HealthyBack Forces Free Pillows On Customer, Then Charges Him $120
Tony bought a Tempur-Pedic mattress from healthyback.com last December, and they sent him two pillows as a "free gift." Tony didn't want the pillows, but HealthyBack refused to take them back, and assured him they were part of a promotion.
When he tried to return the mattress, HealthyBack charged him $120 for the non-returnable pillows.
Tony wrote the following email to the CEO of HealthyBack earlier today:
Dear Mr. Mazlish:
In December 2008, I ordered a Tempur-Pedic mattress from healthyback.com.
I didn't like it and returned it within 90 days as per your return policy.
Your company deducted its return shipping charge of $179 from the amount they refunded me. That's fine.
They also deducted another $120 or so for two pillows that they had thrown in for free — they had a promotion where they were throwing in two pillows with every Tempur-Pedic mattress order at that time.
I called to complain about that and they referred me to the "Gift with purchase items" section buried in your return policy page: http://www.healthyback.com/90day_comfort_guarantee.htm (scroll down, way down)
I would be happy to return the pillows — unopened, in the darn box your company shipped them in — but various employees, including people named "Lianna," "Carmen," and "Kharisma Knepshield," informed me that since the pillows were a "gift" (a gift which I am now paying money for), they were not eligible for return. Sometimes these employees told me it was a "sanitary issue." When I informed them that the pillows remain unopened, suddenly it was no longer a "sanitary issue" — but just company policy.
I have these questions for you.
- 1. As Healthyback's CEO, were you aware of this practice?
- 2. Do you see how to send something unordered to a customer and then retroactively charge the customer for it — and refuse a return — appears to be a scam?
- 3. Why does your company insist on using the term "gift" for things that your company charges money for?
- 4. Kharisma Knepshield told me that it was "standard industry practice" for mattress companies to include "gifts with purchase" and then charge for these "gifts." Do you agree? If so, what are some other companies that do this?
Thank you for your time.
We hope HealthyBack's CEO gets back to you, Tony, but in the meantime you should familiarize yourself with the FTC's "Mail Order or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule," which also applies to Internet purchases:
Unordered Merchandise
Whether or not the Rule is involved, in any approval or other sale you must obtain the customer's prior express agreement to receive the merchandise. Otherwise the merchandise may be treated as unordered merchandise. It is unlawful to:
1. Send any merchandise by any means without the express request of the recipient (unless the merchandise is clearly identified as a gift, free sample, or the like); or,
2. Try to obtain payment for or the return of the unordered merchandise.
Merchants who ship unordered merchandise with knowledge that it is unlawful to do so can be subject to civil penalties of up to $11,000 per violation. Moreover, customers who receive unordered merchandise are legally entitled to treat the merchandise as a gift. Using the U.S. mails to ship unordered merchandise also violates the Postal laws.
You might want to send another email to that CEO and let him know that you're aware of this rule even if he isn't, and that you will report him to the FTC and your states' Attorneys General, as well as request a chargeback, if he doesn't have his reps immediately reverse the $120 charge. You can probably phrase it more politely than that, of course, but don't forget that you've got the law on your side. All Anthony Mazlish has on his side is a scam for penalizing customers who, in good faith, take him up on his return policy.
Update: It looks like Tony may be stuck paying for the pillows after all, according to reader Michael Belisle who checked out the fine print. This doesn't make it any less a scam, but the FTC rule likely will not work if Tony knew about the pillows before they were sent, and if HealthyBack notes that they'll charge for a return.
If you order a mattress and the company insists on throwing freebies in with it, be sure to check the fine print before you accept the order, or else you could find yourself in possession of a couple of fluffy "return policy insurance" pillows designed to screw you out of some extra cash should you return the mattress.
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Comments:
Is the comment section broken for anyone else on this page? I'm on Safari 4 beta 2, and the comments section is pushed all the way over to the left. This is only on this story, others are totally fine.
P.S. Sorry for my likely many spelling and punctuation errors- I can only see about five characters of my comment (the mos right ones)
If the pillows are listed on the invoice or mentioned pre-sale, they're not unordered. That's what it sounds like from "they had a promotion where they were throwing in two pillows with every Tempur-Pedic mattress order at that time."
it's crap that they won't take them back (and they should take them back or give him a refund) since it's clear Tony didn't want them in the first place, but it doesn't seem like the unordered merchandise rule would work on the CEO unless he's gullible.
Sorry for double posting, but there's this also nasty but wholly expected bit in the terms:
Gift with purchase items:Items received free with the purchase of a product on promotion will be charged at full retail price should you return or cancel the corresponding promotional item.
"Kharisma Knepshield" is going to be my new name on boards that allow anonymous comments.
page formatting is off. Tested in Firefox 3.X, IE6 and Chrome.
@Michael Belisle: Which along with this note pretty much outlines the scam they're running.
Bedding:Due to health codes limiting the resale of bedding items; pillows, sheets, mattress overlays/toppers, pillow covers and mattress covers are not returnable.
So I can probably answer questions 1–4 for the CEO:
1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. Because we covered our ass in the terms.
4. [Left as an exercise for the reader, but I've seen this before.]
@Michael Belisle: Thanks for this, I think. I can only read half of your comment right now but I'll update the post.
OK, I'm setting a multi-posting record here, but there is a way out mentioned in the FAQ that apparently every customer service representative failed to inform him about.
If free pillows were sent with the mattress as part of a sale, they need to be returned separately to:Healthyback.com
Attn: Internet Returns
8245 Backlick Road
Dock Door T
Lorton, VA 22079Please see the return instructions, listed above, for packaging pillows. Remember to enclose a copy of your invoice with the pillows. If pillows are not received by the time the mattress return has been processed, the retail dollar amount of the pillows will not be refunded to your credit card. Please click on the following link to see the retail cost of your pillow: /store/pillows.htm
This seems pretty straight-forward and the OP is totally in the right.
