BELTONE is guilty of fraudulent advertising and we were ripped off to the tune of $800.00 Orange Park Florida

We responded to a full-page ad by Beltone offering $1,000.00 off for a pair of their best digital hearing aids. The offer was good from March 27 through March 31. The ad appeared on March 27 in the Florida Times-Union and we hurried in to their office on March 31 to take advantage of the offer.

It wasn't until several days later that I read the contract that my husband had signed and discovered that he was given only $200.00 off instead of the $1,000.00 promised in the ad.

I immediately called the office and Mr. Dudley, the licensee assured me it was an oversight and e would take care of it.

Several days later my husband was scheduled for a fitting and when we arrived at the office no one was there and the door was locked. It was at that point that we lost confidence and decided not to go forward with the contract, knowing full well that we would need to forfiet, as stated in the contract, a $150.00 Preparation fee plus a $50.00 fee for a second hearing aid plus a 5% refund/cancellation fee.

I kept calling their office inquiring what had happened to our refund and was told that it would be coming from their corporate office in Lake Okachobee. It must have been all of six weeks before it finally arrived after I had threatened to turn them over to a collection agency.

The purchase price of the hearing aids was $6,200.00 minus the $200.00 deduction. They never did make good on their promise to also deduct the $800.00 additional money we had coming and the refund check they sent us amounted to only $5,500.00.

I called their office once again and Mr. Dudley said he could do nothing about it because our folder did not contain a coupon for the $1,000.00 discount. The full page advertisement we had responded to did not contain a coupon nor was one mentioned. It simply stated that all respondents would be given $1,000.00 off an order for a pair of digital hearing aids.

I have in my possession a copy of that full page ad, also a copy of the contract. I've made no further attempt to deal with Mr. Dudley. He simply is, in my opinion, an unscrupulous businessman. We are both in our upper 80's, on a fixed income, and $800.00 is a lot of money to us.

We hope you can help and we hope, too, that you can get the word out so that other people are not victimized.

Dorothy
Orange Park, Florida
U.S.A.