Special Reports

Action 9 confronts businessman accused of taking customer's money, again

By Jason Stoogenke, wsoctv.com
By Jason Stoogenke, wsoctv.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina businessman is back on the hot seat.

Alan Huffman owns Antiquities Vending in Granite Falls. He fixes old vending machines, or at least he's supposed to.

Last year, customers complained to Action 9 about Huffman. They said he took their money, but didn't do the work -- at least not at first.

After reporter Jason Stoogenke started investigating, Huffman made things right for some of the customers and told Stoogenke he'd keep doing so.

"Is this finally done or is this going to keep happening?” Stoogenke asked Huffman. “Are we going to see more complaints? Are we going to hear more from the [North Carolina Attorney General's] Office?"

"No, no, no," Huffman promised.

But in the 20 months since that interview, 26 customers from several states and even overseas in Denmark have reported him to the Attorney General.

  • PRESS PLAY for 4 tips to follow when contracting work:

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js"></script><object id="myExperience4621790672001" class="BrightcoveExperience"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="width" value="300" /><param name="height" value="169" /><param name="playerID" value="1885717126001" /><param name="playerKey" value="AQ~~,AAAAVzySnGE~,GJOLLPGiYiE4yJXtQU0a40DR9fKXyfCH" /><param name="isSlim" value="true" /><param name="dynamicStreaming" value="true" /><param name="@videoPlayer" value="4621790672001" /></object>

  • Research company (use BBB or AG)
  • Give as small a deposit as possible
  • Use credit card
  • Get contract that spells out the work to be done and when

One of them, Greg van Wassenhove, lives in California. He said he sent Huffman $3,600 and a 1950 Pepsi machine. More than a year later, he said he's only gotten excuses.

"A lot of false promises," he told Channel 9. "Repeatedly, repeatedly, lies about what the status was."

So Stoogenke caught up with Huffman again and asked him why this keeps happening.

"[I] just couldn't get the boxes painted anymore," Huffman told Stoogenke. "This year, one of my painters that I had since 1992 passed away and I just decided, in June of this year, that it was just not good to contract out paint jobs and send them off property to get them painted."

  • RAW VIDEO Action 9 confronts Huffman again:

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The Attorney General's top consumer protection lawyer, Kevin Anderson, said his team is keeping an eye on Huffman. It even called Huffman to Raleigh to defend himself in person. Anderson told Stoogenke that Huffman promised to finish the work for those who still want it and mail others refunds.

"Obviously, the proof's in the pudding and we're going to continue to monitor and make sure consumers get the results that they expect," Anderson said.

Ultimately, the AG's office can sue Huffman on behalf of those consumers, but hopes it doesn't come to that.

Read our past investigations:

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