The commercial says you can win a free adjustable bed! Here's the catch...After entering the contest a Craftmatic/Contour salesperson comes calling.
After 80-year-old Dwight Broadhead entered the contest, a Craftmatic saleswoman showed up at his home. By the time she left, he'd paid almost $2,500 for a bed.
The problem is, Dwight's daughter Clarissa says her father is almost totally blind. Clarissa says she was shocked when she later discovered the saleswoman had signed her father up for a credit card to pay for the bed. Dwight says he knew nothing about it. The credit application had been left totally blank, except for Dwight's uneven signature at the bottom. Clarissa says the saleswoman "would take the pencil in his hand and put it on the line and he would sign it."
Unfortunately, Dwight's story isn't at all unique. INSIDE EDITION found hundreds of consumer complaints against Craftmatic around the country. In the last three years, the company and its sales force have been disciplined in four states for using high pressure and deceptive sales tactics.
Earlier this year, INSIDE EDITION hired a 71-year-old actress named Mary to pose as a potential Craftmatic customer, and equipped a house in Dallas with hidden cameras.
A salesman named Duane seems very pleasant, but before long he resorts to a typical Craftmatic scare tactic. He told Mary that about "75% of older people that fall out of their bed end up having to go to rehab, a nursing home more than likely. Half of the time, they don't come back home."
An hour into the sales pitch the salesman finally tells her the price of the bed: $6,990.
The price then plummets as the salesman bombards Mary with a bunch of phony discounts. The first deduction is $250 off. Then, another $500 off if she was to buy that day.
When Mary says it's still too expensive, the salesman uses a common tactic of calling the “home office”. The person on the other end of the line plays along to help make the sale.
Duane tells Mary that a representative at the home office has reduced the price by an additional $1,000. "We've got it down to $5,230."
When Mary still resists, Duane puts her on the phone and the price drops again, this time to $3,596.
INSIDE EDITION also witnessed the phony price drop after setting up hidden cameras at a house in Denver.
The salesman, named Barry, tells Mary he has a bed in stock that can be delivered for $5,000, but he asks Mary to keep the deal strictly confidential.
He also tells Mary the bed will be good for her health, saying it had cured his acid reflux disease. "I got the bed, now I'm off all medications. I'm fine," he says. Barry tells her the bed will do the same for her. He tells her she won't have to take her acid reflux medication anymore, and he also says the bed will be ideal for her husband who suffers from serious heart disease.
When Mary tells him she wants to talk it over with her children and doctor, he discourages her. "There isn't any doctor in their right mind who isn't going to tell you this is absolutely the best thing for your husband."
After an hour and a half Barry finally gives up. While he had lots to say inside the house he doesn’t say anything when INSIDE EDITION Investigative Correspondent Matt Meagher tries to talk to him on his way out.
So who teaches these salespeople how to target the elderly?
"You've got to put on a show! The bigger the show, the more the dough," says one top salesperson, Carolyn Nilson. She trains new recruits and ran a recent four-day training session in Texas. Unbeknownst to her, one of the trainees was an INSIDE EDITION producer, who attended with a hidden camera. The most important lesson he was taught was to close the sale that day.
"Not tomorrow, not after they talk to their doctor, their daughter, their son... send their granddaughter through college, help out their, you know, blood-sucking leech-y kids," says Nilson.
Even though several times she cautions the class to be ethical and to stay within the law she tells trainees to use fear tactics as a selling point. "He's got severe, severe acid reflux. Do you know what would happen to him if he doesn't elevate his head? He could die," she says.
She teaches them to play on the emotions of the elderly. If you have a customer who recently lost a spouse Nilson says to tell him his wife would have wanted him to have the bed. "If they're not crying, they're not buying. I'll have them right here on my shoulder," Nilson says.
When it comes to closing the deal and getting customers to hand over the money, she says: "I've done it all. Dug checks out of the garbage that they didn't shred...reactivated credit cards, gone to the bank."
Meagher asked Carolyn Nilson about the tactics she teaches. She denied teaching her trainees to take advantage of the elderly, and told Meagher she’s an “independent contractor.” She also denied that she has ever driven people to the bank or gotten them to reactivate their credit cards.
INSIDE EDITION showed the footage to U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill from Missouri, a member of the Senate Committee on Aging.
"Disgusting, really disgusting," McCaskill says. "This story breaks my heart." She continues, “There's a special place in hell for people who take advantage of the elderly and people who teach people to take advantage of the elderly."
As for Dwight Broadhead, after INSIDE EDITION contracted Craftmatic, the company cancelled his contract and picked up the bed, which had been sitting unused in his garage. Unfortunately, he's only one of "many" unhappy customers.
Based on INSIDE EDITION's findings, Senator McCaskill sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission requesting an investigation. The FTC has promised to follow-up on what they call serious allegations. INSIDE EDITION tried to get an interview or even a comment from executives of the company, but no one there responded to our phone calls, faxes and letters. Recently the company has started selling beds under the name Contour.