iStockphoto/Thinkstock(DALLAS) -- Five people in Texas said a biohazard removal company wildly overbilled them for cleaning up after their loved ones' deaths, charging tens of thousands of dollars for jobs that were quoted at a fraction of the price.

"They indicate to them the bill will be $3,000 or $4,000 and then it becomes $40,000 or $50,000. That's what you call bait and switch," said Ted Lyon, an attorney who is representing five Texas families who say they were unfairly billed by Aftermath, an Illinois-based biohazard removal company.

Laura McGowan, a spokesperson for Aftermath, defended the company's practices and said a designated family member was constantly updated on additional costs by a supervisor.

"We give them a transparent pricing sheet, and we have it spelled out detail by detail," she said. "We have to make sure we're preserving the health and safety of people in that home. We are of the opinion if another company is doing the job for $2,000, then they're not doing it right."

After paramedics and police leave the scene of a home suicide or another unexpected passing, a grieving family member is often left with a second trauma -- calling in a biohazard recovery team to decontaminate their home and scrub away the visible signs of heartbreak. The crews arrive hours after a death in their protective suits, ready to sop up tissue, cut away blood-stained carpet and remove the bits of skull. They interact with families in their most fragile state, said Mark Fagala, who owns his own North Carolina biohazard removal firm and has 25 years of experience.

"The situation itself is vulnerable and it takes integrity on our part," Fagala said.

But the lawsuit alleges Aftermath acted with "deception and false representations."

Ricardo Donato, who is one of the five people suing Aftermath, told ABC affiliate WFAA the hours after his son's suicide were a blur. "He showed me the contract; it was several pages long," Donato said.

He signed it and was quoted $4,000 to $5,000 and told his homeowner's insurance company would cover it. Weeks later he received a call from his carrier refusing to pay the $22,019.58 bill. Included in the bill were false charges for supplies and labor hours for employees who established a pattern of working only 15 minutes every hour, the lawsuit claimed.

Donato said he has been threatened with a lien on his home. Three of his fellow plaintiffs have had liens placed on their homes or their loved one's home, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the District Court of Dallas County.

"It's horrible because they relive this whole tragic accident, this whole event because it's traumatic to them when they receive this huge bill," Lyon said. "Our clients are not wealthy. They are middle class people."

McGowan said all five plaintiffs initially gave Aftermath stellar reviews.

McGowan added employees of Aftermath are required to take frequent breaks because of OSHA heat stress requirements and try to fill the rest of the billed hour doing paperwork. But with jobs stretching 10 to 12 hours, that can add up to a lot of sitting around.

Rich Ross, president of the American Bio-Recovery Association, an industry trade group of which Aftermath is not a member, said taking breaks and billing for them is not standard.

"A lot of things they're doing, they're justified in. Then there are things they do where we in the industry sit back and shake our heads and say this isn't right," he said.

For now, the families faced with sky-high bills will have to wait for their day in court, said Lyon, their attorney.

"They're stuck until they get this case resolved," he said. "That's the bad thing because this company can sit there and basically they don't have to worry. They are just holding these people up."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Lawsuit: Suicide Cleanup Firm Deceived Families, Left Them With Hefty Bill

Facebook(NEW YORK) -- Facebook’s stock market debut seems to be creating a frenzy everywhere but at Facebook.

Shares closed at $38.23 after fluctuating between $40 and $42 for most of the day.  Gizmodo reported shares were trading at a record-breaking 2.7 million per second within the first 30 seconds of trading.

But after founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and a throng of cheering employees rang the Nasdaq opening bell from the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., at 9:30 a.m. ET Friday, the campus became a ghost town.

Nightline anchor Bill Weir talked with Justin Mitchell, a Facebook engineer, and Donna Gutman, who worked in Facebook’s user operations, in New York City’s Times Square shortly after trading began. Both said they had been with the company for more than four years but had recently quit, taking stock options with them.

On Thursday night, Facebook priced its initial public offering  at $38 a share, selling $16 billion worth in equity and valuing the company at $104 billion. It’s the largest tech IPO of all time.

All Facebook employees are stock holders, Mitchell told Weir. So why isn’t he out buying a Ferrari?

