Moving a loved one into any kind of assisted-living or nursing-care facility is a time of tremendous stress and worry. It's a challenge to pay attention to the paperwork. Still, you're responsible for what you agree to on behalf of your loved one.

John Munson/The Star-LedgerMichael Arnstein cares for his father Seymour in Seymour's Yonkers home.

The decision to move an elderly loved one into an assisted-living or nursing-care facility is an emotional one.

There are also large financial implications.

Seymour Arnstein, 69, suffers from Parkinson's disease and occasional dementia. When his family decided it was time for their dad to get more care, they turned to the Cedar Crest properties.

In 2007, Arnstein moved into an independent living facility that's part of the Cedar Crest campus in Pompton Plains. His assets covered a $252,000 "buy-in" fee, and there were varying monthly costs based on the services provided.

In 2009, Arnstein needed a higher level of care. He relocated to a 90-square-foot apartment (not counting the bathroom or closet area) in Renaissance Gardens, the assisted-living part of the Cedar Crest community.

The family said they were happy with the level of care, but in the summer of 2010, they decided to move Seymour to an apartment in Yonkers, N.Y., to be closer to son Michael Arnstein.

The family hired a full-time aide, costing $1,400 a week, so Seymour could have one-on-one help. It was costly, but they knew the $252,000 "buy-in" fee would soon be returned to help pay the bills.

It didn't happen that way.

The early efforts
When it came time to settle the finances with Cedar Crest, the family said, they were shocked with the move-out charges.

Unless they'd agree to the move-out charges—$2,503 in "refurbishing charges" and a $7,500 charge to cover the time the apartment would be empty before a new resident could move in—Renaissance Gardens would not return the $252,000.

Son Jesse Arnstein, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, said he felt the facility was holding his dad's buy-in fee for ransom.

"I found this figure to be inflated and unreasonable for a one-room apartment," said Jesse Arnstein.

He said all his efforts to resolve this directly with Cedar Crest were futile. Over the course of six months, Jesse Arnstein tried to negotiate with, argue with and make requests of the Cedar Crest organization to give a better explanation of the charges.

Jesse Arnstein shared with Bamboozled a series of e-mails between himself and the business office manager at Renaissance Gardens.

The younger Arnstein asked the facility to provide receipts showing the cost of the work that was done to his dad's room, and he also asked for an explanation of the $7,500 charge for when the apartment was vacant.

Renaissance Gardens said there were no receipts, but it didn't explain why, and the $7,500 charge was part of the original contract. It's a monthly service fee covering 90 days during which renovations are done and an apartment may be empty. If a new resident moves in before those 90 days are up, the old resident would be returned part of the fee.

The Arnsteins had trouble accepting those answers.

"It's challenging to determine if expenses are legitimate and bona fide," Jesse Arnstein said.

"If Cedar Crest had receipts, I would give their claims of costs more credence. It's hard to accept a fee when there is no receipt."

Arnstein said he was willing to pay for refurbishing, but he thought the $2,503 was unreasonable for a 90-square-foot apartment.

On the $7,500 fee, Arnstein said yes, he did see the clause in the paperwork, but he didn't think it was a fair charge.

He said the facility had a resident who was ready to move in quickly, yet delays on the part of Renaissance Gardens meant no one moved in until Oct. 23 -- something for which Arnstein doesn't think his father should be held responsible.

"I felt they delayed the process unnecessarily," he said. "I also happen to think that clause is unconscionable. It seems like a windfall for the facility. Rent and fees are paid even though there are no services provided during this period."

Weary of the fight and wanting to get his dad's money back, Arnstein sent one more letter to Renaissance Gardens dated Dec. 19. He asked for a fee reduction of $4,250: $1,250 off the refurbishing fee and $3,000 back for the nearly four weeks the apartment stood empty.

After a month with no response, Arnstein contacted Bamboozled.

Cleaning up the bill
We called Renaissance Gardens to get its take on the billing dispute.

The company wouldn't talk details about Arnstein's move-out, but spokesman Tony Ciavolella agreed to review the case. Before the week was out, he said the case was resolved.

Jesse Arnstein confirmed Cedar Crest agreed to a fee reduction of $4,250 -- exactly what Arnstein offered in the Dec. 19 letter. That amounted to a lower refurbishing fee and a smaller fee for the amount of time before a new resident could move into the apartment.

Once Arnstein received the revised bill, he mailed a check, and he's now waiting for the return of the buy-in fee.

Be and educated buyer
We're glad to hear the Arnsteins and Cedar Crest could come to a mutual agreement, but this case spotlights a very important lesson for consumers.

Moving a loved one into any kind of assisted-living or nursing-care facility is a time of tremendous stress and worry. It's a challenge to pay attention to the paperwork. Still, you're responsible for what you agree to on behalf of your loved one.

If you don't feel you're of the right mind to pay attention to the details, enlist the help of someone, anyone, to back you up. Ask a friend, an attorney or a financial adviser to review the financial commitment you're about to make.

"It involves a substantial financial investment and evaluating the disclosure statement and contract is of the upmost importance," said Cedar Crest's Ciavolella, who agrees that talking to an attorney or financial adviser is a smart move.

Then, ask questions if there's anything you're not sure about. After your loved one moves in and you've signed documents, it's too late to negotiate. Sure, you can always move your relative to another facility, but the move may be tough on your loved one -- and on you.

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

There's plenty in life we take for granted: the stars shine at night, the sun comes up in the morning and the mail gets delivered on time. But it hasn't been that way for Cedar Grove resident Christine Basile.

Jerry McCrea/The Star-LedgerRegina DeComa is seen at her home in Cedar Grove. Her mother Christine Basile, who lives in the same house, has not received bank statements in 18 months, and her credit is shot because of lost credit card bills.

There's plenty in life we take for granted: the stars shine at night, the sun comes up in the morning and the mail gets delivered on time.

But it hasn't been that way for Cedar Grove resident Christine Basile.

For 18 months, Basile said she has not received regular bills or bank statements. Not even certified letters got to her home.

"My credit score has been affected because of late payments on my credit cards, and I was assessed late fees as a direct result of the post office's incompetence, indifference and negligence," Basile said. "Somehow my mail is mysteriously disappearing."

Basile's 18 months of requests for help haven't gotten her anywhere, leading her to decide that either someone was stealing her mail or there's something funny going on at the Cedar Grove post office.

And it's a mystery that may never be solved.

The trouble started in March 2009, when Basile moved into the home. Her daughter, Regina De Coma, and son-in-law, Gerald, live with her, as do the De Comas' two children -- 4-year-old Vinny and 1-month-old Stella.

From the time they moved in, some mail was delivered, but sporadically, and certain types of letters seemed to never get through. Other letters they received were not for their address, but for a business in the town, and that business occasionally got mail addressed to Basile and the De Comas.

Most often, there were no deliveries at all.

"Something is wrong in there," Regina De Coma said. "We just don't know what it is."

Basile and her daughter called and visited the post office many times, but neither the postal supervisor nor the postmaster had an answer -- or a solution.

As a stopgap measure, the family tried several times to put their mail on hold. It would collect at the post office and the family would pick it up. That didn't work either. Certain pieces of mail just never got there.

The Missing Mail

The problems were extensive and oftentimes inexplicable.

A certified letter from the Internal Revenue Service containing a large refund check was delivered to the wrong Cedar Grove address, even though the front of the envelope had the correct address for Basile. Instead of being correctly delivered, the check was returned to the IRS.

Basile had not received 18 months of bank statements -- statements the bank confirmed were sent to the correct address.

"I have been forced to bank online even after having the bank send the same statement three times when I first realized that I hadn't received my statement," Basile said. "I finally asked for it to be delivered to my mother's (Cedar Grove) address and it arrived there."

The bank has mailed Basile her online password three times -- the only way the institution will give an initial password -- but she has never received it. Until she gets it, she can't access the account online.

She did not receive a PSE&G bill or credit card bills in 18 months, and she said she was forced to establish online payments for those accounts.

She mailed a COBRA application for a continuation of health benefits via certified mail, return receipt requested. Basile said she never received the return receipt, but she learned the application reached its destination.

Basile applied by mail to become a notary public on Nov. 10, 2010. After hearing nothing, she said she called on Dec. 31, 2010 for the status of her application, and she was told her Notary Commission was sent on Dec. 2, 2010, to her proper address.

"After speaking with the postmaster to inform him that it was missing, it coincidentally appeared on Jan. 5, 2011 -- over one month after it was mailed," Basile said.

Basile sent a Dec. 30 certified letter to the postmaster detailing her complaints. Ironically, she never received a card confirming delivery and receipt.

A few days after she sent that letter, the family received about 30 pieces of mail in one day, but no pieces of mail thereafter, they said.

Getting Delivery

Cedar Grove Post Office supervisor Rami Mohareb said he is familiar with the family's complaints, but he insisted the post office wasn't doing anything wrong. He said the family's mail has been on hold a few times, but the family still isn't happy.

"I have no idea what else to do," Mohareb said.

We then went to William Neira, Cedar Grove's acting postmaster.

He said it was possible mail was being stolen from their home mailbox or that the mailbox was blocked by snow. (Their mailbox is not at street level, but attached to the house, and the front steps are clear of snow.)

Sure, someone could be stealing the mail. But if the mail had been on hold several times, why weren't the pieces of mail -- those confirmed by the family to have been sent by their billers -- in the hold pile? That would mean those pieces -- if stolen -- disappeared before leaving the post office, or in another postal facility before reaching Cedar Grove.

We asked Neira: what should the family do?

"I don't know. If it was me, 18 months worth of bills? That's a toughie," Neira said. "I don't know how anyone can allow that to happen."

Allow it to happen? The family has been trying to stop it from happening.

He said they could rent a post office box. Sure, they could, but if the mail wasn't making it into the "hold" pile, how would it make into to the post office box?

He agreed to an alternate plan. The post office would count the pieces of mail that arrive for the family, and they would be delivered. The post office and the family, then, could compare notes and make sure all pieces are accounted for.

The family agreed.

We gave it a week and checked in for a report.

They received their first delivery Feb. 2.

They've got mail

"My mom got a tax form and I got a letter from my daughter's doctor," said Regina De Coma. "Thank God that got through because it said my daughter needs some important medical tests."

We checked in again a week later. Basile received a bank statement -- one from an institution that said it's been sending statements all along.

"Right now, we seem happy," De Coma said. "Things are coming in and we just hope it stays that way."

We gave the post office another call, wondering why pieces of mail from senders that never got through before have suddenly appeared.

"I can't explain it," said supervisor Mohareb. "Whatever we used to do, we're doing it right now. Nothing different was done."

Bamboozled isn't sure why things seem to be going right, either.

Maybe it's because questions were asked, and it was known that someone on the outside was interested in the mystery. Maybe it's a mystery the Postal Inspection Service can investigate.

In the meantime, we're glad the family is getting their mail, and we hope it continues.

(And by the way, the De Comas' 1-month-old baby? All the tests came back negative and she's in good health.)

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

Expedia's lack of a refund policy perplexed a Blairstown woman after her mother's death.

Saed Hindash/The Star-LedgerLaVonne Heydel, of Blairstown, shows a print-out of the funeral home with her late mother's photo. Heydel, booked a flight through Expedia to visit her mom, who lived in a nursing home in Wisconsin. Her mom died before the trip, and Heydel canceled the ticket and booked an emergency flight to plan the funeral. Expedia would only issue her a credit for the first flight, even though most travel companies will give a refund based on a death in the family.

LaVonne Heydel had been traveling three times a year from her Blairstown home to visit her mother, Anne Mary Nykreim, 92, who lived in a Wisconsin nursing home.

She used Expedia to book Dec. 10 round-trip tickets to visit her mom at a cost of $222.80. She'd then, as usual, rent a car and drive 60 miles to the nursing home.

But on Nov. 12, Heydel's mom died of congestive heart failure.

Heydel said she canceled the December flight right away and booked a new one, leaving the next day, for a last-minute fare of $560. She wasn't happy about the price, but given that she was the one making all the arrangements for her mom's funeral, Heydel didn't have time to bargain shop.

While Heydel was in Wisconsin, a helpful funeral director suggested Heydel ask for a refund on the first flight—something that's common in cases of a cancellation because of a death or an illness.

So she asked. And she didn't get much of an answer.

"I am frustrated. In checking the internet I see numerous complaints about Expedia in regard to rip-offs, lies and terrible consumer relations,'' Heydel said. "Now I am really mad and I want a refund."

Travel coupons?
Immediately after her mom's funeral, Heydel mailed a letter to Expedia to explain her situation and request a refund.

The letter was returned as undeliverable, though Heydel said she got the address off the Expedia website.

She found another address and on Dec. 1, she remailed her plea. And she waited.

On Jan. 12, she got an answer via e-mail from Expedia.

"We just dropped a Holiday Bonus coupon into your account," the email said. "You'll save $200 on any roundtrip package that includes a 5+ night hotel stay. Redeem your coupon for travel by March 31; travel by April 30, 2011."

Not what Heydel was looking for.

She replied, saying her only travel plans have been to visit her mother, and again she asked for a refund.

This time, no reply at all.

That's when Heydel contacted Bamboozled.

We explained the situation to Expedia and presented a death certificate, along with Heydel's cancellation and reservation numbers.

Within a couple of days, Heydel received another e-mail from Expedia. The company apologized.

"Our representative did not go as far as expected to assist you and we apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused," the e-mail said.

Expedia didn't give a refund, though. It said on Heydel's behalf, it submitted an "extenuating circumstance refund request to American Airlines," and told Heydel to follow up with American.

Expedia also gave a $100 travel coupon for future travel with a one-year expiration date.

Another travel coupon? And it passed the buck to the airline.

"While I know that Ms. Heydel stated that she does not typically travel, unfortunately it is outside of Expedia policy to provide coupons in alternate forms," spokeswoman Katie Brennan said.

Does the company have a refund policy in the case of death or illness? Or for other types of "extenuating circumstance?"

"Unfortunately, what many people don't realize when booking through Expedia is that all change/cancellation/refund policies come through the supplier (airline/hotel/cruise/car rental/etc.) as opposed to Expedia," she said. "Different airlines have different policies relative to cancellations due to things including deaths, military deployment, or illness so we can never issue an over-arching statement. Each time we have to call the specific airline and submit the proper paperwork to request the refund."

