A solicitor from Redwood Empire Technologies contacted my fiance and me by phone early August and offered 2 nights at a resort at Tahoe plus a $50 gas coupon for listening to a one hour presentation on an air purifier. We were assured that there would be no obligation to purchase anything to get the offered prize, in the event we declined to buy.
Sales rep arrived at 7:45 pm to our house. He performed his presentation on an air purifier and a Magestic vacuum cleaner made by FilterQueen that lasted more than 2 hours, instead of one.
At the end of the presentation we had to fill out a questionnaire about the products, but the available answers were only yes or no. Especially the last question on the questions list made me feel uneasy. The question was: if we (the Redwood Empire Tech) come up with the plan that fits your need and budget, will you buy the system today? Yes/No. We did not want to give the answer until we saw the prices. But the sales rep told us to answer yes and circled Yes anyway, saying that it was just for the records.
The price for the vacuum initially was $2798. We thought it was outrageous and refused to buy anything. Then the salesman started to line up a payment plan and insisted on getting my credit report in order to give us a credit for the purchase.
After I firmly refused to buy, the sales rep got on the phone with his boss and stayed on it while talking to us which I thought was kind of rude. He kept lowering the down payment and the monthly payments while on a phone. My fiance left the room after 2 hours. It was past 10:30 and he had to get up at 5:00am.
I still refused to buy because the final price was too high, so the sales rep became very aggressive, started yelling and called me a liar. I asked why, and he told me that I answered Yes on that last question and now I am saying that I am not going to buy it today. I was trying to explain that he did not come with plan that I would consider acceptable. He kept calling me a liar, which really made me angry.
Salesman was all that time with his boss on the phone. Very rude! Then he got even more aggressive, called me a liar and told me I was cheap, told me to stick my face into that dirty filter pad that he used for demonstration. I was very insulted by his behavior.
At the end, I was tired, I did not like the salesman's attitude and the whole thing did not appeal to me as trustworthy anymore even though he lowered the price by $1200. So I said I am not going to buy anything even for a $100 and told him to leave. He called me something like a scammer and a triple liar and blamed me that he wasted all that time for nothing.
At the end, I reminded about the promised gift for listening to his rude and aggressive presentation the 2 nights at Tahoe and the $50 gas card. He answered, that there is not deal anymore, and that he does not have the vouchers with him. (So he never intended to give them at all anyway?)
Since then I have called the Redwood Empire Technologies Inc. Nine times and asked the company to give us the promised 2 nights at Tahoe and the $50 gas card. Each time I was told they were in the mail.
And finally after the whole month the company owner rudely answered that they will NOT give us the promised items because my fiance left before the presentation was over which is against the agreement where both members of the family must stay till the end on order to get the prize.
There was no such agreement! And my fiance stayed till the end through the questionnaire period. The presenter went way past the one hour time initially stated by the company.
The entire process lasted nearly three hours, including about 20 minutes of angry, aggressive, and rude name calling by the presenter. This made me very uncomfortable and scared.
Why are people like this allowed to conduct business in Santa Rosa?
Even though Redwood Empire Technologies sales rep did not take any of our money, we paid with our time. I think that we deserve the promised gift of 2 nights at a lake Tahoe resort and the promised $50 gas card in compensation for the time we spent listening to the presentation. I would appreciate some punitive damages to compensate us for the aggravation caused by the continuous diversionary tactics and lies to avoid meeting their implied contractual obligations.
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