Cancellind a Contract
Complaint
Thomas
Country: United States
My wife and I joined the Bentonville AR club October 4th 2011. We did not know of a three day cooling off period nor does our contract have any mention of such a policy.
Since our joining, we have made two purchases. Both were made at our orientation visit, two days later. One item was received by us sometime
the first part of November. We have yet to receive the second item of our order.
Part of our joining the club was to purchase a home entertainment system.
After comparing their prices, and without even checking the cost of their shipping, handling and taxes, we purchased at a much lower price from Amazon.com with no charge for S/H. After making this purchase we visited
the club to ask about cancelling our order and our membership.
We were willing to pay a penalty to close our contract. The Marketing Director said they would try to cancel the order but had no policy to cancel our membership although he would speak with the store manager. I telephoned the store Four times during the next ten days. He was never there or at a meeting. He never returned any of my calls. I phoned the
Corporate Headquaters and inquired there about cancelling. I was told the stores are individually owned and they could do nothing, but that they would send an e-mail to the store about my complaint. We got no reply.
We have since learned the store has moved to a new location. We were never notified of their closing or of the address of the new location. Also, we have never received our order or a refund for it. No communication from
the store what-so-ever.
We made a $350 initial payment and a contract for rhe remaining $3140. We had expected to pay off the balance to save the $299 finance charge, however after our experience with them we have not paid the balance only two payments hoping there was a way we could get out of our contract.
Is it possible to get out of the Direct Buy contract?
Since our joining, we have made two purchases. Both were made at our orientation visit, two days later. One item was received by us sometime
the first part of November. We have yet to receive the second item of our order.
Part of our joining the club was to purchase a home entertainment system.
After comparing their prices, and without even checking the cost of their shipping, handling and taxes, we purchased at a much lower price from Amazon.com with no charge for S/H. After making this purchase we visited
the club to ask about cancelling our order and our membership.
We were willing to pay a penalty to close our contract. The Marketing Director said they would try to cancel the order but had no policy to cancel our membership although he would speak with the store manager. I telephoned the store Four times during the next ten days. He was never there or at a meeting. He never returned any of my calls. I phoned the
Corporate Headquaters and inquired there about cancelling. I was told the stores are individually owned and they could do nothing, but that they would send an e-mail to the store about my complaint. We got no reply.
We have since learned the store has moved to a new location. We were never notified of their closing or of the address of the new location. Also, we have never received our order or a refund for it. No communication from
the store what-so-ever.
We made a $350 initial payment and a contract for rhe remaining $3140. We had expected to pay off the balance to save the $299 finance charge, however after our experience with them we have not paid the balance only two payments hoping there was a way we could get out of our contract.
Is it possible to get out of the Direct Buy contract?
Comments
I asked for cancellation and refund. The request was refused. The argument was that some product such as appliances often are shipped free of charge. This is their logic. How about the products that manufacturers do charge a fee for shipping? Do customers have the right to know all the charges when they make decision about the investment? I did not ask the handling charge since I did not know such charges but I did ask specifically about the shipping charge and the sale rep knows that we are interested in furniture. For these items, the charge can be rather high.
I cannot believe such business practice is allowed. I filed complains to local consumer protection agencies. I hope that there is a law that allows the consumer to get out a contract that was signed under such condition.