False advertising
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
I finally decided to get a smart phone. The hardware is fine, and I was able to get a month to month service plan. I'm adversed to long term cell phone contracts, specially with companies that are not always straight with their
dealings.
Marketers know that consumers are louder with their complaints than their praise. I'm no different than the average buyer, and I get really frustrated when I'm being scammed.
In Canada, the bait and switch practice is illegal. The Canadian Consumer Protection Act
states, "It is an unfair practice for a person to make a false, misleading or deceptive representation." Even when it's clearly stated by the law, companies still use it.
In my monthly saga with my cell phone service provider, I switched from my $6.00/month voice mail service to the $6.00/month call display service. And I know it's $6.00 because it's stated
clearly in their website:
To my surprise, while making the switch, I was informed that the price for the monthly service is no longer $6.00 but $7.00. I was told that the price has increased. I accepted my faith and made the service switch. However, something was not right: I felt a gut feel that what the company had just done wasn't legal.
I called back and pointed out that their website says the service is $6.00/month. The sales person on the phone called it "a mistake on the website, but the real price was $7.00/month." Nonetheless, I was refunded one dollar, but only for this month--I will be sure to check their site next month.
It's only a dollar, but it's the principle of it all. They promise the price to be $6.00/month, yet they charge $7.00/month. Those dollars sure add up, and as stated by Canadian law,
illegal dollars.
Comments:
Can you please let you readers know that before they post a comment they have to have a google/blogger identity. I know because I was posting and I didnt know you had to have a google/blogger identity to post a message and they erased almost 20 minutes of my opinion on false advertisement. Thank you and I hope this helps your readers understand to login before they post a comment.
Troy Sandoval, I wish you could have added your comment: it would have made for great discussion.
And you can in fact leave comments without logging into blogger. You can use the "Anonymous" radio button underneath the "Choose and identity" section, just like I'm doing for this comment.