Columbia Company Busted for Office Supply Scam

flickr.com/photos/elevatedprimate

​Don't deal with SVT Inc., the Columbia office supply supplier. The Better Business Bureau is serious. So serious they've issued two warnings for consumers to stay away from SVT. They only do that when they really mean it.

So here's the scam: SVT will call up your company's purchasing agent and try to sell him or her pens and highlighters and paper clips and other office supplies and what they claim are going-out-of-business prices. They'll say they've already talked it over with your CFO and the purchases are all good.

Then, no matter what your company orders -- even if you order nothing at all -- they'll send you a shitload of office supplies and an inflated bill for thousands of dollars. Naturally, you'll call to complain. And all you'll get is a recorded message.

In the past month, the BBB has received 17 complaints about SVT. The Missouri attorney general's office received an additional 19.

"It almost seems like it's becoming more and more blatant," Bill Smith, an investigator for the BBB, told the Columbia Tribune.

SVT apparently has no website and is not listed in the Columbia phone directory.