Small businesses nationwide are eligible for refunds stemming from Washington Attorney General’s lawsuit
Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin wants Rhode Island businesses to know they may be owed money if they paid a Washington-based company that sold search-engine optimization, shopping cart integration and Web design and hosting services. The refunds are the result of a consumer protection settlement agreement between the Washington State Attorney General’s Office and several Washington-based companies who used multiple business names since 2005.
The companies were operated by Jeremy Avey, Alexander Martin and Brent Stanphill. The Attorney General’s suit accused the defendants of making misrepresentations about the quality of their services, neglecting to deliver services as promised, providing poor customer service, not honoring money-back guarantees and making unauthorized charges to consumers’ debit and credit accounts. The defendants were also accused of failing to register as commercial phone solicitors.
You may be eligible for a refund if you bought services from any of these companies and can provide proof of payment:
- White Crane Technologies
- TNT Cart
- Strada Technologies
- Cybercom Technologies
- Wizy-Wiz eCommerce
- ABC eCommerce
Rhode Island does not have a way to directly contact those potentially eligible. The defendants claim to have lost the contact information for former customers.
Instead, the state is asking eligible businesses to file a consumer complaint on the Washington Attorney General’s Web site at http://www.atg.wa.gov/FileAComplaint.aspx and request a refund. A link can also be found on the Rhode Island Attorney General’s website at www.riag.ri.gov.
Refunds are only available to those whose complaints concern issues prior to Dec. 3, 2010.
Businesses or individuals who already submitted complaints to the Washington State Attorney General’s Office do not have to submit new documentation, unless requested. Refund requests will be accepted for a year – up until March 29, 2012. Payments will be mailed after that date.
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