“It’s not the company culture to go out and celebrate this type of stuff,” Mitchell said. “The culture of the company is very much of not showing off money, not being ostentatious but instead, really just making good products, and that comes from the top.”

One of the big questions is, now that Facebook has gone public, will it have to tailor user experience to meet shareholders’ expectations. But Mitchell said he thought Facebook’s IPO filing would have little effect on how it does business.

“My hunch is that it’s not going to change the company culture that much,” he said. “Once we filed for the IPO people put up signs that said, ‘Stay focused, Keep shipping.’ I think it’s that type of mentality that you’ll see continue on in the future.”

Thursday night, Facebook celebrated its newfound wealth with a wild bash at company headquarters that only Facebook could throw -- a “Hackathon,” an all-night, a code-writing “rager,” where Facebook employees worked on their own special projects until the morning light. They do one every couple of months, according to the company’s blog. Those projects are what Facebook deems important, Gutman said.

“I think that the company needs to keep doing what its doing and the work people did last night shows that’s what people are focused on,” Gutman said.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Former Facebook Employees: Company Celebrates New Ideas, Not New Wealth

Zef Nikolla/Facebook(NEW YORK) -- The much anticipated Facebook IPO couldn't help stocks Friday. It was a bad end to a dead-end week on Wall Street.

The Dow closed down 59 points at 12,383 -- its 12th day of losses in 13 trading sessions. The Nasdaq lost 27 points to close at 2,787, while the S&P gave up eight points Friday and closed at 1,297.

The IPO everyone had waited for -- Facebook closed at $38.23, gaining just 23 cents.

After some technical hiccups, trading in Facebook's blockbuster IPO officially opened to an eager public Friday at about $42.05 a share and drifted lower by mid-day. Shares were trading below $39 around 3:05 p.m. eastern time, just over the offer price of $38.

Earlier on Friday, the shares nearly dropped to its offer price, lower than what many analysts expected.

Jim Krapfel, IPO analyst with investment firm Morningstar, said he was surprised to see Facebook only up a few percentage points given the pent-up retail demand for its shares.

"Clearly concerns regarding the company's valuation, increased insider selling, and GM news are weighing on the stock. Weakness in the stock market over the last several days is also likely playing a significant role," he said.

General Motors said this week it was pulling about $10 million of advertising from Facebook.

Out of four recent technology IPOs -- those of LinkedIn, Zynga, Pandora and Groupon -- only LinkedIn has recently traded above its IPO price. LinkedIn's IPO price last May was $45 a share. Shares of LinkedIn were trading down around 5.8 percent on Friday late afternoon at $98.83.

A trend of other high growth tech offerings show that "the more the stock goes up in the first day, the more it declines in the ensuing weeks and months," he said.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Facebook IPO Fizzles; Dow Extends Losing Streak

San Francisco: Facebook Inc shares rose less than expected on their first day of trade on Friday and huge order volume caused technical problems that marred the coming out party of the No. 1 online social network.

Its shares were up 8% in early afternoon trading on the Nasdaq, after opening 11% higher and then rapidly heading south to touch their initial public offering price of $38. The gains were below market forecasts of as much as a 50% jump.

“We have got some unhappy guys out there,” said Wayne Kaufman, chief market strategist at John Thomas Financial, a retail broker on Wall Street. “They were hoping for Facebook to be considerably better. I bet there are a lot of disappointed people in the market.”

Facebook, which has about 900 million users globally, priced its IPO at the top end of its target range, becoming the first US company to go public with a valuation greater than $100 billion. If a greenshoe option to underwriters is exercised, Facebook will raise as much as $18.4 billion by selling an 18% stake, the second-biggest IPO in US history after the one by Visa Inc.

Analysts blamed the poorer-than-expected first-day showing on the vast number of shares floated and market weakness. General Motors’ decision to pull paid-advertising from the social network, announced this week, also hurt.

After a delay in the opening print that drove up anxiety levels among traders and onlookers outside the Nasdaq, the closely watched stock began trading at $42.05, rose to as high as $45 and then rapidly retreated. The Nasdaq exchange said it was investigating an issue with execution of trades.

Facebook’s IPO had been heavily oversubscribed, particularly by retail investors, despite concerns about slowing growth in the last quarter, whether the company can make money from mobile advertising, and the immense control chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has over on the company.

