Washington e-Commerce Company May Owe You Money

For Immediate Release: March 30, 2011

SEATTLE – You may be owed money if you paid a Washington-based company that sold search-engine optimization, shopping cart integrationand Web design and hosting services. The Washington Attorney General’s Office says small businesses nationwide are potentially eligible for refunds as a result of a consumer protection settlement with a group of defendants who used multiple business names since 2005.

But the state doesn’t have a way to directly contact those potentially eligible. The defendants claim to have lost the contact information for former customers.

Instead, the state is asking eligible businesses to file a consumer complaint on the Washington Attorney General’s Web site athttp://www.atg.wa.gov/FileAComplaint.aspx and request a refund.

You may be eligible for a refund if you bought services from any of these companies and can provide proof of payment:

·       White Crane Technologies

·       TNT Cart

·       Strada Technologies

·       Cybercom Technologies

·       Wizy-Wiz eCommerce

·       ABC eCommerce 

Refunds are only available to those whose complaints concern issues prior to Dec. 3, 2010. Businesses or individuals who already submitted complaints to the Attorney General’s Office do not have to submit new documentation, unless requested. Refund requests will be accepted for a year – up until March 29, 2012. Payments will be mailed after that date.

The companies were operated by Jeremy Avey, Alexander Martin and Brent Stanphill. The attorney general’s suit accused the defendants of making misrepresentations about the quality of their services, neglecting to deliver services as promised, providing poor customer service, not honoring money-back guarantees and making unauthorized charges to consumers’ debit and credit accounts. The defendants were also accused of failing to register as commercial phone solicitors.

Avey, Martin and Stanphill can still do business -- as long as they don't break any laws.

Instructions for submitting a restitution request can be found at www.atg.wa.gov/settlements.aspx.

Information about the case and legal documents can be found online here.

From: Rob McKenna

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF WASHINGTON

1125 Washington Street SE · PO Box 40100 · Olympia WA 98504-0100