Subj: Tailor Sewing Machines Date: 98-11-10 16:46:33 EST From: moultol@ccgate.ml.nec.com (Laura Moulton) I was so amazed to see your web site, although I knew that I wasn't alone in my predicament. A sewing machine "company" in New Jersey, "Gerard's", pulled the same stunt at the Huntington Hilton in Melville on Long Island. Yes, I feel stupid. But Christmas is coming and I needed a new sewing machine so, voila! They had inserted a flyer (hot pink so you couldn't miss it) in Sunday's Newsday (10/25/98).
I don't know where my common sense was that day but I fell for it - hook, line and sinker. I bought the more expensive one with the free arm. The guy had the nerve to suggest retail value was $919 and I had the absence of mind to believe him (give or take a couple of hundred dollars). From everything I've read on the Internet these machines are worth from $198 to $429 - tops!
Well, I figured I'd fix them so I stopped payment on the check on Monday - particularly after finding no "Tailor" sewing machines on the net and after calling a local sewing machine store who was perfectly aware of the scam and said it was just a way to sell alot of sewing machines. I don't like to call 800 numbers where I know I will get no satisfaction so I wrote them a letter insisting that if they want their money (a new check) they must substantiate their claims of the machine's regular price as well as the "school" thing. The guy even had slipped up and said they were made in the U.S. when the label that they had affixed to it said "Made in Europe (Poland)". I told them that I had learned that there also was no such thing as automatic tension adjustment which was their biggest pitch on the machines.
I got a message at home asking me to call them to resolve it. I had no intention of talking to anyone since my written demand was clear and fair, I felt. So I wrote another letter. And their address is not the one on the receipt because they gave their address over the phone as Asbury Park - coincidentally the same address as Tailor Sewing Machine Company. I told them in the second letter that since they didn't seem to want to defend themselves at all, that if they want their machine (which, by the way, I couldn't thread either as one of your other letters stated), I would take it back to the hotel I purchased it at or they can send me a paid UPS return label as I refuse to pay for shipping of such a heavy piece of merchandise.
My next message from them wasn't so nice and they said that a registered letter is on the way and that they would come to Long Island to file a claim and I would have to reimburse them for everything including time away from work. I plan to take them up on it because I pulled some FTC literature (see www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/decptprc.htm, para. (a)) and they are guilty, guilty, guilty! I could (and just may to end this fiasco) just send them back the machine but it's the principle of the matter. I also read that even if I lose, they can't make me pay for their costs involved. I'll just hand over the piece-of-junk machine! Case closed.
I can just imagine how many people were deceived, particularly men buying a machine for their girlfriend, sister or mother. Not many women know what to look for, let alone men. And the package won't be opened until Christmas, I bet. Well, thanks for the chance to vent. I'd like to hear what the other dealers that wrote you letters would think of this scenario. (I have cc'd one of them for their information). Anyway, I plan to take this to the FTC, BBB and whoever else that cares! Thanks for your web site!
Laura
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