He’s quite the character, not to mention, salesman:
Fire detector salesman accused of using scare tactics
The state is investigating practices used by former wrestling star Royce Alger.
By JENNIFER JACOBS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Copyright, 2006 Des Moines Register and Tribune Company
October 5, 2006
Frightened by the salesman's videotape of burn victims and his claim that her smoke detectors were doomed to fail, an elderly Newton woman gave him all the money she had: about $1,000.
The salesman installed one battery-powered smoke detector and two heat detectors in her two-bedroom bungalow. He said he would come back when she had more money, local officials said.
State officials are now investigating the sales practices after several people complained that the salesman, former Iowa wrestling star Royce Alger, is selling overpriced fire alarm systems across central Iowa by using fear tactics, high-pressure sales pitches and false endorsements.
Alger, a three-time state champion at Lisbon High School, two-time NCAA champion and former assistant wrestling coach at the University of Iowa, defended his business practices and called his prices fair.
Alger, a three-time state champion at Lisbon High School, two-time NCAA champion and former assistant wrestling coach at the University of Iowa, defended his business practices and called his prices fair.
"I have no plans to do anything differently than I've done," he said Wednesday. "I'm not guilty of anything. I'm in the business of saving lives, and I tell you this has been a huge slap in the face."
Alger said he had a sales presentation in Ankeny
Wednesday night. But he would not tell The Des Moines Register the location.
Assistant Jasper County Attorney Scott Nicholson said Alger conducted an aggressive sales campaign in Newton, selling smoke and fire detection products for as much as $3,700 per home. His customers included single mothers and people with disabilities, Nicholson said.
"Those are the ones that need it the most," Alger told the Register.
Nicholson launched an investigation into Alger's business a few months ago and recently turned the case over to the consumer protection division of Attorney General Tom Miller's office, which is continuing the investigation. The attorney general's office would neither confirm nor deny such an investigation.
Officials said Alger obtained names and telephone numbers of potential customers by leaving boxes at stores such as Hy-Vee and Walgreens.
Those drop boxes advertised a drawing for a free home fire prevention package and a $100 gift certificate.
The store managers said Alger told them he was working in partnership with the local fire department. But Newton firefighters later said that was not true.
Alger also handed out business cards that stated he was a "licensed fire inspector." Alger is not listed on any certification list maintained by the Iowa fire marshal's office, state records show.
Alger explained that his license is from MasterGuard, a Texas manufacturer of fire safety products. The company operates with a nationwide network of independent salesmen who set their own sales prices.
The drop boxes also advertised sponsorship by the Iowa Department of Human Services and a nonexistent agency, the "Iowa Bureau of Fire Prevention," officials said.
The DHS was never asked about sponsorship and would never have agreed to do so, a DHS spokesman said.
Alger said the DHS sponsorship message was a mistake that was made by his cousin, who created the fliers. Alger said those fliers were posted only for three weeks.
Newton officials said Alger contacted people who registered for the drawing and told them they had won a free dinner at a local restaurant at a certain time and date.
At the dinners, Alger pitched MasterGuard products by showing video footage that included fire victims and damaged homes.
"Everyone's like, 'Oh my gosh,' and they're getting their checkbooks out," said Newton Fire Marshal Tom Rodewald, who has received a handful of calls from Alger's customers who said they regretted their purchases.
After the dinners, Alger visited the people in their homes and told them their ionization smoke detectors - an inexpensive, nationally approved type - were inferior to his $300 "optical" alarm, which is a photoelectric alarm with a thermal sensor.
Our product is 100 percent unlike anything else on the market in that it works to this level," he said Wednesday.
Officials said Alger quotes research showing that ionization smoke detectors have a 60 percent fallibility rate, while photoelectric smoke detectors have the lowest probability of failure.
Rodewald, the fire marshal, said: "He'd say your detectors will not wake you up; they fail way too many times. People just get overwhelmed, and they think even that night they're in great danger if they don't get this system. They're scared to death."
Alger charged $3,000 for smoke detectors that are not interconnected, Rodewald said.
He said local alarm companies and certified electricians may charge thousands of dollars for a fire protection system, but typically those systems have smoke detectors that are hard-wired to electricity, have battery backups, and are connected so that when one alarm sounds, all the alarms in the house sound.
Rodewald said if Alger's customers could not pay outright for the alarms he sold, he hooked them up with a loan with an interest rate as high as 21 percent.
Rodewald added, "People need to know fire protection is necessary in homes, but it doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars, and people don't have to go into debt to sleep securely."
Alger said one Newton woman wanted a $2,300 alarm system but qualified only for $1,330 in financing.
"So I waived $900," he said. "I carried the rest out of my commissions."
As for the elderly woman with the two-bedroom bungalow, Alger said the $1,698 system she selected included four smoke detectors, two carbon monoxide detectors and a fire extinguisher.
"I gave her a deal on that," he said Wednesday.
He added: "This happens all the time with my company. People think we're overcharging. People don't realize the technology and how much it costs our dealers."
Officials from MasterGuard did not return telephone calls placed over three days. But late
Wednesday afternoon, Douglas Bordewieck, a lawyer for the company, sent the Register a letter stating that Alger is no longer an active MasterGuard dealer.
There is no excuse for the use by Mr. Alger of a drop-box promotion representing to the public that one or more entities co-sponsored the promotion, when such was not the case," Bordewieck wrote.
MasterGuard did not know Alger was using the false sponsorship promotion until it was informed sometime earlier this year. At that point the company asked Alger to immediately stop, the lawyer said.
A former MasterGuard dealer from Des Moines, Mark Stitt, said dealers often use drop boxes with giveaway sign-up cards, seminars with free dinners, video presentations and one-on-one counseling to sell their alarms.
MasterGuard has really reined in a great deal of their bad apples," Stitt said. "They don't want the publicity you're about to give. It's a good company. ... They do have a great, great alarm."
The smoke detectors have a 25-year warranty and are installed by dealers trained in fire protection, he said.
Stitt said he was uncomfortable with the hard-sell tactics, including the "scary" videos MasterGuard sells its dealers.
"I didn't like that you were tugging on emotions just a little too much," said Stitt, who now installs insulation in homes. "But you know, fire is scary. The films bring a reality home to people."
Alger and a co-worker held several group dinners at the Okoboji Grill in Newton. Alger's "free dinner" mailings implied that it was the restaurant giving away the meal, said manager Jeff Conn.
Okoboji Grill mailed Alger a legal notice asking him to stop that, Conn said.
"They were very pushy, I'll tell you that," Conn said. "Even with the servers, they were very demanding."
The salesmen reserved a private party room for 30 to 40 customers and instructed the restaurant staff to keep the door closed and not enter, even to refill drinks.
After Conn heard about a Newton woman who paid $3,000 for an alarm system, he confronted Alger.
"I told him I didn't feel comfortable with what he was doing," Conn said.
Alger stopped booking the dinners at the restaurant.
The Newton fire marshal said Alger liked to tell his customers about his wrestling career, which included a silver medal winner in the 1990 world championships. Alger left an assistant coaching job with the Iowa Hawkeyes in 2004, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.
