Florida Probes Sears’ Car Repair Centers : Retail: The state acts after reports of fraud elsewhere. Meanwhile, New York regulators say they found no evidence of widespread misconduct there.

Problems for Sears, Roebuck & Co.’s automotive repair centers continued to grow outside California as the Florida attorney general’s office on Thursday disclosed an investigation of the retailer in that state.

The nation’s second-largest retailer got good news from New York regulators, however, who said they found no evidence of widespread consumer rip-offs during an undercover investigation last winter.

Mark Barnett, an assistant Florida attorney general, said that state’s probe was in response to a large number of complaints his agency has received about Sears, which operates 84 automotive repair centers there. He would not disclose the number of complaints, but a spokeswoman for Florida’s Department of Consumer Affairs said earlier this week that her agency had received only 34 complaints about Sears’ automotive centers in the last eight years.

Last week, the California Department of Consumer Affairs said it was seeking revocation of Sears’ license to perform auto repairs in the state after an 18-month undercover investigation showed that the retailer consistently overcharged consumers for repairs. The California agency said Sears employees were under pressure to sell brake components, shocks and springs to meet strict quotas.

Sears has denied the allegations and said the California investigation was flawed.

Earlier this week, New Jersey investigators accused Sears of overcharging for unneeded battery and alternator work. Sears has said it is working with New Jersey officials to find out what may have gone wrong during that four-month undercover investigation.

In New York, Department of Motor Vehicles spokesman George Filieau said only one of eight Sears auto centers investigated there overcharged for repairs. While New York regulators are concerned about the findings in California and New Jersey, he said, “we don’t believe we have a serious problem in New York.”

Filieau said one Sears auto center on Long Island provided a $205 estimate for unnecessary brake repairs. Sears was fined $250 for the incident, which investigators blamed on a poorly trained Sears employee. Sears agreed to provide further training for the employee, Filieau said.

Meanwhile, the California Consumer Affairs Department said it has received 803 consumer complaints about Sears auto centers since filing its administrative action against Sears last week. More than one-quarter of the complaints, 234, are from Los Angeles County. Orange County ranks second with 147 complaints.

About two dozen Sears employees have talked to the California Department of Consumer Affairs as well. Among those providing statements Thursday was Victor Rabe, who formerly managed the auto repair center at a Sears store in Sacramento. Rabe said that a district manager ordered that customers be automatically charged $5.99 for inspections of electrical systems during battery installations--regardless of whether such an inspection was requested. However, Rabe said, he never relayed the order to his employees.

“Employees at Sears auto centers deserve better treatment and the customers deserve better treatment than they’ve been getting,” Rabe said, commenting on why he had provided statements to the Consumer Affairs Department.