Bait and Switch

Back in my [much] younger days, I worked for Sears Roebuck. There was a lawsuit in 1975 involving my former employer. The Federal Trade Commission accused Sears of the deceptive business practice of bait and switch, luring customers into their stores with a tempting sales price, only to tell the customer the item was out of stock. Then a more expensive product was suggested, and sometimes the customer ended up spending more than they expected to. Sears lost the case and has been the target of bait and switch accusations ever since.

When I purchased my Kimkins membership, there was a list of services listed for charter members, of which I was one. Here was the bold claim made on the front page of the website:

Charter Lifetime Membership Includes:

• Detailed info about the Kimkins plan, straight from the source!
• Personalized Kimkins coaching, direct from Kimmer!
• Unlimited access to Kimkins.com forums for inspiration, guidance and friendship
• Your own personal journal for posting progress photos, notes and thoughts
• A free copy of the Kimkins e-Book due out soon!

It cannot be disputed that these were the promises made to anyone purchasing a charter membership. If you doubt the truth of this statement, go to Wayback Machine, enter the Kimkins website, and click on the first date that comes up, July 2, 2006. You will get an unadorned shot of what the home page looked like on that date. I joined on June 11, 2006, and the promises were the same.

When contacted by the California Attorney General’s office to investigate a complaint I submitted, Heidi Diaz lied to them about the reason she (or one of her minions) banned me from Kimkins. She provided to them the text of a post I made at Low Carb Friends, and any idiot could tell from the context that it was my reaction to being banned, not the reason for it. Her claim was that I still had access to information about the diet program, food list, grocery list, sample menus, and recipes and therefore she had not denied me anything I paid for.

Isn’t it interesting that I don’t have access to anything on the list of perquisites I was promised when I joined? Heidi thinks that because I have access to a few paltry pages of her website that she has not breached her agreement with me. I submit for your consideration that this is classic bait and switch. She promised me personal coaching and information straight from “the source”, unlimited access to the forums, and my own personal journal. I’ll give an honorable mention to the “e-book”, which turned out to be an “e-page” and wasn’t even written by Heidi. I did receive it, and it was a joke.

In order for there to be a contract, both parties must come to a meeting of the minds. When I gave her my money, both Heidi and I understood and agreed that what I was purchasing was the membership benefits promised on the date I joined. Heidi Diaz had no just cause for banning me from the website. If there had been one, she would not have lied to the Attorney General about it. After having lied about the reason for banning me, she gave them the laundry list of pages I can still view, but none of them are what I was promised when I joined. What matters is what I purchased, what I have access to now, and whether or not I did anything to justify losing part of my membership. This is classic bait and switch. Heidi is trying to claim she’s fulfilling her obligation to me. Sorry Heidi, if Sears didn’t get away with bait and switch, neither should you.