In theory, that's fine. But we couldn't find any fine print on the Expedia site about how such cancellations are treated.

We asked Brennan where to look. She couldn't point us to any one place because it doesn't exist. She said customers have to call Expedia, "and from there they can investigate what the airline's policy is regarding cancellation due to a death in the family.''

American's response
In the meantime, we took Heydel's case to American, which does have a clear cancellation policy on its website.

It reads: "Nonrefundable tickets generally cannot be refunded. However, exceptions may be available under the following circumstances: Death of the passenger, immediate family member, or traveling companion; schedule changes implemented by American Airlines."

We asked American to take a look at Heydel's case.

Good news. Heydel got a call from American, telling her to watch her credit card account for a refund of $222. The rep also gave Heydel a telephone number to call in case the refund doesn't come through.

American Airlines had no further comment, only saying it tries to settle issues with customers as quickly and fairly as it can.

"I feel triumphant, not just for the refund, but that they, Expedia and American Airlines, actually had to perform some actual customer service and ethics," Heydel said. "However, I am still angry by the fact that one has to push so hard to get results from an airline—or big business in general."

Website trouble
American Airlines had had something of a battle with Expedia and other online travel agencies late last year and in early 2011. Expedia dropped American Airlines from its listings, while American removed itself from Orbitz. (Heydel's tickets were purchased before Expedia dumped the airline.)

If you want to make sure your travel research is comprehensive, you should check both online travel agencies and individual airline or hotel websites before you book. Try a travel agent: Some have access to deals not available to the general public. The more options you see, the better your chances of getting the best possible deal.

And don't forget a key point: Make sure you understand all refund policies, and if you think there's a chance something could interfere with your trip, consider travel insurance. Yes, it's an added expense, but well worth it if you need to cancel.

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

An exterminating company didn't satisfy a family's expectations.

Steve Hockstein/for the Star-Ledger Claude and Judy Ichkhanian peer into an empty squirrel trap in their West Caldwell attic. A pest control company they hired mis-diagnosed their mouse problem and disappeared with their cash.

What’s the difference between mouse poop and squirrel poop?

About $500, apparently.

It all started with the patter-patter of little steps. In the attic.

Judy and Claude Ichkhanian called 4 Seasons Termite and Pest Control of Dumont to evaluate the noises they heard in the attic of the West Caldwell home where they live with their 6-year-old child. It was squirrels, said a company rep named Danny, and he signed the family up for service to the tune of $514.18.

That was Oct. 20, 2010.

"He left a squirrel trap and told us that the company would provide a one-year service contract for squirrel treatment. Our understanding was that it would take several trips to eradicate the problem and then seal up whatever entrance the squirrels had made," Judy said.

The invoice stated that the company "sealed area around ceiling fan." That was premature, Judy said. The rep said they couldn’t seal the fan until the squirrels were caught.

But the invoice said it was a yearlong treatment, so the company could return to inspect and treat as needed. The couple signed on.

A week after the contract signing, the check was cashed, and the company called to see if it should pick up the trap. It was empty, Judy said, so no one returned to the house.

Claude continued re-baiting the trap with peanut butter as suggested, but while the peanut butter kept disappearing, the trap never sprung. Judy said her husband spent several hours trying to take care of the trap, re-baiting and adjusting the settings, but the squirrel seemed to be too light to spring the trap.

A week later, the sounds were still coming from the attic, but nothing was in the trap. They said they left a voice mail for 4 Seasons, asking that someone come to the house to evaluate the trap. No one returned the call.

The couple said they left more messages, but no one answered.

They tried a letter instead. No response.

Frustrated, they filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, but the company didn’t respond to the complaint.

A new solution
Despite the money they had paid, the Ichkhanians still had a pest problem. They felt they couldn’t wait any longer for the unresponsive 4 Seasons to call.

They went to another company, which sent a rep to check out the attic.

"The pest service person said that it was crystal clear from the droppings that squirrels were not the issue. It took him about 2 minutes to make the determination," Judy said.

It was mice.

The rep from the new company said it would probably be an easy fix. Set a few sticky traps, catch a few critters and the pest problem would be gone.

And sure enough, she said, after putting out mouse traps, the mice were caught and the problem was eradicated.

The cost? $30.

The couple was very happy that the mice were gone, but they said they felt taken by 4 Seasons.

"Not only was the assessment of the problem incorrect—and we relied entirely upon their assessment as professionals—the company refused to come out and provide the service for which we paid," Judy said in an e-mail. "In short, we have been Bamboozled."

Other complaints
Bamboozled took a look at 4 Seasons.

First, it’s not run out of a storefront. It has a P.O. Box. Now, plenty of reliable businesses use a P.O. Box for a variety of very valid reasons, but that put up the first red flag.

We then checked with the New Jersey Department of Consumer Affairs and the Better Business Bureau. While no complaints have been filed with Consumer Affairs, 4 Seasons has garnered an "F" rating with the BBB.

Of nine complaints against the company, BBB said 4 Seasons failed to reply to seven of the complaints.

Next, we called. Eight times in one week. Left messages. No responses.

We did a little more looking.

There was no owner name listed on public documents related to 4 Seasons Termite and Pest Control.

We looked further.

The contract provided by the Ichkhanians showed a Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) license number. We looked it up (www.state.nj.us/dep/). The license number didn’t come up for a business called 4 Seasons, but there was a hit for Go Green Environmental Pest Solutions in Hoboken.

Luis Pimental applied for the Go Green company license. We figured either Pimental owned both companies, or 4 Seasons was "borrowing" his license number for contacts and other company documents.

Go Green has no complaints with BBB or with Consumer Affairs.

We called. Left a message. Luis Pimental called back within hours.

Pimental confirmed he owns both companies, so we explained the Ichkhanians’ dilemma.

"It’s not fair to them,’’ Pimental said after hearing the story.

He said the salesman who visited the Ichkhanians’ home was no longer with the company, but no matter.

"I will take care of this matter myself," he said, and he promised his office would send a refund check that very day. "The customer is always right. If they say they were not happy, they’re not happy. I will take care of this."

"Please tell them I extremely apologize and a check will be issued to them," he said.

And the family received a cashier’s check in less than a week.

Finally, a response
Judy Ichkhanian said she was thrilled for the matter to be resolved without court intervention, especially because a judgment is no guarantee of actually recouping money. When there’s something wrong with the integrity of the home, be it pests or broken beams or dirty vents, there’s a certain panic that sets in because fixing the problem becomes an immediate priority, she said.

"When we heard scampering in the attic, we panicked," she said. "All we could think of were rodents of some type rushing down the walls and gnawing their way into the main level and attacking our child like some scene out of a bad horror novel."

Judy said they picked the company from the phone book and didn’t take the time to do homework with the Better Business Bureau or anyplace else, and that was a big mistake.

"I cannot fathom how an owner of the company would be unaware of numerous telephone calls, a pointed letter and a complaint filed by the BBB," she said. "I hope that this experience will have opened his eyes and that he will reform the business so that other consumers who place their trust in 4 Seasons don’t experience a similar sense of having been made a patsy."

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

A Toms River company profiled several times by Bamboozled for wrongly billing customers will pay more than $58,000 in fines and make sweeping changes to its business practices under a settlement agreement with the state Division of Consumer Affairs.

Russ DeSantis/For The Star-Ledger Rocky and Rosemarie Capobianco of Little Egg Harbor had a dispute with Community Surgical Supply that lasted over three years. Here they are pictured in Rocky's office where family photos adorn the walls. The family owned a color photo lab in Lynhurst until they sold it in 1991.

A Toms River company profiled several times by Bamboozled for wrongly billing customers will pay more than $58,000 in fines and make sweeping changes to its business practices under a settlement agreement with the state Division of Consumer Affairs.

The settlement, obtained by Bamboozled, said Community Surgical Supply (CSS) must conduct and share with the state quarterly audits to ensure compliance with the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, change billing methods, agree to binding arbitration in cases of consumer complaints and pay restitution where warranted.

While the company denies any wrongdoing, it must also appoint a consumer liaison who will ensure "policies of CSS take into account the interests and needs of its consumers,’’ and maintain a full-time compliance offer who will make sure the company follows all laws, rules and regulations regarding its business.

"We’re not simply saying, `Enact these reforms and be well,’" said Thomas Calcagni, the acting director of Consumer Affairs. "All of this will be done under the watchful eye of the division and I can tick off the ways we’re going to be watching this company.’’

He said consumers can now expect that the terms of all transactions will be enforced.

"This settlement accomplishes that by mandating far-reaching business reforms and subjecting the company to extraordinary division oversight,’’ he said.

We contacted CSS for its take on the settlement.

"While it has always been the intention of Community Surgical to deal with our customers in an honest and transparent way, we believe that new practices designed in conjunction with the Division of Consumer Affairs will make our customers’ experiences even better,’’ said company spokesman Glen Rochkind in an e-mail.

The company would not entertain questions about the specifics of the settlement.

What it means for customers
The settlement, which also says CSS must give consumers a grace period to return unused merchandise and develop written policies concerning the return of rentals, affects consumers like Rocco Capobianco—the sole customer of 25 complainants whose case was not resolved before the signing of the settlement.

The Little Egg Harbor man, 81, came home from rehab after a hospital stay in April 2009 to find a delivery truck waiting for him.

It was a wheelchair, delivered by CSS.

"I said I don’t want it," Capobianco said he told the delivery guy. ``He said, `Your doctor ordered it. I have to deliver it, and you have to take it. You can call the office and tell them to take it back.’"

Capobianco said he was incensed, but he gave up after arguing for a while with the driver.

Right away, he and his wife, Rosemarie, 77, called the company and requested the chair be picked up.

It took many phone calls and two months of time before the delivery truck came back.

When the chair was gone, the bills, for $1,130, started rolling in.

"The bills were coming in like crazy and I said, `What’s wrong with them? I insisted they pick it up, and then they started sending bills?’" Rocco Capobianco said. ``I said I’m not paying for it. I didn’t want it and I never used it.’’

After some back and forth, the couple said CSS offered to settle the bill for $700.

"I’m not paying one cent," Capobianco said, and he filed a complaint with Consumer Affairs.

Now with the settlement in place, binding arbitration will resolve the dispute.

More billing changes
CSS must also give customers 20 days notice of any outstanding balances before taking them to small claims court, the settlement said.

In August 2009, Bamboozled reported CSS had taken more than 500 customers—or the estates of deceased customers—to small claims court over billing disputes since 2007. Dozens of those customers told us they never received a current bill, a past due bill or any notification of monies owed until the small claims summons appeared in the mail. After our report, the company dropped dozens of pending cases and court records show no new filings since.

Bamboozled took the settlement news to Margaret Barbuty, the daughter of Elizabeth Schram, a one-time CSS customer whose estate was twice sued in small claims court over a wheelchair rental.

"It’s unfortunate that it took so much effort and persuasion for them to agree to do the right thing for their customers,’’ Barbuty said. "Hopefully this is a permanent shift in their customer service model and consumers caring for the sick and elderly will have one less thing to be concerned with.’’

Barbuty’s saga with the company continued even after those small claims cases were dropped and CSS agreed it overbilled, later returning payments to Medicare and Schram’s supplemental insurance company.

But unexpectedly, Barbuty received yet another bill in August 2010.

Bamboozled reviewed the bill: six monthly charges of $35 for a total of $210. The dates of service ranged from October 2009 to March 2010. Schram died in August 2008.

Barbuty said she called CSS two days later to ask about the new bill.

"It was pretty funny. The billing department started with `You’ve never returned the wheelchair.’ I then mentioned that I’d been sued by them twice, both cases were dropped and your article. She put me on hold at least four times in 8 minutes,’’ Barbuty said, noting she left a message for someone to return her call.

Later that day, she said she received a call from the company, which didn’t explain the reasons for the charges but told her to disregard the bill.

We called CSS back in August to learn more, and it said the charges were an error.

"Her case was previously completely closed. She should not have gotten any bill,’’ said Rochkind, the company spokesman, during an August interview.

He said in the course of reviewing the Schram case after Bamboozled’s questions, employees were going in and out of the company’s databases.

"Someone must have inadvertently flipped a switch and clicked on something, leaving the computer to believe the account was open,’’ Rochkind said. ``The huge database, the system, still believes the wheelchair is still outstanding, and that’s what it was billing for.’’

Barbuty has since received in writing from the company that her mom’s case is closed, once and for all.

If you have a complaint, you can contact Consumer Affairs online at state.nj.us/lps/ca/comp.htm or call (973) 504-6200 or (800) 242-5846.

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

Bamboozled follows up on delayed payments to customers who were scammed by travel companies.

Jennifer Brown/The Star-LedgerGary Gordon and his wife Shelley are some of the hundreds of consumers named in a travel company scam settlement. They are still waiting to get their refund. They look through all the legal paperwork in their Parsippany home.

Gary and Shelley Gordon were among the hundreds of consumers who were scammed by illegitimate travel companies, all run by the same guy.

And now a bank’s red tape is delaying their refund.

Last month, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office announced a $3 million settlement with Daryl Turner of Cherry Hill. The settlement said Turner operated 11 travel company shams in locales that included Egg Harbor Township, Manalapan and Marlton. When things got hot, the state said, Turner would up and move, changing company names and leaving customers empty-handed.

The frauds were perpetrated under the names Dreamworks Vacation Club, Dreamworks Vacations, Dreamworks, Bentley Travel, Modern Destinations Unlimited, Blue Water, Five Points Travel Company, La Bonne Vie, Dream Vacations International, Vacation Clubs LLC and Away We Go Promotions.

Dream Vacations is who the Gordons tried to do business with.

They received a postcard in the mail offering a free vacation if they’d attend a seminar. The Gordons went in February 2009, and they were hooked. They charged $3,993 on their Bank Of America MasterCard to join the travel club, and they were promised free vacation vouchers and discounted future travel.

"I was suspicious the next day when no one answered the phone for membership services, and the phone number that was given to call was a different travel company," Gary Gordon said.

The travel vouchers never arrived.

