Jan 17, 2008 7:33 pm US/Pacific
Call Kurtis: Hearing Aids
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
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Call Kurtis, CBS 13, KOVR, Kurtis Ming
A Sacramento man paid for hearing aids he didn't get and now the salesman has disappeared. James Barnwell is back to using his 10-year old hearing aids.
"It's getting harder and harder to hear where the sounds coming from."
That's why last February he went to River City hearing center in Fair Oaks. Purchase agreement, he paid $3,800 and in about a month got his hearing aids. But, he says they weren't what he'd ordered.
"So I gave him back those, which I did it without getting any kind of receipt."
River City owner, Steven Buonacore gave him a loaner pair until his arrived. A month went by. He called and he visited the store.
But, that store had closed. It took another 7 months of repeated tries for James to finally get a hold of someone at River City.
That was December, and they told him they'd call him, but they didn't.
When the Call Kurtis team met with James, he called the main office on El Camino for a status check. The number was no longer in service. The message to him was loud and clear.
"You know you're talking about $3,800. That's almost $4,000. Well now it's going to cost me $8,000 to get hearing aids.
River City 's owner, Steve Buonacore, is no stranger to us. We've done three stories on him in 2007, twice for Jerry Tufteland and once for william faulkner.
Buonacore gave Mr. Faulkner a refund, but not Mr. Tufteland, he's now suing Buonacore. Court documents show that numerous others are too, for breech of contract, breech of warranty, and fraud. Now that river city is defunct, Amplex hearing aid center in Sacramento says Buonacore gave them more than 800 patient files, but also says another 12-hundred could be missing.
Amplex has James' file, but not his aids. He's still stuck with an inferior set, which don't improve his hearing. It is likely James Barnwell will have to take Steve Buonacore to court to get his money back. We tried contacting Buonacore for comment, but he couldn't be reached.
He's slated to face one of his victims in front of a judge at the end of this month. Amplex hearing center says it has numerous hearing aids, but no way to contact their owners. If you're missing an order from River City, call Amplex. They may have yours.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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