Others warned that the IPO price, equivalent to over 100 times historical earnings versus Apple Inc’s 14 times and Google Inc’s 19 times, makes Facebook a risky bet.

Early fanfare

For Facebook, Friday began with much fanfare. To rapturous applause from employees, Mark Zuckerberg - flanked by chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Nasdaq chief executive Robert Greifeld - rang the bell to kick off trading at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters at 6:30 am Pacific time.

The 28-year-old billionaire founder, wearing his trademark black hoodie, hugged and high-fived Sandberg and other employees in celebration after he pressed the remote button.

The area outside Facebook’s offices was packed with throngs of photographers, more than a dozen television trucks, and a TV news helicopter hovering overhead as the excitement reached fever pitch.

The fizzling of Facebook’s early gains put pressure on other social media stocks. Zynga, which depends on Facebook for much of its revenue, dived 13% before it was halted. LinkedIn Corp was off 3% at midday.

“When you see what’s happening with other social media stocks today, which are significantly down, as well as looking at Facebook trading flat, we think it has traded obviously at the high end,” said Destination Wealth Management CEO Michael Yoshikami.

“It’s a rich valuation, particularly given the advertising pressure they’re under now. Advertising revenue has grown significantly slower over the past few years, and that’s punctuated by GM’s decision to stop advertising on Facebook.”

“We’re not buyers at $38, particularly considering that most of their business is in mobile and they haven’t figured out how to make money yet.”

Also Read |Facebook IPO a jackpot for backers and insiders

Facebook’s debut is modest, high volumes cause problems

San Francisco: Facebook Inc shares fizzled on their first day of trade on the Nasdaq, erasing early gains of as much as 18% to trade close to their initial public offering (IPO) price.

The stock opened 11% higher and rose to $45 before rapidly heading south in frenzied trade, touching its initial public offering price of $38. The No. 1 online social network raised as much as $18.4 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings in US history.

After a delay in the opening print that drove up anxiety levels among traders and onlookers outside the Nasdaq, the company’s closely watched stock began trading at $42.05, compared with an IPO price of $38.

To rapturous applause from employees, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg -- flanked by chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Nasdaq chief executive Robert Greifeld -- rang the bell to kick off trading at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters at 6:30 am Pacific time.

The 28-year-old billionaire founder hugged and high-fived Sandberg and other employees in celebration after he pressed the remote button.

The area outside Facebook’s offices at 1 Hacker Way was packed with throngs of photographers, more than 12 television trucks, and a TV news helicopter hovering overhead as the excitement reached fever pitch.

With a value of $104 billion, Facebook became the first American company to debut at over a $100 billion. It is larger than Starbucks Corp and Hewlett-Packard combined.

“A 15 to 20% pop is in the realm of possibility,” said Tim Loughran, a finance professor at the University of Notre Dame, before the start of trade.

“Given they already moved their IPO range up and increased the size, that’s bullish to begin with.”

Facebook priced its offering at $38 a share on Thursday, but the price could be higher when shares begin trading under the FB symbol on the Nasdaq at 11 am Eastern time (1500 GMT).

On Twitter and in office elevators the morning talk was betting how much Facebook’s initial price would rise by the end of trading.

Some expect shares could rise 30% or more on Friday, despite ongoing concerns about Facebook’s long-term money-making potential. An average of Morningstar analyst estimates put the closing price for Facebook shares on Friday at $50.

The IPO, expected to mint more than a thousand paper millionaires at the company, has received wall-to-wall media coverage and sparked hopes of a boom in sales of everything from San Francisco Bay area real estate to automobiles.

Facebook employees marked the event with an all-night “hackathon” at the company’s Menlo Park, California, headquarters starting on Thursday evening, a tradition in which programmers work on side projects that sometimes turn into mainstream offerings.

The website, founded in a Harvard dorm room in 2004, has grown into the world’s dominant social network with 900 million users.

At $38 a share, Facebook would trade at more than 100 times historical earnings versus Apple Inc’s 14 times and Google Inc’s 19 times.

For all the high expectations surrounding Facebook, the company faces challenges maintaining its momentum.

