FOREST PARK, Ohio — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is suing Weapon X Motorsports Inc. and its owner, Benjamin Herndon, for taking payments for orders the business neither filled nor refunded.
Yost said the business and its owner failed to fulfill orders for nine customers who reported losses totaling $12,845.71.
According to the lawsuit, Weapon X Motorsports has been registered in Ohio as a business since August 2020; though the business has a facility on Schappelle Lane in Forest Park, that building is not open to the public, the lawsuit says. Instead, the business sells after-market vehicle parts and accessories to consumers through its website.
"Often, defendants accepted money from consumers for parts and accessories and then allowed more than eight weeks to elapse without providing the items consumers ordered," says the lawsuit. "When defendants failed to deliver the items, they did not refund consumers ... they did not offer to furnish similar goods of equal or greater value."
When customers contacted Herndon or the business, they were repeatedly promised the delivery of the items, but with a pushed back arrival date, the lawsuit says.
The defendants knew those items would not be imminently delivered, the lawsuit says.
"In some instances, consumers waited over a year for delivery and still never received the ordered item," reads the lawsuit. "When consumers requested to cancel their order, after months of delay, they were told that their order was non-refundable."
In addition, the lawsuit claims Herndon took money from buyers for parts and accessories, then delivered the incorrect product, or a damaged item instead. When consumers complained, the business failed to offer a refund or provide a replacement item of equal or greater value, the lawsuit says.
The business's cancellation and refund policies were "substantially one-sided" in favor of Herndon and the company as well, the lawsuit claims.
"For example, consumers were permitted one business day from purchase to contact defendants to cancel their order or potentially not be able to cancel or receive a refund," reads the lawsuit.
On top of that, the cancellation policy also reserved the right to charge consumers up to a 25% cancellation and restocking fee for non-custom-manufactured items and up to a 50% cancellation and restocking fee on custom-manufactured items. Unless an item was returned unopened in the original packaging, the policy could also incur buyers up to a 20% restocking fee, the lawsuit says.
"Customers were subject to the above cancellation policy even if the reason for cancellation was that defendants had not delivered the product in a reasonable time frame," the lawsuit says.
Yost's lawsuit is seeking Herndon and Weapon X Motorsports Inc. pay up to $25,000 in civil penalties. The lawsuit also requests all customers "damaged by defendants' unlawful actions" be reimbursed by Herndon and the business.
