Carwash Is Guilty of False Advertising

After deliberating for four days, a Los Angeles jury has found an Encino carwash guilty of false advertising for failing to honor two $2.99 carwash coupons from a competitor.

Encino Center Car Wash Inc., at 16300 Ventura Blvd. for 21 years, was found guilty Friday in Municipal Court of two counts of false advertising, a misdemeanor, ordered to pay $3,105 and placed on three years’ probation.

Alerted by two customers over a year ago, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office investigated whether the carwash honored a mass-mailing of about 60,000 coupons sent to customers that stated, in capital letters, “We accept all full-service carwash coupons.” According to the two customer complaints, the firm refused to honor the $2.99 coupons for a car hand-wash from a Tarzana competitor--now defunct.

During the investigation, two undercover representatives of the county Department of Consumer Affairs visited the carwash Nov. 8 and 9 to redeem the $2.99 carwash coupons. The Encino firm refused, Deputy City Atty. Mark Lambert said, offering instead to wash their vehicles for $5.99.

On Feb. 28, the case against 70-year-old Bernard Goodman, owner of the carwash, was dismissed because he was not involved with its day-to-day operations, company attorney Robert B. Horner said.

The case against his son, Jeffrey Goodman, 42, who manages the carwash, was dismissed after the jury deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of conviction, Lambert said. This left the two final counts--derived from the November undercover actions--against the corporation that led to the jury’s conviction.

Jeffrey Goodman, who could not be reached for comment Monday, previously told The Times that he had never received customer complaints about the coupons. He also denied the false-advertising allegations, adding that he was concerned about the publicity.

References to other carwash offers have been stricken from currently mailed coupons, company attorney Horner said. He added that the firm ceased sending out the questioned coupons when it became aware of the complaints.

Of the jury’s lengthy deliberations, he added, “I do murder cases where they don’t deliberate that long.”