Christmas decorations a no-show after Minnesota woman paid over $1K

It's normally the time of year to deck the halls, but that's not the case for North St. Paul resident Sarah Prigge. She paid a company more than $1,000 to put up her Christmas decorations, and they never showed up.

Prigge saw an advertisement for local company “Custom Christmas Lighting” in a mailer. The decorations were supposed to go up the week after Thanksgiving, and her check was cashed just a week before. 

But now with Christmas just around the corner, her home is still bare as questions start to pile up.

"With Christmas lights you just don't think someone is out to swindle you,” Prigge said.  "They were supposed to be all along the house and go up to that peak on the right side.”

But the lights never came, and the $1,085 she paid "Custom Christmas Lighting" was never returned.  Days turned to weeks and Prigge began to wonder about that guy wearing the Santa hat.

"He came out, he had a red Santa hat on, it definitely seemed like he knew what he was talking about with the lights," she said.

Fox 9 first talked to Rob Schlosser back in 2009 when his company was on the rise. But in the years since, civil cases involving "Custom Christmas Lighting" have piled up. And despite adding the Better Business Bureau (BBB) seal to his paperwork, Schlosser has managed to earn an F rating.

"To give that perception that they have kind of been endorsed by us or in any way are given a green light, that's incorrect,” Dan Hendrickson with the BBB said.

According to the BBB, the company has racked up 17 complaints in the past three years. Those complaints include other victims who also never received their lights.

"I really think of it as a Grinch because I think in the Grinch he goes and pulls the lights off.  But this Grinch never put the lights on,” Prigge said.

Schlosser told Fox 9 he plans to send Prigge a refund. And after weeks of not getting any response, Prigge said he called and sent a written confirmation.

In the meantime, she's filed both a police report and a complaint with the BBB. She said she'll believe the refund when she sees it.