Three Feathers Tobacco Company review: Didn't receive my order but cashed my check for $ 575. 00 20

Purchase on last day 6-21-10 for 10 cartons...Never rec'd. Got the same response, didn't ship, assets frozen, investigation on going. How come I do not find anything online about an investigation involving the seneca nation? All lies.

I agree i ordered from internetsmokes.com which is owned by threefeathers or visa versa i sent them money, got the cigarettes, and then was told by them they never got their payment, via debit from checking account i went into the bank and they told me they got paid so this is their f scam omg cant believe it.

12/9/10 UPDATE:

Dear fellow sufferers!

QUESTION #1: WHAT DO THE 2 FORMS FROM HOUSER (that we need to fill out) SAY, &/or WHAT INFO DO THOSE FORMS ASK FOR?

I ask because I want to be ready in advance (& see below why I don't have the forms yet!) :-/

---------------

QUESTION #2: DID ANYONE's BANK STMT actually show CHECK CARE as the entity who withdrew your money?

I ask because in the further-above 11/23/10 email from ThreeFeathersTobacco, Craig Chiavetta said we need to send to Houser our bank stmt that shows CHECK CARE. (But my June bank stmt shows BIG BUFFALO, not CHECK CARE).

I am wondering if this matters? (I dont want any grief from Houser due to not correct info! See next paragraph!)

------------------

BEWARE OF DITZ BRAINED GOVT EMPLOYEES!

On Monday 12/6/10 @12:45pm, Houser's secretary left a voice message on my ph saying their forms for me were returned to them as Undeliverable!  (That's because they put the WRONG HOUSE # in the address!  She said they wrote to xx, xxx Road -- WHICH I NEVER SAID, as the correct house # is xx, xxx Road!  Grrr.  I called them back at 1:01pm same day, was given to same lady's voicemail by a switchboard operator, & raised a little cain repeating the correct address TWO MORE TIMES.  Then pushed buttons for ext.226 where there was a male's voice voicemail re the whole cig fiasco, & I left another message at THAT ext.226 as well, repeating the correct address TWICE again!  Hang up.  Total time of call to both extensions/voicemails:  7:21 minutes.)

Since I had left my original voicemail request on HOUSER's direct phone number, ext.244, on Wed. 11/24/10@5:08am (morning I first rec'd the ThreeFeathers email from the night before dated 11/23/10@10 pm), where I also had repeated the xx, xxx house # & street address TWICE, there is no excuse that they screwed up the address!  (It would not surprise me if Houser himself did it wrong on purpose, since it was HIS direct ext.244 where I left my original request for the forms.)  Either way, they caused a DELAY of 13 WASTED DAYS through Mon. 12/6/10 when they left msg for me & I called them back only to get more voicemails where I did leave 2 more msgs repeating the correct xx, xxx address FOUR TIMES, making SIX TIMES TOTAL I have given the ditz-brained govt my CORRECT xx, xxx address.

Through Wed. 12/8/10 no forms from Houser arrived via USMail.  Maybe, hopefully, by Thurs. or Fri. 12/9-10/10, ESPECIALLY because the deadline is NEXT Fri. 12/17/10!

CIG REFUND

Wed. 11/24/10 @ 5:47am EDT

UPDATE, PEOPLE!  I GOT EMAIL LAST NIGHT FROM ThreeFeathers, the first news from them in months... Here is the email...

(...)
From: "Threefeatherstobacco.com"
Date: November 23, 2010 10:50:54 PM EST
To: (Me)
Subject: Important Message Regarding CheckCare Refunds

**IMPORTANT MESSAGE REGARDING REFUNDS FOR ORDERS PLACED IN JUNE 2010**
 
Dear Valued Customers,

This email is for those customers who have placed an order back in June, but have not received their refund due to the investigation by the Assistant US Attorney William Houser.

If you are not one of those customers you may disregard this email. 

As you know, the Assistant US Attorney William Houser has had your funds frozen in CheckCare’s bank account which has made us unable issue refunds to our customers who are owed their money.  

However, we do now have good news, we have just been informed that the US Attorney’s Office is now ready to release our customers funds.  

Although the funds will be released the money will not be released to us.  In order to get a refund for your order, you, the customer,  must submit a request to the US Attorney’s Office.

