Dana_Fowle's Blog

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Our I-Team hidden camera investigation found just what the Federal Trade Commission warned: some locksmiths are overcharging and playing themselves off as local when they're not local at all.

Drew and Clarissa Owen say they called Atlanta Locksmith and got a $400 estimate to have their locks changed. After the work was done they were handed a bill for more than $3,000. Geraldine Essix got locked out of the house and called State Locksmith, but her estimate and her bill were far apart.

So, the I-Team went undercover and also called State Locksmith to pick a lock. We couldn't get a firm estimate, but the state's trade organization said it was a $75 job. What were we charged? $192.

Read what else we found. Atlanta Locksmith and State Locksmith had different numbers, but both went to the same company: Reliable Locksmith in Florida. The company operates a call center in Florida, then sends sub-contractors out to do the work. What's more, the Better Business Bureau gives Florida's Reliable Locksmith an "F" rating.

A spokesman with the trade organization says companies like this are operating across the country using different names and numbers, subbing out jobs, overcharging customers, then disappearing into a maze of names. Trying to get your money back is nearly impossible.

A quick note: Our story is not about Reliable Locksmith in Dunwoody or Atlanta Lockservice, Inc.

Click Here for Tips on Hiring a Locksmith

Click Here for the National Locksmith Assocation Warning

Boy, nothing can bring folks to anger faster than the talk of child support. Well, this story has a twist. It's actually a problem that is bringing estranged parents together.

The state's Office of Child Support Services has issued a "scam alert" against a private company collecting child support for custodial parents.

A state spokesman says that Child Support Services of Atlanta, which also goes by Child Support Services of Georgia, deliberately leads parents to believe it's a government agency that collects child support when in fact it's a private agency out to make a profit.

Our I-Team investigation finds just what the state did: the company takes a 35 percent cut of the child's check; the checks are sometimes partial or they don't come at all; non-custodial parents are issued "bogus" letters that look like warrants pressuring them to sign up with the collections agency.

Check out our story online. We try to talk to the South Georgia company that has already been kicked out of Florida for its business practices. Right now they are under investigation by the Georgia Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs.

Here's a look at the scam alert:
Click Here

Like everyone at Fox 5 today I'm deliriously tired and have had too much coffee, but I still have enough wits about me to realize we dodged a bullet. 
Last night the tornado warning came across the TV.  My husband said, Don't worry.  Those things don't hit the city.   Just as he said that our lights went out and one of our dogs hid behind the closet door shaking.  
Reports indicated the Georgia Dome got banged up, but I'm not sure I grasped what really happened until I arrived at the office at 5 a.m.
Tell me your stories from the tornado. 

I knew more about Eliot Spitzer than I did about most politicians from other states.  As a consumer investigator, he set the national tone for slapping down businesses and people who take advantage of consumers.  You can be sure that if Eliot Spitzer did something the rest of the country's consumer advocates would follow.

As we've read in the past few days he apparently was supremely arrogant and not liked by many Democrats or Republicans. 

We all know the details....

1. Sex with prositutes over a 10-year period maybe spending as much as $80,000

2. Possibly breaking the laws he put into place

3. Desire for unsafe sex

4. Putting himself in a position to be blackmailed

5. Violating public trust

It goes on and on.   The Feds will decide his fate now.   But sitting at home now, watching old friends flee from you, the soon-to-be former governor has to spend his days looking at the faces of his wife and three daughters.

THAT Mr. Spitzer is your Hell.

 

In an I-Team follow-up story to Dwayne Green of  Maximus Investment group, we told you he had new businesses and a new nickname posted on YouTube.   He pitched one of them in a broadcast called  "Women are Stupid."

Since our story someone removed "Women Are Stupid" from YouTube.  Well, bloggers thanks for letting me know.  We have our own copy. 

For those of you just jumping in, Dwayne Green is accused by many of his former clients of promising them he'd help them save their homes from foreclosure for $500.  Guess what?  They say they paid and he disappeared.   There is now a warrant for his arrest in DeKalb County.

Listen in to how he pitches his new business idea to women:

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's a title that'll catch your attention.  It captured ours.  In a sec I'll tell you what this is all about. 

