Miracle Motors to Murky Water: Woman Says Filter Company Tricked Her
Stuck with a $12,700 Bill for a Product the City Says She Didn't Need
A former used-car salesman with a long history of questionable financial dealings is now selling water-treatment systems in Clay County. His business practices have drawn attention from Green Cove Springs police and the city Water Department after one customer found herself in debt and despair.
Her signature on a salesman’s iPad committed her to paying nearly $13,000 for a $650 filter that a Water Department technician said she didn’t need in the first place. The filter company is called The Science of Water, and it is owned by Jack Stoudenmire.
Stoudenmire, 67, is a rotund man that gives the impression of rolling instead of walking. Some folks in Green Cove Springs call him a big talker and remember him when he was, among many other vocations, the proprietor and used car salesman at Miracle Motors in downtown.
Records show Stoudenmire has “borrowed” money from friends, acquaintances, employees, strangers and multiple lending institutions. Records also show that he has lied, filed for bankruptcy or simply refused to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars. For anyone counting, he’s been sued nine times in Clay County alone, had failed businesses since the 1990s, been arrested, squatted in homes that were not his and called “contemptible” by the court system. At times, property and possessions have been liened, repossessed or confiscated.
Fraud Charges Disappear
Stoudenmire was once arrested because of allegedly defrauding the Clay County Sheriff’s Office and Jacksonville’s Sheriff’s Office. As the owner of Miracle Motors and close friend of then-Clay Sheriff Scott Lancaster, Stoudenmire was authorized to buy used vehicles at auction to be used in drug operations. In exchange, his fee per car was $500 from the Clay Sheriff and $300 from the Jacksonville Sheriff, plus the cost of the vehicles.
He was arrested on Oct. 2, 2000 for multiple fraud charges for allegedly inflating the price of vehicles, collecting more than $28,000 for himself. Stoudenmire faced up to 15 years in prison on each count if convicted. It’s not clear how the case was settled, as all records of the case in Clay County have been expunged and only a record of the arrest and charges remain in Duval County. In news stories about the arrest, Sheriff Lancaster told the press that Stoudenmire had repaid both agencies.
Personal interviews, confirmed by depositions and other legal records show that Stoudenmire joined downtown Jacksonville’s mega house of worship, First Baptist Church, around 2004. Records and interviews show Stoudenmire bought a home from Green Cove Springs resident H.L Blackman, failed to pay his mortgage, then proceeded to sell the home he didn’t own to a couple who attended the church. It took rightful owners three years and more than $300,000 to settle the matter.
A prominent Jacksonville physician and member of the church told CN&V he bought into one of Stoudenmire’s “business ventures,” lost “almost a million dollars” and “worked three jobs” to repay money he had borrowed for the bogus investment.
‘Cancer’ at First Baptist
Interviewed by CN&V, First Baptist congregants recalled how Stoudenmire told them he had lung cancer, no insurance and needed money for lifesaving treatments. One member said he loaned Stoudenmire $35,000. Another loaned him $30,000. Other members made smaller donations and surrounded Stoudenmire and his wife with emotional support.
According to his court deposition, Stoudenmire did not repay the money or use it for cancer treatments, because he never had cancer.
The Orange Park Police Department said they arrested Jack Stoudenmire in 2006. Complete records at the police department are not available before 2008, so there are no details of the arrest or its resolution.
Stoudenmire’s latest venture appears to be selling expensive water filtration systems in the Green Cove Springs area.
The water business goes something like this. Official-looking flyers are placed in mailboxes or on doors, warning of dangerous contaminates that exist in area water. The fliers offer free water testing to check for hazardous pollutants. When a call is made for a free test, an individual appears with or without an appointment. That person puts tablets or drops into the water, which supposedly will turn dark or precipitate particles if contaminated.
Water is drawn, drops or tablets are put into the water, and when the water turns dark and cloudy, the representative warns that the water is polluted and could cause serious health issues, including cancer, and irreparable harm to the pipes. The solution is to purchase a water treatment device from the salesman.
Polly (not her real name) has two young boys. Her husband abandoned her and the boys when the children were babies, leaving them in debt and with no support from him. She has no extended family. She works with challenged children at a local grammar school. She is quick to tell you her primary focus has been raising her boys in a safe loving Christian atmosphere. Her dream was to buy a forever home for her children came true last year with the help of Habitat Homes in Green Cove.
Sales Pitch
Last October, a representative from a company called The Science of Water left fliers on doors in the areas Green Cove Springs decrying bad water. Polly called for a water test.
