Consumer Safety & Awareness Part 8

Bait & Switch: Retail Stores and Services

We previously discussed how a mattress company was cited for bait and switch. All types of stores do it, and many get away with it. There are a number of variations used. Food stores like to advertise for their lower quality meats, and when you see how much fat, bone, and gristle there is, they hope you upgrade. Stores frequently display poorer items on the same shelf with the more profitable one.

Shelf placement is a trick all stores use. Products they want you to purchase are placed between waist and head level, with lower profit items on the bottom. Companies actually pay stores for ideal placement. Rather than doing this in cash, which may be illegal in some jurisdictions, they give the store discounts and extra products.

Electronic products are used in borderline bait and switch ploys. Stores may advertise for last year’s product and place it next to this year’s. Lower quality components are featured with the hopes that after you listen to the poor sound, you’ll switch up.

Digital camera scams abound. Many of them follow the same pattern and we have discovered eleven complaints against nine different companies using the same formula. Computer magazine Maximum PC explains a typical example: You order a specific camera by telephone, mail or Internet. Months later, you still haven't received it. You call the vendor, and you're given a song and dance about it being back-ordered because of X excuse, (but) would you like to buy the camera bundle with some accessories for $1,700? If you fall for the up-sell ... you'll notice that your package bundle includes (only) the battery and charger (which are normally included with the camera for MSRP). If you give up and cancel the order, you've wasted a ton of time, you don't have a camera, and the company has had your $600 for three months.

In November, 2008, the following action was taken:
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today charged two online digital camera and electronics retailers with conducting an unlawful bait-and-switch sales scheme. Today’s enforcement action seeks restitution for Texans who suffered financially because of the defendants’ unlawful conduct.

According to state investigators, Broadway Photo, L.L.C. and Starlight Camera & Video Inc., both of Brooklyn, N.Y., attempted to attract customers by offering the lowest retail prices on price-comparison Web sites. Once customers selected merchandise and made credit card purchases via the defendants’ Web sites, customers were notified that their orders had been processed. Despite the order-processing notice, customers were subsequently asked to call a specified telephone number to confirm their orders.

However, rather than use the calls to confirm customers orders, the defendants instead initiated aggressive, high-pressure sales pitches promoting over-priced accessories, including memory cards and batteries. The defendants’ telemarketers insisted these upgraded accessories were needed in order for the customers’ confirmed merchandise to function normally.

When customers refused these offers, the defendants told the customers the confirmed merchandise was substandard and lacked warranties. The defendants’ telemarketers encouraged customers to purchase different, more expensive products. If customers refused, the defendants canceled the orders, claiming the products were indefinitely back-ordered. When the defendants actually did ship orders, customers who intended to purchase new merchandise often received used or refurbished products.

In 2002, a federal court in Nevada issued an order against a BTV Industries e-mail scam that offered free video-game consoles but instead routed people to a pornography Web site charging $3.99 per minute. “According to the FTC, in the "bait-and-switch" scheme consumers received unsolicited spam e-mail messages claiming that the recipients had won a free Sony PlayStation 2 or other prize through a promotion supposedly sponsored by Yahoo. In fact, the e-mail messages directed consumers to an adult Internet site through a 900-number modem connection that charged them up to $3.99 per minute of use. Apparently, when consumers responded to the e-mail informing them that they had won the game system, they then were routed to a Web page that imitated an authentic Yahoo page. That page then instructed consumers to download a program that would purportedly permit them to connect to a "toll-free" Web site where they could enter their name and address to request a PlayStation. Yet, when consumers adhered to these instructions, they were connected to a pornographic site by way of a 900-number, where they then incurred per-minute charges.

In October 2008, a Hess Express gas station in West Roxbury, Massachusetts was “fined for displaying gas prices that weren’t what they were selling. The bait-and-switch occurred for a 15- to 25-minute period on Sept. 18 around 2 p.m. It is a clear violation of consumer rights, according to the city’s Inspectional Services Department. When prices go up, they must change the signs first and then the pumps, according to ISD. When a price change was done, the station had neglected to change the price on pumps.”

A newly discovered, but not too infrequent trick of automotive dealers, is to entice people in stating that they offer the top price on trade-ins. The salesperson refuses to give the trade-in price until a car is selected. Once that is done, a very low trade-in is offered, often raised slightly upon complaint. If the buyer backs down, the salesperson insists that he has to pay for the new car anyway since the paperwork was completed while they were negotiating. In some cases the used car had been brought to the service center for “evaluation,” and the dealership refused to give the car back, again saying the deal was completed.

This October, in Tallahassee, Florida, a Central Florida internet pharmacy company was sued by the attorney general, because “the company engaged in a “bait and switch” scheme, luring consumers into providing their credit card information by advertising prescription diet pills for significantly reduced prices. The company would then bill consumers for the prescription diet pills but would send herbal supplements instead of the purchased pills.

Professional Wrestler Magazine claims that a bait and switch was used to attract people to a wrestling event. “TNA really pumped up the audience with word of a "big announcement that will change the wrestling world." They even ran advertisements of the "big announcement" bearing Mick Foley's image on some of the biggest wrestling websites. And they saved the "big announcement" for its over-hyped "historic" show at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas.” The announcement was simply that he had brought stock in a company related to the wrestling industry.

Television news shows use the same ploy to get you to stay tuned for a major announcement after the commercial, assuming that you will watch the ad while waiting for the totally unimportant item. They build up the tension by having the news announcers state that it was coming up three or four times, and then not giving the information until the end of the show.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports complaints about carpet cleaning companies who put advertising coupons in your mailbox or in the glossy inserts in the newspaper with "specials" like $5.95 per room or whole house for $49.95. Once they arrive, they offer a more expensive service giving a variety of reasons. If you turn them down, they use inexpensive inert chemicals that can sometimes harm rugs, do a rapid job, take your money and leave.