Our small ethics training and consulting business always has cash flow worries, so when an offer arrived from Reliant Funding promising a quick line of credit, my business partner and COO–also known as my wife—leaped into action. She checked up on the outfit, and all indications were that they were legit. Comments about them on the web lacked any red flags.
Then she called the number listed to apply for the loan, a process promised to take “hours not days,” and activate the loan card, which looked like a credit card with my name on it. Our representative was articulate and informative, and prospects looked rosy. Then my wise COO, herself now crippled by the business curse, ethical thinking, heard “Steve” say ProEthics could probably get a $10,000 loan. She immediately and curtly said that she would have to call him back.
“This mailer says that a $41, 739 loan was pre-approved. She said. He said the most we could get was $10,000. That mailer is a lie!”
“Correctamundo!” I ventured.
Now Steve was in trouble; you don’t want to cross Grace. Really. She called Steve back, and went on the attack:
Grace: Your mailer said we were pre-approved for over $40,000, and you told me we could only get ten. Why should we trust your company when its initial contact with us is a lie?”
Steve: Well, it’s an unsecured loan.
Grace: Irrelevant. Your mailer said we were pre-approved for over $40,000, and you told me we could only get ten. Why should we trust your company when i’s initial contact with us is a lie?”
Steve: Well, you said that this year your income was a little down.
Grace: Irrelevant. Your mailer said we were pre-approved for over $40,000, and you told me we could only get ten. Why should we trust your company when its initial contact with us is a lie?”
Steve: You can’t expect us to risk over $40,000 on a company we don’t know!
Grace: I didn’t ask you to do that. You offered to do that, in writing. It was a lie. Why should we trust your company when its initial contact with us is a lie?”
Steve: Uh, well, all of the companies in this business do that. It’s just marketing.
Grace: No, it’s a bait and switch. Your mailer said we were pre-approved for over $40,000, and you told me we could only get ten. You are saying that you can lie because everyone else does. I’m not talking to everyone else. The one who lied to me was you.
Steve: I don’t have any control over our marketing!
Grace: You have control over who you work for and who you represent. You have control over whether or not you are party to a scam. This is a scam. The thing you sent us that looks like a credit card has a sticker on it that says all we have to do to activate it is to call an 800 number. But it isn’t a credit card, is it?
Steve: On the back there’s print that says it’s just a membership card.
Grace: But designed to make us think it’s a credit card, and stuck to the paper, so the back isn’t readable. It’s a lie. The offer is a lie. The per-qualified claim is a lie. The amount is a lie. So I ask you again…
Your mailer said we were pre-approved for over $40,000, and you told me we could only get ten. Why should we trust your company when its initial contact with us is a lie?
Steve: I guess I can’t answer that question.
Grace: Correct. Goodbye.
Perfect!
Now if we could only find a trustworthy business loan company….
Ethics Alarms 
Name ’em and Shame ’em !
This is a great article. I would like to broaden it to include nearly everything that is advertised on American television, in magazines, and on the internet.
Please will someone point me to a single restaurant whose food looks as appetizing when it is on the plate in front of you as it does in the advertisements.
Please will someone point me to any businesses where the customer service is provided by models with ever-present cheerful smiles. (This especially applies to the world’s largest retailer. Tell me how many of those workers has anything to smile about or any time in which to flash their choppers at me.)
While your at it, will someone please tell me why more than half of the automobile commercials are for high powered automobiles that will travel at twice the posted speed limits on any thoroughfare in this country. Why do persons buy $50,000 trucks to go grocery shopping and to get the kids from school. We certainly need 400 horsepower for those activities, don’t we? While we certainly should have the freedom to buy a monster truck that we don’t need, we should be able to overcome the manipulative techniques used in advertising that convince us to make that purchase. If we can’t resist that manipulation attempts of advertisers, how are we ever to resist the manipulation attempts of politicians? [I apologize, Jack, for getting off subject. This has been “stuck in my craw” for a long time and it feels good to get it out of there.)
“While you’re at it…”
I see I missed a question mark too. And mismatched a bracket. I need to remember to reread these things before hitting the “post comment” button.
Welcome to my nightmare…
I expect puffery, and in single purchase situations, the buyer has to be wary. Lies in what is going to be a continuing relationship–with a bank, an insurer, a lawyer, a financial advisor–that’s different.
No way this could be considered puffery, of course. It was simply a false advertisement. A lie.
Your wife did a great job. My wife and I prefer to access the highest level of management we can in such a situation and remonstrate with them, although given the conversation above, I doubt that would’ve made any difference at all.
A lawsuit might, though. Unfortunately, few of the targets of this sort of scam have either the time or money for that.
FTC? Class action? Plain old garden variety business fraud? Anyone? Beuhler?
Loan salesman, as played by a Clinton of your choice:
Your preliminary approval based on the limited information available to us, which is not the same as full approval and is, at most, and estimate of the range we think you might qualify for. Obviously, for actual approval we needed more information. Although many similar businesses would qualify for the 40-50 thousand range, given your unique circumstance we just can’t quite give you the amount we initially estimated. I’m sorry if you misunderstood the mailer.
I’m not touching on the other misleading sales pitch items like the card. I can’t come up with a good way to spin that one. I suspect Bill could have come up with better spin than I did though.
Hillary couldn’t have pulled it off, though…
Bill Clinton would make you thank him for the pleasure of being deceived….
I would actually used another word than “deceived”, maybe one starting with a ‘s’.
thats great. love it
I am constantly updating a training manual, including role plays, for the call room volunteers who work on our local and national crisis lines. I wish I could adapt your entire dialog to suit our needs — which it obviously could not –, but failing that, it is being forwarded to everyone (with due acknowledgement) as an exercise in self-assertion and anger management roles to trade off with any interested friend or family member.
And you didn’t change font size, so I’m assuming Mrs. Marshall never raised her well modulated voice.
Pretty Much the Same Experience with Reliant Funding! However we somehow did not qualify after all was said and done. When I asked for a “Reason” since our Company holds no debt and doesn’t run in the Red, the response was our Bank Statements are the reason. I asked for a rejection letter and I was Schooled: Reliant Funding Representative – Well this isn’t a loan – it’s funding.
Thanks for the article. Was wonderful. I just got one of these mailers and was glad I checked up on it as things that tend to to be too good to be true, usually are. Companies are given way too much latitude in advertising and the courts have generally backed that there is some “advertising license” to lie to some degree. However, these ads are just bald faced lies and that should not be allowed in any way, shape or form.