Some investors worry the company has not yet figured out a way to make money from the growing number of users who access Facebook on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Meanwhile, revenue growth from Facebook’s online advertising business, which accounts for the bulk of its revenue, has slowed in recent months.

General Motors said on Tuesday it would stop placing ads on Facebook, raising questions about whether display ads on the site are as effective as they are in traditional media.

Facebook fizzles on debut, shares skirt IPO price

EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/GettyImages(NEW YORK) -- After some technical hiccups, trading in Facebook's blockbuster IPO officially opened to an eager public Friday at about $42.05 a share, but the price dropped below $40, lower than what many analysts expected.

Shares were virtually unchanged from the offer price at $38 at 11:51 a.m. eastern time, after rising 11 percent at the open.

Jim Krapfel, IPO analyst with investment firm, Morningstar, said he was surprised to see Facebook only up a few percentage points given the amount of pent up retail demand for its shares.

"Clearly concerns regarding the company's valuation, increased insider selling, and GM news are weighing on the stock. Weakness in the stock market over the last several days is also likely playing a significant role," he said.

Visit Yahoo Finance for real-time trading of Facebook shares.

General Motors said this week it was pulling about $10 million worth of advertising from Facebook.

But that didn't stop Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, and COO Sheryl Sandberg from celebrating IPO day. The two executives gathered with a throng of cheering employees at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., to ring the Nasdaq's opening bell at 9:30 a.m. eastern time ahead of the social media network's long-awaited IPO.

Trading of the company's shares, designated with the ticker symbol, "FB," was scheduled to begin around 10:45 a.m. eastern time, but began almost an hour later because Facebook's underwriter, Morgan Stanley, was reportedly having trouble changing orders.

With a large monitor and stage set up outdoors in "Hacker Square," instead of visiting Nasdaq's New York exchange, hundreds of employees gathered in the early hours of the morning in California. Many of them had participated in Facebook's 31st "hackathon," a company tradition described as an overnight sleepover that encourages employees to work on anything but their normal work duties.

Nasdaq's CEO, Bob Greifeld, stood beaming next to Zuckerberg, 28, sans necktie, donning a t-shirt and clapping along with the other employees.

It was a long-awaited moment for the eight-year-old company that started in the Harvard University dormitory, Kirkland House.

Not to abandon Wall Street completely, Facebook CFO David Ebersman reportedly was at the Nasdaq in New York City during the opening bell. Instead of scrolling the usual stock prices of the day, Nasdaq's digital billboard at its market center in Times Square this morning read, "Nasdaq Welcomes Facebook."

On Thursday night, Facebook priced its initial public offering at $38 a share, raising $16 billion and valuing the company at $104 billion. The company said it made $3.7 billion in revenue in 2011.

The company is offering 421.2 million shares of common A-class stock, which includes 180 million new shares sold by the company and 241.2 million shares sold by existing shareholders, such as early employees.

The biggest IPO for a U.S. technology firm has gotten the attention of everyone from high school students to Wall Street professionals, many of whom are likely among the 900 million monthly users of the social media site.

Out of four recent technology IPOs -- those of LinkedIn, Zynga, Pandora and Groupon -- only LinkedIn has recently traded above its IPO price. LinkedIn's IPO price last May was $45 a share. Shares of LinkedIn were trading down around 0.36 percent on Friday morning at $104.

While the IPO will make a number of billionaires out of early Facebook employees and investors, Facebook's lead underwriter, the investment bank Morgan Stanley, will also come out a winner by the fees it will earn. The investment bank determined who got shares of the company before shares are sold to the larger public on Friday.

Krapfel said the media hype and investor buildup are to be expected, despite Facebook's investment risks.

"It's the most hotly anticipated IPO of all time," Krapfel said. "Most of the U.S. population that uses the internet uses Facebook so there's no surprise there would be a lot of interest in the IPO. Certainly with this much hype, there's a lot of demand from investors."

A trend of other high growth tech offerings show that "the more the stock goes up in the first day, the more it declines in the ensuing weeks and months," he said.

Morningstar has valued the company at $32 a share but Krapfel said he expects the stock to trade into $50 and above.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Facebook IPO: Nasdaq ‘FB’ Stock Opens Trading

ABC News(JACKSON, Mich.) -- A Michigan teen found a finger tip in an Arby’s roast beef sandwich after he spit out a bite that he said was rubbery and hard to chew.

