Carpet Cleaners Among Targets of Florida Price Gou
Naples, FL, September 16--The Florida attorney general has fielded more than 6,400 price-gouging complaints in the past month, with more than 700 of them coming from Lee and Collier counties, according the NaplesNews.com.
Attorney General Charlie Crist said Wednesday 6,478 complaints about price gouging during Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan have been filed. Among those complaints, 578 were made in Lee County and 135 were made in Collier County.
Lee and Collier counties were in a state of emergency during and after all three hurricanes. This makes it illegal for a business to sell goods and services at prices significantly higher than what regular prices were 30 days prior to the state of emergency.
Most of the complaints are still being investigated. Price gouging can occur for rent, gas, water, generators or post-storm construction and renovations.
A hotel in Naples and a carpet-cleaning company that does business in Lee County already have been cited by the Attorney General's Office on charges of price gouging.
There are investigators throughout the state looking into each price-gouging complaint, Crist said.
The attorney general couldn't give a breakdown of the complaints Wednesday in terms of the numbers filed against various types of businesses. But he did say a wide range of fraud is being reported.
"We've had a lot of complaints about plywood," Crist said. "Tree-trimming complaints have shot up and there have also been complaints about hotels, motels, bottled water and carpet cleaners."
Crist said his office would thoroughly review every price-gouging complaint.
His office also is being proactive by going into storm-damaged areas and looking for price gouging, Crist said.
"We realize there are some people who don't have access to a phone," Crist said. "Our people are out in the communities affected by these storms, wearing clothing that makes it easy to identify them" as working for the attorney general's office.
On Wednesday, Crist filed a two-count price-gouging complaint against ABC Restoration Inc., a Hollywood carpet and interior restoration company. Crist alleges the company charged excessively high rates to clean up water-damaged homes in Lee County after Hurricane Charley.
The first count accuses the company of unconscionable pricing and the second count accuses it of unfair and deceptive trade practices. ABC Restoration could receive civil penalties of $10,000 per violation, in addition to attorney fees and actual damages to consumers.
ABC Restoration owner David Nachum said Wednesday he was unaware of the complaint when the Daily News first contacted him. He denied gouging any clients.
Crist alleges the company, doing business as "Dr. Dry," sent an employee on Aug. 16 to assess water damage at a North Fort Myers home owned by George and Annette Husted. The employee estimated the work would cost about $7,000, then later demanded more than $12,000 for the job.
Dr. Dry also provided an estimate of $5,000 to remove furniture and wet carpeting from a nearby house owned by Elaine Everhart, but later charged her an additional $6,500 for the job, the complaint said.
Everhart was house-sitting at the Husteds' house and both estimates were given to her, according to state officials.
On Aug. 17, Crist alleges, Dr. Dry removed about 24 square yards of wet carpet from the home of Timothy Osborne of North Fort Myers. The removal took about an hour to complete and Osborne was charged a fee of $22 per square yard when the average price of this service ranges from $3 to $8 per square yard, the complaint said
Nachum said he already had refunded money to Everhart and Osborne because of complaints and had not yet sent a bill to the Husteds.
"This is all a lie," Nachum said. "We never charged anyone a $12,000 bill."
