Three for Thursday 06.24.2021
Welcome to TrustDALE's Three For Thursday with Consumer Investigator Dale Cardwell.
Fate. What comes around goes around. Karma. Call it what you will, I believe in it. Recently I discovered a company that picks up your furniture during a water disaster and stores it. You sign a contract in a panic, only to realize you obligated yourself to a storage fee that was yet to be named. Juanita discovered her storage fee for about 10k worth of heirloom furniture was $35,000! Thank goodness she found TrustDALE before she paid the ransom, and because of fear of being exposed, the company dropped the price to $5,000. Enter our trusted moving partner Georgia Pack and Load. With no promise of anything, their President Read Ahleman volunteered to move Juanita's furniture from the storehouse to her home for $0 charge. Two companies, two very different approaches. Don't sign contracts without estimates and valid explanations of how that estimate can change! Meanwhile, remember karma. I've got a good feeling both the companies described above will be experiencing it - in very different forms.
Watch this Investigation
Consumer Investigation = Plumbing payout. When your neighbor's plumbing backs up and suddenly the plumber wants you to pay for the repairs! Watch, because This Could Happen to You!
Ask Dale
Today's Real Consumer Question is from Bendi who wants to know if someone can come on your property and survey your land without your knowledge or permission. This one may surprise you!
Todays Lesson on how to be a Savvy Consumer!
Today's seven-point lesson is how to recognize you're being lured into the "rip-off range" orr-o-r.
Fast - Do they want your money NOW? Cash up front is often a hallmark of a con artist.
Funds - Is the investment required relevant to the promised payoff? Something for nothing, unsupported by documentation is a sign of the r-o-r.
Found - A person who intends to rip you off will make certain he can't be found after he gets your money. People who routinely operate in the r-o-r take procedures to not be found.
Define - Your deal by comparing Product, Offer and Price. It doesn't matter if you're well-versed in what you want, the r-o-r artist will over promise and under or never deliver.
Ensure - Your deal with an Ethical negotiation, an Equitable contract, and an Effective Guarantee. Absence of, or confusing or one-sided contracts are evidence you're being lured...
Authenticate - Your deal by requesting References, checking reviews, and examining government and watchdog reports. Lack of references, relatively new company, and absence of reviews are red flags.
SCAMMERS BEWARE: SEASONED CONSUMER INVESTIGATOR DALE CARDWELL GIVES READERS A GAME PLAN TO AVOID RIP-OFFS