You act and talk like you know the law, but you don't. Why would someone at the check in counter of a car rental office -- of all places -- actually care what kind of car you got? They work on an hourly wage, and I promise you, don't care how big of a "sale" they make.

Also, you people need to read the fine print more often. If it's not in stock, it means people got there before you did, and you're just out of luck because you took too long to get that perfect deal. It's the way things are. Get over it, get used to it and shut up.

I called Hertz car rental to reserve a car for two days. I was told that it would cost me $90.56 for the two days and I can have either a Ford Crown Vic or Mercury Grand Marquis when I get to the aulsa Airport. I then asked the reservation clerk whether the charge included full coverage insurance, and she said “Yes, it does”. When I arrived at Tulsa Airport, the female clerk (at the enclosure on the ground floor of the parking garage) at first would not help me when she found out that I was not one of their “Gold” members. She was going to send me back to the desk inside the terminal. I said that I had already walked (with great difficulty due to knee surgery) from the terminal and asked her not to send me back upstairs. She reluctantly agreed. Then she proceeded to tell me that my reservation was for a Toyota Camry, not a Crown Victoria or Grand Marquis, and that if I wanted full insurance coverage, it would cost me $29 per day extra, and if my wife would be driving the car, it would cost us another $19 per day. A $90 rental suddenly became $186, plus tax and fees. What she told us was entirely different from what I was told on the phone when I made the reservation. She probably figured that we just got off the plane and had to have transportation, so she had us over a barrel, so to speak. Is this not a “Bait and Switch” tactic which is an illegal sales practice? If it is, to whom should I report it?

Some 4 or 5 years ago JPMC (JP Morgan Chase) and some other lending institutions (Citi Group and WAMU---who went belly up but was gobbled up by Chase-- as well as others I am not aware of) offered a deal to many card holders a low interest rate for balance transfers.

The rate ranged from 1.9 percent to 3.9 percent on the customers' available balances on their bank issued Chase and Master Cards.

The offer was straight forward, pay on time and you get the low interest rate until the balance was paid off.

Well, Citi and WAMU dropped the program after they realized that lending for the "life of the loan" really wasn't such a hot deal because (duh) interest rates would ultimately go up and the banks would be stuck with, in effect, sub-prime loans. I am disabled and on a fixed income, so I took advantage of these offers for a down payment on a condo. It seemed like too good a deal not to take advantage of!

Citi stopped the program when they saw that it was a big loser for them. They are now using their bailout money to make baseball fields. WAMU tanked and was taken over by -- ta da --JP Morgan Chase. Personally, I never missed a payment to any of these people.

The egg-heads out at Chase continued with the low interest for the rest of your life stuff. Where we stand now is that Chase "revamped" on the offers and raised the monthly minimum payment amount from two to five percent.

Personally, I now have to sell my condo for about half of what I paid for it. This could literally drive me out to the street.Thanks you, JP Morgan Chase for pulling out of your "no strings attached offer".

They are disgraceful. This "great offer" has just about ruined me.

It surprises me that this story does not get more coverage by the mainstream press/TV. It has been covered by MSNBC.

I read an e-book title Merchant of Deception. This is about Multi-Level Marketing, especially with a specific company.

I would like to find a good argument to help my son to cut the business with a certain company. My son lives in Perth, Australia.

I need help for my son to be aware of the deception act from this company.

Do you mind to provide me with whatever tools for avoiding the cults of Multi-Level Marketing?

with my deep thanks

robertus

I recently was contacted by a mortgage company that offered me a fixed rate mortgage with a 5% interest rate. Which is much better than what I was paying. Here it is 4 months later after we've put out money for appraisals and other fees and closing is today and now the rate went up and my payment went up. Is is right?

I had a similar issue with Sears. I purchased a Samsung Washer and Dryer on Black Friday. I Arrived at the store at 4am for the 5am opening. When the store opened I was the fourth person in line at the appliance center. The first three people ordered another advertised set of washer and dryer, but I wanted the better set. I was told they would be available in 2-3 weeks. My order was placed and my money taken. A couple of weeks later they called me and tried to offer me the lesser size and quality LG's for the same price, telling me it will be 3-4 months before these units are available. Since then they have called me with two other offers, both times for smaller lower quality items, one GE and one Frigidaire. This is classic Bait and Switch. I have filed a complaint with the FTC and I encourage anyone else with similar issues to do the same. Sears has already been fined by the FTC for these tactics in the past.

I went to the Toy"R"Us on 1960 in Houston, Texas on 12/7/08 to purchase a bike I saw in a flier. I saw the bike advertised, but there were 4 or 5 bikes on a rack too high for me to reach so I was told to go to the check out counter and someone would assist me. I paid $79.99 for the 20" Schwinn Spitfire and waited for someone to get the bike. AFTER I paid for the bike, I was told there were no boxed bikes and would have to pay and additional $10.00 plus tax for a display bike. I was given 2 options, pay the additional fee or get a refund & go home empty-handed. At this time, I had already waited almost an hour for this process, so I went ahead and paid the extra fee. I have never had to pay extra for a display item; usually it is less because I don't know if it had been used before. This is a classic bait & switch scam. It is fraudulent and against the law.

Sears recently ( in the Denver area) advertised a buy one get one free washer and dryer pair for $899.99. It was a nice Samsung pair, which was advertised for what they call a Friends and Family night (11/16/08) The very first customer to try and buy that unit at this particular store was told that the units were already sold out. This was at 6:00pm, the earliest it could be purchased. They offered to replace those units with a lesser model LG pair, which was magically already loaded into the computer for the same price( as if they knew, which they did, that none of the advertised units were available. A call to a Samsung rep relayed that Sears did not buy what would have been enough units for a sale.) It seems they lured people in with the high demand Samsung units, never intended to have them, or if they did, knew they would have to substitute the lesser LG's and had already at 6:00 loaded the lesser quality units in the system at the same price. Is this not illegal "bait and switch" ?

I want to know what it is called if you log on to a website to buy supplies see an item for one price place your order for it and then get the invoice and the price was changed from $27.99 x 40 to $33.61 x 40? The President of my company did that to one of my customers and I just don't see how that is legal. Please tell me what you know about this?

I live in Houston, Texas.

I have been searching for a used car for my oldest daughter. Found one on the internet at a local Ford Dealer. Took printout from internet ad with me and went to take a test drive. Car was perfect, very low miles and very low price (been shopping for 2 weeks so know it is a very good price). Go into the salesman's office, fill out the paperwork and check the carfax all is ok. Salesman goes to enter my information into the computer and finally comes back somewhat grim-faced and says we have a problem, a big problem. The dealer paid the seller of the car more $ than they offered to sell it on the internet and they can't sell it to me. I was shown what appeared to be a photocopy of the check made out to the seller of the car, which indicates they paid the seller $15,100 for the Ford Escape that I have the printout from the web for sale at $14,995. Saleman says they probably have another $800 in cost for checking out and detailing the car so it they would lose $105 plus $800 or so!

I got the name of the dealership owner. Before I call to talk to the owner of the dealership, I want to know what my rights are regarding whether I should be able to force the sale at the advertized price.

This morning it has been changed to an asking price of $18,995 on the internet. The advertizement carries the "Stock#" of the automobile so I can prove that the car we test drove is the one in the internet advertizement.

The car fax indicated it was purchased by the dealership on June 8th, so I guess it has been for sale since the 10th -12th, yet no serious buyer before me!

Can you give me any specifics. I'm in a hurry.