My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: Wisconsin
I'll do a short version. I can expand on this if need be:
My wife and I were planning on a trip to HI in January 2018. I have an on line business so I needed a secure connection so I could work on my business when we were on vacation. I have a cheap flip phone. I work out of my house and can't really justify having a smart phone. My wife has a smart phone and has US Cellular. I went to her US Cellular store not far from here and asked the guy at the counter if I could use my wife's account to connect to the internet when we were in HI. I told him I only wanted it for a month or two. He asked my wife's phone number and looked at his screen. He told me I could use their Hot Spot service and cancel it at anytime. He paused for a few seconds then said: You can also put it in suspension and activate it at a later date if you want to use it again. I said great. I needed a Hot Spot device and he told me I could go on eBay and buy a used one as a new one from the store was around $175. I did that. $20 on eBay. I went back to the store twice because the first Hot Spot device I bought on eBay did not work. At each visit I talked to these sales guys (young kids) about our upcoming trip to HI and that I only wanted this service for a couple months at most. On the second visit with the good Hot Spot device they made it work and I happily walked out. When we returned my wife called customer service at US Cellular and told them we wanted to cancel this service. The customer service person told her we could but there would be a $150 early termination fee because I signed a contract. She told them I would never commit to a 24 month contract just for a few weeks of use. I went to the store and talked to one guy I had never seen before. He seemed to say everything was OK so I left. My wife gets here phone bill and it has this $150 fee on it. So my wife and I both went to this US Cellular store down the street and talked to the young guys there. We first talked to a very young and maybe recently hired guy. He looked at his screen and did not seem to know what to say. So he looked ovor at this Nick guy. This Nick guy (young and arrogant as L) told me I signed a contract so we have to pay this bill. I told him I never signed a contract!. Show me a copy of my contract. He looked in some cabinets and said it is no longer in the store. He told me US Cellular had dropped it to $100. He then told me after a bit of heated discussion he would drop it to $80. I told him I am not paying anything. We walked out. An hour later he called and told me they were going to remove this charge from my wife's phone. A week later my wife starts getting phone calls from US Cellular saying this bill is due immediately. The one longest employed employee there (seems to manage both stores) also works at another store inside a mall. I looked on line for a US Cellular store in that city and found what I thought was his store. We went in and found out it was the wrong store. His store was across the street inside the mall but that guy was on vacation or something. But a guy there helped us. I told him I think I was scammed by these 2 young guys at this US Cellular store. A few days later he called and told me they removed this from my wife's bill which we verified on line.
I called an attorney and he told me if they could not produce a copy of the signed contract I could take them to small claims court. But they did remove that charge from her bill. In my opinion these 2 young guys at the US Cellular store did this to purposely rip me off. In my opinion they have probably did things like this to other customers. I had the idea I could sue US Cellular for this happening in their store. I called a local attorney and he told me I could not. I could but only for the amount they overcharged me. So if they succeed in scamming many but refunding only to the few that fight back is this not a criminal offense? In my opinion I have no need to try to talk to a higher level US Cellular person. They all stick together and nothing will ever become of it. In my opinion this never got to a higher level person at US Cellular and even if it did in my opinion they would never do much of anything about it. So how can we (as a US society) fight back against this type of activity in the cell phone industry?
Thanks
Rodney
I'll do a short version. I can expand on this if need be:
My wife and I were planning on a trip to HI in January 2018. I have an on line business so I needed a secure connection so I could work on my business when we were on vacation. I have a cheap flip phone. I work out of my house and can't really justify having a smart phone. My wife has a smart phone and has US Cellular. I went to her US Cellular store not far from here and asked the guy at the counter if I could use my wife's account to connect to the internet when we were in HI. I told him I only wanted it for a month or two. He asked my wife's phone number and looked at his screen. He told me I could use their Hot Spot service and cancel it at anytime. He paused for a few seconds then said: You can also put it in suspension and activate it at a later date if you want to use it again. I said great. I needed a Hot Spot device and he told me I could go on eBay and buy a used one as a new one from the store was around $175. I did that. $20 on eBay. I went back to the store twice because the first Hot Spot device I bought on eBay did not work. At each visit I talked to these sales guys (young kids) about our upcoming trip to HI and that I only wanted this service for a couple months at most. On the second visit with the good Hot Spot device they made it work and I happily walked out. When we returned my wife called customer service at US Cellular and told them we wanted to cancel this service. The customer service person told her we could but there would be a $150 early termination fee because I signed a contract. She told them I would never commit to a 24 month contract just for a few weeks of use. I went to the store and talked to one guy I had never seen before. He seemed to say everything was OK so I left. My wife gets here phone bill and it has this $150 fee on it. So my wife and I both went to this US Cellular store down the street and talked to the young guys there. We first talked to a very young and maybe recently hired guy. He looked at his screen and did not seem to know what to say. So he looked ovor at this Nick guy. This Nick guy (young and arrogant as L) told me I signed a contract so we have to pay this bill. I told him I never signed a contract!. Show me a copy of my contract. He looked in some cabinets and said it is no longer in the store. He told me US Cellular had dropped it to $100. He then told me after a bit of heated discussion he would drop it to $80. I told him I am not paying anything. We walked out. An hour later he called and told me they were going to remove this charge from my wife's phone. A week later my wife starts getting phone calls from US Cellular saying this bill is due immediately. The one longest employed employee there (seems to manage both stores) also works at another store inside a mall. I looked on line for a US Cellular store in that city and found what I thought was his store. We went in and found out it was the wrong store. His store was across the street inside the mall but that guy was on vacation or something. But a guy there helped us. I told him I think I was scammed by these 2 young guys at this US Cellular store. A few days later he called and told me they removed this from my wife's bill which we verified on line.
I called an attorney and he told me if they could not produce a copy of the signed contract I could take them to small claims court. But they did remove that charge from her bill. In my opinion these 2 young guys at the US Cellular store did this to purposely rip me off. In my opinion they have probably did things like this to other customers. I had the idea I could sue US Cellular for this happening in their store. I called a local attorney and he told me I could not. I could but only for the amount they overcharged me. So if they succeed in scamming many but refunding only to the few that fight back is this not a criminal offense? In my opinion I have no need to try to talk to a higher level US Cellular person. They all stick together and nothing will ever become of it. In my opinion this never got to a higher level person at US Cellular and even if it did in my opinion they would never do much of anything about it. So how can we (as a US society) fight back against this type of activity in the cell phone industry?
Thanks
Rodney
Retailers: Cell Phone Provider: Thieft Bait and Switch Scam
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