WFTV Now
A central Florida driver is stuck with a $12,000 auto repair bill after a bottle of water spilled in the back seat of his SUV. “I was shocked. I was panicked to be honest with you,” said SUV owner Michael McCormick. His Hyundai SUV is just a couple years old, but the carmaker has refused to cover the repairs under warranty. His insurance company has denied coverage as well.
Canned and bottled coffees are a multi-billion dollar a year industry. They are sold at just about every grocery store and convenience store, but Action 9 found the State of Florida has been getting a bigger slice of money from the drinks than it should have, and consumers have been paying the price. Ready-to-drink coffees are more popular than ever, and they’re supposed to be exempt from sales tax if bought from a grocery store or convenience store. The Action 9 team learned many convenience stores have been charging sales tax anyway and it’s likely been happening for decades.
A central Florida woman trying to sell her home, instead had it taken over by a man who she didn’t know and who hasn’t been paying any rent. The man Charlotte Brown describes as a squatter has been in the house more than a year. She hasn’t been able to get him out and the clock is ticking because she could lose the home to foreclosure.
The Action 9 team poured through thousands of inspections to look at restaurants in central Florida with violations so serious they had to close most often over the last few years.
The Action Nine team analyzed two years of data to identify the top restaurant violation offenders in Central Florida.
As people in our community continue to deal with the aftermath of flooding and other storm damage, there could be scammers looking to cash in on this devastation. Even people who didn’t have their homes damaged could be targeted.
Recovery from the storms like we saw in central Florida over the weekend is never easy. When the rain came down Sunday evening, streets flooded, and homes filled with water. It’s a disastrous situation even for those with flood insurance. Orlando insurance agent Tom Cotton with Hugh Cotton Insurance said, “You need to start by asking yourself the question, ‘What if?’”
A bizarre scam involving what could be a fake website is hurting customers and making a central Florida business look bad. At least two people lost more than $20,000 in this scam. It involves a slick-looking website that offers tractor equipment for sale from a company located in Brevard County. The problem is the owner of that company told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal the website isn’t his and he doesn’t even sell tractor equipment.
A local car dealership Action 9 has been reporting on for the past two years is shut down after the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles revoked its dealership license. The Benji Auto Sales locations in Orlando and south Florida are both now closed.
Victoria Sjostedt had serious injuries after getting struck by a car in August. “When the impact first happened, my leg kind of exploded,” Sjostedt told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal. But as she worked to recover, she found herself dealing with a billing nightmare for a wheelchair she claims she turned in months ago. She said, “I don’t know, it’s overwhelming.” When Sjostedt was released from the hospital, she was provided a wheelchair and billed around $50 a month to use it by a company called CareCentrix, but she said after returning it to Orlando Regional Medical Center in December, the bills kept coming.
