“If he’s over 18 years of age and he’s willing to sign a contract,” the salesman argued, “I don’t see how you can be forced.”
I love the military and their service to our nation, but this cotton-picking con man does have a point. If you are old enough to serve your country, you should be old enough to know not to sign a piece of paper a car salesman puts in front of you without reading it VERY carefully.
Hmmmm...
How can we reward these lovely car dealers...?
What could the government do to boost sales for these poor salesmen...?
I wonder if there could be some sort of government incentive that would get them a lot of customers...?
And that is precisely why, at least in the Navy, sailors are required to attend briefs on various scams targeting service members and how to avoid falling victim to them prior to ever receiving off-base liberty. And the briefs are re-given throughout a sailor's career.
Nonetheless, you can't always save sailors from themselves and seeing E2s and E3s living in the barracks and driving $70K autos financed on 10 year loans that are eating their entire paychecks is a not at all uncommon sight.
I just attended one of these briefs this week. What is drummed into a sailor's head over and over again is before they sign any contract, bring it to Navy Legal and they'll receive head-of-the-line privileges. What do sailors do? They bring *signed* contracts to Navy Legal! Sorry Shipmate!