A farming couple were “bullied” into buying “enough printer ink to last 1,700 years”.
The Age reported on a tribunal at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), which found that “cold-calling salespeople who bullied” the couple “with one home printer into buying” the inkjet cartridges “acted illegally”. Melbourne-based Corporate Office Supplies were ordered to pay over AU$90,000 (US$67,567/€64,013) to Rod and Charmaine Sharp after selling them over 2,000 inkjet cartridges from mid-2015 onwards.
The article noted that salespeople “began making multiple cold calls” to the Sharp’s home at that point, with Charmaine telling the court that “the company would not take no for an answer”, so she “eventually bought 56 cartridges, far more than she would ever need” as they “went through one cartridge every 10 months”. However, the company “continued to call, going on to sell her vouchers for another 1,984 cartridges, worth AU$80,000 (US$60,060/€56,900).
Charmaine Sharp stated that she “did not tell her husband about the payments”, and after the purchases were made, Corporate Office Supplies “began making aggressive demands for debt collection”, with some calls “taken by the couple’s young son”. VCAT Deputy President Ian Lulham ruled that the company “had acted unconscionably” in selling the “frankly ridiculous quantity” of cartridges “to a family that owned a single printer”.
He added that “it should have known the Sharps didn’t need that much ink”, and pointed out that they “may as well assert that Mrs. Sharp agreed to buy the Sydney Harbour Bridge”. Corporate Office Supplies “did not file a defence”, with its accountant Kodi John Ashford telling the hearing that Mrs. Sharp “was never bullied or harassed and had the right to decline the purchase”. Lulham in turn called for the company to be “investigated by Consumer Affairs Victoria”.
He also commented that “it is not overstating the position to say that any business which sold over 2,000 cartridges to a business that owned one printer acted unlawfully”, with The Age sharing that Corporate Office Supplies’ CEO and owner is James Murray, a 28-year-old “jet-setting CEO and owner [who] regularly posts on social media showing how the business has helped fund his glamorous lifestyle, which includes BMW cars and nights out in Las Vegas”.
He also “claims on his social media profiles to be based between Los Angeles and Melbourne”, with corporate records showing that he registered the company in 2010, based in “various locations in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs since”. On his LinkedIn page, he states he is a “believer” in direct marketing, which The Age notes “typically includes cold-calling”, because of “the growth it has delivered his business”.
Other posts saw him “boast online about the performance of his business”, while a company spokesperson declined to comment.