If you Search “Bottom Line” here rather than “Bottom Line Books, ” you’ll find hundreds of complaints. Bottom Line is bad news and a serious scam. They will send unsolicited materials and hound you with billing. They will claim on mailings that they do so because you asked them to do so. I responded last year when they sent an unordered book and told them never to do it again.
Last week, they dropped another on me and I sent it return mail collect from the nearest post office. Don’t open anything you get from Bottom Line. Keep dropping all correspondence and packages unopened and return to them collect by writing “refused-return to sender” on it and drop these at your nearest post office. That turns the tables and you extract Bottom Line’s money instead of the other way around. Whatever you do, do not pay postage and politely return their materials. When they keep getting billed by their mail bouncing back and costing them $, they will soon take you off their list.
Avoid all books and all publishers of books that you cannot find sold on Amazon.com. If they sold through Amazon, a buyer would see these hundreds o complaints under reviews that we see here and not order a thing.
You can try to complain to your post office, they should suppress this mail fraud but they likely won’t since they have a vested interest in maintaining junk mail. The more of it, the better their job security.
Ever since George Bush took office, and this has continued right on through Barack Obama, I’ve found government increasingly unwilling to take any action against business victimizing citizens. The citizens complain, and government does nothing. Today, you can rarely get these “consumer protection” agencies to respond to a complaint. No one curbs these companies, which are little more than a form of organized crime.
So forget thinking that government, police, post office, trade commissions, attorney generals, etc. etc. will help you? They won’t, and they could care less. The same scammers continue victimizing citizens for years. You can see the history right here on Complaints Board. If you want out from under these creeps, you need to take action yourself.
I am so glad to find a page that reveals that Bottom Line Books is nothing but a scam. My most recent experience involves receiving and being billed for a book which I did not order. I returned it, but continue to be billed and now, have been turned over to a collection agency. This is not the first time. I do not intend to be bullied by them.
I am being billed by BottomLineBooks for books I never received or ordered! Not sure how to handle this. I did send an e-mail stating I didn't receive any books or order any books. We'll just see, I guess.
Add another to the hundreds plus who have fallen into the bottomless pit of Bottom Line's scam. With them, add their North Shore Agency of Mt Laurel, NJ collections who are hounding me for payment for a book I did not either receive or it is one of the many Bottom Line books sent to me unsolicited (I did not request.) North Shore Agency (NSA) seems a scam outfit also (listed online by government and state scam/complaint sites). NSA has been sending me Notices for over two years for a Bottom Line book. But now they tell me I owe but not how much but to respond to them. They have never told what book is it they claim I owe. They have tracked me across the State from my prior address.
Over three years ago, Bottom Line sent me books I did not request, and I most certainly did not order them, yet they billed me. I responded I did not order any book and informed them that the unsolicited books I have been receiving, I returned unopened via USPS, and wrote on the boxes please stop sending me your mailings and any products. (Note: Not at any time was this mailing nor any subsequent mailings a part of Bottom Line’s sometime-offers to receive automatic deliveries “book club”.)
The first book I received-unsolicited, sat by my door outside in the rain and weather over a week while I was out of town. The box was destroyed, the book inside damaged. I did not request that book. I had long-ceased any further interest in Bottom Line when months later, this damaged one came. Fully aware they would charge me for a damaged book despite my not ordering it, I paid for that one. MY MISTAKE. In the billing statement/envelope, with that payment, and on the statement of billing, I made it clear that I did not order this book, I did not want this book but will pay for it since it has been left outside in the weather and the bill is nearly overdue: Please do not send me any further books. I threw the damage book away. MY MISTAKE. About three months later the deluge began with another unsolicited book, then another and another and... EACH time another one came, I immediately wrote on each unopened box, "RETURN TO SENDER/ I DID NOT ORDER THIS/ REMOVE ME FROM YOUR MAILING LIST". I did not open the box I did not remove nor open the billing envelope from the front of the box. On a clean sheet of paper in bold, large font I typed “I DID NOT REQUEST THIS BOOK / I DO NOT WANT ANY FURTHER BOOKS FROM BOTTOM LINE/ REMOVE ME FROM YOUR MAILING LIST”. Then slipped the folded sheet behind the attached billing statement envelope and taped over the envelope on the box to secure the letter pocketed behind.
