(WSVN) - Some South Florida businesses are feeling “sticker shock” after getting stuck with repeated and unwanted advertisements from a locksmith company. And one town is taking action. 7’s Karen Hensel investigates.
This two-block business district in Surfside is home to small business owners like Bernie Oberlender.
Bernie Oberlender, Oberle Opticians: “I’ve been here 45 years.”
But these little blue sticker ads have Bernie, an optician, seeing red.
Bernie Oberlender: “I don’t know what to do. I’m beside myself.”
Bernie says every time he scrapes them off, new stickers pop up, and over time, they have damaged the brass front door of his shop.
Bernie Oberlender: “There, there.”
Karen Hensel: “That’s awful.”
Bernie Oberlender: “I had to scrape here.”
Karen Hensel: “Yeah, I see the scratches.”
Bernie Oberlender: “The heat, once it hits, it just makes it very difficult to peel off clean.”
We walked the Surfside business district with Bernie and found stickers and the residue from old ones left behind.
They are plastered everywhere, advertising the name and phone number of a locksmith company.
Bernie Oberlender: “You can see here. There.”
Karen Hensel: “Oh, way up top there.”
Bernie Oberlender: “There. There look at the double and triple that was caused here.”
Karen Hensel: “Why would they put it right up there?”
Bernie Oberlender: “Because you can’t reach.”
Sometimes, there are several stickers on the same door, even on the inside.
Bernie Oberlender: “I look up and down, my neighbors and their doors are just desecrated. It’s like they do a rotation from community to community to community.”
From Florida City to Boca Raton, 7 Investigates found the same locksmith stickers stuck to the doors of businesses across three counties.
Robin Colon, Total Custom Cleaning: “It’s a constant thing. It’s just a constant.”
Robin Colon, owner of Total Custom Cleaning in Fort Lauderdale is also sick of the stickers.
Robin Colon: “We had damage here and here. Every two or three months we have to deal with these stickers.”
Just last week, Robin caught these two guys in the act at his business.
He says he was told…
Robin Colon: “‘Oh, they just pay me to walk around and stick these,’ and he had a roll of stickers, there must have been thousands of stickers on here.”
The little stickers causing the big frustrations advertise the services of 24/7 Affordable Locksmith. But if you think Bernie and Robin simply calling and asking them to stop is the answer, think again.
Bernie Oberlender: “There would be no resolve on a phone conversation.”
So we went to a Dania Beach home listed as one of the company’s addresses.
Hen Cohen says he is the manager.
Karen Hensel: “They’re upset with the damage your stickers do when they try to peel them.”
Hen Cohen, 24/7 Affordable Locksmith: “I understand this is what you’re going through, what people are also going through when we put on the labels, but this is part of the advertising, and we have people actually going to clean those stores, too.”
Karen Hensel: “But you’re putting these on businesses that don’t want them on their business.”
Hen Cohen: “Well, we try to avoid it. Sometimes we can’t.”
Cohen claims they always get permission to put up the stickers.
Bernie, from Oberle Opticians says that’s not true.
Karen Hensel: “No one in that store has given you permission in the last 10 years.”
Hen Cohen: “I can let you speak to the owner of the streets, not the Surfside street, but actually the stores. The management company itself.”
Karen Hensel: “Management company of the building?”
Hen Cohen: “They manage the whole street on Surfside.”
Karen Hensel: “And that management company has given you permission to put these stickers up?”
Hen Cohen: “We work with them directly. We work with them directly and they know us.”
Karen Hensel: “OK, you know them, but did the management company that owns the building give you specific permission to put those stickers on those doors?”
Hen Cohen: “Yeah, they are aware about us.”
We reached out to management and they said “absolutely not.” They never gave permission to put up the stickers.
24/7 Affordable Locksmith has an “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau.
And on a Yelp review, someone even posted a picture with more than a dozen crumpled up stickers.
The town of Surfside fined the company $100 in 2022, and last month, slapped them with a repeat code violation that carries a $200 fine.
Bernie Oberlender: “How they run their business is not my business. How they ruined my business is.”
Robin Colon: “They have to put a stop to it.”
But who and how?
Those remain sticky and stubbornly difficult questions.
Karen Hensel, 7News.
CONTACT 7 INVESTIGATES:
305-627-CLUE
954-921-CLUE
7Investigates@wsvn.com
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