RETAIL STORES, SMALL BUSINESSES, HOME OFFICE OWNERS, BEWARE

    Suppose you inadvertently signed up for a rather expensive service by just stamping and depositing a check that was made out to your business.  Come on, be honest, many of you have deposited a check that was made out to your business without knowing why someone was paying you. Perhaps it was payment for an invoice you have lost, perhaps it was a rebate offer that you had sent out  but had forgotten about. After all, how many rebates are from a company in a western state with a strange company name. Or maybe you didn't read the company name. It looks like a rebate. That's what it says in the large print, though there is a lot of small print. But look closer at the small print. It also says sign-up. Rebate in large letters, sign-up in small letters.

    You, so far, don't know what has happened. You stamped the check with your "deposit only" stamp and deposited the check. You don't know that you have just spent over $100. And you have, by law, 60 days to stop the purchase, to cancel the contract.  That's what that small print that you didn't read said. It said, using that check signed you to a contract for a service that you may not need.  You should have read the whole check. The warnings were all there, all the warnings required by law. Will you receive a timely bill so that you will find out what you have done in time to not incur the debt?.................................................To be continued

jv