I saw that in the paper this morning. No doubt some companies have come to hate the transparency the internet forces upon them, but ignoring it won't make it go away. Conn's sounds like a very sketchy operation. Frankly, I would not do business with them.

I know nothing about this business, sounds pretty sketchy though. With that said, this consumer is in breach of contract, she admittedly made a payment late, for whatever reason. And that late payment automatically triggered the interest/finance charges. Her contract is most likely with a finance company, not the retailer, so they don't care that she has a letter from the retailer regarding the late payment. The payment is still due on time whether the appliance needed a repair or the sky was falling. That is the same thing as withholding child support payments because there is a custody dispute, does not fly in court! I hope someone can help her out, maybe she didn't understand the terms of her contract(or did and believes the rules don't apply to her special circumstance).

is she in breach of contract?

"But that late payment was explicitly forgiven by the company, as detailed in a ConnâÂÂs document that Ms. Smith scanned and forwarded to the Haggler."

Doesn't sound like it to me. Store is being sleazy. I don't know about withholding appliance payments when they don't repair the appliance, but it is legal to withhold rent when the landlord doesn't make needed repairs.

As The Haggler says, he's willing to accept it if Conn's has a valid argument, but they won't even talk to him. Not talking is pretty sketchy. They're going to regret ignoring The Haggler, though, because the NY Times has a pretty big readership all over the country.