You may be owed money if you paid a Washington-based company that sold search-engine optimization, shopping cart integration, web design and hosting services.

The Washington Attorney General’s office has announced that small businesses nationwide are potentially eligible for refunds, as a result of a consumer protection settlement with a group of defendants who used multiple business names since 2005.

However, there is a glitch because the state doesn’t have a way to directly contact those consumers who are potentially eligible. The defendants claim to have lost the contact information for former customers.

You may be eligible for a refund if you bought services from any of these companies and can provide proof of payment:

• White Crane Technologies
• TNT Cart
• Strada Technologies
• Cybercom Technologies
• Wizy-Wiz eCommerce
• ABC eCommerce

Refunds are only available to those whose complaints concern issues prior to December 3, 2010. Businesses or individuals who have already submitted complaints to the Washington AG’s Office do not have to submit new documentation, unless requested. Refund requests will be accepted for one year – up until March 29, 2012. Payments will be mailed after that date.

The companies were operated by Jeremy Avey, Alexander Martin and Brent Stanphill. The defendants are accused of misrepresenting the quality of their services, neglecting to deliver services as promised, providing poor customer service, not honoring money-back guarantees and making unauthorized charges to consumers’ debit and credit accounts. The defendants were also accused of failing to register as commercial phone solicitors.

Avey, Martin and Stanphill can still do business — as long as they don’t break any laws.

Instructions for submitting a restitution request can be found here.

Information about the case and legal documents can be found online at here.