On the outside went the large felt pen “RETURN TO SENDER”/REMOVE ME FROM YOUR MAILING LIST. Then each doggone (unopened) package was taken to the PO and timely mailed. But this only encouraged/emboldened them. I am disabled and it is extremely hard to get to the PO at all. The walk to the building carrying a purse and weighted awkward book/package, while requiring one free hand just to manage the crutch. Then there is the waiting in line to get inside and push to the counter to leave the package and weed through back to the car. But it got done, and they got their book(s) they sent to me: They got their books back. I never heard a dang thing from Bottom Line that they received the books or they did not receive the books. Frankly, I don’t think they even cared, it is as though it is standard practice to and by the copious complaints, that is an accurate and realistic supposition. But, at first, everything quieted down. I began to justify their behavior chalking it up that it took a long time for things to get through their “system”, the left hand not talking to the right hand…after a short reprieve, here came NSA pounding.
The collection agency: NSA. It did not and never has stated what I allegedly "ordered" only that I owe $50 +. I do not owe a dang thing. I was advised I could respond to them (NSA) but then they will know they are bugging you and will it encourage them: With collection agency, they are a breed apart, they live for the consumer to squirm. I showed a friend (former collections agent unrelated to NSA) the horrific scam letters listed on the WA State Attorney General's website and others such as the BBU. The complaints online about Bottom Line and the NSA collections were current and with long back history of many more. To me, they are one and the same outfit (I have no proof but the address proximities are worth noting). I used to order from Bottom Line my years ago. The books I bought from them back in the early to mid-1990’s were helpful medical guides. Those books helped me raise my children. They are no longer the same business or ethic. Bottom Line books are no longer a hint of professionalism in subject, content, writing, or publishing. Poor quality. They are misleading and outright unethical. I was disappointed in the last books I had legitimately ordered and realized they were no longer the same company and that is why I had already long decided, No More Bottom Line for me, a plain waste of money.
I guess I will continue to hear from the NSA characters. Their recent letter does not give an amount I allegedly owe for a product I did not order and that I returned by USPS. I have no proof that I did, just my word. The ethics on the other half of the story rest on them. Books I did not order, did not request, did not want and did not open—were dumped on my porch unsolicited. Respectfully, I tried to do the right thing and returned them promptly by USPS all the while requesting they stop sending these and remove me from their mailing list.
However, if there is a bright side, I am no longer receiving any Bottom Line book crap. Just NSA is nemesis. Since they do not provide the information to which I can reasonably respond, there is nothing I can reply to in their communication "YOUR RESPONSE IS NEEDED”. They do not give a tinker’s dang about the consumer’s truth. They know what the issues are the review of complaints online are ONLINE for all to read. I never heard of NSA before Bottom Line. I cannot afford to pay for something I did not order, want, request. I ethically returned the product promptly after it was “mistakenly” sent to me. I will not pay what I do not owe and never owed, so sinks further into deeper abyss. Consumers/We do not deserve this. If their products were worth the money, then they would not need to play these cruel games to collect illegitimately, but if NSA is also Bottom Line, then they are going after us paying for their crappy books as well as falsely sending us to "collections" (NSA for example) to collect money that is effectively also into their own other hand. AVOID BOTTOM LINE or fall forever into the abyss never to hit the bottom line.
I just received an unordered book from Bottom Line Books. This is months after I told them to take me off their mailing list because of a billing dispute, which I ended up paying. I vowed never to even look at any ad coming from the word Bottom. Also, my vision is failing and I don't read any more. So why do I need another book from this scam scum company? I did not open the package, but wrote all over the front of it in black
magic marker for the postoffice to return to sender. What can be done to stop them? I am 86 yo, and can't
get out and about to find these crooks.
I'm glad that I read all your complaints so I will not get involve with them. Thank you for your sharing and your efforts! You saved me just in the nick of time.
Thanks for taking the time and effort to warned us. I almost stepped into their trap. Will not order a nightmare.