Mary’s Story

Mary was determined not to cave into high-pressure tactics by a replacement-window salesman.  Thanks to some timely legal intervention, she didn’t have to.

One summer day a little over a year ago, Mary, a divorced home health nurse in her early 50s who was living on disability after a back injury, got a phone call from a man interested in selling her replacement windows for her three-story northeast Baltimore home.  She was reluctant, but the salesman was persistent, and Mary agreed to let him show her his windows. 

“He talked about how their windows were better than anyone else’s,” Mary recalls, “and said he’d make me an excellent deal.”

The pitch worked, and Mary agreed to have 31 windows installed.  But the deal, she learned as she began signing the papers, had some strings attached.  The salesman asked her to waive her right to cancel the contract in three days, a requirement of Maryland’s Consumer Protection Law.  She declined, and asked him to leave.  “I told him I didn’t want to deal with a company that breaks the law.”

But the company wouldn’t go away.  The salesman returned, and again she asked him to leave.  Someone else came by to take window measurements.  A man called saying he had her signed papers and would drop the windows on her lawn if she didn’t let him install them.  The company showed her more papers than the three she’d signed, all with a signature on them; they were obvious forgeries, she says.  Phone calls demanding payment would come in from early morning until late at night.  Finally, the company sued.

Mary needed help, but couldn’t afford an attorney.  MVLS connected her with volunteer attorney Jeffrey Evans.

“This is a company that goes door-to-door in low- and middle-income neighborhoods drumming up business,” says Mr. Evans.  “It’s your 2002 version of Tin Men.”

Mr. Evans focused on apparent violations of Maryland consumer protection laws, such as misrepresenting the price of the windows and using pressure tactics to sell them.  “We were going to be a pain to them,” he says.  “We said, ‘You dismiss your suit, we won’t file our claims, and we all walk away.’” 

 That’s precisely what happened. “When they backed off, I was very relieved,” Mary says.  “A lot of these companies come after single women.  They think if they scare them and threaten them, they’ll buckle.  Well, they ran into the wrong person.”