Ortho Mattress, Inc. Very charming but deliberately overcharged then destroyed original invoice and created new invoice with different prices to hide overcharges. Van Nuys California

My husband and I went to Ortho Mattress at 6301 Sepulveda Blvd in Van Nuys on Saturday, June 7, 2014.

This was the worst mistake we have ever made. The salesperson, Miguel, deliberately overcharged us for pillows, then he destroyed our original invoice after we left and created a new invoice without our knowledge that had different prices on it. This invoice was the entire written agreement that we had between us, so destroying it SHOULD void the entire sale. And continuing with the financing with a forged invoice is wire fraud and consumer fraud, right?  

I should add that only part of the sale was to be financed, the rest was to be on lay away and we have not actually received our mattress set yet. We paid a $200 deposit, which should be returned once the sale is voided.

At this time, we have filed complaints with the Attorney General's Office, the Department of Consumer Affairs Bureau of Home Furnishings and the Better Business Bureau; and after posting this review to Yelp, we will be contacting our local news agencies consumer watchdog departments to notify the public so others can be spared the same headache.  

I was surprised that the Attorney General's Office had a consumer complaint process, but I was very happy to find out.

Here is the summary of our complaint that we just filed with the Attorney General's Office:

1 Queen Mattress Set, 2 Latex Pillows, 2 Pillow Covers, 1 Mattress Cover.

The dollar amount in dispute: 1329.80.

The date of the transaction: 06-07-2014.

A contract was signed, but the sales person destroyed it after we left and created a new one with different prices on it. If the sales person processed the financing application with a forged invoice, then he has committed wire fraud, in addition to consumer fraud.

We contacted the store the next day and were told that we were given the newer model of the latex pillow and that's why we were charged more. We called the store several times during the week to ask about the pillows and Miriam said there is only one model of that pillow and the price is 79.99 for the Queen, same as price listed on the company website. Miguel had offered a buy 1, get one 40 percent off deal on the pillows, but charged 140.00 for the first and 70.00 for the second. We told this to Miriam and she asked for the Invoice Number. When we gave it, she said they don't have that Invoice, that Miguel had destroyed it and made a new one that showed different prices. DOESN'T THAT VOID THE SALE? The Invoice was our signed agreement to purchase their products and Miguel destroyed it. Miriam forcefully told us the new invoice would be enforced, not the one we signed, so we asked to speak to her manager. She said the store does not have a store mgr, but she would call her regional mgr and speak with him and call us back. This was 10:36am and she didn't call back until 2:46pm. Their customer service closes at 3pm. Miriam then said that her regional mgr wants us to -Come back in the store on Saturday so Miguel can take care of you.- When asked -what does that mean? and she said -Just go see Miguel and he'll fix it. We asked her, -fix what? and she said, -He will return the money. We asked how much? and she said, -Just go see Miguel and he'll take care of you. We told her Miguel was dishonest and we didn't want to deal with him again, and we told her we wanted to speak to her regional mgr ourselves. She said she will call him and have him call us. When she called back at 3:22pm, we let it go to voice mail so we would have a record of what she said and she said she spoke with her regional mgr and gave him all the figures and for us to call her back and -WE'LL TALK. She clearly didn't speak to any mgr and she was trying to cover for Miguel without anyone in charge finding out.

At first, we only asked to be refunded for the 90.47 we were overcharged, but now that we know our original contract was destroyed and we suspect employees at this location are deliberately committing fraud, we just want our deposit back and the sale voided altogether.

At this time, we have also complained to the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Consumer Affairs Bureau of Home Furnishings, and the Better Business Bureau. We have also posted this exact review on Yelp and we will be contacting local news agencies consumer watchdog departments to make the public aware so others can be spared this same headache. If we learn of any other agencies to complain to, we will complain to those, too. This company should be penalized and the sales team should be prosecuted.

The resolutions we are seeking are: CANCEL/VOID THE SALE, RETURN THE DEPOSIT, LET US RETURN UNOPENED ITEMS. The entire sale should be voided and all financing cancelled since our original contract was destroyed, and we would like a full refund of our deposit and to return the unopened items we were told to take home that day. If the application process continued with the forged invoice, we would like charges of fraud to be brought against the sales person, Miguel.