>Thursday, September 3, 2009
Last updated: Thursday September 3, 2009, 11:39 AM
BY KEVIN DEMARRAIS
The Record
STAFF WRITER
A Lodi-based auto repair chain has been sued by state regulators, charged with allegedly billing customers for work that was not done, including wheel alignments and other jobs for which some of the chain’s 13 shops didn’t even have the necessary equipment.
In a five-count complaint filed today in Superior Court in Elizabeth, Brake-O-Rama was also cited for allegedly offering coolant flushes, power-steering purges, or power steering flushes when some stores lacked the necessary equipment.
In addition, Brake-O-Rama shops in Lodi, Ridgewood and other locations were allegedly advertising and selling motor vehicle inspection services when its stores were not licensed to do so. Instead, Brake-O-Rama took the vehicles to state inspection sites, where inspections are free, even as it charged customers for the service, the state says in its court filing.
The lawsuit, brought under the Consumer Fraud Act by the Office of the Attorney General, follows an undercover investigation in June by inspectors from the Division of Consumer Affairs at the chain’s repair shops in Jersey City, Brick, Linden, West New York and Elizabeth.
Superior Court Judge John F. Malone granted the state’s request for temporary restraining order – which Brake-O-Rama did not object to – that bars the chain from advertising and selling services it can’t provide, including state inspections, and from destroying, concealing or altering any books or records related to its repair services.