Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Sitting reading the current edition of Business Week - May 21, 2007 - has made my blood boil. It is featuring an article how these low life companies are preying on poor people who are trying to pull themselves up by the bootstraps.

For instance this one Native American single mother wanted to not be in the throes of alcohol and drugs that run rampant through out many of the reservations. She found a job as a home attendant for the elderly; however it required a car.  So this poorly educated woman goes to this scumbag operation called Byrider where they in my opinion trick her into buying a used car for $7,922 that has 103,000 miles on the odometer (possibly more since these are the low life types that roll back odometers). They tell her she can pay for the car entirely on credit.

She is thrilled since now she can possibly see her way out of the poverty trap with a new $15,000 yearly income.  She soon learns that what she is really suppose to pay is $150 per week not what she had been led to believe - $150 monthly. This amounts to 24.9% interest!  As you know the rest of the story, she can`t keep up with the payments and has to give the car back after paying those scumbags $900.

So Byrider cleans up the car and gets it ready for the next poor soul that does not know how to read the fine print.

Well as a former consumer investigative reporter for Post Newsweek TV who helped to bring down one of the largest transmission repair companies in the USA at 23 years old, I`m now ready to bring down Byrider and the other scumbags that prey on people like this young poorly educated Native American.

And I think I know how to do it. Instead of running an expose on these scumbags let`s start a campaign as PSAs run on the media that these companies run their deceptive ads and commercials on offering to teach people like this poor Indian girl how to avoid getting caught in the web of a Byrider. They target the media that these poor people listen to. So let`s turn the tables on them!

If every one of you would tell at least 10 other friends about this travesty and the way to put these scumbags out of business we could stop this from happening as often as it does.

Let`s discuss ways to make this work! 

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NO cost 11 week e-course on Internet Marketing that my business associate Paul Miller and I developed from our over 13 years of success at http://www.shirtpocketmillionaire.com.

As an `investigative reporter` ( I don`t have the time or the energy to actually verify that), get your facts straight:

* The BusinessWeek story stated that her payments were every two weeks, not every week as you stated above, most likely to embellish your argument.

* The consumer signed the note for the car.

* You make a veiled accusation that they possibly tampered with the odometer, with absolutely no evidence of such.

* 24.9% interest is regulated by federal lending statutes and reflects a very high risk of default on the part of the customer.

Your post is known as libel, not investigative reporting. That will get you sued, and pretty severely as this forum is seen by a lot of people. My screenprint is all the evidence required to prove your intent to disparage this company.

You may or may not like their sales tactics, which are not illegal by the way, but you do not get the right to blatantly make libelous statements like this.

I would suggest two things:

* Hire a really expensive attorney.
* Check your facts next time.

I would have to characterize your post as it relates to your legal exposure in much the same way as you characterize your company:
A man-made disaster.

Good luck with the lawsuit.

Jeff, I agree with you. Lots of people overpay for products and services as a result of ignorance. It`s not against the law.

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Thanks, Steve.

I don`t like the idea of anyone being taken advantage of, of course, but all of us pay more for defaults, whether it`s mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, whatever - not just the high interest-paying customer.

I was in a bookstore yesterday looking to buy Walter Isaacson`s new book on Albert Einstein, which is getting really good reviews. I was about to buy it until I realized it wasn`t discounted, not even a little.

I told the owner, `you know, I just can`t make myself pay full retail for books anymore. I know you`re an "independent bookstore" and all (whatever that means - buying power, I guess, but what did they do with all that income from their full retail selling for the past 75 years) and I buy from independents as well as Borders, B & N, and Amazon, but how can you justify $34.95?`. {Their customer service and book knowledge, surprisingly their strong suits, weren`t even average in my experience with them yesterday. I was in the store 10 minutes and was never greeted by anybody or asked if I needed help. So, what exactly makes them special?}

Ignorance of better deals is a customer intelligence/research issue. I don`t mean that the customer isn`t intelligent - I mean that they have access to the same business intelligence (i.e. the internet, books, magazines - all available at the public library) as the rest of us.

But to put this out here with clearly inaccurate and malicious intent, I don`t play that game.

The company, By Rider, doesn`t either, according to their general counsel, with whom I spoke this morning.

If the intent of this thread is to share info on scams, or discuss ways to combat them, mostly of the online variety check out below.  This person is shedding alot of light on scammers who prey on job-hunters.

www.tabathamarshall.com

Check out the list!

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ONSITE123
www.ONSITE123.net

I am surprised to see so little activity in this thread, given the plethora of injustices that exist (both legal and illegal).

It is a dream of mine to see people come together with the goal of generating real change regarding the current laws that allow companies to prey on people.  I realize that not many people have the time or the inclination to do much in the way of research (hence the number of poor souls that get taken); however, a little can go a very long way when executed efficiently.

Think tank, anyone?


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"Ask not, know not." --Me