Complaint Review: Star Industries - Calgary Alberta

   I recieved a scratch and win ticket in the mail a few weeks ago, I didn't think much of it and left it in my truck. My girlfriend found it and scratched it. Sure enough, it was a winner! Quite a rare ticket according to the back of it. I was guarenteed a prize and all. She called the number on the ticket and was treated like she won the lottery! I got back in the vehicle to find out that a "representative" was coming to drop off our prize in an hour. The only catch was we had to give our opinion on a new product. I was sceptical but the call was already made and the meeting arranged.     

   The doorbell rang and I opened the door to find a lady with 2 large boxes waiting. I asked her what I had won and she was more concerned about getting inside and setting up a demonstration. She told me after her "15 min presentation" we would get our prize.

   The presentation started with a video of a news broadcast about airborn pollutants and allergies. She then pulled out an air quality measuring device and showed us just how dangerous out envrionment was... I remained sceptical the entire time as this "15 min demonstration" was now an hour long and looking more and more like a sales pitch.

   After the air purifier as done we then moved onto the vaccuum. She had a few pictures describing why all vaccuums are terrible and dangerous and even went as far as saying there is a regulation that says it is not safe to be in your house half an hour after vaccuuming! ya...right. Finally, out comes the vaccuum! A tristar MG2. This is a very nice vaccuum and I was quite impressed by the demonstration. She had a transparent cover which she used along with coffee filters to show just how much dirt we were missing. Well, it was quite alot but of course other vaccums would pick it up as well. By this point in the presentation your supposed to feel like your living in a ses-pool and this vaccuum is the only way to fix it.

   The sales lady asked us a few questions about what we spend on stuff like carpet shampooing and air fresheners and calculated some number well into the thousands of "wasted money". Now, about 2 hours into this "15 min demo" she showed us the price. I actually laughed when I saw it. $2,600.00! So of course she compared this with our wasted money and played it off like were actually saving money. She then showed us payment plans because I straight up told her that 2600$ is not a price for a vaccuum. I pulled out my calculator and she got a little nervous. The first plan had 67% interest and the second had 73% interest! She then pulled out her phone and called her boss like she really cared and wanted to get us a good deal. After negotiating with this guy for a bit he knocked the price down and threw in some travel voucher which, after a thorough investigation, wasn't a deal of any kind. The girlfriend was dead set on it at this point and I just wanted this lady out of the house so we agreed.

   Two days later the financial agency called us confirming this payment plan which we negotiated with the guy on the phone and it was nothing like what was agreed. I told the agency to withdraw the plan. The agency said we needed to get star industries to cancel the plan so I was beginning to get nervous. The sales lady said we had 10 days to return this product so I got on the phone right away. The manager from Star industries seemed almost offended when I told him I wanted to return it. I drove an hour and a half to bring the machine up to him and all he gave me was a piece of paper saying"machine returned xx/xx/10" and his signature. He assured me nothing else needed to be done and it was already emailed off to the agency. That seemed odd because he was gone no more than 15 seconds. The next day I called the financial agency to see if it had been cancelled and they had heard nothing about it.... The guy had lied to me and was clearly trying to wait out the ten day return limit. I called Star industries and spoke with him and now all of a sudden I needed to contact the financial agency. After questioning his lie he got very mad and hung up after a yelling match. I faxed the piece of paper to the financial agency and called several times to ensure it was going to the right place and cancelling the rip off. The agency even seemed like they were trying to wait out the 10 days as they had a similar policy. On the 10th day I finally got a for sure answer on the cancellation. Thank god.

  I guarentee if I had not been as persistent with the phone tag and faxing the 10 day limit would of been exceeded and the payments gone through. I can't even find contact information for the Red Deer branch of Star industries I was dealing with so I have posted the Calgary office's. The Red Deer manager, Adam Brown, was a very rude person to deal with. After calling his bluff he began hanging up the phone and yelling things like "deal with it" and "tough luck".

   During the period where I was trying to cancell this I reasearched what I could and found out you can buy these vaccuums for 100-300$ and many, many other people have had similar problems. Even the recruiting process is a joke for this company. They market the jobs as air flow system specialists and other fancy names to draw in unemployed people. They don't even let you know your going to be a door to door vaccuum cleaner salesman until your pretty much roped in.

  Looking back on everything from the sales pitch to the payment cancellation I must say this is the biggest scam I have ever encountered. The sales pitch used extreme scare tactics and highly biased facts to sell this standard product at a insanely high mark up. The company is obviously out to rip people off and will do anything in its power to make sure those 10 days go by.

   If you get a scratch ticket in the mail and it's from these guys I encourage you to open your doors to their salesmen, pick apart there presentation with common sense and then laugh at their price. When they call the "boss" to get you a better deal, thank him for the demonstration and inform him you will now go buy one somewhere else for $200.00. Then ask him how he sleeps at night.

Cheers