Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 14, 1990                   TAG: 9004140207
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MAIL-ORDER FIRM CHARGES INHERITED, ATTORNEY SAYS

The FTC said Thursday Direct Marketing violated a mail order rule and it will pay a civil penalty of $30,000 under a proposed consent decree pending federal court approval in New York.

Bob Ullman, attorney for Direct Marketing, said Friday the charge "happens to relate to The Direct Connection, a predecessor company" in New York.

"I'm not saying Direct Marketing of Virginia has not had fulfillment problems in Roanoke . . . but most of the problems were in New York," Ullman said in a telephone interview. He did not return a telephone call when the FTC charge was reported Friday morning.

Ullman, who represents the companies and their owner, Agit Khubani, said he signed the consent decree last summer. "I'm afraid it took that long to process the papers." The company will pay the fine when it gets a court order, he said.

The mail-order company agreed to pay the penalty in order to save the expense of litigation, Ullman said. A full-blown court case would cost "substantially more than $30,000," he said.

Ullman claimed that "97 to 98 percent of the orders [of Direct Marketing of Virginia] are handled without problems. Complaints come "from a very, very tiny percent of the orders," he said, and all of them are not sound.

Direct Marketing processes "a very huge volume" of orders, Ullman said, and most orders are handled within 30 days but it has "unavoidable human error and people who complain too soon or who get impatient." Advertisements allow 60 days for delivery, he said, and some consumers write after 28 days to ask about their orders.

Ullman blamed a supplier for a settlement with a Toronto company that claimed that Direct Marketing of Virginia sold counterfeit copies of its product. The supplier "furnished the counterfeit product" and paid the settlement, he said.

The Better Business Bureau of Western Virginia says it continues to get about 50 complaints a week against Direct Marketing, a Postal Service spokesman said, "I have virtually no difficulty with them."

David Field, marketing and communications director for the Roanoke Post Office, said he heard of a number of complaints against the company in the past but postal inspectors looked at its records, merchandise and processing and "they didn't find anything." The company has shipped millions of orders, he said.