Vacuum cleaner sales fraud
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On June 11, 2008 the Vermont Attorney General announced that a settlement had been reached with Revolutionary Cleaning Systems (RCS), who had reportedly engaged in "unfair and deceptive practices" in the door-to-door sale of vacuum cleaners. Though RCS had since gone out of business, it's financial backer, Beneficial Credit Services, agreed to provide "rebates and offers of full refund totaling more than $244,000 to 205 Vermonters" who had purchased them.
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| Vermont Attorney General |
The company admitted to using a number of telemarketing scripts to arrange home meetings which were clearly deceptive.
In one script, a call was described as a "survey on household appliances". However it was not a survey but a means of obtaining information to use later in a sales pitch.
In a another script RCS claimed to have selected the consumer's name to receive a "free gift package" but did not mention a sales presentation.
In a third script, the RCS misrepresented the reason why they wanted to visit the consumer's home. RCS claimed that they simply wanted the consumer's opinion on a gift which a representative would drop by after the completion of the phone call.
RCS also admitted to claiming falsely that a special selection process had led to receiving the gift. In fact all consumers had been offered the same item.
Though the financing company, Beneficial, which backed RCS, did not create the scripts and did not make any of the sales calls, they were still liable under Vermont law.
Beneficial agreed either to cancel the sale entirely, or, for those who chose to keep the vacuum, to pay $750 to the consumer as a partial refund. In addition the company agreed to pay the state $35,000.
If you are interested in a professional Vermont house cleaning service please go to our contact page and let us know. Nancy will be happy to discuss with you the details of your cleaning project.
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