THIS IS A TIME SENSITIVE ISSUE, THIS PROCESS MUST BE COMPLETED BY DECEMBER 17, 2010 OR YOUR FUNDS WILL BE FORFIETED TO THE US ATTORNEY

Please follow the below instructions carefully;

You must first contact the US Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Pennsylvania; you may call, fax or write the office.

US Attorney’s Office,  
Middle District of Pennsylvania
Attention:  William S Houser
PO Box 11754
228 Walnut St. Suite 217
Harrisburg, PA [protected]
Phone:  [protected]
Fax:  [protected]

You will then receive two forms of verification.

Once you receive the two forms you will need to return them along with 3 other pieces of information;
- A copy of your order receipt
- The amount of the payment
- A copy of your bank account statement showing the withdrawal by CheckCare

Again this is a time sensitive issue, this process must be completed by December 17, 2010 or you will not be able to get a refund, please act quickly.

We do know that this whole situation has been a frustrating one for all of our customers that were involved.  

We are sorry that it took so long for Mr. Houser to be willing to release your funds.  

We do understand that at this point and time with the economy being the way it is, even the smallest amount of money is substantial and many of you placed large orders which we were unable to fill due to the investigation.

Additionally, the enactment of the PACT Act does not help our customers’ situation in any way as we are still unable to ship cigarettes through the USPS.  We know that for many of you this has been one way to save a lot of money on the native made cigarettes you love.

Although, we can no longer ship cigarettes through the USPS, we are able to ship cigars and pipe tobacco.

If you visit our site you will see a wide variety of cigars, they come 20 to a pack and 10 to a carton.  Even though these are not cigarettes many of our customers who used to order our cigarettes have switched to cigars as an alternative.

However, because of the investigation we are still unable to process Echecks so if you would like to try some cigars all orders must be mailed in along with a personal check or money order.

We hope that we will still be able to offer you low prices on a tobacco product you will come to love as you did the native cigarettes.

If you have any questions please feel free to email us.

Sincerely,
Craig Chiavetta
On Behalf of:
Big Buffalo SmokeShop
Big Buffalo Cigars
http://www.threefeatherstobacco.com
(...)

FYI:  The 717 area code # in the above email is not the same 570 area code # for Houser previously provided by others in this thread.

I had never bothered to call Houser in prior months because I figured why bother if no good would become of it in the end?

But now that there is some real news that refunds are indeed possible, I first called the 717 # from the email but no voicemail unless you know the exact extension you need. So I called the 570 # from the other threads with ext 244 for Houser & left voice message requesting the 2 forms described in the above ThreeFeathers email.

HTH!

Glad I found this site and glad I am not the only one who got taken by this company. They think I am going to forget the 125.00 they took out of my checking account for 5 cartons of cigs never received. June 22, 2010 the day after I ordered (on the last day legal to order online) I was told the assets were frozen and there was nothing they could do about it...Now, end of November, no contact and no refund. One hundred twenty fine dollars to me is not a few dollars I WILL forget about!

I was given a phone number and when I called a month or two ago was given a lady's number, named Dana. I was told to fax a copy of my bank statement showing the $ was taken out, did it, no reply. Also, since then, my email and debit card info has been changed. I WANT MY MONEY BACK.

Last week, I called the same number (looking for this Dana person) and was told they were a business permit company and had never been a cig dealer or anything to do with cigarettes. Again, I mean it, no assets are frozen that long, they are theives plain & simple. I will not give up on this until something is done and my money returned. Ok so my email and debit card info changed, they had the address where my cigs were going to be mailed, send me a check!

Barbara

I also have paid over 400.00 for cigarettes I didn, t receive and have called Houser office they don, t have any updates.

If anyone wants to contact their Congressman, only 25 out of 400+ congressmen voted **AGAINST** PACT.
Five days ago I posted the list of those mere 25 "good guy congressmen" here, if you want to ser if your congressman was one of them:
Three Feathers Tobacco — Scam and cheating

& **ALL** Senators in the entire USA voted **FOR** PACT. :-/

~~~~~~~~~

That above "Call Us" # is apparently a fax machine, too (not only for ThreeFeathersTobacco aka Big Buffalo Smoke Shop, but also for InternetSmokes aka TCL) per this report dated 7/19/10 by "Quietly Watching" who faxed them a letter you might like to read:
Internetsmokes.com — No Product - No Refund

~~~~~~~~~

ThreeFeathers Mail Order sheet:
http://www.threefeatherstobacco.com/BB_Price_List_07-20-09/BB_PRI_1.HTM
(...)
Big Buffalo
PO Box 40
Irving, N.Y. 14081
Make Checks/MO's Payable to:
Big Buffalo 

All Orders Are Shipped by:
USPS Priority Mail
(UNTIL JULY 28th, 2010) 
"Order Early" To Ensure Delivery 
For More Information
Threefeatherstobacco.com
(Call Us at [protected])
(...)

