Rogers man says he was duped by ‘asphalt gypsies’
Posted on Friday, July 7, 2006
ROGERS - Patrick Sbarra said he spent $ 1, 400 on a poorquality driveway seal. After paying for the job June 7, the same day work was completed, Sbarra said he never heard from whom he knew as Al Mason and Joe Stewart again.
"We got snookered," Sbarra said. "I call them the asphalt gypsies."
Sbarra said he and several neighbors decided to pay for sealing their driveways after several professional-quality brochures - with a local, hand-written telephone number - were left on their doorknobs or in mailboxes.
Star-Seal Supreme Co., the company on the brochures, does not employ an Al Mason or Joe Stewart, administrative assistant Cheryl Shook said.
Joe Hogan, general manager of Southern Star Materials in Little Rock, said his company carries Star-Seal Supreme products but would never sell the items door to door. He suggests customers check references before committing to paying for a service.
Jim DePriest, an attorney in the Arkansas Attorney General's Office, said driveway paving and sealing schemes join roofing, painting, insect spraying and other common, same-day home-improvement schemes that entice hundreds of complaints to his office each year.
"It's not only common, but it's been around longer than almost any other consumer scheme," DePriest said of driveway paving. He said he is working on a similar drivewaysealing complaint in northwest Arkansas.
DePriest said often, the schemers will claim they have leftover material available for a special price: "Whatever it is, it's going to be a today job."
Customers should be leery of any services that don't have a local street address and insist on same-day service. DePriest said state law requires customers to receive three days to consider a service quote, and he suggested that consumers use that time to get bids from competing service providers.
Cpl. Kelley Cradduck, public information officer for the Rogers Police Department, said buyers should never pay for services in advance and should ask to see photo identification for out-of-town workers.
Sbarra said he is telling everyone he knows to be leery of the out-of-state salesmen.
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