Thornton Rental Agency Under Scrutiny

A Thornton rental agent is under state investigation for not delivering on what he supposedly promised. Mark Saxenmeyer has the special report.

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Meet Dave Norman on his way to this home rental agency he runs in the village of Thornton. Not the fanciest work attire, not the fanciest office, yet Dave has still managed to attract clients...like Ericca Bradford and Raneisha Smith.

Both young women say they were led to Chicagosrentalguide.Com while looking at housing ads on Craig's List. They say almost every listing that interested them had the same phone number linking directly back to the site.

So they called it and talked to Dave. Ericca says: "He promises you, you know, 'We have all these rental companies that you can, that we work with...and I guarantee...your money back if you don't find any properties with us.'"

Raneisha adds: "Just enough to hook you to get you to come down. So it was more of 'We do have lot of listings, we update them daily'."

"So I went to the office," Errica says, "...and made a payment in cash to him." Raneisha says: "It was $89." And that's when Dave's great service, they say, ended.

"They were old properties," says Raneisha. "Like you would go research when they were posted and they'd be like 2008, 2007."

And while the women say each property ad on chicagosrentalguide supposedly listed the actual phone numbers of the property owners or landlords, Raneisha says: "I've never spoken with anyone, no one has ever picked up the phone."

Ericca says she did get through a couple times, but then when she mentioned that she was responding to an ad listed on chicagosrentalguide, Ericca says "They were like 'No, we don't have any affiliation. I've never heard of them'."

Both women complained to Dave. "He just tried to, you know, redirect the conversation or you know talk over me," says Errica."

Raneisha was more blunt. "It was all a hoax."

Steve Bernas of the Better Business Bureau says he's been receiving complaints about Chicagosrentalguide since last October. He says: "If you don't take care of your complaints or don't eliminate the pattern of complaints, you will get an "F" rating which is our lowest rating." And that's exactly what Chicagosrentalguide now has.

Bernas says: "Basically the pattern is that consumers are paying this $89 fee and not able to access the data that is allegedly on their website."

Thornton police detective Charles Szabo adds: "And if they are able to access the website, the information that's provided...is not what was...agreed upon in the contract." Thornton police have been fielding complaints as well, even intervening in angry disputes at the office when Dave Norman has refused to refund any money to his clients.

Back to Ericca. "He said within 14 days I would get my money refunded. And that never happened."

Detective Szabo admits: "It's frustrating." Police say there just isn't enough evidence at this point to bring criminal charges. Instead, they've turned the matter over to the State Attorney General's office.

The AG's Consumer Fraud Division confirms to Fox Chicago that it is investigating Chicagosrentalguide. In fact, it tell us this is the second time this year that a Chicago-area rental listing service has faced these kinds of deceptive business practice charges.

In late May, the Attorney General filed a civil consumer fraud lawsuit against "Chicagoland Publishing", a company that, according to the AG, has operated in almost exactly the same way as Chicagosrentalguide. The AG is now trying to determine if there's a direct link between the two agencies.

An employee at Chicagorentalguide admits: "They weren't treating their clients the way they should have been. They weren't updating the data base there were a lot of problems."

But that's all in the past, according to the worker who identified herself as "Miss Sanders." Before Dave Norman arrived at the office, she explained the company has new owners, a new license and a new name. She said the business is now called New Chicago Rental.

We couldn't find anything on line by that name but the same chicagosrentalguide.com website now comes up simply by typing "dot.Biz" at the end instead.

Miss Sanders told our reporter Mark Saxenmeyer: "It's not going to rip you off." She told Mark all he had to do was come to the office and sign up. And Mark said he was ready to do so. But he never got that chance. When Dave Norman arrived, he wouldn't take Mark's $89, refused to take him on as a client, and wouldn't talk to us on camera.

Steve Bernas says Dave Norman insists that the company's problems stem from previous management. Yet both the BBB and Thornton police say a large percentage of consumers who've complained specifically complain about Dave.

Still, Bernas believes consumers like Ericca and Raneisha need to accept some responsibility as well.

Bernas points out: "They just happen to come across an ad, they know nothing of the company, they know nothing about the industry. It's basically