Dozens of people say a businessman took thousands of dollars from people seeking medical equipment like stairlifts and wheelchair ramps but never delivered them.
NBC4 Responds first reported on Access Mobility in 2017. Customers reporting missed deadlines got their money back, but complaints against owner Jim Clore have continued.
Kathy Symborski said she hired Clore to install a ramp for her 97-year-old father.
“He asked for $2,500 upfront,” she said.
She said after she paid him in April, she never saw him again.
“He reassured me he would be out the next week,” she said. “Well he never came.”
And he never refunded her money. Her father died five months later.
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Suk Gill said she and her husband paid $8,000 for a stairlift from Access Mobility. She said Clore promised it would be installed Sept. 6 or 7 but sent text messages with excuses instead.
She had to carry her husband up and down the stairs for weeks until he died a month later.
Bayne Rector paid Clore $4,400 for a stairlift in September. He did get a refund, but his emails with Clore revealed a different company name 2911 Mobility.
That business was created in July, and Access Mobility closed.
News4 scoured through court records in Virginia and discovered 48 civil cases filed against Clore — some dating back 10 years.
Many of those cases were dismissed — some because Clore eventually paid the debt, others because he didn't have the money to pay and a few where he couldn't be found to be served.
“How many people have gone to court and just because he can't be served papers they just blow it off?” said Molly Harned, who said she’s owed $7,625 for a walk-in tub.
The attorney general's office’s Consumer Protection Division has received 11 complaints against Access Mobility. Clore worked with them to resolve seven of those cases. One was unresolved, and three are still open.
A warning on the Better Business Bureau's website alerts consumers to a "pattern of serious complaints" against Access Mobility.
“We're trying to tell the consumer here, 'Hey, we've received 30 complaints against this company, all very similar in nature, all very serious,'” said Kelsey Coleman of BBB.
BBB said they reached out to Clore before issuing the alert, hoping to resolve the issues.
“To this day, he has stopped communicating,” Coleman said.
Clore’s now facing four felony charges in Stafford County, accused of taking money under false pretenses and failing to deliver products. He's due in court next month.
Clore said he is filing Chapter 13 bankruptcy and plans to refund all of his customers.
“We just want it stopped,” Harned said. “I don't expect to get a dime back.”
It appears that Clore's 2911 Mobility website has been taken down.
Virginia state officials confirmed Clore does not have a contractor's license as required by law.
The attorney general's office would not comment on whether it is investigating further.
