Court finds Gillece Services didn't let consumers cancel contracts, used misleading advertising

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A court found Gillece Services didn't let consumers cancel contracts and misled them with advertising, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office announced. 

The state sued Gillece Services in 2020, claiming the Pittsburgh-based contractor misled customers into paying for unnecessary home improvement work, including unnecessary replacement of sewer pipes.

The attorney general's office said on Friday that the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas found Gillece and its owner Tom Gillece Sr. to be in violation of the state's Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act and Consumer Protection Law. 

The court found Gillece engaged in conduct like refusing to honor customers' requests to cancel their home improvement contracts, penalizing consumers who canceled and using ads with false or misleading statements about its technicians' qualifications.  

The court issued several injections against Gillece and required the company to allow customers to revoke their contracts, give timely refunds and disclose the terms and restrictions of offers in advertising. 

The lawsuit followed an investigation where the attorney general's Bureau of Consumer Protection said Gillece's technicians failed to make a good faith effort to unclog consumers' sewer pipes with a sewer snake before recommending costly excavation work. 

The allegations that Gillece recommended unnecessary work will be tried at a later date, the attorney general's office said.