Going Out Of Business For 60th Time?
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NORTH TEXAS (CBS11) - The Better Business Bureau is warning schools and non-profits, after dozens say they were taken advantage of by a North Texas scheme promising cheap office supplies as part of a "going out of business" sale.
A company, which appears to operate under at least five different names, has received at least 120 complaints in the last three years.
The BBB says its investigation into businesses named Liberty Supply, Omni Services, Star Business, Talon Products, and Sharp Supply all lead back to the same group of North Texas owners.
Customers say in each case a salesperson called offering office supplies at discount prices claiming the company was shutting down.
"It's pretty common to say you're going out of business to get people to think they're going to get a deeply discounted product," said Phylissia Landrix, with the BBB.
When boxes filled with supplies arrived, though, customers say, the bills were "outrageous."
What customers believed to be the price for a box of pens turned out to be the price for each one, driving the overall cost of the shipment into the thousands of dollars.
The BBB says, so far, every complaint has come from out of state, which could be meant to make it more difficult for authorities to catch on.
In some cases, customers were able to return the supplies and get a refund, but they still had to pay shipping and restocking fees.
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