InternetSmokes.com aka TCL Enterprises IS taking MAIL orders postmarked by 7/26/10:
http://www.internetsmokes.com/html/mail_order.html

~~~~~~~~~

And so is ThreeFeathersTobacco.com aka Big Buffalo Smoke Shop:
http://www.threefeatherstobacco.com/html/mail_order_info.html

~~~~~~~~~

At the above WhoIs domain info for the BigBuffaloTobacco.com domain, it showed the registrar was a domain seller/company in Australia,
Current Registrar: MELBOURNE IT, LTD. D/B/A INTERNET NAMES WORLDWIDE

More about them:
http://www.google.com/search?q=where+is+MELBOURNE+IT, +LTD.+D/B/A+INTERNET+NAMES+WORLDWIDE&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari

Maybe they had a sale going in June, but why buy your domain from an AU company? Seems kind of far away.

~~~~~~~~~

Alexa has zilch stats for bigbuffalotobacco.com because the domain name is too new:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/bigbuffalotobacco.com

~~~~~~~~~

That http://bigbuffalotobacco.com site -- domain created 6/1/10 -- is a much more "slick looking" site than ThreeFeathersTobacco.com
& InternetSmokes.com, both of which were rather humble looking in comparison.

Also, there is not even a fax # to fax IDs like ThreeFeathersTobacco & InternetSmokes had, even tho this BigBuffaloTobacco site says it requires them.

Also, it says they ship UPS & USPS... I thought I had read that the State of NY had long convinced UPS to voluntarily quit delivering cigs, even before PACT (or was it FedEx?)

Also, it says pay by echeck or money order. I certainly would not order from them without...
1. finding out who the heck they really are (domain info is private at above WhoIs link),
2. & I would want to know why they bought a domain name on 6/1/10 to set up a new site when PACT was going into effect on 6/30/10, 20 days later;
3. & I would want to know what echeck company they use;
4. & I would want to know why the bottom of their site says "305, 587 requests since August 8, 2007" when they only bought the domain name on 6/1/10;
etc. etc.

Did this same exact site have the same exact layout but with a different domain name prior to 6/1/10?

You could also do a Freedom of Information request for who owns the PO Box they use:
PO Box 63
Angola NY 14006

~~~~~~~~~~

That bigbuffalotobacco.com site I dont think is the same as the Big Buffalo that manages ThreeFeathersTobacco.com. The bigbufflo link says they are in Angola NY. The Big Buffalo that manages ThreeFeathersTobacco is in Irving NY. Even though those cities are very close to each other, just a hop skip & jump, that bigbuffalo link/site looks nothing like the ThreeFeathersTobacco.com site & the InternetSmokes.com site, both of which are related business-wise to TCL Enterprises, all 3 of which use the same fax #. I'm guessing TCL is the warehouse where shipping of the cigs occur. (Manta biz info for TCL included in below link).

However, the bigbuffalotobacco.com domain name was only recently purchased on 6/1/2010 per this WhoIs lookup:
http://www.whois.net/whois/bigbuffalotobacco.com (I will see what else I can find online).

For more ideas, please read all the research done at link previously posted... you can call Seneca Free Trade Assoc &/or leave msgs at TCL Enterprises &/or contact the Business Permit Office of the Seneca Nation govt HQ & thru those there is a good possibility that a rep of ThreeFeathers will call you back. That's how I got to talk to them on 7/5/10... I called the Seneca Free Trade Assoc first (found their org from reading the PACT news articles & looked up their website) & they had ThreeFeathers call me back in short measure. Very nice lady. I really do not believe she was being dishonest when she said they had no idea there was any problem at all until the bank/echeck company called THEM & told THEM the feds grabbed the $$$ from CheckCare. She said her husband thought he was the only one being targeted but then they found out he was only #4 on a list, meaning, obviously the feds are harrassing more than ThreeFeathers.

Houser's recorded msg says the FDA was investigating a company in KENTUCKY, not NY where the cig sellers are. So the investigation is re CheckCare in KY first & foremost, & I imagine thru CheckCare, the NY cig sellers. It's govt corruption & harrassment more than Seneca Nation/sellers corruption, imho. I mean, WHO is against smokers? The people who sell smokes? Doesnt make sense. It's the feds who are against the smokers.

Anyhoo, here's the link... all research, addys, phone #'s, ideas, are posted here... Might help someone choose what route to take next...
June 2010: Scroll Down Page 1 until you see the June 2010 comments... I posted all recent research at this complaint site...
Three Feathers Tobacco — Scam and cheating
Con't Page 2:
Three Feathers Tobacco — Scam and cheating
Con't Page 3:
Three Feathers Tobacco — Scam and cheating
Con't Page 4:
Three Feathers Tobacco — Scam and cheating

