Missouri Attorney General Says Locksmith Has Gouged Customers

Missouri Attorney General says locksmith has gouged customers

BY STEPHEN DEERE

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

04/04/2009

A Florida-based locksmith company has been gouging customers in St. Louis and elsewhere for about a year, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said Friday. 

Koster has sued Dependable Locks Inc., and its registered agent, David Peer, of Dunedin, Fla., for seven violations of state law. He is asking a judge to order the company to stop doing business in the state and grant each victim $1,000 per violation. 

At a press conference in St. Louis on Friday, Koster said about 30 people have complained to his office about the company, which operates under 16 different names in the phone book and on yellowpages.com. 

When customers called the businesses, which they often believed to be local, they were routed to a call center in Florida, Koster said. The call center would quote a price to fix or open a lock, and then dispatch an employee to a vehicle or residence. The promised price was often about $50.

"When they arrive 30 minutes later, they say, 'This looks like a difficult lock and it's going to be at least $150, and we need it tonight in cash,'" Koster said.

The company also listed false addresses with the phone company, according to Koster. At the press conference, he was flanked by pictures of an AT&T office in St. Charles, a St. Louis woman's home and a Captain D's restaurant. All were places the company had given as addresses.

"If a customer wants to go and complain to this business, they can't go and find it," Koster said. 

Messages seeking comment from the company were not returned.

Koster also is asking that AT&T disconnect the numbers that Dependable Locks has used and for the phone company to remove all the listings from the Internet. 

Given how many names the company has used, Koster believes there are thousands of victims. He urged anyone who thinks they may have been a victim to contact his office (visit ago.mo.gov; or call 1-800-392-8222).

Koster did not know how many employees the company has in the area or how they have been recruited. He said his office is still determining "who we intend to drag into court."

(source...)