Trying to cancel, no luck
Complaint
Miranda
Country: United States
My husband and I joined Direct Buy on december 2,2010. After reading the emails on this site and having second thoughts, we cancelled on December 9. They will not let us out of our contract, and after putting 1200.00 down we are now being billed for the remaining 5300.00. My husband and i have agreed that we will not give the company any more money and are prepared to fight collections, and file Bankruptcy if we have to. We both have excellent credit, and just want out. We have now written two letters sent via certified mail rescinding the contract. We have not used the service at all. We are at our wits end. We would like to picket the business, but we are only two people and think it would have more effect if we could get a large group to picket. We also need to contact local law enforcement and verify it is legal to picket on Shaw ave in Fresno. See our second correspondence to the company below:
Seaver group LLC
DBA Direct Buy of Fresno
4150 West Shaw Ave.
Fresno, CA 93722
559-476-2300
Dear Troy Seavers,
I am writing to respond to your letter dated December 17, 2010.
As you know, we signed our contract with your business on December 2, 2010 and called to cancel the membership on December 9, 2010 as well as sending you written notification of our wish to rescind the contract on December 9, 2010. My husband and I have notified Beta finance company that we cancelled our membership with Direct Buy and that we would not be paying any further amount toward the membership. The response from the finance company was that they would continue to bill us until they received notification from Direct Buy that the account was cancelled. Now, in addition to having paid a down payment of 1200.00 to your company for services not utilized, Beta finance will continue to bill us and eventually send us to collections for a membership we simply want out of.
In addition to not receiving our username and password in the agreed 3-5 business days, as discussed in our previous letter, we also have not received our membership cards to access other Direct Buy clubs. We believe that you are in violation of the contract and therefore we require a full refund from you and cancellation of our membership. Above all, we believe that Direct Buy puts undue duress and pressure on all clients thereby making the contract invalid.
We have been attempting to contact the Better Business Bureau regarding this dilemma, and will continue to do so. We also would like to prevent other people from making this same costly mistake, so we are sending copies of this correspondence to local newspapers and television stations as well as telling our story by word of mouth.
Sincerely,
CC: Channel 17 Eyewitness News, Bakersfield Californian, Kern Valley Sun, Fresno Bee
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!
Seaver group LLC
DBA Direct Buy of Fresno
4150 West Shaw Ave.
Fresno, CA 93722
559-476-2300
Dear Troy Seavers,
I am writing to respond to your letter dated December 17, 2010.
As you know, we signed our contract with your business on December 2, 2010 and called to cancel the membership on December 9, 2010 as well as sending you written notification of our wish to rescind the contract on December 9, 2010. My husband and I have notified Beta finance company that we cancelled our membership with Direct Buy and that we would not be paying any further amount toward the membership. The response from the finance company was that they would continue to bill us until they received notification from Direct Buy that the account was cancelled. Now, in addition to having paid a down payment of 1200.00 to your company for services not utilized, Beta finance will continue to bill us and eventually send us to collections for a membership we simply want out of.
In addition to not receiving our username and password in the agreed 3-5 business days, as discussed in our previous letter, we also have not received our membership cards to access other Direct Buy clubs. We believe that you are in violation of the contract and therefore we require a full refund from you and cancellation of our membership. Above all, we believe that Direct Buy puts undue duress and pressure on all clients thereby making the contract invalid.
We have been attempting to contact the Better Business Bureau regarding this dilemma, and will continue to do so. We also would like to prevent other people from making this same costly mistake, so we are sending copies of this correspondence to local newspapers and television stations as well as telling our story by word of mouth.
Sincerely,
CC: Channel 17 Eyewitness News, Bakersfield Californian, Kern Valley Sun, Fresno Bee
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!
Comments
Contact your state Attorney General or local District Attorney consumer protection unit. See if the company is subject to any consent agreement.
Look at any fraudulent misrepresentations made in the sales pitch, that might make it a "bait and switch" deceptive trade practice.
