Companies that misrepresent themselves...
 

Our house is 118 years old with a 28-yr-old furnace and a now-defunct 15-yr-old central AC unit.

So we're obviously in the market for replacements for both.

We spotted a full-page ad in a local newspaper by a local heating & AC company that advertises a new high-efficiency furnace and air conditioning installation for $1,400 (plus taxes).

As their ad goes - they'd made a special off-season purchase of 61 units (normally worth over $4,400) and were clearing them out at the special price.

My finely-tuned bullshit detector told me it all sounded too good to be true, but curiosity got the better of us so we called and set up an appointment for this afternoon.

The guy arrives and right from the start says he wants to clear up some ambiguously-worded details in the ad. He'd only been in the door 2 minutes and already the red flag had gone up.

As it turns out, the furnace was free (gasp!), and so was the installation - IF we paid the full retail for the central air conditioner. We found out the central air was "only" $4,700.

But I pointed out to the guy how the ad made it sound as though the furnace and AC were $1,400 installed total. He agreed that's how it initially sounded 'on the surface', and that's what he wanted to clear up with us.

So I verbally ripped the guy a new one, explained that his company had wasted our entire day...and promptly showed him the door.

I really fuckin' hate companies that intentionally misrepresent themselves with ambiguous and misleading wording in their ads just to get their foot in the door to deliver their high-pressure sales pitch.

Fuckers...

That is bullshit, and you have every right to be annoyed. What if the shoe was on the other foot and you 'misrepresented' how much you were going to pay him.
Oh if only that worked ; )

i feel the same way about companies who misrepresent that they have our content. we get to have recourse though :winkwink:

File a complaint with the local BBB and Chamber of Commerce.

Time for a BBB report.

Both those organisations are as useful as tits on a bull.

If that ad promised something for a set price and they were not willing to honor it at that price as described you have legal rights to enforce it. The laws are fairly cut and dry when it comes to false advertising and bait and switches.

Naw, you're right about the BBB and Chamber of C being basically useless. For starters the BBB only deal with companies that are actually signed up as BBB members. But they're both basically toothless organizations.

In Canada the best route for complaining is Ministry of Consumer and Corporate Affairs - but again you're looking at time involved dealing with it, which would likely amount to little more than just adding insult to injury.

Negative word-of-mouth is often a good thing in the long run. My wife works for the largest employer in town, with over 2000 fellow employees. Doesn't take long for word of a negative experience with a local company to make the rounds. And then the ripple effect as they tell two friends, etc.

As I said...it all sounded too good to be true from the start. I was just amazed how they openly admitted to it and didn't even attempt to defend the wording of their ad.

Had the similar thing happen to my friend when he was shopping for a car. There was a full page ad saying that they have a year end promotion for a new car for $16999. When we go to the dealer, they tell us that the one in the ad is sold out and that they can offer us a similar car, but of course the one they offered us wasn't even close to the one described in the ad. Fucking assholes wasting people's time.

Did not relize you were in Canada. Not sure how their consumer laws work in regards to all of this.

Your state attorney general is the place to call I'd guess. That sucks man.

edit, oh duh yeah Canada, never mind about calling your state attorney general, lol.:error

I've had shit like that happen and it has pissed me off as well. But, it DOES sound like it may have been a poorly written ad. If the first thing he did was come in and let you know that the ad wording wasn't very accurate, I'm guessing a few people mentioned to him that it was misleading.

Then again, he's on the front lines, so probably wouldn't have placed the ad in the first place. So, you could be right that it was done that way intentionally. In that case though, the salesperson wouldn't have had anything to do with the ad itself and was probably having a MUCH worse day than you, dealing with a slew of angry people. :2 cents:

You could also write to the paper or wherever you saw the ad and let them know they are carrying fraudulent advertising.

Here's the exact wording of their ad (for those interested):



Attention - Area Homeowners to Get a Great Opportunity

FRUSTRATED CONTRACTOR IS PRACTICALLY "GIVING AWAY" $4,616 FURNACES FOR $1,289 WITH OFF-SEASON CENTRAL AIR..."

Yes, its absolutely true. You can actually replace your old (and probably very inefficient) furnace and air conditioner as a package for at least $3,500 less than you would have to pay any other time.

