The state attorney general has announced a $100,000 settlement with the owners of Prizant's, the Pittsburgh-area flooring chain that closed abruptly last month, angering hundreds of customers who had made down payments but hadn't received the products that they ordered.

Prizant's, a Pittsburgh fixture for four decades, continued to advertise until the day it closed its remaining five stores, the Attorney General's Office said in a court filing. If the chain -- which closed half of the retail locations in its 10-store operation early in December -- hadn't agreed to reimburse its customers, it would have been in violation of the state's consumer protection laws, the agreement said.

The voluntary compliance agreement, filed yesterday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, requires Prizant's to either fill customer orders or reimburse customers, so long as the customers file a claim with the attorney general's Bureau of Consumer Protection in the next 30 days.

If Prizant's LLC doesn't, or can't, comply with the agreement, it also will be subject to a $20,000 civil fine.

Founder Samuel Prizant sold the chain to Sewickley investors Rob Lang and Mark Scioscia in mid-2006. Last year, the new ownership group also recruited Richard Hvizdak, a businessman and antiques dealer, to invest in the company.

"We made an agreement," Mr. Hvizdak said yesterday. "Hopefully we're going to install the carpeting that we can, and reimburse the rest."

One of Mr. Hvizdak's attorney's, Robert O. Lampl, said Mr. Hvizdak is considering putting Prizant's into bankruptcy protection and legal action against Mr. Lang and Mr. Scioscia.

Former employees have said the company was poorly run in the final months, paying too much for splashy advertisements and losing its lines of credit at flooring suppliers. That, combined with a downturn in new home construction -- which accounts for a big portion of a flooring company's business -- helped lead to the company's demise.

In a statement, Attorney General Tom Corbett said:

"While it's regrettable that the company's decision to suddenly close caused so much distress and uncertainty for Prizant's customers, especially during the holiday season, we appreciate their assistance in identifying what resources were available to assist consumers,"

So far, the bureau has received 80 complaints from customers, though there likely are scores more who didn't receive carpeting. Many of those, however, took advantage of discounts from competitors such as Molyneaux flooring and Rusmur Floors, which filled the orders of disaffected Prizant's customers, giving them credit for the down payments they made.

Those customers still will be able to claim the difference -- if they made a $1,000 down payment to Prizant's but received a credit from Molyneaux for $700, for example, they'd be able to submit a claim for the remaining $300.

Consumer claims can be filed by calling the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Hotline toll-free at 1-800-441-2555, or by submitting an online complaint using the attorney general's Web site, www.attorneygeneral.gov. Web site visitors should scroll over the "complaints" icon at the top left corner, then click on "consumer complaints" from the drop-down menu.