140,000 Texans reported consumer complaints to the state since 2017.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) – As COVID-19 fatalities peaked statewide in January 2021, Cheryl Tarver visited three stores in Houston hoping to buy disinfectant spray. But, she said, everywhere she went, the shelves were empty. “It was kind of hard to find Lysol, hand sanitizer, anything to help with the COVID,” Tarver said. At a fourth store, Tarver said a sign showed a bottle of Lysol cost $3, but the shelves there were empty, too. “I asked the cashier do they have any Lysol. And she was like, ‘Yeah, we have some back here,’” Tarver recalled. “When she rang it up, it was like $6.75. I was like, ‘Woah … what’s going on.’ I said, ‘You know what? Don’t worry about it. I’m going to call some people on y’all.’” On Jan. 6, 2021, Tarver filed a complaint with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Consumer Protection Division, which warned of price gouging when the pandemic first began. She said she never heard back. “It’s just not right,” Tarver said. 13 Investigates often refers viewers with consumer concerns to the AG’s office. We wanted to know what happened with those complaints and asked to talk to someone in that division. But, our repeated requests for an interview since January went ignored by the state agency so we sent open records requests for that information instead. Our investigation found consumer complaints are up 26% over the last five years, but most people don’t get any help resolving their issue. More than 150,000 consumers filed complaints with Paxton’s office in the last five years. Complaints included price gouging, seeking refunds for faulty merchandise and companies not providing the services consumers said they paid for. We talked with 45 of those consumers in Houston who filed complaints with the AG’s office and found they rarely resulted in direct aid for their problem. The AG’s office doesn’t know how many people it’s helped, either. “(We do) not have a report that tracks the total number of complaints that were opened for investigation or resolution, and the number of complaints that are still open and closed and if any settlements were reached and the amount recovered,” said the AG’s open records division.

The AG’s office claims “some of our most notable work on behalf of consumers” – like $1.7 billion in settlements with opioid manufacturers – “cannot be directly tied to consumer complaints.” The best information 13 Investigates received regarding resolutions to individual consumer complaints is that there were 90 cases since 2019 that resulted in some sort of agreed judgment or settlement. In that same time, the Attorney General’s records show more than 100,000 individual complaints. Individual consumers, like Tarver, say getting that direct help is what matters and it’s just not happening enough. “They’re just going to give you the runaround,” she said. “They’re not going to call you back. They’re not going to help.”

AG’s office ‘does not represent individual consumers’

For months, Attorney General Paxton’s office ignored 13 Investigates calls and emails asking to speak with someone about how the Consumer Protection Division responds to individual complaints. Paxton is currently up for re-election. He didn’t receive enough votes in the March primary to win the Republican nomination and will face George P. Bush in a May 24 runoff. 13 Investigates first called the AG’s office on Jan. 4, and we followed-up five more times over the next month. In response to a request for an interview with the Consumer Protection Division, the AG’s office finally responded on April 7, saying, “We do not have attorneys available for an interview.” When reached out again, the AG’s communications department said, “an attorney from that division is not available for (an) interview.” An open records request for the calendar of the Consumer Protection Division’s chief and deputies revealed there were plenty of unscheduled hours on each of their calendars.

Still, the AG’s office never let us talk to someone for an on-the-record interview. Instead, in an email three and a half months after our initial request, the communications team told us it serves as a “repository and clearinghouse” for consumers who allege “false, deceptive and misleading conduct by businesses.” “The Consumer Protection Division does not represent individual consumers in personal civil matters but takes action on behalf of the collective legal interests of the people of the state. We rely on consumers providing information in complaints to help us enforce the Deceptive Trade Practices Act and other consumer protection laws,” the AG’s office said in a statement. The AG’s office said although there’s no comprehensive tracking linking complaints to resolutions – or even how many consumer complaints were opened for investigation – it does enter each complaint into a system to categorize them. Our investigation found a majority of people who submit complaints just receive an “acknowledgement letter,” thanking them for reporting the possible violation and letting them know the state agency can’t take direct action on every complaint. In the last five years, the top consumer complaints submitted were related to landlord/tenants, used auto sales, internet sales, grocery and convenience stores and debt collection companies, according to data from the state. This year is on pace to be the third year in a row where there’s more than 30,000 complaints. “Though the Division obviously does not interview 30,000 consumers a year, consumers are frequently contacted in the course of our investigations and enforcement actions. Those contacts are not usually recorded in our complaint database,” according to a statement from the AG’s office.

Still, 13 Investigates wanted to know more about what kind of response residents get, so we requested a list of everyone who filed a complaint in the last two years. We reached out to more than 100 Houston residents who filed consumer complaints with the AG’s office in January 2021. Nearly half of the consumers we called spoke with us and almost all of them said they never received a call or help from the AG’s office. Just two of the 45 residents we talked to us said the AG’s office helped them. Two more said they were referred to other state agencies and 41 people, including Tarver, said they received no help at all. “Never heard back from them,” Tarver. “Never got the issue resolved.”