Every year, the months of January, February and March 'kill' our business. We end up losing a ton of money during these 'killer' months and it can take us the remaining nine months to make up for them. And we're looking for the same thing to happen this year.

We've decided to give up trying to make a profit during the 'killer' months. If we can only minimize our losses during these months we will come out ahead in the other nine months.

Here's how this (admittedly daring) offer came out:

Every year, the big manufacturers of air conditioners have to guess how many to build to meet the demand. Of course, they're never exactly right. So they always have some inventory they must hold over until the next summer season. We went to one of these companies and contracted for the order of 60 deluxe air conditioners and furnaces in the three most popular sizes used in the area. And, because of the quantity and time of year, we were able to order them at drastically reduced, dirt cheap, and out-of-season prices.

They are new 2005 models. And they are NOT seconds, or 'blems' or standard 'builder' models. They are factory-fresh, deluxe air conditioners and furnaces and have a full factory warranty.

By putting this furnace and air conditioner package together and committing to a do or die purchase agreement of 60 systems, we were able to order both the furnace and the air conditioner for less than anyone should have a right to pay! So, if you buy one of these 60 new, deluxe air conditioners (but only if one of the three sizes will fit your house, of course), we are "giving" you the furnace and all we ask for is the $1,289 in labour it costs to have your system installed.

Well, your Attorney General's office is not useless and it has worked for us on two occasions..once with Qwest Communications and once with American Airlines. They are required to investigate shady business practices, bait and switch operations, fraudulent and deceptive business, etc.

Ok ad is vague yet legit. I cut out a the useless crap in the ad and showed the only portion that matters.

"if you buy one of thse 60 new, deluxe air conditioners."
"we are giving you the furnace" <vague fluff words> i.e. basicly for "$1,289.00 in labor to have your system <furnace> installed.

Translation. Buy AC at whatever price, get furnace itself free and only pay the 1289.00 for labor on the furnace.

Ok. I can certainly see where people could take it the way you said, but the way I read it is that you get the furnace for $1269 if you purchase the air conditioner. But I may have just read a few too many of these to know that that's what they were after.

Then I noticed that it does say at the bottom that if you buy one of the new deluxe air conditioners as well, so it looks like that's what they were after.

So while it isn't entirely clear, I don't think you'd get anywhere complaining about it either.

I've seen worse.

I agree with you both - and I've certainly seen far worse over the years.

But that said, this one was just vague and ambiguous enough that we initially took it at face value and called them on it. It was certainly worded very intentional to sound as though the entire pkg. deal was for $1,289 installed. The reader was left to read-between-the-lines and interpret it whichever way.

I contacted the newspaper and expressed my opinions on the ad and they promised to file the complaint for future reference. I also contacted the Advertising Council of Canada and sent them a copy along with an online complaint form - not holding my breath, of course.

We've always operated our own company based on truth in advertising, so when I encounter stuff like this that plays the phonetics game and wastes my time - I don't mind following through with complaints.

Thanks for the input guys...appreciated :)

you can sue them for false advertising. And they will have to give you the stuff at the ad price, plus pay you for expenses. Just go to small claims court.

If I was actually in the market for pretty much exactly what an ad was preaching...like you were, I'm sure I would have been as pissed off as you were.

Usually the ones I see full of BS are things we don't need at the moment, so it's not as frustrating.

Believe it or not, you can legally make them do it for the amount they ran.

I remember a bunch of years back a stero company used to run add's with tuners for .99 cents. Then they would say it was a misprint. But if you pushed, they would give it to you for the .99, because you still had to buy speakers etc.

Sorry. Not the ad that I read.

sorry got too tired reading that

THAT I'd agree with.

But again, not the ad that I read. It wasn't a misprint, just ambiguous.

If I were an activist with the spare time to deal with it - sure, that'd possibly be an option. Although, the ambiguity of the wording would likely make winning a case somewhat of a crapshoot.

For now I'll wait and see what response I get to my complaint to the Ad Council.

Bump this thread with the response.

I'm curious to see what they have to say.

Will do. Likely will take a few days I'd expect, though.