Car Stereo Discounters Ordered to Refund Customers

May 23, 2011 by Amy Gilroy
Filed under Car News, Home Page Featured, Industry news

16 Comments



Fellas, here’s one to post on the store wall.
Dealer Cost Car Audio and related stores/Web sites owned by Ravi Ghataode were fined a total of $200,000 by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office this month. They were ordered to pay $130,000 of that back to customers. The remaining $70,000 were fines.
The stores were discounting products on the Web and advertising goods that were not in stock. When the consumer placed an order, his credit was charged immediately. But in hundreds of cases, the product never shipped and consumers were told it was backordered. They waited because the prices were so low, said the prosecutor Michelle Cipolletti.
A complaint to the District Attorney’s Office resulted in an investigation.
The stores charged include Dealer Cost Audio, Gold Star Audio—a high end car stereo store in Irvine, CA. selling top brands–, Gold Star Audio Sound, Inc., National Audio Center Inc, and Indo Audio. Prosecutor Cipolletti, said Dealer Cost Car Audio was also involved. That web site alone received 1337 complaints to the BBB in 36 months and had an “F” rating by the BBB.
Dealer Cost Car Audio also shows many products selling for below cost from what we could gather.
Owner Ghataode also goes under the name Robert Ghataode or Robert Jones, said the DA’s office. He admitted no fault or liability in the case.
For at least three years, the defendants advertised low-priced audio and car audio products on the Internet. While some were shipped properly, hundreds were not. Consumers were also given false refund and confirmation numbers. Or they were falsely told their credit card had been refunded.
The stores must now deliver products within 30 days or provide a refund and are enjoined from making any false statements about product arrivals or advertising products that are not in stock without disclosure.
You can see the press release from the DA’s office here.
And you can post on your wall this story in the Orange County Register here.
Source: Orange County DA’s office, Orange County Register

As a retailer we find these kind of tactics very offensive and disrespectful to all consumers and the 12v industry!