Unordered items are yours to keep

By NANCY PARADIS

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 5, 2000

I recently received a box of coins from a fulfillment center. I am not a coin collector. I did not order these coins. Am I supposed to pay postage and insurance to return them? A dealer said he would pay me $25 for this set. George Springhart

Response: Ah, yes, unordered merchandise. Here's the deal: Federal law prohibits merchants from sending you merchandise you did not order and then demanding payment for it. You may consider unordered merchandise a gift and keep it to do with as you will. That would include taking up the dealer's offer.

To stem a possible flood of bills and reminders, we nonetheless suggest that you write to the fulfillment center to let it know that you did not order the merchandise and are exercising your legal right to keep it. Send it registered, return receipt requested, in the event you ever need to prove that you contacted the company.

There is one other possibility we need to address. Is it possible that you might have inadvertently ordered the coins by responding to some other offer that had the coins buried in the fine print? If so, you might want to hang on to the coins for a while before disposing of them.

Satellite woe

I got a satellite dish from DirecTV. They sent a kid out here to install it. He spent most of his time talking to his wife on his cellular phone. When I left, the set wouldn't work when we turned it on. He left three plugs not plugged in.

After many phone calls, the folks at DirecTV tried to talk us through the set-up, but nothing worked. A troubleshooter finally came out with his wife. He got it going, but barely. When he left and we turned it back on, it wouldn't work. He also left wires on the floor that were supposed to be plugged in.

Our son-in-law got all our local stations to come in, but couldn't get the satellite to work. He said that the receiver and remote were faulty.

DirecTV sent another fellow out here. He admitted he was new on the job and replaced the receiver and remote. When he was through, we had lost all our local stations and the speakers.

I called the next day to cancel the whole deal and have the company come get its dish. DirecTV turned off the service but said we were stuck with the dish and the remote. This thing didn't work from day one, and I can't see why I should be stuck with something that we never had the use of. From the day it was installed to the day the company shut it off, we haven't enjoyed a single show. I want our $90 back. Norman Pardington

Response: Mary Lauletta, customer service representative with DirecTV in Los Angeles, said that the company has worked with the dealer who has agreed to pick up and refund you for the equipment. In addition, DirecTV has credited the amount you paid for programming services and a refund check will be issued to you.

It's in the mail

I placed an order with National TV Bargains on Oct. 7. My $23.96 check was cashed, but I have received nothing. I wrote to the company. Same result, nothing. I really need those knee braces and hope you can help. Eleanore Grandon

Response: Ann Roberts, customer service representative for National TV Bargains in Norwalk, Conn., said that your order did not make it into the company's system. She apologized for this and said it will now be sent out by priority mail.

Action solves problems and gets answers for you. If you have a question, or your own attempts to resolve a consumer complaint have failed, write Times Action, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or call your Action number, (727) 893-8171, or, outside of Pinellas, (800) 333-7505, ext. 8171, to leave a recorded request.

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