Countywide : Carpet-Cleaning Firms Agree to Pay Penalties

Two carpet-cleaning firms have agreed to pay a total of $185,000 to settle consumer-protection lawsuits filed last year by the Orange County district attorney’s office.

The companies, Shubin’s Carpet & Upholstery Steam Cleaning and Sharp Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Inc., were sued in Orange County Superior Court last year for alleged false advertising and unfair and unlawful business practices.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Wendy Brough said Thursday that Shubin’s, owned by Arthur M. Shubin, agreed to pay $150,000 in civil penalties. Sharp Carpet, of which Shubin is part owner, will pay $35,000, Brough said.

The companies operate in Orange County and other parts of Southern California, said Brough, who prosecuted the case. She said the consumer-protection unit of the district attorney’s office filed one suit in April and another in August after receiving 80 complaints about the Santa Fe Springs-based Shubin’s and 20 complaints about Anaheim-based Sharp Carpet.

In court declarations, past customers stated that “they called the companies to their homes on the basis of the low prices in the widely circulated advertisements. Once at the home of the consumer, the carpet cleaning company representatives embarked on a course of bait and switch, often talking the consumer into a deal several times the amount the consumer originally wanted,” Brough said in a prepared statement.

As part of the settlement agreement, Brough said, the firms are barred from demanding fees not advertised, from placing unauthorized charges on a consumer’s credit card, from advertising that the price is a special when it is actually the firm’s regular price, and from allowing untrained employees to clean carpets.