Where every store has broken the law.

[Kristev]

What a dirty trick. It's perfect.

[thehuckster]

Currently I'm a software engineer who does a lot of website work for my employer, among other things. Last year we had a big pre-order event for a much-anticipated new product being released a few months afterwards. Despite all of our web pages saying in big bold letters that this was a pre-order, the product will be released in June (when it was currently March), and emails sent to them with instructions on how to redeem the product WHEN IT BECOMES AVAILABLE, we had hundreds of support emails from angry customers asking why they haven't received their product yet.

...and yes, for a few of them when we responded telling them they are pre-ordering a product that doesn't even exist yet, much less is available for purchase, they cried foul and told us we'll be hearing from their lawyers for what they thought had to be a violation of FTC policy.

[Mytical]

ME - "Okay, ma'am, since you refuse to give me ANY of your info, I'll just have to put you down as "Refused"...Ah! I see we already have such an account. Wow, ma'am, you order from us a lot! The issue is, you never seem to pay your bills, so you now owe us...let's see...Fifty thousand, four hundred, and twenty-two dollars. How would you like to pay that?"

SC - "WhaWhatWHAAAAAT?! I never ordered all that stuff! This is only my third time calling you!"

ME - "Hrm, no, I show over four hundred orders from the name "Refused" in the past few years or so...Might your account be under another name so we can look up your personal account? Because, if not, I will have to hold you responsible for these charges, Ms. Refused"...

That..that is deliciously evil..Oh how I wish I could use that.

@thehuckster *nods* exactly. I just will not understand it. Reading is fundamental, but SC's they are doing it wrong.

[emax4]

Something I just thought of from the OP... At any point did you tell the caller "Because it's not finished being made and this is a pre-order, it's not for sale yet"? I would have just given in and agreed that perhaps he's right that it's illegal to advertise something being sold and not selling it, but that what's going on IS legal because it's a pre-sale and not actually on the shelves yet. Then, gauged his reaction and followed from there.

[Mytical]

No didn't think about it. I did sort of break the rules however. See we are supposed to sympathize and agree with the customer (I know stupid rules, but then again I don't make them). My mind sort of went numb, however, and I did say "It's a pre-order, which means for in the future..so..every place that has ever had a preorder sale has broken the law?" which just made things worse.

There are a lot of things that could of or should have been done, but hindsight is always 20/20.