PACOIMA : Electrical Firm Fined for Price-Gouging

A Pacoima electrical firm Tuesday was ordered to pay $3,700 in fines for price gouging customers following the Jan. 17, 1994, Northridge earthquake, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office said.

AZM Inc., which operates as A Plus Electric Co., in the 10500 block of Glenoaks Boulevard, pleaded no contest to the price-gouging charge and was ordered in Van Nuys Municipal Court to pay a $2,700 fine and make a $1,000 donation to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, said Deputy City Atty. P. Greg Parham, a prosecutor in the city’s Consumer Protection Unit.

Under a city ordinance passed after the 1992 riots, it is a misdemeanor to increase the cost of consumer food items, gasoline, repair or reconstruction services, emergency or medical supplies by more than 10% above the price charged before a declared state of emergency.

So far, prosecutors said about six companies have been penalized for infractions related to price-gouging after the Northridge quake.

The A Plus case stemmed from overcharging for replacing circuit breakers, discovered after an investigation conducted by the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer Affairs in conjunction with the Department of Weights and Measures.

Parham said that in one case, A Plus overcharged a customer $226 to replace a single circuit breaker. In another case, A Plus inflated the cost of a breaker by $218, Parham said.

“The problem with this particular company’s pricing is that they were using a fictitious pricing manual,” Parham said. “The manual gives a breakdown of prices that should be charged, but the listed prices are already marked up.”

To avoid such scams, Parham recommended checking a contractor’s references and state license status.