BY TERENCE M. CULLEN
Brian Love said that when he found the flyer on his door, he knew right away it was odd and threw it away.
The South Ozone Park resident of 40 years said that advertisements like that of K Quality Corp. are frequent in the neighborhood.
The Bronx-based company, say locals, has been passing out flyers in the last few weeks that consumers and advocates say are not what they seem. The flyers advise residents that this is their second notice that the company is “holding an item of merchandise for you” and provides a four-digit reference number. Homeowners are advised to “call for delivery information” as “the merchandise is already pre-paid however, all merchandise must be claimed by the Special Notice Date.”
When one calls, however, it is actually a sales pitch for carpet cleaning services. The caller is offered either a free bottle of cleaning solution or one free carpet cleaning visit.
In exchange, the customer must refer others to the company’s services.
Claire Rosenzweig, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau New York, said consumers should be careful with these sorts of pitches. With carpet cleaning services especially, she said, a homeowner should be the one seeking out the service, and not the other way.
“When you’re hiring somebody to come into your home and clean your carpet,” she said, “you should be the initiator.”
The company currently has an “F” grade on the bureau’s web site, with three complaints. Two complaints are filed under “Problems with Product/Service;” the third is filed under “Advertising/Sales Issues.”
The “F” grade was mainly due to the three claims going unanswered by the company, the bureau said.
The company has also received several poor reviews online over the last four years. A review page for K Quality Corp. on citysearch.com lists several reviews where users accused – sometimes with violent language – the company of being fake or trying to scam users.
A representative from K Quality Corp. who answered the phone number provided on the ticket said there was no one at the company who would want to comment on the complaints.