The OP agrees to a return policy that charges for an otherwise free gift in the event of a product return. (The use of a soilable gift is shady practice but not relevant here.)
The OP now wants to return the gifts in an unopened condition and obviously has proof of purchase. I don't think any company can refuse to accept that sort of return.
If HealthyBack won't give you your MoneyBack, then just do a ChargeBack, because those motherfuckers don't know how to act. What Comes Around Goes Around, My Love!
comments are being cut off on the left side, unreadable
@SquareBubbles: Same problem. My config:
Version information
Version
9.64
Build
10487
Platform
Win32
System
Windows XP
Java
Sun Java Runtime Environment version 1.6
XHTML+Voice
Plug-in not loaded
Browser identification
Opera/9.64 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en) Presto/2.1.1
@SquareBubbles: ...If you have firebug or something similar, you can fix the page
............................by setting the padding-left on the 'comments' element to
............................353 pixels (it's currently at -119)
protip: Never order from a place with 'back' in their name, they are just out to screw you. (And, i mean when they use the word back in reference to anatomy, not as part of an unrelated word)
@HogwartsAlum: it's small for me too, but I have a wider screen....not sure if that makes a difference
@SquareBubbles: I've tried this page on Opera, FF, Camino, and Safari and it's the same issue on everyone- thankfully, there's the zoom out function.
I wonder if Consumerist will get around to fixing it- it seems to only happen on this page
something is very wrong with the Consumerist in Firefox... all comments are way left and cut off!!! Main story is normal. Firefox 3.0.10. Reload does not fix!
@pmcpa4:
It's something in the left coloum box, as it is fine in all other articles... In this article all the left coloum box info is below the comments!
Hey folks -- regarding the comment issue:
I'm not seeing any problem (in Firefox or Chrome) but please report tech issues to:
Let's keep the comment thread on topic from here, ok?
I can't see the coments on either Safari or Firefox here. This page is all messed up.
@consumerfan: Except the terms that he agreed to when he bought the product say: Gift with purchase items:
Items received free with the purchase of a product on promotion will be charged at full retail price should you return or cancel the corresponding promotional item.
Not saying the company isn't being shady but he isn't totally in the right.
@SquareBubbles: I'm on Chrome, and I can barely see three words at a time as I type them. Smooshed to the left here as well.
------------->>>>>>>
--------------Helllo?
I am on a PC with Firefox. Comments are all messed up!
Roz I can't even see the link you posted. Just the word satisfaction.com.
...............................................Talk About screwy posts.
Blog commenting is a solved problem. Why does Consuermists continue to have these kinds of issues?
"rist-Moderator-Roz" I think we would all love to report the issue somewhere, but we can't even see the link you posted. all it shows is "om]"
--------------------------------@pmcpa4: The link is:
---------------------------------[getsatisfaction.com]
@Michael Belisle: Okay, this confuses me...
If it's mentioned on the invoice, it's not unordered. I'm with you there.
But if it's on the invoice, and the OP is all "Woah, me no likey pillows! Begone!" and they refuse, does it become unordered again? Is the problem that the OP didn't try to refuse the pillows earlier on in the process?
And, more importantly, is it kosher for a company to turn something labeled as a "gift" into a non-gift? Even if it is in the terms? I would think that using the words "free gift" would have to have some legalese tied to them, no?
I'm curious if there is anywhere other than Costco or Sam's Club to buy a mattress that isn't some kind of ripoff. Everyone I know who has bought bedding somewhere other than the two aforementioned places has had a serious problem to deal with as a result. Even Ikea seems to have customer service problems with bedding. And the new stuff doesn't last like the older sets did: I have a Stearns and Foster queen set from the 70s that is still like new, while everyone else I know has been through two or three sets...
Nice catch. Just also note that just because something is in a TOS does not make it legal necessarily.
This sounds pretty sketchy to me. If there is no way to refuse the "free item" then it's probably a violation of the FTC Act.
Problems with comments appears fixed.
Most places that have a "Free" promotional item, on the receipt, make it so you are charged the full retail value of the free item if you return the item that it comes with, unless you return both.
And just imagine what a judge would say... "So he wanted to return the free gift, unopened, unused, right when he got them, and you refused? Refund to the plaintiff"
@twophrasebark: You're right it doesn't. Furthermore, their terms are contradictory depending on which page you're looking at. The guarantee says he can't return them, but the FAQ says he could have returned them before the mattress return was processed. I'd imagine someone could have told him (at any time during the two-month-long return process) that he'd be charged for the pillows unless he sent them back separately from the mattress.
So he has a case. Hopefully the CEO has some knowledge of what's hidden on the website and will do the right thing.
@Keter: Not blaming the OP here at all, but mattress returns are probably a bitch for retailers. They can't resell them as new, legally, and most people wouldn't want to buy a "used" mattress
@Michael Belisle: This seems like the best option. Send it back signature-required (certified mail or something) so you know they got it and also insure it for $120 (so they can't take that way out either). Once you've got proof it's delivered call them up and tell them you want a refund within 5 days, or you're filing a chargeback.
If you are considering purchasing a mattress soon, it may be a good idea to read this 2000 Slate buying guide:
Going to the Mattresses
How to cut through the marketing gimmicks of Sealy, Serta, and the rest.
[www.slate.com]
@FuryOfFirestorm: Believe it or not you can't successfully chargeback everything that you purchase with a credit card. As long as this company has shipping confirmation and a signature, then they can successfully win any chargeback.
Page format... jacked up... Good luck OP mattress sales are 10x worse than car sales as far as rip offs and insane intrest rates go