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ABC Ecommerce
ABC Ecommerce IS a company not to trust!!!!!! Seattle, Washington
9th of Dec, 2010 by User516534

3 fined in web marketing complaint

Three Washington men who sold Internet marketing services to small businesses around the country were ordered to pay at least $471,500 in penalties, fines and restitution to customers who complained that they never got what they paid for.


By Susan


Seattle Times staff reporter
Related

Three Washington men who sold Internet marketing services to small businesses around the country were ordered to pay at least $471,500 in penalties, fines and restitution to customers who complained that they never got what they paid for. King County Superior Court Judge Julie Spector also ordered the men to tell the state's attorney general about any other complaints they received so that those customers can get refunds, too. "Web marketing services have long been a problem for people in this state and people around the country," said Paula Stelis, senior counsel with the Attorney General's Office and lead attorney in the suit. "There are legitimate companies who do legitimate website marketing. Unfortunately, these weren't one of them."

Attorney General Rob McKenna's office filed suit last year against Jeremy Avey, Alexander Martin and Brent Stanphill alleging violations of the state's Consumer Protection Act and the Commercial Telephone Solicitation Act.


Also named in the suit are companies the attorney general says the men operated: White Crane Technologies, White Crane Productions, TNT Cart, Strada Technologies, Cybercom Technologies and Wizy-Wiz eCommerce. The suit alleged that the companies misrepresented their services by not meeting deadlines for completing websites, failing to respond to complaints, and in some cases not delivering. Judge Spector's ruling on Friday covers 35 clients who were collectively owed $108,000. One of the defendants disputed the allegations in the suit, saying the attorney general failed to distinguish between the businesses, and in doing so, blew out of proportion the number of complaints against the company he was involved with. Alexander Martin, who now runs ABC eCommerce in Seattle, said his company, TNT, accounted for six of the 35 complaints outlined in the suit. TNT has resolved five of those complaints, and has issued refunds to those clients, he said Monday. Martin said the ruling was "difficult for me to stomach" because he feels he has done right by his customers. He acknowledged delays in responding to complaints to TNT and its affiliated company, Strada, but said he was disabled from a ski accident for a period of time when the complaints were filed. Avey and Stanphill could not be reached for comment Monday.


Marilynn Duke, 71, of Livonia, Mich., who is due for a $2,800 refund, said she was pleased by the ruling. Duke signed up with Cybercom after receiving several phone solicitations to improve the website for her home-based business and paid with the expectation that the site would be operational in six weeks. But the site never got to the point where it could be used for business, and when she demanded a refund, the company threatened to sue her, she said.


"But it wasn't just the money," she said. "I also spent unbelievable amount of hours trying to work with them." In the end, she pulled the plug on the business.

Stelis of the Attorney General's Office urged small businesses to do extensive research and ask for several references before purchasing web marketing services.


"When you get a call out of the blue promising the sun, the moon and the stars, you should do some research," Stelis said. "The more you're spending, the more research should be done."





Comments
4746 days ago by Kristin Alexander
From the Washington Attorney General's Office
http://atg.wa.gov/ecommercesettlement.aspx

Washington e-commerce company may owe you money
Small businesses nationwide are eligible for refunds stemming from Washington Attorney General’s lawsuit

SEATTLE – You may be owed money if you paid a Washington-based company that sold search-engine optimization, shopping cart integration and Web design and hosting services. The Washington Attorney General’s Office says small businesses nationwide are potentially eligible for refunds as a result of a consumer protection settlement with a group of defendants who used multiple business names since 2005.

But the state doesn’t have a way to directly contact those potentially eligible. The defendants claim to have lost the contact information for former customers.

Instead, the state is asking eligible businesses to file a consumer complaint on the Washington Attorney General’s Web site at http://www.atg.wa.gov/FileAComplaint.aspx and request a refund.

You may be eligible for a refund if you bought services from any of these companies and can provide proof of payment:

White Crane Technologies
TNT Cart
Strada Technologies
Cybercom Technologies
Wizy-Wiz eCommerce
ABC eCommerce
Refunds are only available to those whose complaints concern issues prior to Dec. 3, 2010. Businesses or individuals who already submitted complaints to the Attorney General’s Office do not have to submit new documentation, unless requested. Refund requests will be accepted for a year – up until March 29, 2012. Payments will be mailed after that date.

The companies were operated by Jeremy Avey, Alexander Martin and Brent Stanphill. The attorney general’s suit accused the defendants of making misrepresentations about the quality of their services, neglecting to deliver services as promised, providing poor customer service, not honoring money-back guarantees and making unauthorized charges to consumers’ debit and credit accounts. The defendants were also accused of failing to register as commercial phone solicitors.

Avey, Martin and Stanphill can still do business -- as long as they don't break any laws.

Instructions for submitting a restitution request can be found at www.atg.wa.gov/settlements.aspx.
4185 days ago by Victoria123
Yes, they screwed me around too. I have lost quite a bit of money from Thrive and ABC eCommerce and now ABC have not paid their fine to the Washington State. I will get nothing from Thrive either. I liked my website. In the end I had no rating with Alexa. I had to shut down.

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