Recently my husband and I signed a contract with a waterproofing company. They had been going door to door, and offered an inspection of our basement with a free quote. They made our condition seem rather serious as they inspected and really pushed, kind of scared us into needing to do something. My husband took their word for it and signed, it was late in the evening and I was burnt out from work and tending to our six month old daughter, but I was thinking of the health of our home and family.
But we talked about it later, I discussed it with my father, and I set up an inspection with another company later that week to see if the condition was really that serious.
The other company quoted the job for one third of the cost, basically telling us the needed work wasn't as drastic.
The waterproofing company at this point had already given our info to their financing people and we were approved for a number of different monthly plans, but we had not signed or returned any paperwork agreeing to any monthly payment terms yet and when the financing company had called our mortgage bank for information from them they refused to give any of our information over. When they then called my husband about it, he informed them (the financing company) that we intended to back out.
So we called the waterproofing company to cancel. They came out with the same first salesman and his boss, and the boss basically told us that legally we were given three days to cancel, that should have been enough, and we were not legally able to back out. They made us feel worse about the condition of our basement and tried to haggle a little bit on the price, but we insisted that we wanted to back out and if it meant having to eat the cost of the materials they claimed to have spent already (about 5 grand) we were willing to do it. Ultimately they said they would cancel and we would see our deposit in the mail ($32, which I wasn't expecting back at all) even though they insisted we really couldn't cancel.
What are my rights in this situation? What should I do? We live in Wisconsin.
But we talked about it later, I discussed it with my father, and I set up an inspection with another company later that week to see if the condition was really that serious.
The other company quoted the job for one third of the cost, basically telling us the needed work wasn't as drastic.
The waterproofing company at this point had already given our info to their financing people and we were approved for a number of different monthly plans, but we had not signed or returned any paperwork agreeing to any monthly payment terms yet and when the financing company had called our mortgage bank for information from them they refused to give any of our information over. When they then called my husband about it, he informed them (the financing company) that we intended to back out.
So we called the waterproofing company to cancel. They came out with the same first salesman and his boss, and the boss basically told us that legally we were given three days to cancel, that should have been enough, and we were not legally able to back out. They made us feel worse about the condition of our basement and tried to haggle a little bit on the price, but we insisted that we wanted to back out and if it meant having to eat the cost of the materials they claimed to have spent already (about 5 grand) we were willing to do it. Ultimately they said they would cancel and we would see our deposit in the mail ($32, which I wasn't expecting back at all) even though they insisted we really couldn't cancel.
What are my rights in this situation? What should I do? We live in Wisconsin.
