cunning company!

[Jaslyn]

We used to order distilled water from one of the company for over 5 yrs after purchasing their water dispenser.On that time,we only signed an agreement that its for 2001-2003.The stupid salesman didnt tell us that the agreement would auto renew without our notice.

Now we have decided not to order from them anymore cos the price of their distilled water is very high,almost double the price of what our new one costed.They refused to let us stop taking water from them.Sent salesman to our door to pester,threatening us that they will proceed to legal...

anyone can offer us advice?

[tineng]

you got the agreement in the first place? also take careful note of how they threaten you.....you might have a case to counter sue them if it gets to out of hand....

[mUAr_cHEe]

i am sure there is a termination clause somewhere....

just look for it and read the fine print....

its a standard for all water companies.... this auto-renew thing....

if they want to go legal... let them go ahead....

i think it will damn stupid for them.... profit margin for water not that high.... wanna go legal... jeez..... they must be nuts.... go legal for a few hundred bucks?? how clever can that be??

[framerunner]

There must be a termination clause somewhere. Even if it is auto renew for another 2 years, the contract should be ending soon right?

[Sotong]

It wld be really silly of them to go legal... might as well safe the $$$ & employ more sales man...hahaha

IMO Just write to them formally to indicate ur wish & ask them to stop sending and also stop paying them....

Of course dun consume the water from them....

[keithtty]

Just ask them to put all their threats in writing. Everything is easier to resolve with the evidence.... I doubt they will pursue.

[Sotong]

Yup.... agreed... with keithtty.

If they get unreasonable & start to affect your life.... report them to the Police.

[Jaslyn]

We have been ordering from them since 2001.Only recently to notice that their price of per bottle is 3 times the price from the company I m getting from.Beside we bought the damn dispenser at $850 compared to now you can get it easily at over $100.During that time,a salesman came to our door when we purchased the dispenser.When we signed the agreement stated leasing agreement.I didnt like it as why should we sign leasing agreement if we BOUGHT the dispenser.But he explained it was for the water consumption's rule by their company.

He promised there would be service of the dispenser every yr FOC but was never done even once.If we insisted for service,it would charge us $80 per time.We stopped ordering water from them since sept 2005 after finding out the price of the water was extortion.

Since then,they never willing to let us go.Firstly they demanded the outstanding balance to be paid,which is fair so in late sept,they came to pick up $200.Then late Oct,tey sent a statement to say there is still outstanding of $100,we paid it to them too.Few days after that,this gentleman came to our doorstep to say we cant stop getting water from them as in the agreement stated it will auto renew.I was pissed as this tiny line was not read or told.But there is something stated that we can write in 1 month in advance to terminate the contract.He says our newly renewed agreement would only end in 2007 may.Thats like 20 months from now.2 bottles a month is not a big problem but why should I pay the 2 bottles to them if I can get 6 bottles of the same price for the same thing from my current company?

So I called them yesterday to let them know I will write in to terminate the agreement and I will take the 2 bottles per month for this month's agreement.He turned around to say that I can write in but the agreement still expire only in 2007 May and then they wouldnt auto renew anymore since I wrote in advance.

I came out with final straw telling the guy that financially we couldnt afford anymore.Guess what?He still insist that we have to take the water from them or else they go legal for this issue...or demand we fax them out bank statement...bills etc.This is outrageous!Even banks dont demand personal documents like this if they offer you their service but you refused!

I m not good in handling this but I know there are alot of big bros here very 'smart' can help me in this.Guide me in how to handle this kind of people.

[zephyros]

1) u can try writing to CASE

2) I dun think there is such thing as a "term" auto-renew.

Or rather, after the initial 2yrs contract is up, it will be on a

monthly basis, like when phone contract expired.

A contract had to be agreeded upon by both party and SIGNED.

I do not think they have legal ground in this case. Tell them u will

write to fourm/CASE if they bother u somemore.

This is my view, any legal professional can confirm this thingy abt

contract.

cheers

[amteo]

From your comments, sounds to me like this company is pulling a fast one - they are milking you for all they can. Before paying anymore, you can check with CASE on your legal resposibility and how far this company can go to enforce this 'business'.

[dradttg]

Personally, I think the Auto renewal clause does not hold. The auto renewal is for the convenience of the customer and not for the benefit of the company.

In my opinion, just stop paying and do not accept anymore water from them. Let them take legal action which I doubt they would. All the legal action they will take is go small claim court and small claim court can do nothing except charge the company $250. They would not get a lawyer to sue you unless your water business give them revenue of > $10K.

You can go to Case if you want to but the outcome would be Case ask you to pay $35 for membership and another $10 for writing a letter to the company. At the end of the day, the letter carries no legal power and the rogue company can continue to operate and cheat others. Do you think the company will be afraid of being black listed? They may have already been in the black list for a long time. Does anyone of you check with Case to see if a company is blacklisted before buying anything?

I am speaking from experience because about 2 years ago a rogue tank maker from SRC ran away with my $1,100 and like most of you I expected Case, the police and CAD to be helpful. After wasting all the time and more money, I did not get back my $1,100 and the tank maker only escape with a $1k fine.

[Jaslyn]

I just feel they are pushing every steps they can. I refused to bind with the so called auto renewal as we were not told.I just feel very disgusted the way they come to the door step for this issue as if we owe them something.

Tomorrow I will write them a formal mail letting them know I do not wish to continue with their service and they should put a stop to what they are doing.Hope they really wouldnt go legal cos we definitely not worth it haha by the way,can they go legal and then make us pay?

