Making a big purchase? Read the fine print to avoid 'gotchas'
Betty Lin-Fisher, Akron Beacon Journal
Updated 6 min read
Elizabeth Varga talks about the mattress she purchased last summer after a salesman assured her she could return it, only to find out the fine print said otherwise.
We’ve all done it. At the doctor’s office or when making a major purchase, pages of documents are placed before us or flashed on a screen. It’s overwhelming to try to read it all before signing or initialing. We aren’t lawyers.
But that fine print is king when it comes to your consumer rights. You are agreeing to whatever is written that you have signed.
“Make sure you read all of the terms and conditions and fine print in the contract prior to signing,” said Hannah Hundley, an Ohio attorney general spokeswoman.
That goes for what's included and excluded from terms.
The fine print
Elizabeth Varga talks at her Fairlawn home about the mattress she bought and later found out she couldn't return.
“If someone verbally represents a term, make sure that term is accurately reflected in the contract,” Hundley said. "If it’s not in the contract, treat it as though the term doesn’t exist."
That's where Elizabeth Varga of Fairlawn, Ohio, ran into trouble.
Last summer, Varga didn’t know if her back pain was a flare-up from a chronic back problem or if she needed a new bed.
So the 78-year old-widow went to Ashley Furniture in Fairlawn to look for a new bed. Her existing bed was about 10 years old.
Varga said she was very clear with the Ashley salesman. She wanted assurances that she could have a trial period, like she’d seen advertised from other companies, or return it.
Over and over, Varga said, the salesman told her she could have a 90-day trial period and return the bed if she changed her mind with a $75 fee.
When it was time to sign the delivery and warranty contract, Varga said she didn’t have her glasses and couldn't read the document.
“He showed me a paper and said, ‘Sign here, here, here and sign it here.’ I said. ‘I am very paranoid because I got cheated out of my money a couple of times and because when someone sees an old woman with an accent and no man beside me, they have an easy target,” recalled Varga, a native of Hungary.
The salesman told Varga that she reminded him of his grandma, who also had gray hair and an accent, she recalled.
“So I trusted him and I signed,” she said.
Varga later mentioned to her daughter, Liz Tucci of Cuyahoga Falls, that she had bought a new mattress. It had a free trial and she would only lose $75 if she returned it.
A $75 restocking fee for a heavy mattress didn’t sound right, Tucci said. She called the store to ask in general about the return policy on mattresses. Tucci was told it could be returned, minus a $250 restocking fee.
Varga was upset about the $250 figure and drove to the store to find the salesman. He again told her it was $75, she said.
Two weeks later, the mattress was delivered.
Liz Tucci listens as her mother, Elizabeth Varga, talks at her Fairlawn home about the mattress a salesman told her she could return, only to find out the fine print said otherwise.
A big pain
Varga tried the new mattress for three days.
“It was hurting me so bad,” said Varga. For those three nights, she ended up on a futon in her guest bedroom or the sofa in her living room.
She called the store to request the mattress be picked up for a return. She was told she had to try it for 30 days.
There was no mention that the mattress was not returnable. But the document Varga initialed says upon delivery, items are no longer eligible for return.
In a response to a Better Business Bureau complaint Varga's daughter filed on her behalf, Ashley Furniture said the manufacturer requires the customer to try the mattress for 30 days in order to qualify for an exchange for a different mattress between days 31 to 90.
Liz Tucci listens to he mom tell the tale of the mattress at her mother's Fairlawn home on Monday.
But Varga did not want another mattress. She wanted her $3,041.32 back.
Varga went back to the store to confront the salesman and ask why he lied to her. He said he was positive that was the return policy. That salesman has since been promoted and moved to another location, Varga said.
The manufacturer told Varga they could not help with a return because the mattress had not been bought from the company.
She initiated a dispute on her credit card, but the credit card sided with Ashley since Varga had signed the document acknowledging no returns.
For months, the mattress sat on its side in her guest bedroom.
“Every time I see it I get so angry,” said Varga, who has been sleeping on her original mattress and hasn’t had the severe back pains since that flare-up.
Ashley Furniture offers a refund
I reached out to Ashley Furniture’s Fairlawn store and was told no one could speak to the media about the case, which is pretty standard. I then left a message through a customer service representative on a customer care number for Ashley.
By that afternoon, I received an email from Kate Wolcott, Ashley’s director of marketing, saying she was pleased to tell me Varga would receive a full refund, "which began to process earlier today."
"Customer service is a top priority for us, so despite the Better Business Bureau and credit card company ruling in our favor on this matter, we decided to go ahead and process a full refund to satisfy this customer."
I phoned Varga with the update.
“Oh my gosh. I can’t believe it,” she said. Varga called me back later that afternoon to say someone from Ashley had called to arrange a pickup for the mattress.
In a followup email to my questions, the Ashley representative said the company had no record of an associate promising a $75 or $250 fee to return the mattress.
“To provide excellent customer service, we issued a full refund regardless of this agreement signed by Ms. Varga,” Wolcott wrote.
When I also asked why an associate did not offer to cancel the sale before delivery if Varga had been inquiring about returns, Wolcott again said there were no records of the conversations. “These claims do not reflect our company values or standard operating procedures, so I have no further comments at this time.”
Though Varga did end up getting a refund, the fine print is what was important when it comes to return policies.
Stores are not required to provide refunds or to have any specific type of return policy under Ohio law. Policies may vary state to state.
