Action 9: Woman says she couldn't get expected refund

None — Deborah Evans was sitting in glaring sunlight, looking at a magazine with her reading glasses on when she said she had an idea to invent reading sunglasses.

"I thought I was going to be a millionaire," Evans said.

So she went online to Invent Help, a company that helps patent inventions. She said she paid the company's Fort Mill office $845 to research her idea.

But Evans said before she wrote the check, she asked the sales representative, what if her idea was not patentable? "(He said), ‘You get a refund. If it's not patentable, you get a refund,'" Evans said.

But she never got that in writing.

Later, the company told Evans her idea of reading sunglasses was already on the market.

The company refused to give back any of her $845, Evans said.

When she filed a BBB complaint, she said the company offered a $400 refund, which she declined.

Action 9 paid a visit to Invent Help, and a spokesman said they never promised Evans a refund.

"She was just an unhappy consumer," Sean Sowers said. "Unfortunately, with inventions come risks, and the risk is that it's not going to be patentable."

But after Action 9 talked to Invent Help, the company told Evans it would give her all her money back if she signed a release agreeing not to discuss her complaint. She refused.

Evans now warns others to do their research.

"I mean really, really look into it before you do anything," Evans said.

WSOC