Better Business Bureau Serving Southwest Idaho & Eastern Oregon Blog

Fraudulent tactics in manufactured housing sales are being used by some dealers. With the housing market being where it is, many persons are looking to manufactured housing as an economical and dependable source of homeownership. Manufactured homes offer the qualities of standard built homes and many excellent features. But buying from a dependable dealer is essential. Some homes are appearing on the internet and buyers are not getting full disclosure of costs, often having a home dropped off on their site with no further contact from the dealership. Some dealers are using bait & switch tactics to inflate a posted price by not mentioning essentials that the buyer would assume are included. Dependable and ethical dealers work with buyers to understand what is necessary and required to effectively buy and install a manufactured home. Be watchful of “deals”, ask questions, get it in writing, and deal with ethical businesses, search for manufactured home dealers at www.bbb.org.

What better place to start my blogging career than on an airplane. On one side, a woman completely absorbed in Self magazine – melodramatically sighing every thirty seconds.  You know, the kind of sigh that says, “Like, ohmygawd, I can’t believe how slow this airplane, is like, going.”

On the other side, the type of passenger that makes sitting in the center seat bearable.

In this space, I ‘d like to bring you inside the Better Business Bureau office, share some of the funny stories and tip you off to scams and bad business practices. 

The BBB is about building trust in the marketplace.  We inform consumers – believing an informed consumer will make the best buying decisions.  We are the independent third party that verifies businesses follow standards that build trust in the market place…standards such as advertising honestly, telling the truth, fulfilling promises, operating with transparency; the list of expectations you have before plunking down hard-earned money.  The businesses that operate in an ethical manner, earning your trust, naturally earn more of your business.  Everyone wins.

We take a lot of phone calls at the BBB.  We had more than 165,000 contacts with consumers in our service area in 2007.  People come to us looking for trustworthy businesses – and to complain about businesses that have not lived up to expectations.

Here’s the call that still has people talking in the office:  Kathy sticks her head in my office door and says, “I have an elderly gentleman on the phone and he refuses to speak to a woman.  He says he will only talk to a man and you’re the only man in the office right now.”  This must be good, so I tell her to patch it through. 

Once our elderly gentleman hears a male voice, he loses all inhibition. 

“I was watching television late last night,” he said. “On came this male enhancement ad promising a free sample.  I called to get my free sample and you know what?  They wanted to sell me the pills first!”

He was incredulous.  “How dare they!” 

Everything you read from here on is based solely on research.  I have no first-hand experience.  Don’t even start with the ‘thou doest protest too much’ responses. 

I explained to the caller that the very fact this was a late night TV info-mercial combined with the outlandish claims of “enhancement” and free should be enough to prevent him from making the call in the first place.  I explained that the FDA does not regulate the product and, in fact, the companies have been sued by several attorneys general throughout the U.S.  He didn’t care.  “They shouldn’t say they are going to give me a free sample if they don’t mean it.” 

Once again, I go back to the logic of, “They’re offering a bogus product, why would they advertise it honestly?”

He wanted to know what he could do.  I recommended he get some sleep at night rather than watch TV. 

And, about the company?  Well he could join the 300+ people who had filed complaints with the BBB or chalk it up as a learning experience and not fall for the free sample offer on late night TV.  I recommended the latter because the company had failed to respond to most of the 300+ complaints, and it would probably treat him the same way.

“It’s still wrong!” he said, finishing the call. 

Yes, it is still wrong.  However, as long as people continue to dial that toll-free number, quotas are being met to continue running the info-mercial, which in turn keeps those little pills, full of who-knows-what, showing up in mail boxes on regularly scheduled deliveries – tied directly to automatically renewing orders charged to a credit card.  The only thing growing is frustration….and the bank account of the pill pusher.  It is an enhancement product – a profit enhancer.  Enough.

Please keep the responses, calls and questions coming.

The flight continues.  The sighs are now every 15-seconds, intermittent with sniffling…. Oh, just pass her a tissue please!  But at least she’s not reading over my shoulder!

Until next time…