April 27, 1998
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Shopping club under probe by state after customers complain
MILFORD, Conn. (AP) - A local shopping club has been barred from selling new memberships after customers complained they were not getting the discounted goods promised.
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has secured a temporary injunction against Preferred Consumer Network International, formerly United Buyers Service, Inc.
The company sells $1,000- to $2,399-memberships that purportedly allow customers to buy furniture, appliances and other items at discounted prices.
John Folger, of Newton, bought UBS in February 1997 and opened PCNI on the site of the former shopping club.
To make up for merchandise that customers never received, he said, PCNI is offering redemption certificates worth 15 percent more than the unfulfilled orders.
Stanislaus Gawronski, of New Britain, paid PCNI $487 last November for a television he never got. But, he says, he is satisfied with the company's explanation.
``The manager was up front with me, telling they had money problems and would make it up to me and then some with some gift certificates,'' Gawronski said.
But Eugene Seifert, of Trumbull, called PCNI ``the biggest rip-off I ever heard of.''
Every time the company quoted him prices, he would find the item cheaper somewhere else, he said.
Commissioner of Consumer Protection Mark Shiffrin said his department is looking into complaints against the company.
``This looks like it's got a lot of layers like an onion, and the allegations, if proven, are quite serious,'' Shiffrin said. |