Gordon said he immediately notified Bank of America, but it didn’t accept his dispute of the charge. He said the bank has since told him it is reviewing the settlement and what it means to its customers, but for now, he’s out of luck.

"(The representative) is currently holding fast to the rules of MasterCard, which state all charge-back disputes have to be resolved within 90 days," said the Parsippany resident. "Since my claim dates back to February 2009, Bank of America cannot charge back my money."

Seems that justice — and restitution — is moving slowly for the Gordons and for hundreds of other customers who paid for their travel benefits with their credit cards.

What the banks say
Bank of America said consumers may be out of luck.

Spokesman T.J. Crawford said though the bank is aware of the settlement, it is bound by "card association charge-back rules."

That refers to the agreement Bank of America has with MasterCard.

"We have been talking to the AG’s office about a potential resolution for our customers; however, we cannot guarantee the outcome of any billing dispute or whether it may be eligible for processing as a charge-back under the applicable credit card association charge-back rules," Crawford said in an e-mail.

Bank of America is essentially saying MasterCard’s rules are what is holding up customer refunds. We took that to MasterCard.

MasterCard returned our calls, but it didn’t have an answer in time for this story.

We asked the state Division of Consumer Affairs what happens next.

While some consumers have received the charge-backs, acting director Thomas Calcagni confirmed that hundreds of other victims were Bank of America customers, and they were denied just as the Gordons were.

"We’re going to work through this," Calcagni said. "We’re committed to fighting for the consumer."

Calcagni said the division will be meeting with Bank of America and any other institutions that are not giving charge-backs to consumers.

If the charge-backs don’t work, there are other means to get money back to consumers. The $2.2 million earmarked for restitution is separate from the charge-backs, said spokesman Neal Bucchino, and funds recovered through charge-backs will not be duplicated through the $2.2 million.

So far, Turner has not paid any money to Consumer Affairs as part of the settlement.

We checked back with the other travel families Bamboozled had profiled to see if they got their money back.

Not yet.

Stephanie Cohen paid $1,000 to Away We Go Promotions on a Bank of America Visa, and the Matawan woman said she hasn’t received her money yet.

The Riccardis and the Geibels also paid money to Away We Go. They paid by money order, and they have not received refunds yet, they said.

But hey, Bamboozled thinks it’s coming.

"The wheels of justice grind slowly, but exceedingly fine."

We’ll keep you posted.

If you did business with any of the travel companies named in the settlement and you want to file a complaint with Consumer Affairs, go online at www.state.nj.us/lps/ca/comp.htm or call (973) 504-6200 or (800) 242-5846.

Still Waiting
The clock is ticking for Rolando Velazquez, the owner of Clear Flow, a Jersey City-based heating and plumbing company.

It had contracted to do some work with Habitat for Humanity of Hudson County (formerly of Jersey City), a nonprofit group that builds affordable housing for low-income families.

Habitat gave $7,500 to Clear Flow’s Velazquez, but the work never happened. In January, Velazquez promised Bamboozled it would return $3,000 to Habitat.

Three months later, it hasn’t happened, according to Habitat’s executive director, Santos Murillo.

We wanted to ask Velazquez the reason for the delay. After leaving half-a-dozen messages, he answered our call.

"I haven’t sent it yet because I’m waiting on some money," Velazquez said. "I can probably do it by March 15."

So we called again on March 15.

"I’m going to mail a check on Friday, and we’ll get you people wrapped up once and for all," Velazquez said.

Sounds good to Bamboozled, and Habitat’s Murillo will let us know.

The group plans to use the refund for its new project, a three-unit home in Kearny that will offer wheelchair access for the first-floor unit.

If you’re a professional contractor, or just handy, or if you’d like to help in some other way, contact Habitat for Humanity of Hudson County at habitathudsoncounty.org, call (201) 207-7100 or send a note to P.O. Box 6483, Jersey City, N.J. 07306.

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

Bamboozled follows up with residents of several towns trying to get compensation for sewer overflows, and also faces a problem close to home.

Aaron Houston/For the Star-LedgerOn March 13 Sean Kinney's basement was flooded 2.5 feet high with raw sewage which created $35-$40K of damage. The town of Roselle Park denies any liability.

The fight for sewer damage relief has not yet gone down the toilet.

Last year, Bamboozled reported about the struggles of several families — against several municipalities — to get financial relief after their homes were flooded with untreated waste after sewer lines broke at the street level.

In each case, the municipality’s self-insurance funds denied the homeowners’ claims.

The homeowners we profiled said they weren’t done fighting.

The home of Sean Kinney of Roselle Park was damaged to the tune of $37,293, including property loss and repairs, after several incidents when raw sewage poured into his basement. The last incident, in March 2010, dumped more than 2 feet of the stuff.

He recovered $5,000 from his homeowners’ insurance, and his claim for the rest of the damage was denied by Roselle Park’s self-insurance pool — New Jersey Intergovernmental Insurance Fund (NJIIF).

Kinney decided to take the town to court. He filed suit in February for $15,000.

"My damages are over $30,000, but it’s the furthest I can go without getting involved in Superior Court," Kinney said in an e-mail last month.

He said he decided to represent himself because by the time the legal fees were paid, he didn’t think he’d net more than $15,000 anyway.

"I paid the extra $50 for a jury to be present if it does go to court," he said. "Anyone I have spoken to other than the insurance company and the town’s lawyer supports me and my position. I think for the insurance company to win their argument against me in front of my peers, they are going to have to have a very, very compelling story."

We’re waiting to hear more as the case proceeds.

Then there’s the Moroses family of Clifton. In May 2010, a sewer line backed up at the street level, dumping several inches of sewage into their basement.

They had $15,364 in damages.

Within days, Mary Ellen Moroses said the town mayor, James Anzaldi, said the town would pick up whatever her homeowners’ policy didn’t cover. He has since denied making that statement.

Like Kinney, the couple recovered $5,000 from a rider on their homeowners’ policy.

The town’s insurance fund, managed by Inservco, offered to pay $1,500, then after weeks of negotiations, $3,500. That’s an amount Moroses called "unacceptable."

After seeing how many other families had similar experiences with the insurance funds of other municipalities, she tried to rally the troops for possible group action.

The families did research, talked to attorneys and met, deciding it would be too expensive, she said.

"It would cost each of us as much or more than we could hope to recoup, even if the suit were settled in our favor," she said. "And if we didn’t win the suit, we would have been out a lot of money for nothing."

"We’ve already lost $10,000 due to the city’s negligence and, as senior citizens, we cannot afford to lose any more money due to the sewer back-up," she said.

Moroses told Bamboozled on her own, she’s considering filing a suit against the town in Superior Court in Passaic County.

Michael David’s Clifton home had $20,000 of damage after wastewater flowed into his basement when he had a house full of guests on Christmas Eve, 2006. He said Mayor Anzaldi also suggested the town’s insurance fund would pay for whatever damage wasn’t covered by homeowners’ insurance. His claim, too, was denied.

To date, the Davids have decided a court battle isn’t worth it.

We’ll keep you posted.

Bamboozled getting bamboozled
Every once in a while, even consumer reporters feel they haven’t been treated fairly.

Back in October 2010, this reporter paid off an auto loan with GMAC. After a few months, the title for the car (well, minivan) was never received. So it was time to call GMAC. Actually, to call Ally Bank, the company’s new name as of 2010.

The rep said the title was sent, regular mail, in October when the loan was satisfied.

But the title was never received.

Sorry, the rep said, and he’d be happy to send a letter stating the loan was satisfied. The letter could be presented to the Motor Vehicle Commission with a request for a duplicate title.

Hang on a moment. The title was sent regular mail but was never received, so now the hassle and cost — $60 — to obtain a duplicate title was the customer’s responsibility?

Yes, the rep said.

Okay. Now, the company used to be GMAC, all the bills were sent from, and paid to GMAC. Is it possible the title was sent under the Ally Bank name and it was overlooked?

We don’t know what company name the title was mailed under, he said.

Sure, a letter from Ally, an institution that this home has never done business with, could have been tossed, but nothing from GMAC would have been dumped.

Might it make more sense for important documents such as titles to be sent under mail that can be tracked, or mail that requires a signature?

What if an unsavory neighbor steals a title from a mailbox and then steals a car, um, minivan? It could have been sold by a huckster, and the consumer would have little recourse.

"We can’t control the post office," the rep said. "We’ve done our part."

So, Ally sent a waiver saying the loan had been paid, and this consumer grudgingly wrote a $60 check, requesting the title from MVC.

An Ally Bank representative could not immediately be reached for comment.

But I’m not happy about it. Not at all.

A Scotch Plains man had a less than delightful experience with the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes.

Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-LedgerGlenn Fowler has been getting collection calls from Publishers Clearing House for a "William Fowler, " and he can't seem to stop the calls from coming.

If you get a call from Publishers Clearing House, you might think it’s the Prize Patrol, ready to visit and hand over a big fat check with some festive balloons and flowers like you see on television commercials.

That could happen if the Prize Patrol comes to your door. But if you receive a phone call from the sweepstakes company, chances are you didn’t win a million dollars.

The only thing Glenn Fowler, 55, won was a headache.

The Scotch Plains man contacted us in January after receiving a series of collection calls about a debt owed to Publishers Clearing House.

"Calls to my home number asking for ‘William Fowler’ started sometime last year," Glenn Fowler said. "I did not keep a record of calls until this year. The calls happen a few times a week."

Fowler said reps would say they were looking for a William Fowler. He would explain there was no William Fowler at that number, and the reps he talked to largely ended the calls by saying, "Have a nice day." Some hung up.

Other times a robocaller would call.

"This is an important message for William Fowler," the electronic voice would say, leaving a phone number and requesting a return call.

Fowler said he didn’t call back because the Caller IDs were always different. They did not identify a company, and they’d show meaningless numbers such as 200-000-0030 or 000-000-0000.

Late last year, he said he finally got a rep to talk.

The rep said William Fowler had an outstanding balance of $21.45 with Publishers Clearing House, Glenn Fowler said, but he couldn’t get much more out of her.

"One caller (said) if I had issues with PCH to call them directly, but did not provide a phone number," Glenn Fowler said. "I called PCH and got a representative that listened to the story, and promised me that she just fixed their database to remove my phone number from the William Fowler account."

"Recent calls prove that claim bogus," he said.

Yep, the calls kept coming.

After Fowler talked to Bamboozled, he started keeping a call log. He tried to get the reps to give him more information, but most were silent after he said he wasn’t William Fowler.

There were five calls in the last week of January: four were robocalls and one was a person. Fowler’s log indicated he told "Kneshia" there was no William Fowler at that number. "Kneshia" hung up.

In February, a robocall struck again, then Fowler said he answered a call from "Pat," who hung up after Fowler said no William lived there.

Then came March, with two more calls. The last was on March 11 from a real person named "James Shawn," and Fowler answered the call. The rep wouldn’t give any information, but he promised Fowler he’d mark his telephone number as a "wrong number."

"It amazes me the effort they are putting in for just $21.45. Surely they’ve spent that already," he said. "My concern is that the calls will eventually elevate and I already deal with enough phone grief."

Correcting the account

We reached out to ask Publishers Clearing House to call off the dogs with its unnamed collection company.

Spokesman Christopher Irving looked into the records. The company’s third-party collection agent, Sunrise Credit Services of Farmingdale, N.Y., told Irving that on March 11, Glenn Fowler explained the collector was calling the wrong number and there was no William Fowler at that number.

Finally.

"The number was removed by Sunrise at that time, he was placed on their ‘do not contact’ list," Irving said. "They have informed us that no such calls have been made since that time."

Fowler agrees he hasn’t received any calls since that date.

But we had more questions.

Fowler said he had told several company representatives that no William was at that number, yet the calls continued for months. Why did it take months for these calls to cease?

Irving said in an e-mail Sunrise reported a collection call dated Feb. 4 resulted in a "wrong number" status placed on the account, but it’s unclear why it did not take hold until March.

"We have thousands of collection efforts each week and this is the first report I have received of this type of situation over the past several years," Irving said. "No matter, one is more than enough and we are following up to ensure it does not happen again."

We also wanted to make sure no negative information was reported on Glenn Fowler’s credit reports — even with the name difference — and Irving said he confirmed no credit reporting companies were notified.

Fowler says he hopes his number is off-limits for good, but he said he’ll believe it when he hears it.

"I was concerned about the lack of information most reps gave on the phone, and I didn’t want to provide them with more info about me to add to their account," he said. "Most hung up when I started asking questions. Clearly their investigative powers and/or motivations are not very good."

If you get debt calls

If you receive collection calls for a debt that isn’t yours, how should you handle it?

Start by knowing your rights.

In general, debt collectors may not contact you before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. unless you agree to it. They must send you a written "validation notice" telling you how much money you owe within five days of their first contact with you. The notice must include the creditor’s name and how to proceed if you don’t think you owe the money.

In a case like Fowler’s — where the collection company has the wrong guy — you may have to step up to get the calls to stop.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says you must tell the collector — in writing — to stop calling. Send a letter by certified mail, return receipt requested, so you can document your case. Keep a copy for your files.

"Once the collector receives your letter, they may not contact you again, with two exceptions: a collector can contact you to tell you there will be no further contact or to let you know that they or the creditor intend to take a specific action, like filing a lawsuit," said FTC spokesman Frank Dorman.

A verbal request isn’t enough. Had Fowler sent a letter, the collector would have had to back off. We recommend Fowler send a letter to the collection agency just to be sure.

Learn more about your rights at the FTC website (ftc.gov).

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

A store in Cranford faces complaints over missing deposits and bouncing checks.

Saed Hindash/The Star-LedgerAbbe Fried, of Cranford, shows her canceled check after she ordered a varsity jacket for her son Zach, a sophomore swimmer at Cranford High School. She purchased it from Cranford Corner back in October and the jacket was never sent to them.

Waiting for a special order delivery is pretty common. Six weeks. Eight weeks. Even 10 weeks.

But 24 weeks?

There’s something wrong in Cranford. And now there are several criminal investigations, all because of a batch of undelivered high school varsity letterman jackets.

Zachary Fried, a Cranford High School sophomore, swims for his school, and for the 2009-2010 season, the 16-year-old received a varsity letter for his accomplishments.

