The Piano Contracts That Were Really $400 IOUs
A traveling salesman for a Hartline piano house was bound over after Whitman County farmers signed what they thought were storage agreements.
Colfax, Wash., Aug. 3. — W. O. Erbs, a traveling salesman for a Hartline, Wash., piano house, has been bound over to the superior court, charged with having defrauded several Whitman County farmers on piano deals. The farmers signed what they thought were contracts to store and help sell the pianos, but the contracts proved to be notes for about $400 each.
““The farmers signed what they thought were contracts to store and help sell the pianos, but the contracts proved to be notes for about $400 each.””
The case is an early reminder that high-pressure sales and confusing fine print can turn a routine purchase into a debt trap. Rural buyers then, like consumers now, had to watch what they signed.
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