Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is warning of official looking documents being mailed to Southern Arizona businesses by a company called Corporate Records Service (CRS), advertising a corporate document filing service for a $125 fee.

The documents being mailed resemble Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) filing documents. The ACC says the solicitation is meant to “intentionally create confusion by using language that is similar to that in Corporate Commission documents.” The forms include a deadline for businesses to file, and even includes accurate ACC file numbers for businesses.

“We had two clients bring the mailer to us this week and ask us if we could take care of it for them,” Cindy Andes, owner of Andes Tax and Accounting, told BBB. “Fortunately we were able to determine the mailer wasn’t actually from the ACC, and we were able to warn the rest of our clients.”

Andes says that if these particular documents were filed directly with the ACC it would cost a business $45, rather than the $125 fee Corporate Records Service is charging. She added that the solicitation asks for more personal information than is required, as well.

“The ACC doesn’t’ normally require corporate minutes in filing documents, those can be done online, and the fact that they’re requesting credit card information to be mailed to them is bothersome,” Andes said.

The mailers list a return address of 4802 E. Ray Rd. in Phoenix, which is the address for a UPS Store. To date neither BBB nor the ACC have been able to identify the individual, or individuals, responsible for the mailer.

If your business receives the solicitation the ACC urges you to contact the Arizona Attorney General’s Office at (520)628-6504, or by visit www.azag.gov to file a complaint.

An Ohio company that markets products ranging from portable electric heaters to uncut sheets of U.S. dollar bills is under scrutiny for what the Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona calls “significant and ongoing concerns” over advertisements which BBB believes have the capacity to mislead consumers.

The company, Arthur Middleton Capital Holdings of Canton, Ohio, is best known for its full-page ads in newspapers and magazines that appear similar to news stories and which run in publications in Arizona, and nationwide.

Arthur Middleton’s owner and chairman is Rodney Napier.

Kim States, BBB President, said BBBs in several markets  have questioned Middleton’s continued use of misleading and, at times, erroneous information in company ads.

“In our judgment, these problems have become so chronic and so flagrant that we felt an obligation to alert the public,” States said. “Time after time, BBB has expressed its concerns about the ads to the company. Time after time, the company has promised to make changes, only to come up with new products and new ads that are just as troubling.”

Most of the BBB’s concerns involve ads for World Reserve Monetary Exchange and Heat Surge – both businesses are part of the Arthur Middleton holding company.

BBB has logged 207 consumer complaints involving World Reserve Monetary Exchange, and 258 involving Heat Surge. Many of the complainants, some of which are from southern Arizona, say the ads are misleading.

World Reserve Monetary Exchange sells coins, paper currency, safes and related items and describes itself as “the largest provider of coin and currency aside from the U.S. Federal Reserve.”  Heat Surge is best known as the seller of Roll-N-Glow (is this the same as the Heat Surge fireplace?) electric fireplaces, with Amish-built mantles. Among recent ads targeted by the BBB are:

• World Reserve Monetary Exchange ads for uncut sheets of $1, $2 and $5 bills. The $1 and $5 bill (more…)

Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is alerting consumers to the “Emergency Liquidation Center,” which is holding a self-described “bankruptcy liquidation” in Tucson at 4380 Oracle Rd. in the former Ultimate Electronics retail space.

In its commercials, Emergency Liquidation Center claims to sell a host of items for $5, including electronics, clothing, and accessories. However, consumers tell BBB that after paying a $5 admission fee to enter the store, they found very few products for $5.

“The commercial said that everything was $5,” said Liz Encinas, who showed up at the Oracle location after hearing Emergency Liquidation Center’s commercial on the radio.

“None of it was cheap,” she said. “The only thing we saw that was $5 was a table of shirts.”

Emergency Liquidation Center- which has an ‘F’ rating with BBB- is owned by Aroma Senses, LLC, based in Columbus, Ohio. The company told BBB that they buy merchandise from various retailers who have gone out of business, or from companies like Target or Kmart who have stores with excess inventory.

When BBB asked Aroma Senses owner, Sunil Pehouja, which bankrupt retailer the company’s Tucson merchandise came from he said: “it’s very hard for us to say this product is from so and so company;” (more…)