[dradttg]

I just feel they are pushing every steps they can. I refused to bind with the so called auto renewal as we were not told.I just feel very disgusted the way they come to the door step for this issue as if we owe them something.

Tomorrow I will write them a formal mail letting them know I do not wish to continue with their service and they should put a stop to what they are doing.Hope they really wouldnt go legal cos we definitely not worth it haha by the way,can they go legal and then make us pay?

If you continue taking their water, you have to pay. Otherwise, there is nothing they can do to you.

Nowaday, everyone likes to say sue and sue all the time but when they check out the cost, they will think twice.

[Jaslyn]

we didnt take any of their water since sept05 already. The gentleman would keep on calling nonstop for the same issue. I can ignore the calls but if he is going to come to the door steps all the time.Its going to be stressful.

I already told him that he can go report my wish to his big boss and if my wish were not considered.The big boss can go ahead to deal this legal and we shall make it big.He keeps on saying its $29.40 per month for every 2 bottles but in 20 months it would be almost $600.Its not just the price different,its the services provided by them too.He even told me he can bring back the water dispenser machine to take it as offseting the breaching of agreement...what the heck!

I wont call CASE for this cos its useless.When I bought a faulty hp from siemens and out of 10mths I have it, 6months was in the service.Case told me to pay membership and blah blah blah...at the end still tell me to bring back to the service centre.

[Sotong]

CASE cannot bite them... "no power". It's only right that an agreement must be comfortable to both parties. If u haf not consume their product & had repeatedly told them to stop... then who can they blame except themselves...

keep the receipt of the purchase on the dispenser, if u still haf it. Get your camera ready & if the guy come & harrass again, take his pics & call the police immediately.

If they threathen to "sue" u in Court, let it be.. Law is also base on logic & common sense as well.... IMO, u haf a case against them.

Inreturn can sue them for harassment..... since they are bullying u

Just my 2 cents.

[ozy]

In spite of all the legal advices given here regarding reporting to police, I will also like to caution you on the non legal aspects of this issue. There are A LOT of shady characters out there and some would do some dirty underhanded methods to get back at you.

Just take note.

You never realised that there REALLY IS ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE OUT THERE.

[Jaslyn]

The water company just isnt going to leave us alone.After stating clear to them our intention,they just keep on harassing us with threats that they will go legal

according to the water company we are taking water from now.This previous company has a very bad name regarding about this kind of issue.They are famous for making their customer stressed out whenever the customer wanted to leave.She assure me that they cant go legal with this kind of case but I m really not sure about it.Why they mention about it if its not possible?

[Lester]

The water company just isnt going to leave us alone.After stating clear to them our intention,they just keep on harassing us with threats that they will go legal

according to the water company we are taking water from now.This previous company has a very bad name regarding about this kind of issue.They are famous for making their customer stressed out whenever the customer wanted to leave.She assure me that they cant go legal with this kind of case but I m really not sure about it.Why they mention about it if its not possible?

hmmm maybe it is done to scare you ?

sometime have to show some power to them.... ask around and case.. they shall be able to help.. if best get a cam recorder and record the whole thing done by the sales people when they came visit again ... keep it as prove.. sent copies to the media.. demand public aplogies from the company .. make it into the news ...

[FuEl]

Consult a trustworthy lawyer on this issue. A good lawyer might even be able to seek compensation on your behalf due to uneccessary stress put on you by the sales person...might even be classified as harrassment. Best if you have caller I.D or even remember the dates he turned up at your doorstep. So in the end the water company might have dug their own demise.

Reminds me of a past temp job during the stamp expo. I got introduced to this company who put me with a british expat businessman. I was told I would get paid directly from the businessman. And so there I was manning the stall, buying the guy coffee & lunch, even to the extent of helping him pack up to move his luggage to his hotel lobby. And I got paid like $100 a day from the generous fellow. At the end of the exhibition, I went to buy the stuff I wanted. Few days later came a call from the company wanting to take 30% of my pay and I was never even told beforehand about this arrangement...neither was such an arrangement stated in black and white. I was told I had a week to pay up, however within this one week the lady probably called me at least 4-5 times reminding me. In the end I just got fed up and ignored her calls. She never called back. Sometimes you just gotta ignore ridiculous accusations. If you are too nice people will rip you off.

[weisoon]

If you are too nice people will rip you off.

Totally agreed! Especially when the economy is weak, companies facing cashflow problem and people loosing jobs.

[Jaslyn]

now I cant do much beside telling them that if they insisted to go legal,they cant stop me to go public to forum on straits time.Hope they dont cause anymore problem.It really show they are so hard up.

[mUAr_cHEe]

if they really have the power to go legal... they will not tell u one... they will just keep quiet... and suddenly u will get a lawyer letter....

most of the time if they threaten to go legal.... because actually they cannot go legal.

[Flame-Tail]

yup all NATO (No Action Talk Only).

Can't stand these kind of ppl .No bloody ethics.

[zorden]

There is no such thing as AUTO RENEW CLAUSE

for your info..not all things the company write in the contract is admissible in Court.

--> Learn from Elements of Contract Law.

just don bother..they cant take up a legal action against u..anyway its not so easy to take up legal if the lawyer don find a case.

[andylee]

Don't worry sis, they can't do anything to u.

Just ignore the visits, the calls, the waters etc

If they still disturb u with visits, threaten to call the police.

U can even counter-sue them and get compensation

Taught to handle this b4 by my law undergrad fren