"He worked hard to earn a place on the varsity team," said his mother Abbe Fried. "He’s very proud of it. His older brother also had a varsity jacket, and that’s why he wanted one."

On Oct. 25, Abbe Fried took the letter to a local business, Cranford Corner, and she placed an order for her son’s varsity jacket.

Cranford Corner, which carries a host of items emblazoned with town logos, had just reopened that month after a fire shut its doors for 2½ years. And now there were new owners: Peter and Patti Baker, according to news reports of the reopening.

Fried said she gave owner Peter Baker a deposit check for $160 — about half the jacket’s cost — and Baker said the jacket would take eight to 10 weeks to come in.

The check was cashed on Nov. 1.

Weeks passed, and Fried contacted the store to check on the order. Baker said the sales representative for the jacket company was mistaken about the delivery time, and it would take 12 to 14 weeks instead, she said.

Patience runs out

The excuses snowballed over the next month, Fried said.

According to Fried, first Baker said it would be one more week. Then he promised her son a free item from the spring inventory to make up for the delay. Then the jacket had come in, but it was sent to the embroiderer to have the name added and the letter sewn on.

Then in early February, no one answered the phone at the store.

The message said: "Hi and thanks for calling Cranford Corner. Unfortunately the store is closed and will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 1 and 2, due to a continuing serious family medical situation, and we will be reopening Thursday, Feb. 3 at 10 a.m. and at that time we will resume our regular business hours."

(That message was still on the answering machine last week when Bamboozled called.)

That week, Fried said she visited the store.

"Mr. Baker said he was having trouble reaching the embroiderer and was going to the shop to get jackets back," she said. "I was told that I was going to get my deposit back and would only have to pay half for the jacket."

Fried said she called the next day, but no one answered.

The next week, Fried said she talked to Baker again.

"Mr. Baker says the embroiderer is nowhere to be found and he will be contacting (the school) to get new letters and that the jacket company is going to rush-ship a new set of jackets," she said. "I was told that I was going to get the jacket free."

And that was the last Fried heard, she said, despite more calls and e-mails requesting either the jacket or a refund and the return of her son’s varsity letter.

"Many excuses later, now April 4, and still no jacket or refund," Abbe Fried said.

Fried started asking around town. She said she spoke to other families who reported the same predicament. They said they gave deposits and their athlete’s letters to Cranford Corner months ago, but they’ve received nothing in return. Fried even found an online message board filled with similar complaints about the business.

News of the trouble got to the school’s athletic director, Mike Taglieri. He announced at the high school’s winter sports award ceremony that the school would provide new letters to any player who placed an unfulfilled order with Cranford Corner.

Fried also called the Cranford Chamber of Commerce, and she said an executive told her the group had requested Baker resign from his post as vice president last month because it received several complaints about Cranford Corner. The chamber confirmed to Bamboozled that Baker did resign, but it would not discuss the reason.

Taglieri confirmed to Bamboozled that he’s already given "probably eight or nine" replacement letters to athletes who placed orders with the store.

What’s the deal?

We tried to track Baker down.

Messages left at the store were not returned, so we called Baker’s cell phone. He answered, but said he couldn’t talk, and he’d be happy to answer our questions the following day.

So the following day, we tried again. And again. And again.

In all, Bamboozled left a dozen messages and sent several e-mails. No response.

Let’s give the benefit of the doubt for a moment. Special orders can take longer than expected at times, especially when an outside vendor is used for part of the job.

The Fried order was placed on Oct. 25. Even if it took 14 weeks, it should have arrived around the end of January.

But then the embroiderer seemed to disappear, and Baker said he was contacting the school for more letters?

Taglieri, the school’s athletic director, told Bamboozled his office was never contacted by Cranford Corner for additional letters.

Even if the Bakers did have some kind of medical emergency, per the store’s answering machine message, it’s been 24 weeks since the order was placed.

Twenty-four weeks.

Abbe Fried said she’s sorry if they’re having difficulties, but Baker still made promise after promise, and now Zachary Fried is out a letter and a varsity jacket, and his mom is out $160.

"When (athletic director Taglieri) said, ‘Oh, I’ve heard about these other families,’ I was like, this is fraud. This is not an unfortunate misunderstanding or a delay. This is a scam."

That remains to be seen.

"There are four active investigations into reports of fraud and/or bad checks issued by the owner of the Cranford Corner," said Cranford Detective Sgt. Gerard Quinn.

Checks that were meant to be refunds for a few customers have bounced.

Over varsity letter jackets, it has to come to this?

Come on, Cranford Corner, these customers came to support your business in the weeks when the store reopened. If you’re unable to fill the orders, can’t you at least give them their money back?

Check out Bamboozled on Facebook.

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

A simple dishwasher purchase doesn't end well for a Fair Lawn couple.

Jerry McCrea/The Star Ledger Martin and Renee Carlson had Lowe's install a new diswasher and were unsatisfied with the installation. They are seen near the dishwasher at their Fair Lawn home.

Martin and Renee Carlson have lived in their Fair Lawn home for 44 years.

The couple, in their 80s, have done a lot of work in their kitchen over the years and doubled its size three decades ago.

Last summer, they decided to buy a new dishwasher — a simple upgrade.

Other improvements were not on their immediate to-do list and could hold indefinitely.

After doing their homework and price comparisons, the Carlsons decided to buy the dishwasher from Lowe’s in Paterson.

The installation took place Aug. 27, 2010.

"We purchased a dishwasher in good faith and now have experienced enormous aggravation by a corporate bully — one that admittedly made installation errors," Martin Carlson said. "Their refusal to pay the costs associated with fairly correcting the problem is disgraceful."

During the installation, the Formica countertop — admittedly about 30 years old — separated from the cabinets underneath. This had never happened before, despite the countertop’s age, he said.

The company said it would send a plumber to fix the problem, Carlson said.

"The original installer showed up and, in his attempt to reattach the countertop and cabinets, used too large a screw," Carlson said. "As a result, he created a noticeable chip in the countertop."

While he was there, the plumber also adjusted the feet on the dishwasher. That shook Carlson’s confidence in the worker, who, Carlson said, should have made that adjustment during his first visit.

The plumber said he could try to repair the damage but might worsen the crack, Carlson said. He offered to find a company that specialized in such repairs.

Carlson said a week passed and he didn’t hear anything, so he contacted the plumber, who said he was unable to find someone to make the repair.

ASKING FOR THE FIX
Carlson said he left several messages for Lowe’s, but no one called back.

He said he finally reached an assistant manager, who offered to come to Carlson’s home to assess the damage.

"Like the plumber, he also volunteered to find an outside contractor who could repair a damaged Formica countertop," Carlson said.

But the assistant manager never called back, he said.

Frustrated, Carlson decided to get some estimates to replace the old countertop. He realized because the countertop and matching Formica backsplash had aged, it was impossible to find a replacement countertop to match the backsplash. Both would need replacing to coordinate a consistent look in the kitchen. If they didn’t match, it could be a problem if the couple decided to sell their home, Carlson said. Most buyers would notice a new countertop with a 30-year-old, unmatching backsplash.

The estimates averaged about $2,200.

Carlson called Lowe’s again and thought he was on the way to satisfaction, he said.

The company offered $300.

"When I argued that $300 wouldn’t begin to cover replacing a replacement, we were offered $500, but only on the condition that we accept immediately," he said.

Carlson declined.

Negotiations continued, and Lowe’s made another offer — this time for a mere $400.

Then the offer changed again. Lowe’s offered to have an outside company replace the countertop, Carlson said, and it sent someone to take measurements.

That worker suggested the Carlsons return to Lowe’s to select the color for the replacement Formica.

The Paterson Lowe’s carries two shades of white. Neither matched the existing countertop or backsplash, which meant even if Lowe’s paid for a new countertop, it wouldn’t match the backsplash, Carlson said.

The store never approved a backsplash replacement to make a match — a match that was needed because of the Lowe’s installer’s error.

Carlson turned to the Lowe’s corporate customer care office but kept getting referred back to the store, he said.

Next, he spoke several times to the district manager. During one conversation, a discouraged Carlson asked the district manager, "Do I have to sue to get the real amount I’m owed?"

After that, the district manager wouldn’t talk to Carlson anymore, and said Carlson would have to speak to the company’s legal department.

Carlson reached out to customer care again, he said, and was told the district manager closed his case but recommended the company replace the countertop.

But no one from the company called to make an offer, Carlson said.

Carlson admits the break in the Formica isn’t huge — it’s about half the size of a penny — but it’s damage that wasn’t there before.

By now, Carlson said, it’s not about the money. Even if the company offered to replace the countertop and the backsplash, Carlson said, he doesn’t feel comfortable enough in the workmanship to accept.

"I’m straightforward and I’m honest," he said. "I don’t want their money and I don’t want them in my house ever again."

He said it’s about a company doing the right thing — or not doing the right thing.

That’s when he contacted Bamboozled.

SO MUCH FOR SATISFACTION
Bamboozled reached out to Lowe’s about this customer’s experience.

A day after our call, Carlson was contacted by the corporate offices.

Carlson said he received an apology. The rep said the company would offer a new countertop, but he had to check with others to see if the matching backsplash would be approved.

Carlson received a second call. The backsplash was still in the works, he was told.

Okay. Moving in the right direction.

Then, a surprise.

"When Mr. Carlson contacted us to share concerns, we worked closely with him to gain his satisfaction and have made numerous overtures we felt were fair including full repair and a written guarantee of his satisfaction," wrote Lowe’s spokeswoman Karen Cobb in an e-mail. "Unfortunately, the customer and Lowe’s were not able to come to terms, and Mr. Carlson indicated he planned to hire an attorney to represent him."

Well, that’s not exactly what Carlson said. He said he sarcastically asked if he needed to sue and never again mentioned a lawsuit, he told Bamboozled after we got involved. We called Cobb to see if it was possible that the company misunderstood, or was overreacting to Carlson’s comment to the district manager.

Cobb stuck closely to her e-mailed statement.

"We have offered a written guarantee of his satisfaction," she said.

What did she mean? Satisfaction with what? A replacement countertop? A countertop and backsplash? A repair of the damage caused by its worker?

Exactly what was the company offering?

"I’m sorry that I can’t share more," she said. "As I said, unfortunately the customer and Lowe’s were not able to come to terms."

If Lowe’s wanted to dispute Carlson’s claims, we gave the company every opportunity.

And Carlson was never interested in a lawsuit.

"At my age, I don’t need that," he said. "You don’t have to worry about me. Customers just have to be so careful of what they might pull. It’s mind-boggling."

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

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Fire place problems are finally fixed when a senior contractor steps in to make things right.

Tim Farrell/The Star-LedgerMichele and Tom Grieves of Oak Ridge hired a fireplace company to do some work, but then had to hire a second company to repair the repairs.

Let’s hope it’s not fireplace weather for a very long time.

Sure, it’s spring now, but the Grieves family went through a fall and winter with a newly converted, but absolutely unusable, gas fireplace.

While the weather was still cold, the Oak Ridge couple contacted Bamboozled to ask for help with what they said was an unsatisfactory conversion of their wood-burning fireplace, including parts that didn’t fit and damage to previously pristine parts, courtesy of A&J Fireplace of Pompton Plains.

"I’m now left with a fireplace I can no longer use with a grill cover tied around the chimney so water doesn’t leak in my house," Tom Grieves said in a March e-mail.

Back in September, the Grieveses started shopping so the fireplace would be ready in time for the 2010 holidays. After getting estimates from three contractors, Michele Grieves said they chose A&J because of owner John Huerta’s 30 years of experience. A coupon cutting the price by 20 percent helped sway the couple’s decision.

Michele Grieves said she authorized Huerta to order gas logs and a new chimney damper, and she gave a $675 deposit.

The job
When the doorbell rang Oct. 27, 2010, Michele Grieves said she got a surprise.

"To my dissatisfaction I did not get John with his 30-plus years of experience, but instead I had two young inexperienced employees knocking at my door," she said. "They arrived very much unprepared, took one look at the fireplace and started immediately to drill a hole for the gas line in the floor of the fireplace."

Grieves said the workers’ hammer drill did not work, so they borrowed one from the homeowners. Soon thereafter, Grieves said, she asked them to stop because they were aiming at the Heatilator — the hot air circulator — below the floor of the fireplace.

Next, Grieves said the workers stopped to remove the Heatilator and the bottom frame of the fireplace along with the glass doors. She said they proceeded to drill the hole in the bottom of the fireplace for the gas line, but the bottom of the fireplace floor cracked.

"The employee told me not to worry because they would cement it," Grieves said. "I refused to allow them to repair it in this manner since the floor was cracked in multiple areas."

She said the workers needed to remove the cement slab. They proceeded to drill through the bottom of the fireplace again. While they were at it, she said the drill bit fell between the sub-floors. The Grieveses loaned them a new bit.

Grieves continued her watch, now from the basement. She said the workers cut a hole big enough to retrieve their drill bit, but they never covered the hole.

That’s when she saw the gas was hooked up to the boiler with no shut-off valve, but the workers said it was too late to finish, so they would come back.

Then Grieves said she asked about the new damper, but the workers said they didn’t know anything about it. They called the office, which said the damper was not part of the original price.

Grieves sent them away with a check for $243 — half the price of the damper.

A week passed and Grieves said no one called to schedule the completion of the job.

The fix that didn't fix
Michele Grieves said she visited the store on Nov. 6, asking the owner, John Huerta, to finish the job himself.

"He stated he would come to the house," Grieves said. "Finally on Nov. 24, one of the same original employees arrived to continue the work."

Grieves said the worker cut the new cement slab to replace the one that was broken on the first installation day, but as he worked, the side wall cracked in two places.

The worker said not to worry because he would cement it, Grieves said.

The worker next hooked up the gas unit, but something didn’t fit right. He jury-rigged it to fit, but then realized the logs were back at the store.

Before leaving, Grieves said, the worker went on the roof to put the new damper on the chimney, but when he was done, the damper wasn’t closing properly.

The worker left and returned two hours later with the logs, and after an hour, the unit appeared to work.

"I finished paying for the job," Grieves said. "I paid the other half of the damper which was $243 and the money left over for the fireplace which was $600."

In all, a cost of $1,761 in all, before taxes.

