ATVDiscounter.com of Dallas charged with shipping damaged vehicles
Houston County Courier - February 2010
DALLAS – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Wednesday, Feb. 24 filed an enforcement action against a Dallas-area all-terrain vehicle (ATVs), moped, Go-Kart and scooter dealership. According to the state’s en-forcement action, Frontier Im-ports Inc., dba ATVDiscoun-ter.com, and several individual defendants violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA). Foremost among these, the defendants promised vehicles that customers personally se-lected – and which the dealer claimed were in stock. How-ever, customers who ordered by phone or via Internet re-ceived vehicles they did not select for purchase and often received the vehicles months after the promised delivery date. Some never received ve-hicles they purchased. Other customers received vehicles that were less costly than the vehicles they paid for, but the company refused to provide refunds or exchanges. In other cases, customers re-ceived damaged or mud-caked vehicles with mileage on the odometers. Customers often had trouble starting vehicles, and when they were actually able to start the vehicles, they malfunc-tioned after being driven 100 miles or less. In addition to obvious dam-age to mirrors and lights, cus-tomers complained about leaking fuel lines and defective brakes. Other customers had acci-dents resulting in minor inju-ries from throttles that froze in the open position. Finally, defendants promised the vehicles were “street legal,” but customers failed to receive a Manufacturer’s Statement of Origin, making it impossible to register them with the state. Other named defendants in this legal action are ATVDis-counter.com of Dallas, LLC, Sheri Lynn Barling, Glenn Mark Barling and Nathan Barling. Because the defendants are charged with violating the DTPA, the state is seeking pe-nalties of up to $20,000 per violation of that law, plus at-torneys’ fees. Restitution to harmed cus-tomers is also requested under this court action. Texans who believe they have been deceived by similar fraudulent business practices may call the Office of the At-torney General’s toll-free complaint line at (800) 252-8011 or file a complaint online at www.texasattorneygeneral.gov
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