Warning! Please Read!

I received this article from an industry newspaper..thought I would share with our valued customers. This is one of the reason we are family owned and operated. Will (my husband) and Robert (my brother) are the only people I will send to your home. Both are honest and ethical. When we decide to hire employees it will be done with your security and safety in mind. Nationwide (not just local) background checks by fingerprinting, as well as drug testing will have to be completed before they can become a Platinum Carpet Systems employee..no exceptions! Until then, you will see a face you can trust!

Cleaner charged with ID theft	<< BACK
Wednesday, October 03, 2007


MANATEE, FL — A cleaner employed as a contractor for a major carpet cleaning company has been charged with stealing customer identification information from their homes according to the Bradenton Herald. Angel DeSouse used the names, birthdates and Social Security numbers of at least three customers to open fraudulent credit card accounts in his wife's name, the story stated. One of the customers told the Herald: "We trust these companies to do everything to make sure the people they are hiring are not thieves. We thought they worked for the company and found out they are really just contractors". Another One...not in Atlanta, but still not good for the industry.

Carpet cleaner has dirty past

A Valley family says they paid to get their carpet cleaned, but when they found out who was doing the cleaning they were shocked.

A lot of folks feel more comfortable if they do business with a big-name company.

In this particular case, the big name I'm talking about is Sears. I mean who hasn't heard of Sears?

And that's exactly why Eric Hepner hired Sears to clean his carpet.

"It makes me very angry, all we wanted were our carpets clean," Hepner said.

Hepner says his family got a lot more than they bargained for when they hired Sears carpet cleaning to come and service his home.

"We went with Sears because of the name and it's a good product," he said.

But what started out to be a routine cleaning and upholstery treatment for around $600 turned into much more when one of the technicians allegedly stole some checks from Hepner's house.

"It was a technician who was here scheduled that day, Christopher Smallwood," Hepner said. "He made the checks out to himself."

Surveillance pictures obtained by 3 On Your Side show Smallwood at the bank, cashing those stolen checks he reportedly made out to himself.

According to a Gilbert police report, Smallwood admitted to his boss that he stole the checks.

But there's more. It turns out that Smallwood has a past.

He was actually in prison where he served 15 years for second-degree murder and burglary and was just recently released.

Hepner is angry and wants to know why a company as big as Sears is hiring convicted felons like Smallwood and letting them into people's homes.

"You'd think that Sears would have some protocol procedure in place to prevent this maybe from happening or maybe second thoughts hiring an individual like this," Hepner said.

3 On Your Side has learned that Sears sells its carpet-cleaning business as a franchise and franchises are responsible for running background checks on their employees.

3 On Your Side asked the Sears franchise that Hepner hired if they knew about Smallwood's past, but they wanted nothing to do with us.

3 On Your Side pressed for answers, but all we got from an employee was a telephone number to Sears' corporate headquarters.

We contacted Sears corporate and in turn, they wrote 3 On Your Side a statement saying, "Safety is a priority for Sears and we are currently investigating the incident."

Additionally, they say, "Under our franchise agreements, the franchise is required to conduct a background check for each employee."

If that's true, then how was Smallwood hired.

For Hepner and his family, their bank reimbursed them for the forged checks, but he is still upset that Sears put his family in this situataion.

"Just step up," Hepner said. "Have some accountability here and say, 'Yeah we messed up.'"

Police don't know where Smallwood is, but they'd like to talk to him.

And as for Sears corporate, they reiterated to 3 On Your Side that they are very troubled by what happened.

http://www.azfamily.com/news/3oys/stories/KTVK3OYS20070829_sears-carpet-cleaning.81cda641.html

Statement from Sears

Safety is a priority for Sears and we are currently investigating the incident. We have been in communications with the family and we want them to know we're very troubled that this happened.

Under our franchise agreements, the franchise is required to conduct a background check for each employee and to renew that background check every two years.

Kimberly Freely
Manager, Corporate Public Relations
Sears Holdings Corporation