Not so good
The next day was Thanksgiving.

The Grieves felt like stuffed turkeys, but not because they had overeaten.

When the house started to get cold, they realized the worker never turned the boiler back on.

They turned on the fireplace, but after 45 minutes, the pilot light extinguished.

The next day, Grieves called for service, and the same young employee was sent to the house. She said he determined the problem was the igniter and said he would order a new one.

"Again I asked (owner) John (Huerta) to please come to my house and finish the job and again he promised me he would," she said. "Again he sends the same worker on Dec. 6."

The igniter was replaced, but some logs were broken during the repair and still the fireplace didn’t work. Now it’s a cracked gas line, the worker said.

Grieves had run out of patience.

"At this point I was extremely angry and called John (Huerta)," she said. "I was furious and I demanded he come and finish the job himself as he promised."

He promised to come the next week, but he never showed, Grieves said.

It got worse. On Dec. 8, a friend noticed from the driveway that the damper was crooked. Tom Grieves and the friend went up to the roof and saw the damper was never secured.

"Rainwater can run down inside the collar into our attic," Michele Grieves said. "The seams were not caulked and rain water is now running down the chimney when it rains."

The couple got another estimate to see what it would take to fix the mess. Grieves said it would cost $2,839. When she shared that number in writing with A&J Fireplace, she said they didn’t respond.

After the holidays, with chimney trouble and a fireplace fiasco that even Santa Claus might not be able to penetrate, the couple called Bamboozled.

Fulfilling a promise
We called A&J Fireplace in March to see what the trouble was.

Co-owner Ann Hughes said replacement parts for the Grieveses’ fireplace had been in their store for two months, and they’ve been waiting for the Grieveses to call.

"(John Huerta) was going to replace it,’ Hughes said. "I’m not sure whatever happened, maybe a lack of communication."

"(Michele Grieves) stood over my workers the whole time and she found something wrong with everything they did from the beginning," Hughes said.

With the two parties at odds, Bamboozled suggested John Huerta visit the home, evaluate the job and see what could or should be done.

And he did.

Huerta took a look, promised to order additional parts and said he’d return to make it right.

Three weeks later, he did.

On a mid-April Friday, Grieves said, Huerta called and asked if he could come to do the work. Grieves agreed, and she said she was impressed with Huerta and the worker — a new guy who Huerta brought as support staff.

Grieves gave Bamboozled a play-by-play of all the work, and Huerta and his associate fixed everything on the couple’s to-do list.

"Our fireplace is beautiful and yes, we are happy," Grieves said.

From the gas line to the broken logs to the damper and more, Grieves said the fix was in.

The couple said that even during mid-April showers, the new damper held and was leak-free.

Many thanks to A&J Fireplace for making things right for this customer.

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

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Bamboozled follow-up column finds that the owner of Cranford Corner, a store featured in a Bamboozled column last month, was arrested for bad check and theft charges.

Saed Hindash/The Star-LedgerAbbe Fried, of Cranford, shows her cancelled check April 7, 2011 after she ordered a varsity jacket for her son Zach, a sophomore swimmer at Cranford High School. She purchased it from Cranford Corner back in October and the jacket was never sent to them.

The authorities have taken an interest in what’s happening — or not happening — at Cranford Corner, a store featured in a Bamboozled column last month.

Abbe Fried had visited the store to place an order for a varsity letter jacket for her son Zachary, 16, who swims for Cranford High School. She said owner Peter Baker, who accepted a $160 deposit and Zachary’s letter in October, gave excuse after excuse, and still, months later, the jacket never arrived.

Other customers reported similar experiences with the store, and they filed complaints with the police. That resulted in action.

Baker was arrested last week on bad check charges and two counts of theft by deception, Cranford police said.

In all, seven people filed complaints against the Centennial Avenue store, said Cranford Detective Sgt. Gerard Quinn, with six customers claiming that they paid for jackets that were never delivered or that they received bad checks as refund payments, and another person who reported being paid with bad checks for merchandise sold to Baker.

Quinn said the bad check charges totaled $4,850 over a two-month period, and the theft by deception counts were for $4,500 and $1,100.

Baker was released Wednesday after posting $7,500 bail, which included outstanding warrants from Madison, Elizabeth, Cranford and Totowa municipal courts.

The Totowa charge was for a 2003 bad check warrant, and the rest were for traffic violations, Quinn said.

Attempts to reach Baker via his cell phone and through Cranford Corner’s telephone and e-mail were unsuccessful.

About a week before the arrest, Zachary Fried; high school soccer player Andrew Gee, 15; and at least four other families received yellow envelopes in the mail. Inside were their varsity letters with a note on Cranford Corner letterhead. It said:

"Enclosed you will find your Cranford Varsity ‘C.’ Please accept my sincerest apologies for the mishandling of the entire varsity jacket situation. The store, as it is now, is closed and will remain so. I am extremely sorry that numerous personal and family medical problems along with other outside family situations contributed to this situation. I regret that I was not able to correct the problem. I again deeply regret not being able to change what had happened and wish you all the best."

None of the envelopes contained a refund.

A Promise, Kept

Suzanne Cooper was able to keep her promise, and then some.

Bamboozled shared the bureaucratic mess that entangled Cooper as she tried to bury an old family friend, Karl "Billy" Sieben.

Sieben, who was mentally handicapped and had no living relatives, lived in a nursing home. Before his last blood relative died, arrangements were made for prepaid cemetery services so he could eventually be buried near his parents in Hollywood Memorial Park and Cemetery in Union.

Cooper was asked to make sure it happened.

But when Sieben died on Oct. 18 at the age of 65, Cooper learned the prepaid burial services did not include a burial vault — a lined and sealed container that goes around a casket before it’s put into the ground — which was required by the cemetery.

That would cost $756, and without it, Sieben could not be buried at Hollywood. Instead, his final resting place would be a non-title grave, one in which multiple people are buried, at a different cemetery. "When Billy was still alive, the one thing he was afraid of was being buried in a potter’s field, and I always told him that would never happen," Cooper said in November.

She didn’t have the money to pay, and she didn’t know where to turn.

Bamboozled contacted Hollywood about the dilemma, and the cemetery found an anonymous donor foundation to pay for the vault.

Sieben was finally buried, 30 days after he died.

The story didn’t end there. Bamboozled was told last month that another donor paid for a grave marker/memorial for Sieben. Once it was installed, Cooper and Bamboozled were notified.

"Allowing me to keep my word and providing this beautiful memorial show him the recognition and consideration he deserves," said a grateful Cooper.

The generosity didn’t end there. After reading Cooper’s story, a Bamboozled reader mailed a check for Cooper to help her with the costs of caring for Sieben.

Cooper said she was touched by the reader’s donation, and she wanted to pay it forward. She donated the check to the group that helped get Sieben buried, hoping the funds can be used to help another person in need.

And finally, we learn the identity of those donors who initially asked to remain anonymous. The Friends of Rural Cemeteries (friendsofruralcemeteries.org) provided funds to cover the cost of the vault, the installation and ongoing care funds.

Gino and Angelo Merendino of Merendino Cemetery Care donated the memorial.

"They are two caring brothers who always lend a hand to help others," said Bernard Stoecklein, the chairman of CMS Mid-Atlantic, the company that owns Hollywood.

Thanks to Friends of Rural Cemeteries and to the Merendino brothers for their generosity and to Hollywood for making it all happen. And many thanks also to the anonymous Bamboozled donor. Sounds like your money will go to a very good cause.

Humanity for Habitat

Habitat for Humanity of Hudson County is receiving an unexpected refund.

The nonprofit organization, which builds affordable housing for low-income families, had a dispute with Clear Flow Inc., a Jersey City-based plumbing and heating contractor, which was to work on a project in Jersey City.

Habitat wanted a refund — a $3,000 deposit and a $4,500 additional payment — for work it said was not performed, and Habitat called Bamboozled for help.

In January, Clear Flow’s owner Rolando Velazquez offered to return the $3,000 deposit to the group, saying the other payment covered permits and supplies left on the job site after the disagreement. Habitat’s executive director Santos Murillo wasn’t happy and said Clear Flow never left any materials behind, but accepted the $3,000 offer.

Months later, the refund still hadn’t arrived, and Murillo said he didn’t expect it would ever come.

Then in April, Murillo said he received a surprise phone call from Velazquez.

"He was contrite, saying he didn’t pay because he didn’t have the money," Murillo said. "I told him … he did not leave any material and that he owes us over $6,000."

The two met and Velazquez agreed to repay the entire amount. He’d mail a weekly check of nearly $400 per week until the money was repaid, and he gave Murillo the first payment that day.

"I just felt in my heart to really give him back all the money that was given to us, except the permit fees because those were used on the job anyway," Velazquez said. "We shook hands."

Thanks to Velazquez for doing the right thing, and for helping Habitat to afford its next project, a three-unit home in Kearny.

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

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The N.J. Attorney General’s Office said Daryl Turner masterminded a travel scam empire.

Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerGary Sharp of Burlington displays a postcard and paperwork from a travel seminar he attended on March 12 of this year apparently held by Travel Deals that almost cost him more than $500.

In February, the Consumer Affairs division of the Attorney General’s Office settled a $3 million lawsuit against Daryl Turner, a man the state said masterminded a travel scam empire using at least 11 travel company names. The companies collected money for travel services that were never delivered to customers, the state said.

The state said the Cherry Hill man would shut down one business and open elsewhere under another name when customers grew suspicious or asked for refunds.

Turner was also banned from engaging in travel-related businesses in New Jersey for five years.

The suit against Turner was first filed in 2009 and amended several times to add other companies through which Turner was accused of fleecing customers.

The last addition to the suit came in December 2010, when Judge Deanne Wilson of the Superior Court, Chancery Division, in Morris County approved the addition of Away We Go Promotions. The state also asked for Travel Deals of Marlton to be included, but it withdrew the motion after Turner’s attorney said his client did not own the company, said Jeff Lamm, spokesman for Consumer Affairs. Since the settlement — Bamboozled has received more than 30 complaints and queries from readers who attended seminars by Travel Deals in Marlton, in several Connecticut locations and in Massachusetts. And Daryl Turner’s name keeps popping up.

Familiar pitch
This particular Travel Deals seems to operate very much like Turner’s 11 bogus companies, according to accounts by consumers who attended the seminars.

Gary Sharp decided to attend a March 12 presentation in Marlton after seeing a postcard that offered a free trip for attending a seminar about a travel club.

"We decided to go because we thought the worst-case scenario would be that we’d walk away with two airline tickets and an eight-day, seven-night cruise for two hours of our weekend time," said Sharp, a Burlington resident.

During the seminar, Sharp said, Travel Deals pitched a travel club membership for $8,995, with an additional annual charge of $299. For the "free" cruise, would-be vacationers would pay taxes and port charges of $498 and $100 to reserve airline seats.

Sharp decided not to buy in, and he said even the free cruise sounded suspect.

"They want money orders only to be sent to a P.O. box," he said.

But other customers, like Kathy and Mike DeGregorio of Ocean County, were drawn in. They were attracted to offers of discounted Disney trips and beach-house rentals, and after a Feb. 23 seminar, they paid a negotiated club membership fee of $4,194 plus the first year’s $299 fee, Kathy DeGregorio said.

"We went to book trips, and we found out that the services they promised were not there," she said. Their March 4 request for a refund was denied, she said.

Others who attended seminars shared similar stories.

Some attendees said the postcards they received were identical to the one that appeared in a photo with the original Bamboozled story on Nov. 1, 2010, about Turner and Away We Go Promotions.

Attendees said they were asked to pay, via money order, $498 in port charges and taxes and $100 to reserve the airfare for their "free" cruise — the same dollar figure reported by the customers of Turner’s companies.

They said they were offered club memberships for $8,995 or lower negotiated prices, but those who joined reported they never received discounted, or any, travel.

When they tried to book the "free" cruises offered by Travel Deals on major cruise lines including Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Celebrity, customers said requested dates were unavailable. Second and third and fourth choices were also unavailable.

Some said their free cruise dates were confirmed, and they were told they’d receive the paperwork 14 days before the trip. Nothing ever came in the mail, and calls and e-mails went unanswered.

A connection?
Bamboozled wondered whether Turner could really be behind Travel Deals, despite the five-year ban.

We found some interesting connections, including a biggie that started with an angry Travel Deals customer.

Michael Hagen said he paid more than $3,000 for a membership in January, but he grew concerned when his calls to the company were not returned. He did some sleuthing, contacting the leasing company for 110 Centre Blvd. in Marlton — the address used by Travel Deals. He said the company told him that VIP Executives, and a representative named "Daryl Bernstein," signed the one-year lease. (Calls to the leasing company by Bamboozled were not returned.)

Bamboozled took that information a step further. VIP Executives is not registered in New Jersey, but it is registered in Nevada, where Daryl Turner and his wife, Robyn Bernstein, are listed as officers, and in Pennsylvania, where a March 2011 filing lists Robyn Bernstein as an officer. The same business filings show "travel sales" listed as the business purpose, and 110 Centre Blvd. in Marlton as a contact address.

What’s more, VIP Executives shares a New Jersey phone number with a Cherry Hill-based business called Dream Holdings, for which Daryl Turner is listed as the CEO. (Some of the companies involved in the New Jersey settlement were variations on the name "Dreamworks" and "Dream Vacations.") That same phone number is listed as a cell phone under Daryl Turner’s name.

We called Turner on that number, and he denied involvement in Travel Deals and VIP Executives.

"I have nothing to do with Travel Deals," Turner said. When asked about VIP Executives, he said, "I have no idea."

When asked whether he could explain why, if he’s not involved with VIP, his and his wife’s names are listed as executives on corporate filings for VIP, Turner said, "No, I’m not."

We asked Turner whether he’s paid any of the $2.2 million in restitution.

"We’re working on it," he said, noting that most customers were happy. "If they asked for a refund, we gave refunds. If it’s buyer’s remorse, then we did not."

DeGregorio’s refund request experience presents another interesting tale. In her credit card dispute, she learned payments do not go directly to Travel Deals, but to an escrow agent, and she shared with Bamboozled an e-mail sent to a Travel Deals rep named "Daryl" by the escrow company about the DeGregorio dispute.

She called the escrow agent to get additional information.

