State complaint puzzles former business owner

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — The operator of the former deck construction company Deck Creations says she doesn’t understand why the Ohio attorney general’s office filed a complaint in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court against her company.

Susan Hixson said Deck Creations, formerly of 1530 Ohltown McDonald Road in Mineral Ridge, has repaid the money to three of the four customers who filed complaints with the attorney general’s office and has made arrangements to repay the money to the fourth within a couple of weeks.

“I don’t know where he is coming up with this,” Hixson said of Attorney General Richard Cordray.

Cordray filed suit Monday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court seeking an injunction, penalties and a declaratory judgment for what he said were violations of Ohio’s consumer-protection laws.

The suit said Deck Creations “performed shoddy work” in building decks and other home-improvement projects. The company also failed to maintain its registration with the Ohio secretary of state, the suit said.

Hixson and her father, Ray Potter of Warren, who worked for the company, said Deck Creations closed about two years ago after being in business around 20 years.

Both say they know that there were customers who were unhappy because their decks were either started or completed late, but the most serious complaint appears to have been brought by a Calcutta man who gave every impression that he was happy with the work but wouldn’t pay for it at the end.

“They talk about shoddy work,” Potter said of the attorney general’s legal action, “but shoddy work had nothing to do with it.”

Hixson said the Calcutta man and his wife “loved the job but wouldn’t pay.”

In the case of customers who paid $766 in May 2007 and $1,700 in August 2008 whose names were mentioned in the complaint, they were paid back an agreed-upon amount of money, Hixson and Potter said.

Both say the complaints against Deck Creation had more to do with a vinyl-deck supplier than anything Deck Creations did.

The suit seeks a permanent injunction stopping the company from violating Ohio’s consumer protection laws. It seeks $25,000 per violation and reimbursement by the company to any customers owed money.

runyan@vindy.com