Bait and Switch

1) Betty drove three hours in one-hundred degree heat. Explain if this fact has any bearing on whether or not the dealer must perform in accordance with the published advertisement.
In present day society, the average American consumer will go to great lengths in order to find some good deals throughout these economical times. Advertising can have a profound effect on people’s morals and their conduct as it relates to how they identify with their lives. Advertising has both short-term and long-effects. The short-term effect of advertising generally happens right away once the person has been exposed to ad and these effects are known to last only a short period of time. The long-term effects of advertising once a person has been exposed to an ad they usually will not feel these effects until sometime later on since these effects are cumulative and then they are not easy to attribute to a single ad campaign. The fact that Ms. Betty had driven three hours in one-hundred degree heat has no bearing on whether or not the dealer must perform in accordance with the published advertisement. The decision to make this three hour drive to Rally motors was Ms. Betty decision. It is absolutely left up to the customer to make any arrangements they need in order to get to the place of business in order to do business when purchasing or selling a product or service. It’s not the concern of the dealer to take into consideration any problems or issues that are in person life. Even though the dealer is completely responsible for what they run in their ad’s by making sure what is being printed in their ad is clear and understanding to the customer.

As we see in the video, we notice that Ms. Betty is reading an ad that she had ran across in her local newspaper. In her response, to the ad Ms. Betty had called Rally motors (advertiser). She wanted some more information about the truck. According to the video, Ms. Betty had a made a phone to Rally motors, and had spoken to a sales agent that goes by the name of Tony. He offered to give her three thousand dollars for her truck as a trade in. Ms. Betty had jumped in her truck and had proceeded to drive three hours away from her resident to Rally motors in the hot scorching sun with temperatures going into the triple digits; with no air conditioning, and subjecting herself to heat exhaustion just to see this truck and to meet Tony her sales agent. Ms Betty had taken the advertisement with her. Upon her arrival at Rally motors, she had met with Tony her sales agent and had showed him the advertisement showing truck had a price tag of $11,399 dollars, and she was very determined to get this truck. Tony was trying as hard as he could, to get Ms Betty to change her mind about buying this truck by telling her about other trucks that were much higher than the one that she is interested in. Ms. Betty wasn’t all that interested in what it had to say in the fine print all she wanted was this particular truck. In the newspaper ad, the writing was so small it would have to take a magnifying glass in order to read it. In the ad, it had stated that this was on the only truck that was for sale at this price and also it had given the invoice number of the truck. Tony had told Ms. Betty that it would try his best to get her that truck at that advertised price. Ms. Betty was at fault because she didn’t read what it said in the fine print. She had become very hostile with Tony and he told him if he wasn’t a man of his word, she would seek out legal counsel. After Ms. Betty had made that idle threat, to Tony he began feeling like he needed to man up and get Ms. Betty that truck she saw in the advertisement at that price. As a lesson learned, before making a big purchase such as purchasing an automobile, make sure to read what’s in the fine print before driving a great distance to see an item that will save a great deal of time, and being convinced into buying an item that is more than the person is willing to pay for. 2. When Tony said over the phone “three-thousand dollars firm, Explain whether or not he was making an offer that, if accepted would bind the dealership in contract When someone makes a general statement that signifies their intentions, and a confession of their readiness that indicates they are willing and able to go into negotiations with someone is not considered an offer, and it isn’t accepted as a being a valid contract. The three thousand dollar offer that was made over the phone to Ms. Betty may be able to possibly bind the dealership in contract. Even though an oral contract can be considered to be legally binding; When drafting a contract in order for it to be valid contract, these three items must be present they are competence, consideration, and mutual assent. A contract can’t be legally binding if the two parties involved in the contract aren’t capable enough to enter into a contract, consideration can be services, if the person can provide something in exchange, and the mostly used form of consideration is money. Mutual Assent is otherwise known as meeting of the minds. Both parties will need to sit down and discuss the details of the contract, the rights that party member has, and the obligations of the contract (Conor, 2012). As we take a look at the video, we see that Betty is on the phone chatting with someone about a truck that was for sale, the person that she is chatting on the phone with a sales agent from Rally motors by the name of Tony. In the conversation between Ms. Betty and Tony, it was brought up by Tony that would offer Ms. Betty three thousand dollars for her truck if she traded her truck in. According the video, it didn’t indicate whether or not she had taken Tony up on his offer or not just thinking about her driving three hours away, this would show that she did accept Tony’s offer. Apparently, Tony wasn’t too certain about the details of the offer and what he had to do prior to giving Ms. Betty her money. According to What Constitutes a Legally Binding Contract, the offer must provide clear and precise details about any terms and conditions pertinent to making an agreement, including what will be expected from each party and what each will receive in return as consideration for the contracts. However, this may be looked upon as being a gift, and gifts aren’t considered to be legally binding. In order for Ms. Betty to receive her money there are several things that she must do first, she will need to have her credit report pulled once this is done and it’s approved then she can buy a vehicle from Rally motors and then she will be able to receive her three thousand dollars as promised by Tony. Tony did definitely make an oral offer and abiding by the law of a contract. Betty was in her legal rights to go and purchase the vehicle. It’s true that there must be something in writing because without a legal binding contract, people can be taken advantage of.
3. Explain whether or not advertised specials can be taken advantage of by employees of the advertiser. Employees can take advantage of advertised specials that are being run by the advertiser; however, they will get treated the same way as a regular customer would. Although at times companies can forbid their employees from taking advantage of these advertised specials and special offers. The reason why advertiser will sometimes do this it’s because they don’t want to look like they are some insider dealing and impropriety. In the video, the way in which the truck was sold to the guy Jim who works in the service department at Rally motors was done entirely wrong. The truck that was being advertised in the paper was sold way before the business had opened its door for a regular business day, and the way the ad was set up it was to be used as a potential bait to entice their customers. Bait and switch advertising will usually happen when a merchant has put an item on sale that the general public must have they will use that as bait to reach any possible customers, by drawing them into the store to purchase this particular item. However, when trying to purchase this particular item, the merchant has said that we no longer carry this particular item. But the salesperson will try to convince their customers into buying another item that is priced enormously higher; this is called the switch. This type of advertising is not allowed in some states if the advertised product is not available in reasonable quantities.
4. Explain to what extent an advertisement binds the advertiser to the terms of the advertisement.
When a merchant runs and ad campaign advertising their products and services of course this will bind the advertiser to the terms of the advertisement. Generally, what happens is the advertiser will write any or all exclusions in the small print; As a result, this will make it very difficult for the potential customer to read about what isn’t covered. We can see in the video that Tony needs to use special glasses in order for Ms. Betty to find out that this was the only car that was actually being sold at this price. However, the cost of the car doesn’t reflect any additional options or upgrades that come with that car. If the deal didn’t specify that there was only one car being sold at that listed price then they would have to go and find another one to sell because they could be accused of false advertisement.
5. Explain to what extent an advertisement has to be true. How truthful an advertiser wants to make their advertisement should be left solely up to them. All advertisers must obey any advertising or marketing laws, if they don’t abide by these laws they will be subjecting themselves to lawsuits and or civil penalties. Prior to an advertiser running an advertisement these are important rules that an advertiser is bind to. Advertisement will need to be honest and not misleading; Advertisers will need to have evidence in order to back up their claims, and advertisements can’t be unjust. However, advertising has the capabilities of luring people into doing commercial transactions they might regret later; numerous governments all over the world are using an array of rules to manage the use of false, deceptive or misleading information in their advertising campaigns. In other words, all advertising campaigns must be truthful at all times if not the advertiser could be sued or fined

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