"[The rep] did not have an owner of the company on her file, but then I asked her who Daryl was and why he was speaking on behalf of our contract because we never met him," DeGregorio said. "She said his name is Daryl Turner. I said, ‘Who is he to you?’ She said he was their contact person at Travel Deals."

Turner’s attorney, Richard Gallucci, said his client is not part of Travel Deals or VIP Executives.

"If there are complaints regarding a company whether VIP Executives doing business as Travel Deals or what have you, my client Mr. Turner is not part of that company," Gallucci said. "Someone would have to show Mr. Turner is getting a paycheck from Travel Deals. He’s under a pretty tight order from the attorney general."

Thomas Calcagni, acting director of Consumer Affairs, said as a rule he can’t comment on ongoing investigations, but the state is "paying very close attention to Mr. Turner’s activities."

"It would be a mistake for him to think we are going away," Calcagni said.

Consumer Affairs has received seven new complaints about Travel Deals since January, and so far, a "handful" of customers received chargebacks on their credit cards, Lamm said. The state is still negotiating with banks on behalf of other customers, he said.

New Jersey isn’t the only state with interest in Turner. Pennsylvania is in the discovery phase of an ongoing civil case against Turner, Dreamworks Vacations and Five Points Travel, two of the companies named in the New Jersey settlement, said Nils Frederiksen, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office.

To file a complaint with Consumer Affairs, go online at state.nj.us/lps/ca/comp.htm or call (973) 504-6200 or (800) 242-5846.

Staff researcher Vinessa Erminio contributed to this report.

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

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EPPI cardholders are still frustrated in their efforts to resolve incidents of fraudulent card activity.

Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger Carolyn Palmer-Ruby, of Egg Harbor Township, with her daughter Nicole Dowdell, 16, beside her, shows off her new EPPICard, a government-sanctioned debit card for benefits such as child support, after having problems of ridding her account of fraud charges.

Since 2009, Bamboozled has written about seven cases of EPPICard fraud.

EPPICard is a state-sanctioned debit card onto which child support benefits for more than 70,000 families are placed in New Jersey. Twenty-five states use the card, managed by Affiliated Computer Services, or ACS, which is owned by Xerox.

New Jersey has several contracts with ACS worth more than $140 million since 2004 — contracts that keep getting extended. Despite consumer grievances about high fees and questionable investigations of fraud complaints, the state hasn’t yet been able to use its weight to negotiate a better deal for consumers — something it told Bamboozled several times it would do.

Carol Ruby receives child support payments on an EPPICard for her daughter Nicole Dowdell, 16.

On March 11, Ruby saw two identical pending charges of $80.24 for Microsoft Xbox LIVE, totaling $160.48, that she said were not hers.

The Egg Harbor Township woman said she immediately called the customer service number, and the rep said because the March 10 charges were “pending,” nothing could be done. The rep said Ruby should contact Microsoft, Ruby said.

“I called Microsoft Xbox Live and told them this was my child support money which had been stolen and that I do not, nor have ever owned an Xbox,” Ruby said. The Microsoft rep closed the account and marked it as fraudulent, but said it was not responsible for returning to money.

The charges posted to the account the next day, Ruby said, so she called EPPICard again. The rep took a telephone report and said Ruby would receive the paperwork to initiate a fraud investigation.

By March 21, Ruby said, nothing had arrived in the mail, so she called again. She told EPPICard to close that account number and Ruby paid $12 to have the new card sent by second-day mail.

She received the fraud forms on March 22, and she said she mailed them back the following day.

But her new EPPICard hadn’t arrived.

So Ruby said she called again, closed that account number, too, and paid another $12 to have yet another card mailed in two days.

The card did arrive, but all was quiet on the fraud front. On March 31, Ruby said, she called the company for an update and to make sure the paperwork had arrived.
Ruby said she was told her claim was being processed.

Request denied
On April 6, Ruby had her response: the fraud claim was denied.

“After a thorough investigation and analysis of the information you have provided, we cannot confirm an error occurred and are respectfully denying your request,” the letter said.

“This is just plain and simple wrong,” Ruby said. “I do not have any idea how someone got my name and address and card number for this, and therefore do not know how to stop it from happening again.”

Meanwhile, in Newark, Tasha Black was also fighting a fraud claim with EPPICard on which she receives child support for her two children, 16 and 10.

She said she tried to use her card in a store at the end of April, but the card was declined.

“I went home, checked my transactions online and to my surprise, I had to two charges to Staples in Washington, D.C., totaling over $600,” she said.

Black said she immediately called EPPICard, and after waiting on hold for an hour,

Black said, the rep said he could do nothing, and she should contact Staples.

Pause: In past stories concerning EPPICard, Bamboozled confirmed the customer has no responsibility to contact the merchant in fraud cases, yet that was a common complaint of EPPICard fraud victims. ACS said it was planning to make that clear to customer service reps, but it seems the message hasn’t gotten through.

Back to Black. During that conversation with EPPICard, Black said, she asked for a manager, who cancelled her account, opened a new one, explained that nothing could be done because the charges were still “pending” and suggested she contact Staples directly.

When Black called EPPICard back five days later, she entered her account information into the automated system. The recording said her new card was being processed.

“Then the call was disconnected without any option to speak to a live person,” she said. “I can’t pull up my account online and I only get an error message stating my account is suspended for fraud and now I can’t speak to a live person either? This is frustrating and ridiculous.”

Enough, already
We reached out to see if ACS would take another look at these fraud claims.

Within two days, Ruby’s $160.48 was back in her account.

“I did everything I could do. It’s irritating how much time you spend on this when you know you didn’t do it, and you get nowhere” she said. “They even charged me for checking my balance.”

Ruby plans to switch to direct deposit.

Black, too, got her money back within a couple of days, but she had to wait nearly two weeks for a new EPPICard.

“I’ve already begun the steps of being done with the EPPI Card by completing the forms for direct deposit into my bank account,” Black said. “I honestly think reorganization and or retraining is an order for this company.”

Progress sought
We asked Ken Ericson, spokesman for ACS, if he could explain what went wrong for these customers.

“We are glad to help resolve these concerns and are constantly enhancing the systems that protect our cardholders,” he said, without further comment.

That’s all well and good, ACS, but after Bamboozled previously brought to your attention seven defrauded customers with very similar complaints — and you restored funds for each and every one of them — what are you enhancing now? Not to mention the many other EPPI complaints we’ve sent your way, and you resolved in the customer’s favor, that never appeared in this column. Like Bill Kinkle, a Pennsylvania EPPICard user who reported fraud charges of $966.19 — charges that were all made when Kinkle was hospitalized. Despite sharing with you his hospital discharge papers, you denied his claim. Until we asked you to take a look. Then he got his money back.

Exactly what about these fraud claims was different after Bamboozled brought them to your attention?

And to New Jersey: the state pays millions of dollars to ACS for a variety of services. The state has said in the past it’s waiting for contracts to expire so it can negotiate new deals for all the ACS contracts together. Isn’t it about time you negotiate better fees — and encourage more consistent and thorough investigations for fraud — for all EPPICard customers?

We explained the details of these complaints to the Department of Human Services (DHS), which handles child support payments, and asked if it thought it made sense that customers only got their money back after a reporter’s inquiries.

“The DHS urges EPPI card users to safeguard the card and PIN as they would with their bank debit and/or credit cards,” said DHS spokeswoman Nicole Brossoie. “It’s unfortunate that there are any instances of theft or fraud, at all, but ACS’ data prove it is not prevalent, and that its preventive and investigative processes are working. Efforts to build upon the company’s reputation for quality customer service are ongoing.”

Of course cardholders must take care with their cards and PINS, but none of these fraud charges was made with a PIN. They were processed as credit card transactions.

And the investigative processes are working? ACS reviews video tapes, hospital records and travel receipts and still denies claims, yet returns money when we ask for a closer look. Something certainly is not working.

DHS wouldn’t discuss the specifics of the contracts, and referred us back to Treasury.

“Treasury is exploring wording in the upcoming request for proposals from potential vendors, including ACS, that would address issues with complaint practices involving fraudulent charges made on clients’ cards,” said spokesman Andrew Pratt.

We’re looking forward to hearing as progress is made.

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

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An 81-year-old man said getting back money from a cancelled gym membership is a real workout.

Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger James Joyce, 81, of Spring Lake poses outside the Wall Township Work Out World. Joyce has been battling with WOW officials, trying to cancel his membership and get a refund.

Jim Joyce, 81, was window-shopping in Wall last Feb. 24.

He sauntered through a shopping center that sports many businesses, including a WoW-Work Out World gym. Curious — his daughter has a membership — he went inside.

Joyce said he was given a tour and he was impressed with the facility. He joined, paying $159.43 on his credit card.

But as soon as he returned home, the spry Spring Lake retiree, who said he weighs the same as he did at age 40, realized he made a mistake. He had plenty of household chores to keep him busy and active, he said, from gardening to chopping wood and trimming trees.

The WoW contract said Joyce would get a full refund if he canceled within three days of signing. That refund would be returned to him within 30 days.

He canceled the contract the following day.

When Joyce contacted Bamboozled, 73 days had passed without a refund.

"When you join … you deal with real, flesh-and-blood people. They greet you with bubbly, bright smiles, cheerful words of welcome and a friendly hand wave to enter the premises," Joyce wrote in an e-mail to Bamboozled. "The termination or cancellation experience, however, is a vastly different matter. Gone are the real, smiling people. They have been replaced by e-mails."

The long wait
Time passed and Joyce waited for his refund. Thirty days came and went. And another 30.

On April 18, he began an e-mail saga with the company because there is no telephone number for the corporate office. Bamboozled reviewed the correspondence.

Joyce received a swift response to his first query. The automated message said a support ticket had been opened for his case.

Joyce waited, and 10 more days passed.

On April 29, 63 days after the cancellation, he wrote again, reminding the company of its 30-day refund policy. He received a "support ticket" response that was identical to his first e-mail.

On May 2, membership dues of $12.88 were charged to Joyce’s credit card.

Losing patience, Joyce e-mailed again on May 5.

"Please explain such a lengthy delay when the WoW contract promises ‘full refund of your money’ when canceling within a three day period and further states ‘refunds must be made within 30 days of receipt of cancellation notice,’ " he wrote.

What did he receive back? Another "support ticket" e-mail response.

An e-mail from a real person followed. It read: "All refunds are issued in the form of a check. The refund check must be signed and approved by one of the owners. Your check will be sent to the location where you joined as soon as possible. Once your check has arrived you will receive a call from the club letting you know it is available for pick up."

The following day, May 6, an annoyed Joyce wrote again. He asked if there was an explanation, beyond the need for a check to be signed by an owner, for the delay.

"Because of the delay, I must question whether the owners are showing up for work every day. Is anybody at WoW checking up on their attendance? Is there a back-up plan for check signing when owners are on vacation or too ill to work?" Joyce wrote.

The response he received had an apology for the delay but offered no further explanation.

Joyce was frustrated, and wrote again, suggesting the process would be much simpler and faster if the company would simply give the refund to his credit card or mail the check, rather than force Joyce to pick it up at the Wall gym location.

Joyce received another form e-mail reply.

He then filed complaints with Consumer Affairs and with the Better Business Bureau, which lists an "F" rating for WoW. He wrote to WoW again.

"I have been trying to WORK OUT a procedure to improve efficiency in WoW’s operations in order to minimize time consuming tasks and expenses. This is one idea that might help: require the customer to send you a pre-addressed and stamped envelope in which you send out a refund check. This costs you nothing," he wrote.

Form letter response.

On May 7, Joyce wrote again.

"A person my age (81) could die at any time waiting for a WoW refund check. Could this possibly be what you are waiting for? (A morbid thought, but worthy of consideration in light of WoW’s shameful and appalling delays.) Please speed things up," he wrote.

On May 9, he received a note saying Joyce’s May 6 suggestion on the company’s billing procedures would be shared with the firm’s member services director.

"They couldn’t tell I was kidding?" Joyce said. "My initial communications with WoW started out with a straightforward, factual and respectful request for a refund check. When this approach did not appear to achieve results, I turned to using humor and sarcasm." That didn’t seem to work either.

On May 11, Bamboozled tried to contact WoW’s corporate office. We sent e-mails and left messages for several company executives, but no calls were returned.

That very day, Joyce received an e-mail saying his refund check would be sent to the Wall gym by the end of the week. Joyce asked why it couldn’t be sent to his home. The e-mail response said it was WoW’s policy to get a member’s signature when a refund is granted. Joyce asked why.

The company then had a change of heart, and said it would be mailed to his home.

But then, another blip. A subsequent e-mail from WoW said the check would be signed on May 19 and then it would be mailed to Joyce.

Check mix-up
We were glad to hear the check was coming, but we still wondered why the delay was so long.

Bamboozled finally talked to Bernadette Milaszewski, WoW’s customer service manager, on May 13.

"We did receive his request for his check and I have it front of me. It was signed and cut March 14," she said.

March 14?

That’s nearly two months ago. The most recent e-mails said the check wouldn’t be signed until May 19.

"We were not aware until May 2 that he didn’t get his check. We thought it was sent out to him already," she said.

Joyce’s first e-mail to the company was April 18.

"We were actually looking for the check to see what had happened to it," she said.

Then why wasn’t Joyce told the delay was because of a lost check?

"He should have been," Milaszewski said, noting she’d put it in the mail to Joyce that day.

He received the refund on May 16, 80 days since the membership cancelation.

Joyce is glad to finally have his money back, yet he wonders if he would have received the refund had he not e-mailed the company again and again.

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

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Aqua-Dri, a basement waterproofing company featured in this column twice before, doesn’t seem to be returning deposits to customers who change their mind within three days, as required by state law.

Mitsu Yasukawa/The Star Ledger Dennis Sullivan of Midland Park, who gave a $5,000 check deposit to Aqua-Dri .

Consumers who sign a home improvement contract in New Jersey have a three-day right of rescission. If they change their mind and notify the contractor in writing by midnight of the third business day, the contractor must honor the cancellation and give a refund within 30 days.

Aqua-Dri, a basement waterproofing company featured in this column twice before, doesn’t seem to be honoring that regulation — even when it’s explicitly stated in its own contract.