When the man performed the water test and the water turned dark and cloudy, he told the woman she and her children were in danger of becoming very ill with cancer and other maladies. He also said the pipes in her new home would soon be corroded. The only solution, the man told Polly, was to purchase a “home filter” from his company. When she told him she was on a fixed income and could not afford the filter, he chastised her.
“Don’t you care about the health of your children?” he asked. “And the pipes in your new home will be rusted in no time!”
Despite her refusals, the man was unrelenting and frightened her. He would set up payments for the system at a cost of under $100 a month, a small price to pay for the health of her boys and her new home, he insisted. The salesman assured Polly that she could discontinue the service at any time with one phone call. All she had to do, he said, was provide “basic information” and sign her name on an iPad.
To get him out of her home, she decided to sign the iPad and cancel the service after a few days. To keep her children and herself safe, she planned to fill large containers from the filtered water machines at the local grocery story as the price would be about one-fifth of the filter.
The man installed the “filter” at the water main on the side of her home. The only thing Polly received was a business card. He told her she would soon get “information” about the unit and payment in the mail.
About 10 days later, Polly received a credit card in the mail from a loan company called Synchrony Bank in Pennsylvania. According to the information, the “filter” had been charged to her new credit card. The cost of the filter was $7,681.09. She was contracted for $96 dollars a month for 11 years at an interest rate of 26.99 percent. All told, the device would cost her $12,706.
Polly was shocked. She could have purchased the much-need used car for the price of a filter. She wept.
Polly called the number on the card to cancel the service and spoke with a man who gave no name but said he was the owner of The Science of Water. The man told her she had only three days from the time the filter was installed to cancel the service. She was too late, he said. She had signed a contract and would be responsible for the monthly payments.
She was barely making ends meet, but she knew if she didn’t pay the debt her credit score would suffer. If her good credit rating was lost and her boys had an emergency, she feared she would have no way to pay for their needs.
A friend of Polly’s contacted Clay News & Views for help.
CN&V called the Green Cove Springs Water Department to inquired about the quality of the water and informed a department head of Polly’s experience. A representative came out immediately and tested Polly’s water. It passed with flying colors. The representative said the “filter” appears to be nothing more than a water softener device.
A device, much like the one installed at Polly’s home, was priced at Home Depot for approximately $650.
At additional expense, Polly hired a plumber to remove the device and the Green Cove Springs utility enlisted the help of an attorney to send The Science of Water a letter advising him them device had been removed and should be picked up immediately.
CN&V spoke with the owner of The Science of Water who identified himself as Jack Stoudenmire.
Stoudenmire said the woman had signed a contract for the filter and was obligated to pay. When told of the tactics his salesman reportedly employed, the owner said he was not the representative who came to Polly’s home, but that he had personally “trained” him. Stoudenmire stated the salesman would never employ misleading sales tactics but said he couldn’t remember his salesman’s name.
The Science of Water’s owner never picked up the water device. He rents an office at 360 Corporate Way in the Industrial Park of Orange Park. CN&V attempted to deliver the water device to his office on several occasions, but he was never there. Other residents and landscapers said the “big man” was “rarely ever there.”
The Green Cove Springs Police Department was contacted and opened an investigation.
Fraud Report
When Polly and CN&V contacted Synchrony about circumstances surrounding Polly’s account, they provided Polly with a fraud report to be filled out. Stoudenmire apparently knew the purchase may end in dispute because he had already sent a letter to Synchrony’s dispute department.
The letter asserted that Polly had agreed to the installation, was pleased with it, was told how to work the system and “the financing process was completed and given to her.” The letter stated Polly was in possession of the water treatment device. She was in possession of the filter, she said, but all the other information was false.
If anyone can offer legal assistance to help Polly get her money back, please contact CN&V. If you think you too have paid for a filter that you didn’t need, we’d like to hear from you too..
Synchrony’s representative said a fraud investigation would be opened but could take up to six weeks. They asked that documentation which had been gathered be sent to them. Documents, including a narrative of events, Green Cove Springs’ water assessment, the letter from the attorney advising Stoudenmire to pick up the water device, media releases about Stoudemire’s arrest for fraud, and note of the Green Cove PD’s investigation was sent. In less than two weeks, Polly received a letter from Synchrony stating since she was in possession of the filter, she must make payments until the account was paid in full.
Meanwhile Polly cannot sleep with the looming debt that will come due for the next twelve years. She thinks about the things the nearly $100 could buy for her boys. To cope, she prays the Holy Rosary.
Loved this article! Sure hope she gets justice!!