DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — The owner of Stanley Steemer in Delray Beach is warning South Floridians about a group of people who have allegedly been claiming to be with his company, taking money from people and performing shoddy work.
"They're committing fraud," Tom Scalera, owner of Stanley Steemer in Delray Beach, told WPTV.
Scalera told WPTV here lately, he's been putting out fires.
"I got a text from a person on LinkedIn," Scalera said. "She was very upset that someone came to her parent's house from our company and cost her $1,100 and the whole floor is wet. The furniture looks like it's being ruined."
Scalera said after speaking with her further, he realized someone had been falsely claiming to be with his company.
"That's not Stanley Steemer," he said.
The impersonator allegedly shows up in an unmarked, white van and carries out shoddy jobs, taking thousands of dollars from people.
"It was someone advertising underneath us on the Google page and that person answered the phone, 'Hi,' and when they said, 'Are you Stanley Steemer?' He said, 'Yes,'" Scalera said. "After that first incident, I asked one of the customer service representatives here, 'Has anyone gotten any calls?' And ironically one of them said, 'Yeah, we just got one yesterday from another person.'"
WPTV spoke with one of the victims over the phone on Wednesday. She wanted to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation for speaking up.
"The guy told me he was Stanley Steemer and he could come over that morning," the woman said. "When he came to the back gate, to let him in, he told the guard there that he was Stanley Steemer and he came in and we said, 'You're (Stanley Steemer)?' (He said), 'Oh yeah, we're Stanley Steemer.' He said, 'We're hired by them because they can't afford to have that many trucks out.'"
Scalera told WPTV that none of that is true. Stanley Steemer does not hire any subcontractors. All of their crews are Stanley Steemer employees and they show up to their jobs in uniform, wearing shirts with the Stanley Steemer logo on them.
"When someone uses our name to do illegitimate work in our name, it damages our reputation," Scalera said. "But, worse than that, it hurts our people (who) believe that they're using Stanley Steemer."
Scalera's company redid the alleged shoddy jobs for the victims for free and he reported all of this to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office last week.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office told WPTV that a fraud investigation is underway.
"We're hoping that they can be brought to justice," Scalera said.
Scalera wants the public to know his team's trucks are yellow and say 'Stanley Steemer' on them. He also said his crews always work in teams of two in their official Stanley Steemer uniforms.
If you think you've hired Stanley Steemer and someone else shows up, Scalera said to call 800-STEEMER and you will be connected with the local office.