HOUSTON – An international company seems to have fallen off the map leaving a local veteran out thousands of dollars.
The walk-in tub he purchased in March has stopped working; and now the company that sold it to him has disappeared.
Leamon Earl Sisco, 89, contacted Local 2 consumer expert Amy Davis for help. Sisco says he saw an ad the Houston Chronicle for Seabridge Bathing. He called the 1-800 number and someone came right out to sell him a tub.
"Eleven thousand dollars for a tub that doesn't work," Sisco told Davis. "The jets don't work and the pump cuts off. I don't think that's right."
Sisco purchased the walk-in tub in March to help his wife's arthritis.
Seabridge Bathing was located in Ontario, California with another location in Vancouver, British Columbia. Sisco says about four months after Seabridge sent a subcontractor to install his tub, the motor that runs the jets started overheating and then half of the tub's 16 jets stopped working.
Sisco's contract with Seabridge shows he has a lifetime warranty on the tub, but when he called the company to get someone out to fix the problem, he got nowhere.
"I would call every day for all week long," Sisco told Davis.
For months, Sisco says the company gave him the run around. Then two weeks ago the people at Seabridge Bathing stopped answering the phone altogether. Every number has been disconnected. The website is no longer active, leaving Sisco stuck with a tub that doesn't do a thing.
"It's criminal to take advantage of people like this," said Sisco.
"Shame on you," said Roger Goertz of Mr. Rooter. "Our industry doesn't need this type of reputation."
Mr. Rooter doesn't do walk-in tubs, but he said they are working to get Sisco a new one that works.
"It's horrible," said Goertz. "I mean you don't need to treat people this way and take advantage of them."
The landlord of the office park where Seabridge Bathing was located in Ontario, California told Davis the company moved out two weeks ago and left no forwarding address.
Seabridge ran ads in the Houston Chronicle twice in the last three years.
If you're having trouble with the company, contact consumer expert Amy Davis .