CHICAGO -- Colorado has filed a consumer protection lawsuit against General Steel Corp., Lakewood, Colo., alleging deceptive advertising and sales of manufactured steel buildings
The office of Attorney General Ken Salazar filed the suit in Jefferson County District Court in Golden, Colo., alleging that since 1997 the broker and telemarketer had passed itself off as a manufacturer of steel buildings and falsely advertised factory-direct clearance sales to consumers in Colorado and across the United States.
The lawsuit alleges that the company combined national radio, television, direct mail and Internet advertising with deceptive telephone sales scripts to sell buildings.
Consumers who called General Steel's office in response to the advertisements were led to believe that General Steel was a manufacturer of steel buildings and that previously sold unclaimed buildings had become available at "clearance" prices, the suit said. Scripts authorized by the company's president and managers encouraged the misrepresentations, the suit charged.
Named in the lawsuit are General Steel Domestic Sales LLC, doing business as General Steel; General Steel Industries LLC, doing business as Capital Steel; Jeffrey Wayne Knight, president and chief executive officer of General Steel; Kevin Neal Kissire, general manager; managers Bruce Graham and Jordan Blum; and salesman Jeffrey Scott Donelson.
Executives of General Steel, which noted on its Web site that it advertises on the Rush Limbaugh and Paul Harvey radio programs, declined to comment on the suit, referring calls to an outside spokesman. He issued a statement describing the company as "extremely disappointed" that the suit was filed after seven months of attempting to resolve the allegations from the Denver/Boulder Better Business Bureau and consumers.
The suit seeks a court order providing refunds to purchasers, civil penalties of up to $2,000 per violation of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act and attorney fees and costs, as well as injunctions preventing the defendants from engaging in future false and deceptive advertising.
Philip Burgert
philip.burger@pipeline.com
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