But first let me bring you up-to-date on our investigation into Dwayne Green of Maximus Investment Group.  (Police say he also uses the alias Kelvin Anthony.) Customers complained to the I-Team that for $500 he could save their homes from foreclosure.  Well, what they told the BBB and the police is that didn't happen and they're out the money and their homes.  

Well, it seems Mr. Green has a new nickname and a few new businesses.   Now we get back to the title:  Women are Stupid.   Mr. Green has a broadcast on YouTube titled just that.  He later says he's joking, but what he really means is still a bit unclear.

Check it out for yourself.  What do you think he means?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I8Rkn8xjBo

Listen to this one too.

http://www.youtube.com/user/LittleGuyNetworkGuru>

 

 

 

Wouldn't you think after our dirty hotel glass story hit the Internet and went worldwide that major chains in America would know about what we found at big name hotels?

To review:  Last fall we took our hidden cameras to hotels ranging from the Holiday Inn Downtown over to the downtown Ritz-Carlton.   We found the same thing time and time again, hotel housekeepers using our bathroom sink as a kitchen.  They rinsed our dishes in dirty sinks, one time using a dirty toilet bowl glove, another time our dirty bath towel, to rinse and dry them off.   It was enough to make you sick - literally.

Every hotel we checked got it wrong, so we thought we'd try some new hotels to see if they clean their guestroom glasses according to health codes.

We stayed downtown and checked out The Omni and The Hyatt.  Guess what?  They hadn't learned the lesson.   Our glasses never left the hotel room, but they were put out as clean for the next guest.  One of them even wiped her face with our towel before she dried off our glasses.   The other housekeeper used our dirty wash cloth as a dish towel.

And finally, the Crown Plaza Ravinia.  Now, they should have known better.  One of their sister hotels was featured in our story last fall, but they still failed to properly wash their glasses.   Again, the glasses never left the room.

According to the health department director, practices like these can make a hotel guest sick.  

Tell me, do you find it hard to believe any big hotel chain would not be towing the line after our story?

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's just a shame that while people are at their lowest that someone is out there ready to take advantage of them.

Since the foreclosure epidemic in this nation developed, a cottage industry has formed:  foreclosure scam rescue companies.

In the piece we aired tonight a company called Maximus sent out a flier telling desperate homeowners they could "SAVE YOUR HOME."   What they did instead was drop by and take $500 from the homeowner.   Every person who dealt with Maximus says after the company got their money they never heard from them again.

Is your home threatened by foreclosure?  I'd love to hear your story.

 

 

 

 

 

Many of you expressed an interest in Dandy, the dog owned by accused hiker killer Gary Michael Hilton.  As you know, the dog was being held at the DeKalb County shelter as "evidence" for lack of a better word.

Well, today the DeKalb Police say that Dandy is no longer in the county's custody.  

"Last week the dog was turned over to a person approved by the GBI," according to Mekka Parish, a police spokeswoman. 

Now what does that mean?  Not sure.  I have left a message with the GBI, but I probably won't hear anything until Monday.   I'll keep you posted.

 

In a Meredith Emerson blog many of you wanted to talk about the issue of guns in parks.  It seemed more appropriate to move that topic away from those who wanted to pay tribute to the life of  Meredith Emerson.
There were all sorts of opinions.  One writer called a gun the great equalizer while others seemed to believe even if they could take a gun to a public park, they wouldn't.  It's simply not something they are comfortable with. 
Your thoughts?

Many of you have called or written the station about Dandy.   She is Gary Michael Hilton's dog, the man accused of killing hiker Meredith Emerson.    Mr. Hilton it seems was often seen on hiking trails around the state with his dog Dandy.

Since his arrest Dandy has been in the DeKalb County Animal Shelter and will be for a while.  She is considered "evidence" for lack of a better word.  A DeKalb PD spokeswoman tells me that Dandy will eventually be up for adoption, just not yet.

Concerned people and rescue groups have not only called us but also the shelter.

I've asked DeKalb police to let us know when they are ready to find Dandy a wonderful home.   We'll keep you updated.