Ryan Hart, 14, said he ordered the sandwich last Friday at the drive-thru window of at a Jackson, Mich., Arby’s franchise.

“I was like, ‘That [has] to be a finger.’ I was about to puke. … It was just nasty,” Ryan told the Jackson Citizen Patriot.

An employee lost approximately one inch of her finger while operating a meat slicer.

Employees continued to fill orders until they were made aware of the fleshy find.

“Upon learning of the incident, the franchisee’s restaurant team shut down food production and thoroughly cleaned and sanitized the restaurant. The franchisee fully cooperated with the local Health Department, and the restaurant was given the approval to remain open,” said John Gray, vice president of communications at Arby’s, in a statement.

Gray said Arby’s is investigating the event and has been in touch with its 66,000 employees to reinforce safety protocols.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Teen Finds Fingertip In Arby’s Sandwich

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- It's gearing up to be a busy summer travel season: Airlines for America predicts there will be more than 206 million people flying this summer, and that's only on U.S carriers.  That breaks down to about 2.24 million passengers per day.

With all those people passing through airports, many of them infrequent fliers, there's sure to be plenty of angst -- from lost bags, lost children and parking questions, to rental car inquires, flight delays and cancellations.  So who can you turn to for help?

Your friendly airport greeters, of course. You'll recognize them by the white hats at Denver International, or the red vests at Calgary International in Canada.  And, very soon, the pins on their clothing at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

JFK airport rolls out a new program on May 22, just in time for the busy summer travel season. Called Edge4Vets N.I.C.E. Corps, the program plans to use the skills of military veterans to help alleviate passenger frustrations at the airport.  It takes airport employees who are also veterans and gives them N.I.C.E. (Neutralize Irritations Customers Experience) training.

The pilot program was designed by Tom Murphy, director of the Human Resiliency Institute at Fordham University.  He said the program would initially be in Terminal 4, and has 30 trained problem solvers ready to help.

"What travelers want most," he said, "is for someone to care when things go wrong.  They want someone who will step up and help."

Veterans employed at a variety of airport companies -- even airlines like JetBlue, Delta and American Airlines, and agencies like the Transportation Security Administration -- have signed up for the training.  The idea, Murphy said, is for veterans already involved in the pilot program to spot other airline employees going the extra mile and then report it.  Those employees will then be recognized and rewarded for their helpfulness.

Murphy said that in time he hopes the program will take on a life of its own, resulting in a more positive airport experience for employees and travelers alike.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Airport Volunteers Lend Frazzled Travelers a Helping Hand

New York: Mark Zuckerberg, wearing his trademark hooded sweatshirt, remotely rang the bell to open trade Friday on the Nasdaq, marking a record-setting public offering for Facebook.

Amid a crowd at the social network’s California headquarters, Zuckerberg and hundreds of Facebook employees cheered the market open. Facebook shares were to start trading later in the day in the largest offering for a technology firm.

Zuckerberg rings bell to mark Facebook IPO

Zef Nikolla/Facebook(MENLO PARK, Calif.) -- After some technical hiccups, trading in Facebook's blockbuster IPO officially opened to an eager public Friday at $42 a share, up 11 percent from its offer price of $38 a share.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, and COO Sheryl Sandberg gathered with a throng of cheering employees at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on Friday to ring the Nasdaq's opening bell ahead of the social media network's long-awaited IPO.

With a large monitor and stage set up outdoors, instead of visiting Nasdaq's New York exchange, hundreds of employees gathered early Friday morning in California.  Many of them had participated in Facebook's "hackathon," a company tradition described as an overnight sleepover that encourages employees to work on anything but their normal work duties.

Not to abandon Wall Street completely, Facebook CFO David Ebersman was at the Nasdaq in New York City during the opening bell.

On Thursday night, Facebook priced its initial public offering at $38 a share, raising $16 billion and valuing the company at $104 billion.  The company is offering 421.2 million shares of common A-class stock, which includes 180 million new shares sold by the company and 241.2 million shares sold by existing shareholders.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Ushers in Historic IPO