Passanante's Home Food Services Took advantage of a military family: outrageous markups and aggressive sales tactics Bristol Nationwide

I was out of the country on military orders at the beginning of my customer experience. I was at a remote training site in Eastern Europe and I was mostly out of communication when a representative from Passanante's Food Company approached my wife at the Rocky Mountain Air Show. They sent her home with a free food sample and followed up with her to set an appointment for a consultation. My wife, who is also a service member, agreed to meet and mentioned it to me in passing.

Passanante’s Home Food Service is a frozen food delivery service that offers a three tiered discount system predicated on the purchase of appliances and other consumer goods. When pressed, our sales representative Matthew, would later admit that his company charges “huge markups on these appliances.” If you purchase one consumer item off their list, they will sell their food at a “20% discount.” If you purchase two items, you get a “40% discount.” If you purchase a third item, you get the idea. During their sales pitch, they break down the payment structure into a grid containing 9 boxes.

I didn’t know any of this yet. I was happily engaged in my mission. I came home and there was a freezer in the basement. I didn’t think anything of it. We bought a freezer. I would later learn that this model freezer is available for sale on the Whirlpool website for $500. We purchased it for $3,496.94 financed over a 3 year term at 21% APR. Even worse, the representative at Passanante’s encouraged my wife to sign the form in my name.² 

Several months later a sales representative visited to sell us another 6 month order for food delivery service³. This is where I learned the true details of how much the service truly costs. The presentation consists of making your food selection, arranging payment details, and taking a look through the catalogue of big ticket items. Once you purchase big ticket item like a freezer for 740% of the MSRP, you move up one tier on the discounting schedule.

The sales agent draws a grid and calculates numbers based on discount tiers. Here is an approximation of the grid. This isn’t precise, but it’s reasonably close based on my memory. Passanante’s wasn’t willing to help me gather the information I need for a perfect degree of accuracy.

Food order: $3,000.00

Freezer purchase: $4,743.00 (after interest)⁴

Monthly payment: (adjusted for discount)

In order to purchase food under the third discount tier, you must first purchase three items for over $10,000 in total.

If you don’t understand this grid, you are in good company. I only had a brief period of time to study it because the sales representative takes the price sheet at the end of the presentation. At the time, I found it to be extremely confusing. It implies tremendous savings. Our representative, Matthew, began the conversation bragging that if “Costco was offering 60% discounts Passanante’s wouldn’t be in business.” This implies that their discounts are better than Costco. This is a difficult claim to justify because they won’t provide a price sheet to help you understand the cost of their products. Tom Fahey, the VP of Sales for Passanante’s justified their decision with the reasoning that “no other food delivery services offer price sheets.” The sales rep took the sheet after the presentation. I attempted to call Passanante’s to confirm more information but they were unwilling to provide further assistance.

I was extremely upset. I began negotiations with Tom Fahey, the VP of Sales at Passanante’s. I explained that I was out of the country for military service and that the contract supposedly had my signature. He was unsympathetic. We argued angrily by email and phone for a few days and he finally threatened to break off negotiations unless we meet in person. I wanted the fridge gone and the remaining balance forgiven. He wanted to set me up with another salesman in order to rope me into another contract.

He sent another sales representative to my house and we battled for an hour. The representative saw my determination and left. He returned an hour later with an offer from “the president of the company” because it wasn’t “sitting well with him.” He offered to pay off the remaining freezer if we make another food purchase for $2,800. The agreement² (attached) required a rigid contract that applied maximum leverage. I could not abide by this.

I let the freezer slide into non-payment. I started to receive collections calls. They called my mother-in-law. I battled with the financing wing of Passanante’s, Time Investment Company, for a few weeks. I argued that the contract was fraudulent because one of the signatures was forged. I argued that this was bad faith. I worked with Valaynia (I’m sorry if I misspelled your name.) She was very helpful, but unable to help me achieve the outcome I sought. I sent a copy of my orders and images of my signature to prove that my signature was not on the document and that I was out of the country. They were willing to remove me from the contract, but that wasn’t enough. It still effectively meant that I owed money to the cohort at Time and Passanante’s. She was very patient, despite the fact that I swung rapidly between rapport, threats, anger, depression, and bargaining. After weeks of stress and losing sleep. I finally took charge and paid off the balance in full. This eliminated the leverage that Tom Fahey and his sales team had over my family. I called Tom Fahey and told him “go f*** yourself.” Twice.

This complaint boils down to a couple of key factors.

The sales tactics employed by Passanante’s Home Food Service are misleading and unethical.

The representative at Passanante’s home food service knew that I didn’t sign the contract. He knew I was overseas on military orders. The law surrounding the issue is potentially complex. Passanante’s cites “Apparent Agency” as a justification for their decision to accept the contract despite my absence. Family purpose doctrine suggests that a husband is responsible for his wife’s debts. Another take on this issue is that the company knowingly took a contract with a forged signature and represented it as a valid signature. This is potentially fraudulent activity.

What is moral is not necessarily legal and vice versa. I believe that Passanante’s Home Food Service was more concerned with strengthening their legal position and their bottom line than they were about customer experience. This is a very poor way to conduct business in the present business climate. The internet levels the playing field for the little guy.

I ultimately chose to pay the remaining balance on the freezer with cash and terminate further negotiations with Tom Fahey. I personally found him to be condescending and arrogant. I felt bitter and trapped and angry. He responded with a ham-handed attempt at coercion. I am a religious person and I feel that the actions you take in this life will follow you. Passanante’s Home Food Service made no effort to resolve the situation. Their “customer service” consisted of additional layers of aggressive salesmanship.

I might have been better off if I had taken their deal. I would have only paid $2,800 instead of the $3,300 remaining balance on the payback. This would have reduced my overall liability by $500 and I would have received six months of food. Theoretically, it was in my best interest, but I knew that once I signed the contract they owned me. Once you force a party into submission, the next compromise is often around the corner. They would have continued to harass my family for food purchases. They might have used a loophole to skirt the contract and go back on their promise.

Most importantly, they tried to force me to forgo my responsibility to other consumers who enter their sales funnel. I owe it to other people to share my experience so they can learn about the perils of entering contracts with companies who value profit over customer experience.