~~~~~~~~~

They have $700 of my money. All the other sites are open so this is just internetsmokes that is in trouble. They lied to us regarding what is going on. I'm considering calling my congressman. Additionally out local tv news channel has a segment called the Real Deal where people can send in questions about consumer frauds, etc and they will investigate. We need someone official to look in to this and let us know what is going on with our refunds...

I have also lost a lot of money to these people. over 700.00 . I cannot believe they could rip people off like this. Even if the frozen accounts is true, they had to know about it. I really believed these people had HONOR, but I guess not. If they did, we would all recieve e-mail updates...You cannot even call them. And I see that Big Buffalo is still taking orders on their web site. Check this out. http://www.bigbuffalotobacco.com/. PEOPLE BEWARE! They should be ashamed.

Quoting TerriS: "How come I do not find anything online about an investigation involving the seneca nation?"

I, too, have wondered why there is no news story about this, whether it is an investigation of "all smoke shops" (per the ThreeFeathersTobacco, Big Buffalo Smokes, InternetSmokes emails); or whether the investigation is re the echeck company, or who/what?

I doubt it is a lie, though, since everyone is receiving the same emails from ThreeFeathersTobacco, et al, with Houser's office phone #, & people have called them.

Maybe Mr Houser is not ready to make a public statement. :-/

TO EVERYONE AFFECTED BY THE "ECHECK" INVESTIGATION:

Please congregate here at the IRVING,  NY "TOPIX NEWS" Forum & please feel free to update this thread with any news, or add your thoughts, &/or copy/paste it into the Topix News for your own city or region or favorite forum.  More exposure the better!

HEADLINE: "ONLINE CIG ECHECK MONIES CONFISCATED BY FEDS":

Posted in the IRVING,  NY "TOPIX NEWS" Forum:

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/irving-ny/T7IFV3NVS5CRQ2UPB#lastPost

~~~~~~~~~

TO EVERYONE AFFECTED BY THE "ECHECK" INVESTIGATION:

Please congregate here at the IRVING NY TOPIX NEWS Forum & please feel free to update this thread with any news, or add your thoughts, &/or copy/paste it into the Topix News for your own city or region or favorite forum.  More exposure the better!

HEADLINE: "ONLINE CIG ECHECK MONIES CONFISCATED BY FEDS":

Posted in the IRVING,  NY "TOPIX NEWS" Forum:

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/irving-ny/T7IFV3NVS5CRQ2UPB#lastPost

~~~~~~~~~

Fri. 7/9/10 @5:15om:

Links to all similar posts here at ComplaintBoards through this date:

June 2010:
Scroll Down Page 1 until you see the June 2010 comments:
Three Feathers Tobacco — Scam and cheating
Con't Page 2:
Three Feathers Tobacco — Scam and cheating

6/23/10:
Three Feathers Tobacco — No product recieved

7/2/10:
Three Feathers Tobacco — Took my money and won't give it back

7/7/10:
Three Feathers Tobacco — Did Not Receive Merchandise

7/8/10:

7/8/10 Duplicate post:
Three Feathers Tobacco — Money was taken from my bank account but no items were ever sent.

7/9/10:
Three Feathers Tobacco — Didn't receive my order but cashed my check for $ 575. 00

All Results for this topic at ComplaintBoards:
http://www.complaintsboard.com/bycompany/three-feathers-tobacco-a97967.html

There could be complaints & reports at other boards or forums &/or also many people who have not written about it publicly.

~~~~~~~~~