‘Not legal aid’

Even if there were 500 people in the Consumer Protection Division, there would still be work to do because the volume of complaints is so high, according to a former AG staffer. In the past, the division used to mediate complaints between consumers and businesses, but that practice shifted due to the increase. Now, the AG’s office says it uses consumer complaints to monitor trends. One reason the division doesn’t respond to every complaint is because a consumer might alert them about something that’s a bad business practice, but not necessarily illegal or a violation of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. “It’s not legal aid where you’re getting direct representation,” said Paul Singer, former chief of the AG’s Consumer Protection Division. “It’s a state agency that is operating and represents the State of Texas and operates in the public interest very broadly.” Singer spent more than 20 years at the AG’s office before leaving last fall to work as an attorney defending companies on the other side of state investigations into consumer practices. He said he was proud of the work the Consumer Protection Division did during his time there and called it one of the best attorney general’s offices in the U.S.

Despite the increase in complaints, the Consumer Protection Division’s staff was at its lowest in 2021 with just 60 employees. This year, the division is up to 65 employees. “It’s not unusual to hear that a consumer might feel like their complaint wasn’t adequately addressed,” Singer said. “The office doesn’t represent those individual consumers. (It) uses that information to track trends and set priorities, but at the end of the day, there’s just not enough manpower. There’s not enough manpower in the world to deal with all of the various consumer issues that come up.” He said when he was there, the division worked as a team to prioritize which cases they thought were important and impacted the most Texans.

There’s always more work to be done than anyone can possibly do.

Paul Singer, former chief of AG’s Consumer Protection Division

“There’s always more work to be done than anyone can possibly do,” Singer said. “That was always the feeling in the division and so you really had to focus and prioritize on what are the key cases or key areas that are impacting the community and things that you want to bring.” He said there are times when the Consumer Protection Division will reach out to consumers about individual complaints or send a notice to the business to help facilitate a resolution, but responding to individual complaints is not the team’s main focus. “There’s a really important, fine line that has to be drawn because the lawyers in that division cannot individually represent those consumers as their attorney because those are the state’s attorneys,” Singer said. The state says the Consumer Protection Division is set up to identify trends that will help them decide which companies or industries to pursue legal action against. “The complaints provide us a window into the marketplace to understand what matters should be prioritized in investigation and enforcement decisions,” the AG’s office said in a statement. “In matters of statewide significance, or when substantive evidence indicates that a person or business is engaging in widespread violations of Texas law, the Attorney General may take action on behalf of the collective legal interests of the people of this state.”

Correcting misconceptions

Although Attorney General Paxton regularly solicits complaints from the public following disasters like Hurricane Harvey, COVID-19 and last year’s deadly February freeze, our investigation also found there’s a disconnect between the public’s perception of how the Consumer Protection Office can help them versus what the division actually does. “There’s nothing that says you must pursue X number of consumer protection cases,” Singer said. “It’s a role that the legislature has given to the Attorney General and there’s no defined set of resources for what that means in the law.” One example of when the public might misunderstand the work the AG’s office does involves price gouging. Singer said price gouging laws are nuanced and even though a company may be charging more for an item, it’s not considered gouging unless the company is charging an “excessive or exorbitant” amount during a declared disaster. In the last five years, the AG’s office said it has ordered $60.4 million in judgments and settlements, but did not provide information on whether or not any of those were the result of individual claims, or even a breakdown of the industries involved.

What the AG’s Office can do

• Receive consumer complaints and review them to identify illegal activity • File civil lawsuits acting in the public’s interest • Educate Texans on the latest scams, and how to avoid them

What the AG’s Office can’t do

• Serve as your lawyer • File lawsuits on your behalf or on behalf of individual consumers • Bring criminal charges for deceptive practices • Provide legal counsel or interpretations of the law to individuals • Routinely resolve individual complaints

Source: Texas Attorney General’s Office

“We do not have data in our complaint system tying complaints to the investigations or enforcement actions that followed,” the AG’s office said in a statement. “Since a higher volume of complaints about one business entity is more likely to result in the Division bringing an action, most of our lawsuits, judgements and settlements represent a matter affecting a large number of consumers.” The agency pointed to a $1.7 billion settlement related to the opioids crisis which will benefit “all of Texas’ 29 million consumers” by allowing local governments to receive funds for “treatment facilities, law enforcement and education relating to opioid abuse and other abatement efforts.” Singer said he helped lead the opioids lawsuit when he worked for the state. “Issues that consumers face, that they file complaints on and enforcement efforts and priorities that the division does – the two don’t always overlap and there really is not always a direct correlation,” Singer said. “Opioids never had anything to do with consumer complaints. It was work being done because there’s a public health crisis and the AG can make a difference and help with that.”

Read the Texas AG office’s full response to our questions and tips for submitting a complaint

Singer said ultimately, if a person feels like they’ve been wronged by a business, they should hire their own attorney but still report it to the AG’s office, Better Business Bureau and their local officials. For Tarver, she said her $6.75 price gouging claim wasn’t worth hiring an attorney. And now, knowing what happens with consumer complaints, she doesn’t think she’ll ever file one with the state again. “(I hoped) that maybe I could have got some kind of assistance or they could have got in trouble with them and said, ‘Hey, you know, everybody’s in need of help right now, so why are you raising your prices right now,’” Tarver said. “It’s a waste of time to have a form (on the AG’s site) to say that they’re going to help, but they don’t.”