ProCycle to pay $200,000 for bait-and-switch scheme

Attorney General Jay Nixon sued the owners of the dealerships in January, alleging that they misled customers by failing to disclose certain fees and charging 3 percent for the use of a credit card.

The lawsuits, filed in January in Greene County and Boone County circuit courts, alleged that in some cases the dealerships promised one price for merchandise while charging another.

The terms of settlements reached with the AG’s office call for $114,000 in payments to the AG’s office for the benefit of 364 consumers and $84,000 to the state.

The ProCycle dealerships in Springfield are operated by Ozark Cycles Inc., and the Columbia ProCycle dealership is operated by Shernaman Enterprises Inc., according to a release from Nixon’s office. Both corporations have the same ownership.

“Many consumers are price-conscious and will shop with merchants if they believe they are getting good deals on the prices,” Nixon said in the release. “That becomes a problem if the advertised price and the bottom-line price end up being greatly disparate.”

Consumers who are entitled to settlement payments will be contacted by Nixon’s office in the next few months.