Businesses throughout Ohio recover nearly a quarter of a million dollars with help from Attorney General Cordray’s initiative
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) - Approximately 1,500 businesses have used Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray’s new program designed to protect them in the marketplace, which has led to nearly a quarter of a million dollars in recoveries and savings.
The program, which was launched statewide in February, helps small businesses resolve pesky and often costly problems with their vendors, such as unauthorized charges, poor service, misrepresentation of a product or service and outright scams. Ohio is one of a few states to offer this type of assistance for small businesses.
“Businesses, like consumers, lose precious hours and resources when they are trying to recover money lost to fraudulent practices,” said Cordray. “With this program, we are able to offer businesses the leverage to get their money back or resolve a problem quickly. By opening up our consumer complaint resolution process to include not only individual consumers, but now also small businesses, we have resolved issues resulting in more than $230,000 recovered or saved for Ohio businesses.”
Cordray’s office has received complaints from all over the state, ranging from minor service disputes to the potential loss of thousands of dollars.
For example, a software company in Apple Creek found unauthorized charges on a cell phone bill. Working with the Attorney General’s office, the company was refunded $65 for the charges.
A Westerville investment firm sought to recover $77,500 that it had paid as an upfront fee for a real estate loan. The firm contacted the Attorney General’s office when it did not receive the loan as promised. Within two weeks, the upfront fee was refunded in full - marking the largest recovery by the program to-date.
“Cash flow can be the difference between life and death for a small business,” Cordray said. “It doesn’t matter if the business is getting cheated of $70 or $77,000, the bottom line is what matters on a day-to-day basis,” said Cordray. An additional benefit is that we can now track market trends. If a business has many complaints against it, from consumers or other businesses, it usually means there’s a problem.”
Dr. Kevin J. Robertson, a North Royalton dentist who contacted the Attorney General’s Office for help resolving a dispute over an unauthorized Internet listing, applauded Cordray’s small business protection program for its quick turnaround time.
“The Attorney General’s Office was able to provide the leverage we needed to resolve this quickly,” said Dr. Robertson. “In addition to not wanting to pay for a service that we did not want nor even knew we had, I thought it important that the attorney general know about these unscrupulous practices. My hope is that if enough people complain, the company will be forced to change its ways.”
Top small business complaints for the year include:
- Phony “yellow page” advertisements
- Unauthorized charges on telephone bills
- Bogus Internet and website services
- Extra fees from credit card payment processors
- Unauthorized credit card charges
- Failure to receive a service or product
Cordray encourages small businesses that experience unfair practices such as scams, deceptive advertising, shoddy workmanship, billing disputes, unauthorized charges or any illegal conduct to contact his office at www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/Business or (800) 282-0515.
For a fact sheet about the attorney general’s small business protection program, please visit www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/BusinessComplaintsFactsheet.
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