 

I worked late I am about to head to bed, but I can't stop thinking about the disappearance of Meredith Emerson.    It just makes me sick that a young woman has moved to our area, enjoying our open space and disappears. 
I hike with my dog and now my husband is saying, No more.  Don't go without me. 
Well, that's a heck of a position to be in.  I remember growing up along a major hiking trail and my mother saying, in the 80s, don't go without a friend.  I resented it then and on some level resent it now. 
Why can't a woman feel comfortable hiking in a community that she helped pay to support?
God help her family.  I hope this story turns into one of those great stories of survival.  If not, it is crushing to think that women today are too afraid to enjoy the great outdoors.
Cross your fingers, cross your hearts, whatever it is you do, and hope this turns out well. 
dana 

I had the pleasure this morning of joining the Steve Harvey morning show.   I'm sure most of you have heard of this nationally-syndicated radio show.

The topic:  Dirty Hotel Room Glasses.  Boy does this story have a shelf-life.  Since bringing our investigation to you in November about how major hotel chains fail to properly wash their guest room glasses this story has flown across the Internet.

It was a topic of discussion on a PR Web site where public relations specialists were asked to discuss how they would handle such a crisis at their company.   Interestingly, most said that they would have gone on camera to admit that their company had made a mistake.  Others said they would have gone as far as to invite us into their hotel to watch how they'd made things right.  Ironically, not one hotel chain would go on camera.  In fact, when we went back to The Ritz-Carlton with a health inspector, we were asked to leave.

Over the holidays I went to Virginia.  I walked into a Christmas party and heard a group of people talking about the story.  This series really touched a nerve with viewers. 

I guess we've all stayed in hotels, and some people, like me, never thought to wonder how the hotel where I was paying to stay was washing the glasses in my room.

Keep sending me your thoughts about their stories and your hotel room experiences.

 

 

 

There is no way around it, our dirty hotel story was gross.   Even our public health expert called what we found at the Holiday Inn Downtown, the Alpharetta Embassy Suites and the Sheraton Galleria Suites disgusting and outrageous.   But most importantly, he said what we watched was a clear health code violation.

This is how we found out about the story:  a former employee called me to say that housekeeping doesn't wash the guest room cups or glasses.  Sure enough, armed with hidden cameras we found he was right.  The Embassy Suites housekeeper sprayed a blue liquid labeled "Do Not Drink" into our cups, which she put in our dirty sink.  She rinsed them out then set them back out for the next person.   

A spokeswoman for Embassy Suites wouldn't go on camera but let it slip, "Well they only have X amount of time to clean a room and that's why they do it."   What?!?!?!?!  Is she saying management doesn't allow them time to properly follow county health codes?

At the Holiday Inn housekeeping just splashed some water around the glasses then left them for the next person to use.

But the most disturbing thing we saw was at the Sheraton where our housekeeper, wearing a big glove, cleans the toilet.   Next, she uses that same glove to clean our cups.  But there's more:  she sniffs our dirty wash cloth and uses that to dry our glasses.

What did Sheraton management have to say?   "It's too controversial an issue" to comment.  Hmmm.....   Why is it controversial if it's an isolated incident?  

The question is whether these housekeepers just weren't doing their job or if that's the way they are taught to do it.  Here's what I know:  we randomly picked these hotels and each one of them did nearly the same thing.    We walked the hallways of these hotels to look at the housekeeping carts.  We never saw racks of clean or dirty glasses anywhere.  

If I could have gotten one spokesperson to talk in-depth I would have also asked why they re-use the paper caps on the cups to make the guest think they're freshly cleaned. 

When we checked in to each of these hotels we told the desk that we were one company but two people would be staying - one the first night, a new person the next night.   Not all of the hotels even bothered to change our sheets, if you can believe that.

Are these isolated incidents or is this just the way the major hotel chains do business these days?

What do you think ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ever stayed at the Holiday Inn or Embassy Suites? Sure, a lot of us have. How about the Renaissance or Sheraton? Let's get fancy: ever stayed at The Ritz?

If you haven't lately, the I-Team has done it for you, and we've discovered something dirty - health code violations.

I know, some of you are saying, I saw that story a couple of years ago with the black light on the bedspread. No, that's not what we're talking about here. We find things that a public health expert calls gross, disturbing and disgusting.

Watch my story tonight at six o'clock. If you can't catch that, try at 10. Or, simply check out our Web site and find it there, then write me. Tell me what you think.

I'll also have some extra information - stuff that's not in the story that airs.