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September 11, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Wells Fargo buyer's defense program

WellsfargoA reader named Mike writes in:

Included with my credit card bill from Wells Fargo was one of those side-tear envelopes where you tear off one side and slide the contents out.  The other three sides remain sealed, to ensure that the text printed on the inside of the envelope cover is unreadable.
 
As you can see from the red box around the section titled "Extended Protection," towards the bottom of the image,  this program will "extend your original manufacturer's warranty on eligible purchases made entirely of on your enrolled credit card up to 12 additional months on eligible warranties of 3 years or less" and then at the very bottom of the page, there is text that refers the reader to  "See Important Disclosure enclosed for more details."

Well that Disclosure is printed on the *inside of the back cover of the envelope!* 

The "important disclosure" can't be seen unless you rip apart the envelope, and most people would have already thrown away the envelope after opening it and removing the contents!
 
What's even more broken is that the terms and conditions exclude "damaged, non-working goods" ... Isn't that the whole point of a warranty? So what's the value of the "extended protection" included in the program?

Posted in Misc

Comments:

First!

Wow, very stupid to have important warranty info where it will likely be thrown away, and to have it useless in the first place. Perhaps it be purposeful on behalf of the warranty provider?

Posted by: Serpent_Guard at September 11, 2006 03:29 AM

banks and financial institution are really taking us customers for granted, and it is no longer a choice for us to take our business to one financial institution or another, it does not matter anymore we are being treated as numbers. Consumer protection organization no much help on this front either. Consumer need to sue them so they can start listening and do a good servce like it used to be.

Posted by: Gordonii at September 11, 2006 03:40 AM

The terms and conditions which exclude non-working goods are indeed *very* broken, from the customers point of view; sadly, these sort of things are becoming more common from banks. I recently had one which wanted to charge me £20 a year for "Sentinel card protection" which guarantees that as long as you notify them when the card is stolen, you won't be held liable for any fraudulant transactions which are made with your stolen card. In addition, the credit card company offered an Internet Fraud Guarantee:

"If you find out that a transaction using your details has been carried out on the internet without your knowledge or consent, we guarantee not to hold you liable for the fraudulent transaction."

Never mind that both these protections are guaranteed by law.

Posted by: Simon at September 11, 2006 09:39 AM

I would imagine that the 'non-working' goods is referring to the sort of 'as-is' purchases some stores offer that also don't have warranties. But obviously, I could be wrong. Either way, printing inside the envelope without making note of it is beyond shady.

Posted by: ambrocked at September 11, 2006 10:57 AM

Reminds me of a peice of mail from AOL containing only a check for about $5. However, on the inside of the envolope was an agreement to sign up for something that you accepted by cashing the check.

Posted by: EricJ2190 at September 12, 2006 10:18 PM

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