What did the salesperson overpromise, that the company is failing to deliver?
Did they deliberately create confusion between different "membership products" and their costs?
Did the salesperson attempt to interfere with your reading of the contract, at the same time he was pressuring you to immediately sign?
Were pages of the contract withheld, being added later, perhaps, when they sent you your copy?
Did the "membership contract" obscure that it was actually a loan, failing to clearly disclose the financing costs? Did it fail to comply with state or federal law, such as TILA?
In particular, look at any cancellation clauses, any limitations on cancellations, any ambiguous cancellation wording that they are now applying to your detriment, and any sales misrepresentations or deceptive tactics used to block cancellations allowed under the contract.
If there was a short cancellation period, did the other party withhold your copy of the contract under a pretext ("We can't give you your copy until we get it signed by the corporation", etc.) so that you would not have the information you would need to actually exercise a cancellation clause within an allowed contractual or statutory time period?
Your other approach is, as you may already be doing, to focus attention on the company's practices from local consumer reporters.
"Under the “Cooling-Off Rule, the salesperson must tell you about your cancellation rights at the time of sale. The salesperson also must give you two copies of a cancellation form (one to keep and one to send) and a copy of your contract or receipt."
Mr. O'connor did not give us these copies. In case they do not respect this cancellation letter, who do we appeal to?
There is no easy way to get your money back because VA has no cooling off period. You will have to sue and win the action to get your $. Good Luck!
I Hope that you get this message right away,
your contract is supposed to allow you 72 hours, not business hours,
PLEASE SEND REGISTERED MAIL IMMEDIATELY,
THAT is the only official proof of notification (don't talk to them, &DO NOT GO THERE)
Adress it to the owner of the location where you joined
& you are RESCINDING the contract, were not given proper paper work re:
cancellation
I am guessing that you have not received your password/and or/access to the db website of prices,
you can also mention this as a major point, that during the cooling-off period, you were unable to compare prices due to that fact,
good luck, don't give up!!
We were told if we did not sign at the time we were there the we would not be invited back, nor would we be able to take the packet with us when we left. I signed as I believed what they told me.
When we returned home I read all the information within the packet. I found that hours of operation were Tuesday thru Friday to speak with anyone, so speaking with anyone about canceling would not be possible. Also within the contract the right to cancel states "by the close of the next business day following the day contract was signed by delivering or mailing the buyers club written notice." due to DB being closed on the only business day, I could not hand deliver. My fiancé, who is a Postal Carrier, took the written letter so the postmark would be "deemed to be given as of the date of cancellation."
I know the written letter was postmarked within the time stated on the contract but when I received a bill from Beta Finance and called stating I sent a cancellation letter I was told it was never received. What can I do to end this contract?
I sent this same mail to the AG in Colorado requesting 855.68 back. Haven't heard back yet. What else can we do?
telling them I was blindsided by it all, but I just cant afford it and want
to cancel, they told me to email them and gave me an email address,
they responded and said they would get back with me in a couple days, they
never did, they just ignored my pleas to cancel because I decided it was
just not the right time. and I cant afford it. Direct buy is a scam
and is only out to get your money. I think we should start an anti-direct buy website and warn the rest of the country about what a scam they are.
run them out of buisiness and help protect our american brothers and sisters, We must stand together and fight
Yours.
We will try again to cancel as we have this letter and will update you all. Don't be afraid to ask for a written statement!
The Sales lady was a total nut as she would get angry if we asked questions.
We researched the prices and this is the conclusion: unless you want VERY high end items, then you will get a good deal and if you remodel, it is worth it. Otherwise if you can do with mediocre furnishings or antique shopping, then don't bother with Direct Buy as you can invest that $4k to $5k membership price elsewhere. Also, they wouldn't tell us how we are to pay for the products as they were saying it may be financed or pay up front - that is insane!
Hope this helps!