---

Posted by Stephen A. Bailey on April 11, 1997 at 21:57:43:

My girlfriend and I are residents of New York City, and we saw an ad in the Village Voice for a "flat-fee" broker. I cant remember the exact wording of the ad, but basically you pay $125 flat fee, and you receive a list of no fee apartments from this broker. We went to the brokers office, met him, paid the $125, and received a list of "no fee" apartments. He took down my girlfriend's name in a notebook, the fact that we were looking for a 1 bedroom, and wanted to pay about $1100. All we received in writing was a receipt for the money which stated "Apartment services," or something like that. He verbally promised to call in two days with leads on apartments,and to fax us every week with updates. Three weeks have gone by and we got no calls or lists faxed to us. The guy is only in the office at odd hours, and when my girlfriend finally got in touch with him and hounded him about not contacting her, he got annoyed. He faxed her a "list" of apartments later that were not what we wanted, out of our price range, and lifted DIRECTLY from The Village Voice (it said so plainly). We can get The Voice for free, we dont need to pay $125 for it! Can we sue this bastard, report him to the attorny general, anything? do we have any recourse? its not about the money anymore, its about the principle. Thanks in advance for any advice.My girlfriend and I are residents of New York City, and we saw an ad in the Village Voice for a "flat-fee" broker. I cant remember the exact wording of the ad, but basically you pay $125 flat fee, and you receive a list of no fee apartments from this broker. We went to the brokers office, met him, paid the $125, and received a list of "no fee" apartments. He took down my girlfriend's name in a notebook, the fact that we were looking for a 1 bedroom, and wanted to pay about $1100. All we received in writing was a receipt for the money which stated "Apartment services," or something like that. He verbally promised to call in two days with leads on apartments,and to fax us every week with updates. Three weeks have gone by and we got no calls or lists faxed to us. The guy is only in the office at odd hours, and when my girlfriend finally got in touch with him and hounded him about not contacting her, he got annoyed. He faxed her a "list" of apartments later that were not what we wanted, out of our price range, and lifted DIRECTLY from The Village Voice (it said so plainly). We can get The Voice for free, we dont need to pay $125 for it! Can we sue this bastard, report him to the attorny general, anything? do we have any recourse? its not about the money anymore, its about the principle. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Follow Ups:

---

Note: Posting is disabled in all archives
Post a Followup

Name    : 
E-Mail  : 
Subject : 

Comments:
: My girlfriend and I are residents of New York City, and we saw an ad in the Village Voice for a "flat-fee" broker.  I cant remember the exact wording of the ad, but basically you pay $125 flat fee, and you receive a list of no fee apartments from this broker.  We went to the brokers office, met him, paid the $125, and received a list of "no fee" apartments.  He took down my girlfriend's name in a notebook, the fact that we were looking for a 1 bedroom, and wanted to pay about $1100. All we received in writing was a receipt for the money which stated "Apartment services," or something like that.  He verbally promised to call in two days with leads on apartments,and to fax us every week with updates.  Three weeks have gone by and we got no calls or lists faxed to us.  The guy is only in the office at odd hours, and when my girlfriend finally got in touch with him and hounded him about not contacting her, he got annoyed.  He faxed her a "list" of apartments later that were not what we wanted, out of our price range, and lifted DIRECTLY from The Village Voice (it said so plainly).  We can get The Voice for free, we dont need to pay $125 for it!  Can we sue this bastard, report him to the attorny general, anything?  do we have any recourse?  its not about the money anymore, its about the principle.  Thanks in advance for any advice.My girlfriend and I are residents of New York City, and we saw an ad in the Village Voice for a "flat-fee" broker.  I cant remember the exact wording of the ad, but basically you pay $125 flat fee, and you receive a list of no fee apartments from this broker.  We went to the brokers office, met him, paid the $125, and received a list of "no fee" apartments.  He took down my girlfriend's name in a notebook, the fact that we were looking for a 1 bedroom, and wanted to pay about $1100. All we received in writing was a receipt for the money which stated "Apartment services," or something like that.  He verbally promised to call in two days with leads on apartments,and to fax us every week with updates.  Three weeks have gone by and we got no calls or lists faxed to us.  The guy is only in the office at odd hours, and when my girlfriend finally got in touch with him and hounded him about not contacting her, he got annoyed.  He faxed her a "list" of apartments later that were not what we wanted, out of our price range, and lifted DIRECTLY from The Village Voice (it said so plainly).  We can get The Voice for free, we dont need to pay $125 for it!  Can we sue this bastard, report him to the attorny general, anything?  do we have any recourse?  its not about the money anymore, its about the principle.  Thanks in advance for any advice.


Optional Link URL:  
Link Title:         
Optional Image URL: 

---