Carpet chain closes down
Prizant's Carpet, known for frequent print and TV advertising in Western Pennsylvania, apparently has shut down all 10 of its locations, including the remaining five that closed without warning late last week.
Calls to the company's Penn Hills headquarters Monday weren't returned, and phones at most stores weren't answered.
Brian Paul, ex-manager of the Pleasant Hills store, said company representatives told him at 4 p.m. Thursday to close immediately, and that the remaining Prizant's sites were ceasing business.
"It totally caught us by surprise," Paul, reached at home, said yesterday.
Stores in Butler, Cranberry, Lower Burrell, Penn Hills and Peters closed 2 1/2 weeks ago, he said, but, "We were under the assumption that they were going to try to run with five stores and cut costs," possibly with smaller spaces.
Rob Lang and Mark Scioscia bought the chain in mid-2006, saying they wanted to expand products and services. Remodeling of all 10 stores was completed in March. Lang was CEO of the chain.
Paul said Thursday's scheduled installations were completed, but he doesn't know how the company is handling other customers' orders. His former store off Route 51 had a handwritten "Store closed" sign in the window yesterday with no further information.
Prizant's Web site had no mention of store closings.
Penny Shacreaw of Blairsville said she was told her custom order placed Nov. 11 at the Greensburg location had to be prepaid in full. She gave Prizant's a check for $3,600 and was promised the carpets for her family room, three bedrooms, an upstairs hall and staircase would be installed in three weeks.
Shacreaw's check was cashed, but four weeks went by. She said she called the store and the Prizant's headquarters several times, but she doesn't have her carpet or a refund.
About a week ago, Shacreaw said, a company representative asked her to give Prizant's seven days to return her money.
"I am afraid they are going to disappear and my money is going to go down the tubes," she said. "I gave them all my money. I can't afford to buy anything else."
Shacreaw tore up her old carpet, thinking that would make the installation easier.
The Better Business Bureau's Western Pennsylvania office was closed yesterday, but its Web site noted that Prizant's, which dates to 1965, had an unsatisfactory record due to two or more unresolved complaints and an unanswered one. The BBB said it processed 51 complaints against the business in the last 36 months.
Representatives of the state Attorney General's Office, which investigates consumer complaints, couldn't be reached for comment.
In addition to the Pleasant Hills location and the five that Paul said closed earlier, four other stores are listed on the Prizant's Web site: in Beaver, Greensburg, McCandless and Robinson. A man who answered the phone at the Cranberry site said that store was closed.
