Long story made short. I went into a local satelite store. They had a special that for ten bucks I could switch from satelite company ‘A’ to Satelite company ‘B’. It included all the equipment and installation. I said o.k., paid the ten bucks and it was installed today.
When I went into the store to find out about the special, I made it very plain that I had originally been with company ‘B’ and had switched about a year ago to company ‘A’ because at that time they had more channels. They did not say that it should be a problem. Now I signed up to switch back to company ‘B’. I even told them that company 'B’s logo was still on the dish. Still no problem. It was all installed today. When I called to start up the programming, I was informed that since I had already been a company ‘B’ subscriber, I did not qualify for the special. And I had to pay a $25.00 re-signup fee. Now here is the kicker. I was informed that I would now have to PAY for the equipment at the store, which is $199.00. I do not have $199.00 and if I had known that I had to pay for it, I would never have signed up to switch back.
I maintain that I should not have to pay, since I was very up front about the fact that I was switching back to company ‘B’. I believe that it was the store employees fault for not knowing what they were doing. They clearly told me basically bogus information.
My question is this: Should I have to pay for the equipment, since it was clearly the stores fault and not mine? Or should I pay?
Side note: Right now I feel like the second half of my sig.
I say it is obvious the terms they now say apply were not made clear to you and so there was no meeting of the minds, and hence, no contract. You are not obligated with them in any way. the problem is whether you can return to your other supplier .
firstly…I’m assuming you’re in the states. Over here…if you signed a contract it is binding in those circumstances UNLESS it did not state that those extra charges were applicable.
It probably would have helped if you had the name and even the employee number of the person who told you that there would be no problem, because then you could have something to fall back on.
It thoroughly pisses me off when businesses have the gall to try and treat people like that!! I wouldn’t do it to anyone…so why should businesses get away with it??
Well, like Adolph said, check to see what you signed. Chances are you had to sign some kind of contract. You’re probably going to be held to whatever it says in that, no matter what the sales drone said.
The situation you describe is the standard policy of both companies A and B. (I’m assuming you’re talking about Dish and DirectTV.) Call the installer and tell them to come pick up the equipment, and tell them you were misinformed by employee X. OTOH, you signed a contract and thet may choose to hold you to it.
At nine o’clock last night, the installer came back to my house. He said that the store manager told him to either pick up the new equipment or collect $299.00. Not the original $199.00 but $100.00 more because I didn’t qualify for the promotion. I told him to take the thing with him. At least he was nice enought to re-hook up the other dish.
I am not a happy camper right now. The more I think about it, the madder I get. I feel that at the very least, the store that mis-represented themselves should give me back the $10.00 I paid at the store and the $25.00 I had to pay for “re-activation”. I am going to have “words” with the store manager today. If I get nowhere with her, I’ll go to the higher ups. I aim to get satisfaction.
I think you should look for the ad or poster that caught your eye in the first place. Read the fine print again. Does it say something like “New Subcribers Only”?
I am NOT trying to say that the store is blameless. According to your version of the story, it certainly sounds like they should have warned you before you paid anything. I’m only suggesting that perhaps you misunderstood the details and that you have to share part of the blame for this screwup.
I hope that doesn’t sound condescending. I consider myself way above average at deciphering the fine-print doubletalk, but I’ve gotten fooled on occasion as well.
If this is in fact the case, then perhaps you can take some comfort in the fact that their installer came to your house twice, and he did re-hookup the old dish, and all they got out of you was $35. They did lose money on you.
None of the above should be interpreted to mean that you shouldn’t fight to get your $35 back. You were up-front, and they were not, and those (to me) are the most important points.
I just re-read the fine print again. There is nothing at all about this promotion having only to do with new customers. But even if the literature did not specifically say “new customers only”, the store should have known if that was the case, and to my way of thinking, they should have told me that I did not qualify, especially since I told them right up front that I had been a previous subscriber.
As a slight hijack, does anyone know what the law is for oral contracts where a sales drone completely leaves out stuff from a contract and then orally accepts you switching services, only to find out later you were screwed?
MCI did that with us promising us a ton of upfront frequent flier miles if we switched from AOL long distance (actually a bargain for our area) to them. So of course, we did, and then we noticed that these magical miles were to be given to us over a series of months and that we had to spend above a certain amount to qualify for any given month. Needless to say, we called them back, told them to shove it, and switched back. Of course, we gave the name of the operator we had spoken to, but the supervisor didn’t give a crap. Still, what stopped them from having a clause in their contract that we also didn’t know about featuring some early termination charge for switching off MCI? In general who decides in oral contracts whether there really was a ‘meeting of the minds’?
IANAL but in my management class when we discussed contracts, we learned that an oral contract is just as binding as a written one. Its difficult to enforce in court because now its one person’s word against another. That’s why written contracts are preferred.
I have a better question: Who decides the content of an oral contract? If I claim that we agreed to ABC, and he says we agreed to XYZ, how can such a contract be enforcable at all? The only value I see in an oral contract is if one of us makes the mistake of agreeing with the other guy over some detail.
Or am I misunderstanding the concept of an oral contract?
I got hold of the store manager where I got the equipment and I told her that I was not in the least bit happy. I also told her that her sales person needed to read up on how to do her job correctly. (Actually, that is not just exactly how I worded it. )
She agreed to refund my $10. I also called the satelite company and after explaining the problem, they agreed to refund my other $25.00.
So, I guess that all I am out is a little frustration, plus a few more gray hairs.
A better question might be what your time is worth as I’m sure you wasted a lot of it going back and forth with these idiots on the phone and/or in person.
Of course, who am I to talk if I spend all day at work posting messages to this board?
Everything is relative and I know how he feels. I have also been in situations where it looked like I was getting royally screwed so when in the end I got everything I was asking I felt extremely happy without any consideration for the time and aggravation. I recently talked about a similar case I had about an HP CDwriter 7200. In the end I got it to work but not before I was given much aggravation.
)