About a month ago, 2nd Time Around Sports owner Joe Mastrati began to receive some shocking e-mails.

They were complaints from the Better Business Bureau, and they concerned people who thought they were losing out on their consignment money because of his store’s closure. That’s when Mastrati noticed something peculiar.

“I was saying, ‘That’s a Boston address, I’m a Cranston address,’” Mastrati said. “I e-mailed them back saying, ‘Check the addresses, it’s not me.’ They e-mailed me back saying sorry, they closed the case. Two different cases were opened up against me in Cranston.”

The Second Time Around in question has two locations, one in Providence and another in Boston. Mastrati said it’s been a slow uphill climb since the misguided complaints, but sometimes he still has to stress to callers that his business is not closing.

In fact, it’s far from it.

“No, we’re not closing,” Mastrati said he tells callers. “We’re thriving, we’re doing well. We still have your consignment money here if you want to come pick it up [or] drop stuff off.”

He said he even has the occasional customer ask him if the store is closing.

Though, in Mastrati’s defense, he once weighed stopping the other Second Time Around from using his name. Mastrati’s business started in 1992, while the newer consignment shop didn’t come around until about a decade ago. He asked his brother, a lawyer, if it would be worth it to fight the use of a name very similar to his own company.

“I asked [my brother], could I tell them to stop using my name?,” Mastrati said. “He said you'd have to take them to court, it’s about $8,000 to $10,000 and there’s no guarantee. I said, ‘You know what, let them use it.’”

Now it’s back to just one store in town with that name, but Mastrati had to react quickly when he realized the misunderstanding.

“I put two and two together and started making phone calls,” Mastrati said. “With everybody closing, Sports Authority, Sears, people would think it in half a second.”

Despite the hassle, Mastrati certainly knows there is no such thing as bad publicity.

“Hopefully it gets my name out there and people know we’re not closing.”