Minolta Business Systems manufactures and sells a line of office equipment. Centerplex has found that it engages in the following harmful practices.
Minolta begins by sending a sales person to visit you, offering you the free trial use of an office machine, such as a copier, with no obligation.
If you accept the free-trial offer, Minolta gives you a long contract with small type to sign. It is a lease contract, under which you would pay monthly rent for the machine for several years. Minolta tells you that this contract will go into effect only if you approve the machine after the free trial. But the contract is more restrictive than this.
Centerplex found this contract too restrictive, so it wrote an addendum to the contract making it clearer that Centerplex would be under no obligation unless it accepted the machine. Then Centerplex signed the contract and its addendum.
Minolta takes the signed contract, promises it will give you a copy, but never gives you a copy.
Minolta then delivers the machine, installs it at your office, and leaves.
Centerplex tried the machine that Minolta delivered, and it didn't work. It grossly malfunctioned. Centerplex notified Minolta by telephone, but Minolta didn't repair the machine and didn't return Centerplex telephone calls.
Eventually, Centerplex's free-trial period came to its end, without Minolta having ever responded or repaired the machine.
If your free-trial period ends and you haven't managed to return the machine to Minolta by then, Minolta's leasing company begins sending you bills for the monthly rent. It never stops. Eventually, it threatens a lawsuit for the rent plus interest.
In Centerplex's case, there was an addendum clarifying Centerplex's rights, but Minolta had the only copy. Centerplex demanded a copy of the contract. Minolta sent to Centerplex a copy of the standard part of the contract and claimed that no addendum existed.