Complaint Review: United Consumers Club

In Ohio you have TWO years to file a lawsuit based on violations of the Consumer Sales Practices Act. I know this because I had the same experience you had and I contacted an attorney about it. I joined, look through the catalogs and did not find much of anything that I couldn't get for less at a retailer. I tried directly to get a refund. When I had no luck there I filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and with the state Attorney General. The BBB letter did not do much, but the AG letter made them stand up and take notice. I got my refund (partial, $3,000) on Nov. 11. If you haven't used the service and you have tried on your own to get the refund, you still might have these other options.

I threatened and fully intended to sue them if they didn't let me out. I think they are happy to be rid of me and, still, they suckered me out of $500.

Give it a try! People have to fight back when businesses are breaking the law with misleading/deceptive statements and high pressure.

In Ohio you have TWO years to file a lawsuit based on violations of the Consumer Sales Practices Act. I know this because I had the same experience you had and I contacted an attorney about it. I joined, look through the catalogs and did not find much of anything that I couldn't get for less at a retailer. I tried directly to get a refund. When I had no luck there I filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and with the state Attorney General. The BBB letter did not do much, but the AG letter made them stand up and take notice. I got my refund (partial, $3,000) on Nov. 11. If you haven't used the service and you have tried on your own to get the refund, you still might have these other options.

I threatened and fully intended to sue them if they didn't let me out. I think they are happy to be rid of me and, still, they suckered me out of $500.

Give it a try! People have to fight back when businesses are breaking the law with misleading/deceptive statements and high pressure.

In Ohio you have TWO years to file a lawsuit based on violations of the Consumer Sales Practices Act. I know this because I had the same experience you had and I contacted an attorney about it. I joined, look through the catalogs and did not find much of anything that I couldn't get for less at a retailer. I tried directly to get a refund. When I had no luck there I filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and with the state Attorney General. The BBB letter did not do much, but the AG letter made them stand up and take notice. I got my refund (partial, $3,000) on Nov. 11. If you haven't used the service and you have tried on your own to get the refund, you still might have these other options.

I threatened and fully intended to sue them if they didn't let me out. I think they are happy to be rid of me and, still, they suckered me out of $500.

Give it a try! People have to fight back when businesses are breaking the law with misleading/deceptive statements and high pressure.

A Canadian court found the membership agreement untenable and unenforcable because it violated the Consumer Protection Act, the Sales of Goods Act, and The Trade Practice Act. Read this at at paragraphs 13-20 of the ruling.

http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgments/pc/2002/01/p02%5F0197.htm

A NY court found the membership contract "grossly unconscionable" and that "Club membership is nothing more than a cleverly disguised method of selling nothing but hopes and dreams."

http://www.mlmlaw.com/library/cases/mlm/state/nyniemiec.htm

It seems to me that a contract found to violate all these things should sound the scam alerts.

My wife and I have been members for about 8 years now. We were contacted by telephone, etc, and had to decide whether or not to join while there. We knew we would want to buy new things over the next 10 years, so we took the leap of faith.

First of all, when they asked us to join, we were given free 100% access to all their catalogues to look at their confidential prices. The confidentiality is understandable because people will copy this info and use it to negotiate with local dealers (much like people legally do when buying a car - it's smart business). However, if you are a dealer with a certain pricing structure, you will be very upset with a supplier of a brand name providing this information to people (prospective UCC customers) to be used against you. So, the information is only for members who have agreed to its terms. This is understandable, and results in your not being able to leave without agreeing to the terms of membership.

Second, funrniture is without a doubt the best deal. We recently saved 2000 US dollars on bedroom furniture, along with several hundred dollars of other savings over the years and furniture as well as carpeting, etc. This membership has saved us a lot of money, and it is not an "at best break even" situation. It has been BIG savings - we have done our homework - believe me!

On the side of the complaint, they did not in fact tell us that furniture is the best savings. Therefore, anyone who was not informed of this up front, would perhaps not recoup their investment, and that is unfair. They did, however, have a color-coding system on the catalogues that let you know where the biggest savings would likely come from, and since we took the opportunity to look at some of them, we could actaully see what the prices were.

Furthermore, we use the membership as a time saver for certain big purchases. We know that in some areas we might catch something on sale for a little bit less - especially if we are willing to spend our weekends going from store to store to get the best deal. We have observed through much comparison shopping and research over the years that we can get reasonably close to any sales price by going to one place (and now we can do it all on-line without leaving our house!).

My advice to people is this: When they get the phone call invite to go to the club at a certain time, they will be told basically what the concept of the club is. Before going to the club for their high-pressure sales spiel (which I hated), research some big dollar items that they might want to buy in the next year or two. Then, compare these prices wih those at the club, and you have the answer as to whether or not membership will benefit you.

The bottom line is that this is like any other long-term thing you can buy. If you buy a book of savings coupons, or a health club membership, etc, you only benefit in how much and in what ways you end up using it. If you assess this inaccurately, you may only have yourslef to blame.

On the other hand, I do believe that the club should refund membership money to dissatisfied customers. I realize it's a headache for them, but no business should EVER keep people bound to a membership if they are dissatisfied. I realize that's not what the law says, but I do believe that is the more ethical position. In this area, the filer of this complaint does have a legitimate complaint, and might do well to hire a lawyer or file a case in small-claims court.

Dave,

You said that you saved hundreds of dollars and that your friends saved a couple of thousand dollars. Well how much did you pay for your membership? Still think you saved money?

For me to break even I would have to save $2500 CDN, I was just married and my wife and I had too MUCH furniture, we were giving it away! Even after I pointed this out to Bob, he still insisted that we could save money by buying more things from UCC. I pointed out that we had already looked and found NOTHING that we wanted that they could sell to us for less, NOTHING at all! My wife was pregnant and we needed baby stuff, and still there was nothing we couldn't get cheaper elsewhere; so I still consider them to be liars. They promised that I would benefit and I was unable to, through no lack of effort on my part.

If I had been given a decent opportunity to investigate I would have realized this, but I wasn't granted that opportunity. If they sincerely believe in what they claim then why not compete fairly and let people openly investigate their claims before deciding to joing their "club"?

UCC offers nothing more than the manufacturer's warranty and service packages. At best your friend broke even, but when you consider that had he bought from a major retailer he would have had their additional warranties and service packages, then I think you paid a lot for the priviledge of breaking even!

I have joined UCC and been a member for a while. I also intoduced UCC to a couple friends. While it is true that not all merchandise is cheaper than you can find at stores on sales and such, there is alot that you can save on. The most savings that I see if furnature. I bought a bedroom set and saved hndreds of dollars. You need to look a little furhter before you dismiss UCC all together.

One friend bought furnatre for thier new condo and saved a couple thousand dollars.

Food for thought