'No interest' usually has conditions

By NANCY PARADIS

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 26, 2000

About a year before I retired last year, I decided to buy a computer for my home. I happened to be in a store in Holiday, making a $2 purchase, when I saw it had computers on sale. Since I am prone to be an impulse buyer and the computer was offered on a payment plan with no money down, one year with no interest and low monthly payments, I bought a Compaq Presario, thinking it would be just about paid for when I retired. With the addition of a scanner, the total price was $1,870.13.

I made payments and reduced the total to $1,215.64 by the end of one year. However, after one year, the store charged me $395.69 in interest for the first year. I have talked to the manager and the store's accounts department, which is a bank in Hurley, Tenn., and been repeatedly told that I owe the money and that was that. I have written four letters to the bank and the only response is a form letter referring me to the accounts department.

No payment was due and no payment has been made since December 1999. This month I received notice that there is a minimum payment of $38 due for May. The current account balance according to my statement is now $1,706.15 after paying $700 on the original amount of $1,870.13.

I am sure that if I read all the fine print I will find I am hooked. Please warn your readers to run, not walk, away from retailers that offer the "no interest" come on. Robert Hermann

Response: You did not send us a copy of your initial purchase agreement with the store, but we are familiar with its type. It is a pity that you did not read the fine print before making the purchase. We strongly suspect that had you done so, you would have discovered that the first year was interest free provided the account was paid in full by the end of that first year and not one day later. To avoid mounting, and legal, finance charges, we urge you to pay off your computer as quickly as possible or you could find that its final price will equal that of a small car!

Thanks for the opportunity to remind readers that "no interest" offers often come with conditions and the time to find out what those conditions are is before making the purchase.

CD club credits account

On Dec. 15, I mailed in a CD order form to BMG Music Service. A short while later I received my seven free introductory selections. According to the literature I received from BMG, I could listen to the CDs and review the terms of my membership for 10 days. If I was not satisfied, I could return my selections at BMG's cost and walk away.

After listening to some of the CDs, I decided that I did not like them. I was well within my 10-day trial period at this point. I searched all the literature I'd been sent but could not find a phone number or instructions on where to return the CDs. I must have read each line three times. I decided to write to BMG and about three weeks later, on Feb. 28, I received two letters, one from Lizette Torres-Garcia and one from "My Friends at Ritmo y Pasion."

The letter from "My Friend" included a postage paid mailing label for the return of the CDs. I did so immediately, even though by now I was well past my 10-day trial period.

Ms. Torres-Garcia's letter said I had to purchase one CD to fulfill my membership requirements before I could cancel. I wrote back that I wasn't a member because I had returned the CDs.

I thought all would be taken care of, but I was wrong. On March 31, I received a another letter from Ms. Torres-Garcia, identical to her first. I continue to receive invoices stating that I owe $18.95 for shipping and handling on my seven free selections. I thought as part of my "no hassle, risk free, 10 day free trial period" I would not have to pay this charge if I decided to return the CDs.

I would have requested replacements for my first selections, but all of the order catalogs BMG has sent me have been in Spanish. I made the mistake of checking the "Latin" box on the order form when asked what type of music I was most interested in. While I like some Latin music, I neither speak nor read Spanish and have no use for a music brochure full of Spanish artists singing Spanish albums. The other albums in the catalog are teeny bopper bands which I do not like. Regine Kersey

Response: Ginger Ward, customer relations manager of BMG's Ritmo y Pasion, said the charges for the selections shipped in the enrollment package have been removed, although the company's files do not reflect that the returned package was ever received. She said it is possible that it may have been lost or misdirected. She said BMG is sorry you were not happy with the music preferences you selected. The company offers several different music categories and will gladly change a member's music preferences.

Action solves problems and gets answers for you. If you have a question, or your attempts to resolve a consumer complaint have failed, write: Times Action, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or call your Action number, 893-8171, or, outside of Pinellas, (800) 333-7505, ext. 8171, to leave a recorded request for Action. Names will not be omitted except in unusual circumstances. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

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