Dennis Sullivan of Midland Park gave Aqua-Dri a $5,000 deposit on a $15,000 waterproofing job on July 15.

After the contract was signed and the Aqua-Dri rep left, Sullivan had second thoughts.

"They said there was toxic mold," Sullivan said. "My wife said to me, ‘I don’t think we need this.’ "

NO REFUNDS
The contract was signed on a Thursday, so the three business days would expire at midnight the following Tuesday. On Tuesday at 7:25 p.m., Sullivan faxed a cancellation to Aqua-Dri, according to a fax receipt Sullivan shared with Bamboozled.

Three days later, Sullivan said he received a phone call from Aqua-Dri’s Al Demola, a man whose position with the company came into question last year.

A bit of background: In December, Bamboozled profiled Arlene and John Dolce of Roseland. They paid a $3,000 deposit to Aqua-Dri, and like Sullivan, they cancelled in writing within three days. Aqua-Dri refused to return the deposit.

In Bamboozled’s quest for a refund, we spoke extensively about the case with Al Demola. He insisted he was only an employee, even though he’s listed as the president on corporate filings. Demola said Richard Aboussleman is the owner, and yes, Aboussleman — who public records show once shared a North Brunswick address with Demola — is listed as "incorporator" on the same filings.

We talked to Aboussleman, but he too denied ownership. He told us Demola is Aqua-Dri, and he said, "I have nothing to do with that company." (Aboussleman’s name has since been added to Aqua-Dri’s corporate filings in Connecticut and is also on the company’s contracting license in New Jersey.)

But it was Demola, after weeks of negotiations and even though he told Bamboozled he had been fired by Aqua-Dri, who finally offered to return the deposit to the Dolces. Back to Sullivan and his phone call from Demola.

Sullivan said Demola offered a discount on the job, but Sullivan declined.

"Then Demola said he wasn’t going to return the money," he said.

Sullivan said he and his attorney got nowhere with months of calls to Aqua-Dri and Demola. Sullivan even said one rep said he wasn’t due a refund because Saturday and Sunday count as business days. The last time Sullivan called was early April, he said, and the receptionist said someone would call him back.

No one did.

"I’m going to have to file in small claims," Sullivan said. "This guy has to be put out of business."

THE THRIFTY CONNECTION
Back in December, we asked Demola if he had any connection to a new waterproofing company, Thrifty Waterproofing of Cranbury. He said no.

We asked because Thrifty — at least on paper — is headed by Demola’s wife, Kim Costa. We wondered if Demola, given Aqua-Dri’s "F" rating with the BBB, had started a new company with the help of Costa. He denied involvement last year and said he and his wife were separating.

But there’s evidence to the contrary, according to Hasbrouck Heights residents Emmanuel and Sandy Roldan.

The couple hired Thrifty in March for an $11,000 job. They said part of the job was completed the following day, but there were several problems, including a drainage pipe that ended in the middle of the backyard, near the pool — not an ideal place for unwanted water.

Roldan said he negotiated with the company to fix the job. A crew came on April 2 and fixed some items, but not the pipe.

Uncomfortable with the status of the job, Roldan asked the worker for contact numbers for Thrifty’s bosses. He said he was given two numbers.

"One of the numbers says the caller is not available, and the second went to some guy named Al Demola," Roldan said.

The same Al Demola who denied having any relationship with Thrifty.

Roldan said Demola’s voice mailbox was full, so he called the office again. After several calls, another service date was set but this time Roldan said he was told it would cost an additional $40 per foot to extend the drainage pipe. That would be $800 more for the 20-foot extension. Roldan didn’t want to pay, but he also wanted the extension, he said, so he stopped fighting.

But then, the crew never showed. That’s when Roldan called Bamboozled.

Before addressing the Demola factor, we wanted to see if Thrifty would complete the job as stated on the contract, which would include the drainage pipe extension with no additional charge.

We spoke to a worker who asked not to be named, and he promised the job would be completed.

Just after, Roldan got a call from the same worker.

"All of a sudden they want to help me? They could have done this a month ago and they kept me on a rope," Roldan said. "They kept giving me the runaround."

On May 25, the crews completed the job with no additional charge for the extended pipe.

Roldan said for now, he’s happy with the work.

"Let’s see what happens when it rains," Roldan said. "I just want to make sure no one else has to go through what I went through."

WHAT ABOUT AQUA-DRI?
While Thrifty Waterproofing has no rating with the Better Business Bureau, the BBB received 41 complaints about Aqua-Dri in the past 36 months, maintaining the firm’s "F" rating.

The Middlesex County consumer affairs office has 20 customer complaints, said assistant director Dawn Brown. Of those, 16 have been resolved and four are outstanding.

Since 2010, Aqua-Dri has been sued in small claims court at least 12 times: three cases were settled, three resulted in default judgments, four are still active and two were dismissed, according to court records. There were no suits involving Thrifty.

We tried to contact Aqua-Dri about Sullivan’s refund, but the company’s telephone number is out of service.

Messages for Al Demola and his attorney were not returned.

Neither were messages for Kim Costa, who we were hoping could shed light on Demola’s involvement with her company.

And we’re still keeping an eye on the older Aqua-Dri case of Jere Brill, once featured in this column. Brill is pursuing Demola and Aqua-Dri in court for what she says were unsatisfactory services in both her Wayne home and a shore property.

More to come, we’re sure.

Staff researcher Vinessa Erminio contributed to this report.

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

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An encounter with a car dealer leads to two months of frustration as a man tried to get his refund back.

Frances Micklow/THE STAR-LEDGER Steve Gillick struggled for two months to get Wayne Automall Hyundai in Wayne, NJ, to refund a $500 deposit on a car.

A little communication can go a long way.

Steve Gillick was itching for a new car, but the West Caldwell man didn’t think he was quite ready to buy.

But he had the itch, which intensified when he’d regularly pass Wayne Automall Hyundai on his way to and from work. On March 24, he stopped in to test drive a Hyundai Sonata.

"My father-in-law recently bought a Nissan Altima and he said if he was going to do it over again, he’d get the Hyundai Sonata," Gillick said.

Gillick took the car for a spin. He liked it, but he said he told the salesman he wasn’t in the financial position to buy.

"After a period of relentless pressure from (the salesman), I put down a deposit of $500," Gillick said. "I told (him) that the purchase was contingent on getting a family loan, which I had done in the past."

Gillick left the dealership and called his relatives. They would be happy to help, but they couldn’t afford to lend Gillick the full $10,000 he’d need, he said.

The next day, Gillick said he called the salesman to say the deal was off.

The salesman didn’t let him go that quickly. Gillick said he was offered a different loan with a zero percent interest rate, but Gillick said he declined.

The call ended with the salesman agreeing to refund the $500 deposit to Gillick’s credit card.

"When I checked my account a week later, the money had not been returned," Gillick said.

The next two months were filled with frustration as Gillick tried to get his refund.

He gave his credit card number again to the salesman, but the refund wasn’t processed. After calls didn’t help, he contacted his credit card company to put the charge in dispute on April 19.

"I would think if they have a deposit in dispute, someone should have been flagged," he said. "You’d think they’d call me, but they never did. Now I have to call them again?"

He said he called again and gave his credit card number again to the salesman.

"He says that he’ll take care of it and again tries to get me to apply for a low- or no-interest loan," Gillick said.

But it wasn’t taken care of. While he waited, Gillick said he received solicitation e-mails from Hyundai, and he’d respond, asking for his refund. Those e-mails, reviewed by Bamboozled, went unanswered.

In late May, he contacted Bamboozled for help.

We called the dealership’s sales manager, and within hours, the $500 was credited back to Gillick’s account. The sales manager said he was able to get the correct credit card number from the dealership’s paperwork, and it was done.

What took so long?

"It was just that they didn’t have his right credit card number," the sales manager said. "The girl in the office said she tried it before."

He guessed that the salesman provided the wrong credit card number to the office worker, and therefore the refund was declined.

That makes sense, but shouldn’t someone have followed up with the customer to get the correct account number? An account number that, all along, was part of Gillick’s file at the dealership?

"It’s all been taken care of," the sales manager said.

It was. Gillick’s credit card statement showed the refund posted on May 27.

We’re glad the dealership finally made the refund happen, but this incident could have been avoided with a little communication. Gillick agrees he could have been more aggressive in trying to get the refund, but the dealership should have notified him when there was a problem with the credit card number in the first place.

Indeed, a little communication can go a long way.

FINALLY, SOME RELIEF
We’ve brought you several stories of homeowners whose basements were flooded with sewage and sludge because of breaks in their town’s main lines. In each case, the town’s insurance fund refused to pay for damages.

Finally, one homeowner can chalk up a partial win.

Mary Ellen and Richard Moroses of Clifton sustained more than $15,000 of damage when several inches of sewage poured into their basement on May 6, 2010. The couple followed town protocol, first making a claim with their homeowners insurance company. They were paid $5,000 because of a special rider on their policy.

Next, they filed a claim with Clifton, which was covered by a self-insurance fund that was managed by Inservco.

The claim was denied. After Bamboozled wrote about their plight, the Moroseses were offered $1,300. Then $3,500.

The Moroseses declined, simply wanting to be made whole.

Then this spring, the couple got a call from Travelers Insurance. The rep explained it had taken over claims for Clifton, and the rep was assigned to clear up old cases, Mary Ellen Moroses said.

"We agreed to settle with them for about half of our remaining loss, $5,000, and we received a check from them at the end of April, almost an entire year after the sewer backup incident," she said.

Moroses believes she and her husband should have been paid the entire amount, but they decided the stress of a court case wasn’t worth it, she said.

"Without you shining the light of publicity on the powers that be in this town, I’m sure we would never have seen a penny," she said.

‘DO NOT REMOVE’
Last year, we brought you the story of Jim Hughes, a man who noticed two mattresses delivered to his home were missing their tags — tags required by state and federal law to inform consumers that the mattress complies with flammability standards.

The mattresses were delivered by Alba Furniture & Appliance of Union City and manufactured by Brooklyn Sleep Products of Williamsburg, N.Y.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission had taken Brooklyn Sleep to court in October 2010 after the company’s products failed surprise CPSC flammability tests in 2008, 2009 and 2010. A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction on Oct. 19, 2010, prohibiting the firm from manufacturing, importing or selling mattresses that fail to comply with federal flammability standards, CPSC spokeswoman Patty Davis said.

But when Alba Furniture delivered the tagless mattresses — manufactured by Brooklyn Sleep in November 2010, it appeared the New York company was defying the judge’s order.

We checked back with CPSC, and it is still pursuing the case.

As for Alba, New Jersey’s Division of Consumer Affairs settled with the company in April over claims that the company violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act by failing to display prices on merchandise and failing to specify certain language on its contracts for deliveries, according to court documents.

As part of the settlement, the company agreed to pay $6,413 in civil penalties, attorney’s fees and investigative costs.

Mattress tags were not part of the settlement.

Have you ever been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com

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An attempted short sale leads to problems for homeowner.

Tim Farrell/The Star-LedgerShannon Condon in front of her Hopatcong home. She had trouble paying her mortgage after she broke up with her fiance. She tried a modification but was denied. She then was told about this company from friends, and she was promised he could negotiate a short sale for her. He can't. She's paid money for no services.

Shannon Condon was in trouble with her mortgage.

The Hopatcong woman owns a home with her ex-fiancé. Their relationship ended two years ago, and he stopped paying his share of the mortgage in May 2010, Condon said. She tried but was unable to get a mortgage modification.

"[The modification] had been denied because together we made too much money," she said. "At that point I was automatically reported to the credit reporting agencies as 120 days late even though I had been making [temporary modified] payments to them.

"I kind of gave up at that point," she said, "and was probably about eight months behind when I met Dan."

Dan Dekleine, a man who said he had a solution to her problem.

Dekleine explained he could help facilitate a short sale on her home, Condon said.

A short sale is when the bank agrees to sell a home for less than what is owed on the mortgage. The bank takes a loss but avoids foreclosure, which can take longer and be a more expensive process for the bank.

She signed a property management agreement on April 4, with Dekleine signing as an agent of United Capital Property Solutions of Clifton.

Condon agreed to pay $650 per month as a fee for services, and she said Dekleine said it would take about a year for the short sale to happen. He said he would list the home, try to get bidders and negotiate a short sale with the bank, she said.

On April 21, she also signed a listing agreement to get her house on the market. That was signed by a John De Costa, who Dekleine described to Condon as his partner.

After two months of making payments to Dekleine, Condon got a surprise.

Friends who had a similar contract with Dekleine said a lawyer told them their property management contract — reviewed by Bamboozled — was illegal.

Her friends recommended she contact their attorney to review her case.

THE LAWYER’S TAKE
Flanders-based real estate attorney Matthew Johnston is representing Condon pro bono regarding her contract with Dekleine.

"The agreement shows it’s clear it’s to negotiate the short sale," Johnston said. "Under my interpretation of the state laws, only a licensed attorney or licensed real estate agent has the right to do a short sale."

It’s not just Johnston’s interpretation. We talked to the Department of Banking and Insurance, which said property managers would generally "fall under the rubric of requiring the license."

"It depends on the services," said spokesman Marshall McKnight. "Generally, to be a property manager, you need to have a real estate license. The only thing a license wouldn’t necessarily be needed for might be repairs of the property."

Public records show that Dekleine holds neither a real estate license nor an attorney’s license in New Jersey.

"The worst part of all of this is even if he had intentions to negotiate a short sale on her behalf, he can’t do it legally, so it seems his intent was not to get the property sold to third parties but his intent was to take the money each month until the house was foreclosed upon," Johnston said.

Hefty allegations, for sure.

Johnston sent a letter, dated May 26, to Dekleine detailing his complaints about the contract and informing him that it would be terminated immediately.

This is what Johnston’s letter said:

"Pursuant to my research neither Mr. Dekleine, nor United Capital Property Solutions, LLC, are licensed by the New Jersey Banking Commission as a debt adjuster, nor a member of the New Jersey Bar. Therefore, neither are permitted to conduct such negotiations in the State of New Jersey and, thus, any ‘consulting’ is illegal."

He also demanded Dekleine return any monies collected from Condon immediately.

