The businesses do mass advertising, with weekly mailings that offer carpet cleaning and air duct cleaning at a great deal.

"This is just one giant rip-off," said N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper. "Clearly, this company was up to no good and tried to take money they didn't earn."

Don and Melissa Cokely know firsthand how the scam works.

"I've lost 30 years of my life," Don Cokely said. "How many other people are in the same situation?"

The couple bought a Raleigh company called Riteclean. They took over the carpet-cleaning business in April 2001, advertising carpet cleaning as low as $6.95 a room.

" We wanted to create a nice, family-owned business that was honest, respectable and decent," Don Cokely said. "We had an attorney, we had an accountant, we had a financial advisor. Every one of these people looked at this business and it appeared on the surface as a viable business."

The Cokelys were given financial records that had Riteclean making gross revenues just under $1 million in 10 months. But within days of taking over the company, the Cokelys say red flags popped up, especially when it came to employees.

"No background checks are done," Melissa Cokely said. "They don't have any experience in carpet cleaning."

Eyewitness News shot undercover video in 2000 while investigating complaints that Riteclean's previous owners were taking advantage of customers.

After taking over, the Cokelys say they quickly realized customers were getting ripped off by the employees they inherited.

"The reliance is: I'm going to go out, I'm going to do the least amount of work I can do and get most amount of money I can, and if these people complain, then I'll deal with it later," Don Cokely said.

They admit customers were not getting what they paid for.

"It didn't matter how hard we tried, you can't run it honestly because it's not meant to be set up honestly," Melissa Cokely said. "You can not clean carpet for $6.95 a room."

Within a year, Riteclean was bankrupt.

"We've lost respect, dignity," Don Cokely said. "It's rather humiliating, and I think the worst part is it took us so long to figure out what actually happened to us."

For the last 31/2 years, the Cokelys made it their mission to figure out what happened. Through countless hours of research, the Cokelys realized they are not alone. The men who created Riteclean in North Carolina created similar companies in at least 11 other states. Hundreds of Raleigh consumers are familiar with one of the companies, America's Best Home Services.

Not doing the work, fake warranties and high-pressure, bait-and-switch sales are all reasons why Attorney General Cooper took action against America's Best Home Services.

"You lure consumers in with a low advertised price and then&you scare them into something else," Cooper said.

Besides North Carolina, attorneys general in Ohio and Massachusetts have filed suits against the men behind these companies.

Cooper is seeking a permanent injunction against America's Best owners so they can't do business.

 

There are ways to prevent this from happening to you. If the company is offering something that sounds too good to be true, it typically is.