A business in the Branson area is being told to stop selling K-N-95 masks at substantially high prices.
State Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office sent a cease and desist letter to Tuning Element, saying the company is advertising masks that usually range from just a few dollars a piece to for $20 dollars each.
The company is defending itself, saying prices have gone up because it paid for express shipping by air to get the masks.
It says if it didn’t, it would take at least three months by boat to get the badly needed masks.
Here’s more from the Attorney General:
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt today sent a cease and desist letter to a Branson-area business, Tuning Element, for allegedly inflating the prices on KN95 masks.
The letter demands that the business cease and desist from selling masks at substantially higher prices.
“Since this pandemic began, we have remained vigilant in monitoring price gouging across the state, and have taken legal action wherever possible,” said Attorney General Schmitt. “We will continue to investigate and work with businesses to root out and combat price gouging.”
According to information obtained by the Office of the Attorney General, Tuning Element is advertising the sale of 5-layer KN95 masks for $20 each; 4-layer KN95 masks for $15 each; and 50-count boxes of 3-layer disposable masks for $99.
These products generally sell in the range of $3.95-$5.98 each; $2.99 each; and $24.95-$39.99 for 50-count boxes, respectively. In addition, our investigation has revealed that Tuning Element is charging an additional “phone and internet fee” of $1.82 per mask on top of the price of the item.
Here’s more from Tuning Element:
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office issued a cease and desist letter today for Branson-based frequency wellness company, Tuning Element, to stop selling face masks, which are in high demand due to COVID-19.
“However, when I spoke with Assistant Attorney General Julia Cammack, she acknowledged that the price-gouging allegations were only based on the sale of similar products under normal circumstances,” said Tuning Element president and founder, Sean Martinez. “And we’ve never before stocked or sold masks before March 16th of this year.”
“Under normal circumstances, products come over by ship, not by airplane,” Martinez said. “Normal express shipping (by air) is three to five days, not ten to 20 days as is often the case now! It’s unfortunate that we ran into higher costs in order to get the masks here faster. But we all need these masks now, not three months from now when a ship arrives at port.”
Tuning Element reports spending multiple thousands of dollars on air freight, which they’ve never done before. As a result, the company justifies its price increases to accommodate for the inflated shipping and mask costs.
“Our masks have been in stock for nearly two weeks because we chose express shipping by air,” Martinez said. “We could have lowered the cost and put them on a ship like under normal conditions, but we saw a need to get the masks here faster and acted accordingly.”
Tuning Element Marketing Director, Christopher Ray, said the company is actually excited to demonstrate to the Attorney General’s office the higher costs that Tuning Element has had to pay in order to get these masks to market in the fastest way possible.
“Most people don’t know that every part of the supply chain has had to increase their prices,” Ray said. “Raw material suppliers have raised their prices on factories. Factories have raised their prices on distributors. Shipping companies have increased prices of international air freight. To compound things, Tuning Element does not have the buying power of larger corporations. Therefore, we don’t get large quantity discounts when we’re only buying a few thousand masks at a time.”
In fact, one example of recent shipping price increases is FedEx. The company issued a statement this month stating they’re issuing a temporary surcharge on Express shipping due to rising shipping costs associated with COVID-19.
“As odd as it sounds, we’re happy to see our state government be proactive to protect consumers. The people who have bought masks from us have been very thankful that they can find someone who can ship immediately instead of two to three months out,” Ray said.
In the past few weeks, Tuning Element has donated more than 2,700 masks to the city of Branson, including their police and fire departments, Elevate Branson (formerly Jesus Was Homeless), Faith Community Health, and two Branson nursing homes (Shepherd of the Hills and Morningside). For the past week and a half, the company also set aside 500 more masks, along with free samples of Tuning Element Technology, to be given away to area medical professionals including doctors, nurses, and aides at Cox Hospital and other clinics in the area when they schedule a curbside pickup. Unfortunately, only 20 health professionals stopped by.
Before the Attorney General’s office even contacted Tuning Element on Wednesday, the decade-old company already had plans in place to release a mask with a new feature aimed at supporting the respiratory system at the same time it’s filtering to the high KN95 standard.
“The Attorney General’s office is allowing us to move forward in selling our customized 3-ply KN95 mask with a two-inch strip of metal that’s been infused with the company’s proprietary blend of Level 1 “Earth frequencies” as well as low-range, passive frequencies aimed at supporting the respiratory system,” Martinez said. “This is actually the first Tuning Element product with this specific combination of these two blends of frequencies.”
Since 2010, more than a quarter-million people have experienced the benefits of Tuning Element frequencies aimed at overall bioelectric support of the body. For more information about the company and the new 3-ply KN95 masks, visit www.tuningelement.com or call Christopher Ray at 417-973-0000.