"The word ‘manipulation’ is what struck me when I was listening to the story," Johnston said. "It’s when folks like this come, in my opinion, and take advantage of people in bad situations, it’s just wrong."

WHO IS THIS GUY?
Before we contacted Dekleine to ask about his contract with Condon, we wanted to learn more about his business history.

In 2003, Dekleine served 10 months of a four-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to theft by deception, racketeering and bribery of public officials for his involvement in an odometer-tampering case, according to court records and press reports.

When Bamboozled contacted Dekleine on June 3, he said he terminated his business relationship with Condon after receiving her attorney’s letter. Still, we wanted to know what kinds of services he had planned to provide under the contract. "We were facilitating a short sale," he said. "Not me personally but my partner. It was a whole list of things."

Dekleine said his partner was John De Costa, the man who signed Condon’s listing agreement.

He also said he and his attorney were in negotiations with Condon’s attorney to refund the property management fee.

But Condon’s attorney Johnston said he hadn’t yet heard from Dekleine.

A short time after we talked to Dekleine, Johnston reported he received a phone call from Dekleine, who verbally agreed to return Condon’s fees.

That’s great, but there was other unexplained business.

We wondered if John De Costa, who Dekleine claimed was his partner and a licensed real estate agent, had the credentials to negotiate a short sale.

The listing agreement he signed identified Exit Exclusive Realty of Clark as the broker of record.

The Department of Banking and Insurance doesn’t have a license for John De Costa, but it does have one for Joao Da Costa, and that person is listed as a salesperson for Exit Exclusive Realty.

We called Exit Exclusive Realty — about an hour’s drive from Condon’s home — to learn more.

"I just saw him one time when he came and said he wanted to work here," said owner and broker of record Maria Gomes. "Since then he never showed up."

That was on May 4, she said — two weeks after De Costa signed Condon’s agreement with the name Exit Exclusive Realty. Gomes said she took his license, which bore the name Joao Da Costa, and registered him with her company, expecting him to start work soon. He had not yet signed a contract with Gomes’ firm.

After that, she said, she hadn’t heard from him for more than a month.

Gomes confirmed De Costa never brought Condon’s listing to her attention, even though it’s customary for agents to bring listings to their brokers of record immediately so the contract can be made legal. "[Agents] have to present [listings] to me because they have to have my signature on it," she said. "[The Condon contract] is not valid."

That’s exactly correct.

"A listing agent has to sign in the same name that’s on his license and the broker of record must approve and sign off on all listing agreements," said Banking and Insurance spokesman McKnight.

When John De Costa — or Joao Da Costa — answered our call, he said Condon was Dekleine’s client. He said he would call us back to talk more, but he never did.

We called Dekleine again, and he said he planned to return Condon’s $1,300 to her attorney Matthew Johnston. Johnston said that was news to him.

NOW WHAT?
To date, Condon has not received her refund.

Maria Gomes said she has no plans to employ De Costa.

And the Department of Banking and Insurance seems to be interested. "We can’t talk about any specific case but rest assured, when something is brought to our attention as in this case, we will review it," McKnight said.

We look forward to hearing more, Including whether Condon gets her refund.

"I feel like a victim,’’ she said, "and it’s really hard for me to process that people can be like that."

Staff researcher Vinessa Erminio contributed to this report.

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

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A printer who did programs for a high school commencement struggled to get paid.

William Perlman/The Star-LedgerMinuteman Press of Union manager Jim Lawrie did a job last year for Weequahic HS Commencement Program in Newark and 11 months later, he still hasn't been paid.

It’s graduation season, and schools across the state are printing commencement booklets to memorialize the special day.

That’s what Newark’s Weequahic High School did this time last year.

The school hired Minuteman Press of Union to do the job, said shop owner Jim Lawrie. And nearly a whole year later, Lawrie was still waiting to get paid.

“I have been sending invoices since then and following them up with phone calls, all of which have been ignored,” Lawrie said in an e-mail. “How does a small-business owner like myself collect a debt from a government agency? Is there a procedure in place or do I have to send the debt to a collection agency like any other customer?”

THE JOB
Lawrie said he was contacted about printing 2,000 programs for the school last June, and the school agreed to the $2,527 fee. A school employee provided the text and the artwork, and Lawrie got to work.

“The job was completed on time and delivered to the school, and we received a check for our services,” Lawrie said. “That same day I received a call from the principal, Mr. Tonero, complaining of the many spelling and grammar mistakes and asking me to reprint the job at my own expense.”

Lawrie said that he explained to the principal that the files — and misspellings — were provided by school staff and that Lawrie’s company had nothing to do with the text. Lawrie said a faculty member even approved the job, signing a proof of the program.

John Tonero said it would be very embarrassing to him to give the booklets out at graduation because of the misspellings, and he asked Lawrie to reprint the job for free, Lawrie said.

There wasn’t much time. Graduation was the next day.

Lawrie said he explained again that the school was responsible for the errors, but he said he could complete the job if he stayed at the shop and worked all night long.

“I explained to him that there would be a cost to reprint them, but that under the circumstances, we would do the reprint for the cost of the paper, plus rush charges,” Lawrie said.

The discounted bill would be $1,166.

But money was still an issue.

Lawrie said Tonero wanted an even lower price.

“The guy was begging me, saying, ‘We’ll give you all this other business,’ ” Lawrie said. “That’s like a ‘pay-to-play’ come-on.”

Hoping the job would translate into more jobs in coming school years and understanding that school budgets are tight, Lawrie, a former high school history teacher, said he agreed to another discount of about $700. The final cost would be $458 and one very late night for Lawrie and his employees.

The principal had one more stipulation, Lawrie said. Because the budget for the school year was already depleted, Lawrie would have to wait until September to be paid.

“I reluctantly agreed,” Lawrie said.

He did the job and the programs were ready in time for the ceremony.

GETTING PAID
After the job was complete, Lawrie sent a new invoice to the school. September came, but there was no payment.

He’d leave messages at the school for Tonero, but his calls were not returned, Lawrie said. This went on all year — more invoices, more calls, no payment, no response.

Late in the fall, Lawrie wasn’t feeling charitable anymore and he eliminated the $700-plus discount, sending new invoices for the full $1,166.

“I could have started charging interest, but I didn’t,” he said.

Still, no response from the school.

On May 9 — about the time when new orders for 2011 graduation programs would be expected to arrive — Lawrie decided it was time to go over the principal’s head. He sent an e-mail to the district’s business administration office.

He said he received an e-mail the next day saying the matter would be resolved.

A few days later, he received a message that the school’s principal called.

“When I returned his call, I got the usual message, that Mr. Tonero was too busy with school-related matters and couldn’t come to the phone,” Lawrie said. “I spent the rest of the day trying to get through to Weequahic High School, but nobody would answer the phone.”

By May 25, Lawrie said he still hadn’t spoken to anyone. He sent another e-mail. No response.

He sent another e-mail to the business administration office on May 31 — the same day he contacted Bamboozled. Shirley Zachary, the district’s assistant business administrator, replied via e-mail and asked Lawrie to call her.

During that call, Lawrie said Zachary asked whether the principal could call him to discuss the matter.

“I told her I didn’t see any reason to talk to him unless he was going to tell me where and when I can pick up my check,” he said.

A few more days passed and Lawrie heard nothing, so Bamboozled called Tonero. He did not return the call.

We next called Zachary, and she called back in minutes.

“(The payment) is what we’re working on. We’re working with the principal to get him paid and we’ll have this resolved by Tuesday (June 7) at the latest,” Zachary said. “He’ll get whatever he’s entitled to.”

We asked why it had taken nearly a year to make the payment happen.

“It’s crazy,” she said. “We just recently got involved although they’ve been going back and forth for some time. We will get it resolved.”

Then on June 6, Bamboozled got a call from MaryAnn Armstrong, Tonero’s assistant.

She said Lawrie hasn’t returned calls from the school regarding the payment.

“His work was so excellent that we wanted to talk to him about this year’s programs, but you say he’s working with the business administration office? So that point is moot. Sometimes attitudes get in the way of getting productive,” Armstrong said.

Huh?

But the next day, as Zachary promised, Lawrie reported he received a hand-delivered check for the full amount owed.

Lawrie said he’s very happy to have the payment, but to date, he said, he hasn’t been contacted to do any other jobs for Weequahic High School, whose graduation is scheduled for June 27.

“I don’t think they intend to do further business with me,” he said.

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

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Complaints about Travel Deals keep coming in and the state hasn’t collected a penny from Turner. Hundreds of customers are still waiting for refunds.

Ed Murray/The Star-LedgerMarlene Miller and her husband Robert Miller with paperwork from Modern Destinations Unlimited, a Daryl Turner company from which the Millers are trying to recover money.

While state authorities are trying to get Daryl Turner to return millions of dollars to customers of his 11 fraudulent travel businesses, the state is also negotiating with credit card companies, requesting the lenders issue chargebacks – credit card refunds – for consumers who used plastic to pay for travel services they never received.

After some foot-dragging, one credit card company has done the right thing for a customer brought to its attention by Bamboozled.

But first, the latest on Turner.

Turner, according to the state, ran bogus travel companies, collecting fees from customers who were never provided promised vacation services. In February 2011, Turner signed a settlement with the Division of Consumer Affairs, agreeing to pay $2.2 in restitution. He was also barred from working in the travel business for at least five years.

But earlier this month the state filed another action, this time alleging Turner is working with a new company – Travel Deals – which is registered in Turner’s wife’s name and has strikingly similar business methods as Turner’s defunct companies.

That was followed by another hearing in which the state claimed Turner violated the February settlement by working with Travel Deals and by crying poverty despite proof that Turner owns several luxury cars that were parked in the driveway of his Cherry Hill home.

Turner’s attorney Richard Gallucci told Judge Deanna Wilson that Turner has worked as a consultant for Travel Deals, and the attorney asked for clarification of the settlement, which enjoined Turner from "owning and/or operating" a travel company.

The clarification came from the judge last week in a new order that said Turner may not work in the travel business in any capacity. The order said if Turner does not comply, the judge will issue a bench warrant for his arrest.

In the meantime, complaints about Travel Deals keep coming in and the state hasn’t collected a penny from Turner. Hundreds of customers are still waiting for refunds.

Customers like Robert and Marlene Miller, who signed on with Modern Destinations Unlimited (MDU), one of 11 companies named in the settlement, on Oct. 9, 2009.

The Millers attended an MDU seminar in which they said presenters promised discounted vacations for those who bought memberships to the travel club. They decided to join, charging the $5,394 membership fee on their Chase card.

"The purpose of our purchase was to celebrate my 70th birthday by taking our children and grandchildren on a cruise," Bob Miller said in an e-mail.

The following day, the Millers called the company to get information on booking a trip. Something didn’t sound right, they said, so the couple called Chase with concerns about MDU’s legitimacy. The charge hadn’t yet posted to their account so it was too soon for a dispute, they were told.

A week later, e-mails sent by the Millers to MDU were not answered, and on Oct. 26, the couple mailed their first of many letters to Chase about the possibility of fraud. Chase temporarily suspended interest charges while it investigated.

Life went on and the couple didn’t hear back from Chase, so they figured it was over. But in March 2010, they received a letter denying the dispute, and interest started accumulating again.

Over the next year, the Millers wrote many more letters to Chase and they complained to their senator and their representative, but nothing happened. They also filed a complaint with the Division of Consumer Affairs.

Because they didn’t want to ruin their credit, Bob Miller said, they stayed current on payments to their credit card, paying a total of $2,100 of the charge from MDU.

Miller also stayed current on his contact with Chase.

"We are against them not repaying a proven fraud,’" Miller said.

In April 2011, Chase refunded five months of interest charges – nearly $260 – "as a gesture," Bob Miller said. But the main charge was still there.

We gave Chase a call, providing the lender with copies of court actions, press releases by the Attorney General’s office and copies of Bamboozled columns detailing the cases. Within a couple of days, the Millers heard from Chase.

"We are being sent a check for the $2,100 we have paid and the rest of the charge is being deleted from our account," Miller said in an e-mail.

We asked Chase why it changed its mind about the Millers, but it said couldn’t comment on individual consumers out of respect for customer privacy.

Thanks to Chase for doing the right thing for the Millers.

A week later, Bamboozled received an email from a second Chase customer. Jay Schlesinger said he paid Dream Vacations International, another of Turner’s companies, $4,893 for membership in June 2009.

"The next day, we tried to get airline tickets and a variety of things but they couldn’t accommodate us when we wanted to go," he said.

Three days later Schlesinger said he cancelled his membership via fax, e-mail and certified letter.

When the company finally responded and said he could not cancel, Schlesinger filed complaints with Consumer Affairs, the Federal Trade Commission and disputed the charge with Chase. He even sent Chase a copy of the state’s action against the travel company.

Like the Millers, the dispute was denied.

Schlesinger kept writing to Chase and in Nov. 2009, the lender issued what it called a "courtesy credit" of $1,226 – 25 percent of the disputed amount.

"It is my contention that once it is proved that an organization is a fraud, the banks should protect the public," he said. "They had all the information to make such a determination and they chose to ignore it."

We gave Chase another call, and it’s taking a look at the case.

"I am wondering why the state does not make Mr. Turner sell his house, and those three fancy cars found on his driveway, and why this man is still not in jail," Schlesinger said.

The state is working on it.

"While the credit card companies have been generally reluctant to offer chargebacks to Turner’s victims, our negotiations with the companies on the consumers’ behalf are continuing," said Thomas Calcagni, acting director of Consumer Affairs. "In the meantime, we are aggressively hunting down every asset held by Turner. One way or another, we are committed to getting money back to those people he and his companies swindled."

Stay tuned.

A REFUND GRANTED

Two weeks ago, we told you the story of Shannon Condon, a woman who signed a contract with a real estate management company that promised to help her with a short sale on her home. The contract was signed by Dan Dekleine, a man who does not hold a real estate license or a license to practice law, and therefore cannot legally complete a short sale in New Jersey.

The day our story ran, Condon’s attorney received Condon’s $1,300 refund.

Bamboozled will let you know if something comes of the Department of Banking and Insurance’s investigation into the matter.

Have you been Bamboozled? Contact Karin Price Mueller at bamboozled@starledger.com.

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