracelet he ordered for more than a year. When the bracelet arrived, the customer said FHB informed him they were suing him for $5,000 for bank fraud. When the customer called to inquire, documents said the chief legal officer told him "see you in court" along with an expletive and hung up.
A customer from Kentucky said instead of the product he ordered, he got "verbal abuse" and "vulgarity."
As for Claire Snodgrass, the company tells the attorney general they communicated with her properly and did nothing wrong. They write, "Ms. Snodgrass is a liar" and "one individual craving to be labeled a victim."
"I was amazed at how many other people were having the same issue,” she said.
KREM 2 reached out to the company through phone and email. While we got no direct response, we did receive an auto-reply from Michael Friedmann. It said, "The company pursues civil action against individuals who defame us along with those who breach contract and defraud us through premature or fraudulent charge backs and disputes."
A review of court records in Pierce County, Washington shows the company makes good on that. They have filed 10 complaints in small claims court and Snodgrass is now among them. They are suing her for $1,182. On top of that, they are suing her credit union for $5,000 for agreeing to cancel her $40 t-shirt payment.
"He's doing this to a lot of people. And people that don't live in the state. So, it's not convenient for them to come to small claims court. And I just thought, you know, I'm not going to let this go even if it's $40," Snodgrass said.
Now that Claire is facing a lawsuit, she has been summoned to appear in Pierce County District Court in Tacoma in August.
"I'm nervous because I've never had to go before a judge before," she said.
Snodgrass knows it would have been much easier to simply pay Fallen Hero Bracelets to make this all go away. Instead she is following through the legal process, not only for herself, but for potential customers too.
Fallen Hero Bracelets reported Claire to four different collections agencies. She sent each of them information on the case and all of them decided to drop the collection claim.
KREM 2 contacted Washington Attorney General Bob Freguson. While he does not comment on pending investigations or even confirm that an investigation exists, he said, "I can tell you I am very concerned by this type of complaint. If other people have had similar experiences, they should also contact my office."
If people have a similar complaint about a Washington company, they can contact the Washington Attorney General’s Office. They can file a complaint on the website or call 800-551-4636.
As for Snodgrass, she said she will no longer shop online before checking out independent customer reviews and the Better Business Bureau.