RainSoft Water purification systems sales practices

RainSoft water purification system:

Outlined below is a detailed description of the less than honest sales

practices of RainSoft. This comes in the part of a letter that I wrote to

the company after going through a bad experience with them. I would never

recommend buying from this company.

This letter is in regards to your sales practices. Late last month I went

through, what I would call, the worst sales experience of my life. I am

going to detail, in chronological order, the sales experience along with the

problems that I had. I will try to be as fair as possible in reporting the

events, so that you can use this as a means to improve your company. As it

stands right now, I will never refer your company to anyone. It is my hope

that through my critiques some of your sales practices will change.

1. On June 26th, 2002 we received a call, and the sales person said

that they were conducting a survey and asked would we mind answering a

couple of questions. They asked what grocery store we shopped at, if we own

our home, which credit card gives us the best service, and if we have ever

had our water tested before. As we were about to hang up they mentioned that

we may be qualified to win $250 in grocery coupons.

2. On June 28th, 2002 we received a follow up call and the man said,

"congratulations, you've been selected to receive $250 in grocery coupons".

(What a lucky coincidence) He verified our address and name, which made us

think that they were going to be putting it in the mail to us. Then he said

that they were going to drop it off tomorrow at 11am. As we were hanging up

the phone, he said that a certified Rain Soft demonstrator will deliver it.

We asked how long the demonstration would take and The claim of the sales

representative over the phone was that they wanted to do an in home water

test that was going to be "really quick". He said that the only thing that

we really ask you to do is fill out a 6-question survey and however long it

takes you to answer the questions is the length of time it should take. That

was absolutely false and a total misrepresentation of the truth. The time

spent in the home was nearly 3 hours. We did enjoy the presentation as it

was very informational, but the fact remains that this sales tactic of lying

about how long a sales representative is in the home reflects poorly upon

the company.

3. On June 29th, 2002, Rich, the product demonstrator/sales

representative, came to our house. He spent several hours with us

demonstrating the Rain Soft product. The product was fantastic and we

learned a lot. However, there were some sales tactics made that day, which

were again, manipulative, and they were not what I would consider totally

honest. Towards the end of his presentation when it came time to receive

details about financing, we were not given detailed terms. We were told that

we would be paying $89 dollars a month, but we did not know for how long. We

assumed that we would receive financing information before making a final

decision about the length we would be paying, but we received none. If we

had not cancelled, who knows how long we would have been paying $89 a month.

The other sales tactic used, that I would consider deceitful, is that we

were offered a price of $4500 dollars for the unit that they could never

offer again, which was obviously false, as I will explain later. We bought

thinking we were getting a "good deal" when in fact that offer can be

attained very easily. You claim not to be high pressure, but I would

definitely consider that particular sales tactic to be very high pressure.

You gave us no time to research or even think about it. Finally, I did not

like how you pushed one of your most expensive pieces of water purification

equipment on us. We may have considered buying otherwise. Anyway, after 3

hours he left, and the product was going to be delivered and installed later

that day.

4. After Rich had left I did not feel right about the purchase that we

had just made. I decided to go on the Internet to check out what other

people had to say about the Rain Soft product line and to see if this was

truly a "good deal". Time and time again, I saw accounts written that Rain

Soft was a great product, but it was twice as expensive as its competitors.

Most likely, this is due to the high price that they pay for sales and

marketing to push this product. After reading the accounts over the

Internet, I decided to cancel our order with you. I left a message with our

sales representative, Rich, that I did not want the Rain Soft equipment.

5. Later that day the Rain Soft installer showed up and I declined

installation. To the credit of the installer he was very nice about it. He

gave me no trouble.

6. An hour after I declined installation, I received a call from Rich.

He asked why I had declined installation. I told him that upon further

review of our finances we were not in a position to pay for the product, no

matter how much supposed savings we would receive. He then dropped our

monthly payment down to $59. Again, I tried to get some type of specific

financing terms from him, but I received none. I had no idea how long I

would be paying $59 for. I declined and then he said that he could get me a

unit for $29 a month that was slightly used. Again, I had no idea how long I

would be paying that amount. After 5-10 minutes worth of saying, "no". He

finally cancelled my order. It is absolutely amazing how fast he dropped our

monthly payment with one phone call. It is another sign that Rain Soft lacks

integrity.

7. In reading over the Internet I found instances where people had

wanted to cancel their order within the 3 days, but the sales

representatives were "conveniently" unavailable so they were stuck with the

equipment. The advice given over the Internet was to send a certified letter

stating that you cancelled the order, and I did so on July 1st. You received

my cancellation letter within the time allowed on July 2nd to cancel and a

day later I received confirmation that you received it. I also stated in

that letter that I did not want any more contact from Rain Soft as I felt

that they may try to sell me another unit.

8. On June 6th I received a call from a call from Sid despite my

request. He claimed that he was calling in order to find out why I

cancelled. He also claimed that he was calling to give me a cancellation

number that if I did not have I could be billed. Firstly, in regards to him

finding out why I cancelled, I believe that this was only a way for him to

try to sell me another unit. This was extremely upsetting after I had

specifically requested in my letter that I did not want any more calls.

Secondly, in regards to the cancellation number, why on earth would I need a

cancellation number given that I had cancelled in three different ways by:

1. Declining installation, 2. Canceling with the sales representative, and

3. Canceling by certified letter? I think all of these translate into a

cancellation, but what do I know? Sid was the worst part of the whole sales

experience. I have never in my life yelled at a sales person before. Sid,

through his manipulative sales tactics, drove me to that point. Time and

time again, I wanted to terminate the call and be done with it but he

managed to keep me on the phone for over 15 minutes. I cannot count the

number of times that I had to tell him that I did not want the product. I

know that he was only doing his job, but does this require such manipulation

upon the part of your sales staff?

This concludes my account. It was not pleasant, and my impression of Rain

Soft will be forever tainted by the sales experience that I went through. I

wish this upon no one. From the information that I received from Rich, our

sales representative, I know that the sales staff is part of a different

company that markets Rain Soft. Given my experience with this company, there

are some deep issues that must be resolved in order for this company to

operate with integrity. President Bush said in a recent speech involving the

World Com scandal that, "Our greatest economic need is for higher moral

integrity". It is my hope that you would take this to heart.