originally published at http://www.thecomplaintstation.com/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Forum&report=Subtopic&SubtopicID=00031929&firstrecord=0&finalrecord=14
Unregistered Unregistered Posted on 26 Jul 2003 at 07:36.04 PM Type:Products Company Country:US_United StatesA DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICE
UCC was being touted on a local home improvement radio show. i thought that i would try to investigate it. on their website, i learned that i could not just walk in and check it out, i had to attend a special visiting session. until that session, UCC would provide no preliminary information...about anything. nothing about the membership fee[s]. nothing about the manufacturers they had access to.
though i thought that very strange, i attended my visitor session today. i can only say that i considered it a DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICE. a prospective member should be told, UP FRONT, what the membership fees will be, and that if one fails to join at that visit, then one cannot join later.
consider, you are compelled to listen to a video and personal presentation. at the end of that mixed media presentation, the membership fees are revealed, $3,500 for the first three years: then $160/yr for the remaining years of the membership 4-10.
following this, you are conducted to a concluding session with franchisee's employee. he or she will relay to you the UCC price of some item that you identified as being interested in when you entered the offices as a "visitor". then you will be asked to join. when you say that you would like to think it over, that you don't ordinarily make a decision to spend $3,500 based on a highly-scripted presentation[especially since no listing of the manufacturers that UCC has access to has been provided], you will be told if you don't join at that time you can never join later.
hearing that, i told the franchisee that i considered that a DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICE and vacated the premises immediately, as i was afraid that they might shackle me until i paid up so as to leave.
may not be totally a scam, but this policy goes off the scale of HARD SELLING tactics.
had i been told up front that this would be the way my visit was going to conclude, had i been told up front the membership fee, i would not have wasted my time. FOREWARNED IS FOREARMED
Thanks very much for your support.
albert champion
http://www.TheSqueakyWheel.com/complaints/complaint2632.cfm
Unregistered Unregistered Posted on 27 Jul 2003 at 01:44.15 AM Type:Products Company Country:US_United StatesUsing the airwaves makes puts them under the scrutiny of the FCC as well as FTC and Attorney Generals
Unregistered Unregistered Posted on 06 Aug 2003 at 05:12.17 PM Company Country:US_United StatesOur experience was the same, only we were not so lucky. Two years into our membership and we have never found anything to be a savings from the stores we already shop in. My advice to anyone is don't let yourself get sucked in! The exception may be if you already shop at very high-end retail stores.
Unregistered Unregistered Posted on 07 Aug 2003 at 12:08.11 AM Company Country:US_United StatesWe had the very same experience, hard sell is an understatement.
Unregistered Unregistered Posted on 07 Aug 2003 at 01:41.02 AM Type:Products Company Country:US_United StatesUseful websites with more information about this -
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