Call Kurtis

Call Kurtis: Sacramento Video Service

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― A TV repair business, very familiar to Call Kurtis, has landed in court. 

A Granite Bay consumer took his fight with the service to the judge.
 
Call Kurtis has confronted the owner of Fair Oaks Video, now known as Sacramento Video Service, several times.
 
Each time, consumers complained the TV repair business took their TV and their money but wouldn't return the TV.
 
This time however, the owner is answering to a judge.

Benjamin Russu arrived at the courthouse ready for a fight.

Consumer reporter Kurtis Ming caught up with him in the parking lot and asked him "…you think you have a good case today?"
 
"Of course" replied Russu while helping carry a large wooden box with handles and full of wires, circuit boards and other assembled electronic parts.

"What's your defense?," asked Ming. "I got nothing to lose. Here's the TV that works," replied Russu. 

That box is the inner-workings of Brock Hinton's old projection TV.

It's been at Russu's TV repair shop, Sacramento Video Service, since December of 2006, and it's still broken.

Brock believes the 600 bucks he paid him should cover all repairs.
In April, we went to his shop looking for answers.

"Please guys leave," Russu tells us while motioning toward the door.

"You never listened to my story when you came into my shop," argues Russu, still lugging that big box toward the courthouse.
"You kicked me out," says Ming.

The exchange continues "You never listened to me. I did. You should have asked my side first. We did, you told us to leave. No…"

Russu drags his defense to the revolving doors of Sacramento small claims court; it's a bit too big and they get it stuck.

Hinton's now suing Russu, hoping to get his TV and his money back.

"...on February 25th I called channel 13 to see if they could get some help..." Hinton tells the judge.

Russu tells the judge he fixed the first problem, but there's another one.

"I told Mr. Hinton that I would give it a shot. And I never charged him anything for the second repair which is totally different."

During our last confrontation with Russu, Ming tells him "you've had his stuff for a year and a half, c'mon."

We've confronted Russu three times for consumers who couldn't get their TV's back from him.

Russu claimed he couldn't get parts to make repairs.

We got two consumers' TV's back; one was fixed.

But this time, Russu claims he's in the right. And he told the judge that, with the TV's guts sitting lifeless on the courtroom floor.

Brock hasn't seen it for more than a year and a half.

He admitted to the judge "it took me a while, yes. It took me a few months. I talked to him every 2-3 weeks."

Hinton's reply to that -- "yeah, bunch of bull."

Kurtis: "…you've had it for two years."
Russu: "I told him in October to come get it."
Hinton: "He never told me that."
Russu: "TV worked fine for about 5 months."
Hinton: "Yeah, that's a flat out lie. I called him numerous times trying to get (him to come back and get) the TV..."
Kurtis: "(Russu) Have you learned anything out of this case? Well, yeah. Don't mess with the old TV's don't even work on it."

Russu returned Hinton's TV, broken, and apparently in need of a part that's not available.

"So what are you gonna do now? You got a cabinet and a broken TV? Have a ceremonial burning and go buy and go TV shopping," Hinton replies with laugh.

Hinton and Russu will have to wait up to ten days for the judge's ruling.

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