Complaint Review: Courtenay A. Fay

On 8/28 there was bedroom suite on a facebook page called "Yesterday's Turnished Treasure Shabby II Chic"  advertised for $1200 painted to your custom specifications and free delivery within 90 miles.   I contacted them and purchased the bedroom suite after confirming they would deliver to where I live and that the price included the painting.

The person running the page was Courtenay A. Fay.  She told me that I had to pay upfront for custom work and that they would not hold it without payment so I sent her a check via Fed-X overnight.  She confirmed she received the check and sent me about 20-25 pictures of previous furniture she had done for me to pick the colors I wanted.

On 9/1 I picked out the color combo that I wanted and sent it to her,  she said she was very sick with the flu but that they would get started on it that week and that it would take approximately 2 weeks to do.

 On 9/16 I messaged her for an update,  she said that her husband had been in Ohio for the weekend but had started on it before he left and it would be done soon.

9/23 - I messages again for update, no response,  9/24 sent another message,  she said that they had been doing repairs inside the Armoire and had just finished up,  said she had ordered the paint and it was supposed to be in on Thursday 9/29 and they would start on it that day.

10/7 - asked for another update - reply was as soon as they finished it that would deliver that the Armoire was a bear to fix but all of the repairs were finished, that they had replaced the floor of the Armoire (this was never mentioned when I brought it).  She also told me that they were BETWEEN houses and weren't working on anything at the moment,   that they hoped to be in a house within 10 days but that it didn't have a work shed or a storage shed so she wasn't for sure when she would be able to do it.

I told her this is a big problem,  that I was promised a 2 week turnaround and it had already been 6 wks and I needed a delivery date.  She told me that she didn't have anywhere to work on it and that she could have sold the suite to someone else the day I sent her the money because they came with the cash in hand to buy it but she had already agreed to paint it for me. Like she was doing me a big favor by not selling it to someone else after I had already paid her for it.   She said she shouldn't have quoted me 2 weeks turn around when they had to do repairs and order the paint that it was Premature of them to quote that kind of turnaround time.

I told her that I had seen several items that she had painted since I paid for my suite that she had sold and asked why was working on them instead of what she had already been paid for.  She said that I would always see smaller pieces being sold,  that they do it to keep money coming in (one of the pieces was a huge Bedroom Suite that wasn't painted when I brought mine because it was posted the same day as mine - unpainted, she painted it and sold it while I was still waiting on mine)

She said there was nothing she could do,  I told her to bring me the bedroom suite and the paint and I would get someone else to paint it.  She BLOCKED me from sending her anymore messages.

At this point I got on my husband's facebook page and sent her a message asking what she blocked me?  She said she didn't that it was a facebook glitch.  I again told her to bring me the set and it paint and I would get someone else to paint it.   She said if I wanted it to come get it that she wasn't going to deliver it.   At this point my husband got involved and told her we wanted the set painted and delivered as we had paid her to do.  She said that they wanted nothing more than to do that and that she would see if she could paint it at her mother-in-laws house.  She sent a message back the next day and said that her mother-in-law had agreed and that she would get it to us in a couple of weeks.  2 weeks later no bedroom suite and nothing from her.  messaged again for an update was told that the mother-in-law's landlord wouldn't let them paint there so she couldn't do anything until she got back in a house.  

Received message from her on 11/5, said she needed to know if I wanted the bedroom suite painted or not that they were 100% moved in and it needed to know TODAY if I wanted it painted as she sold it to me "as is" not painted and that if I wnated a refund then she would try to relist it and sell it again and refund my money.  I told her that yes I wanted it painted per our inital agreement and to let me know when it would be done, she said OK

Nov 21th - sent message requesting yet another update as had heard nothing from her.   At this point she had changed the name of her facebook page to Once Upon a Dumpter Vintage Treasures and deleted the origianl post from where she had advertised the bedroom suite.  She sais she was working on it.  I asked for a timeframe as it had been almost 4 months since I paid for it - no response and she BLOCKED me from messaging her again.  Sent message to her personal account - no response

12/4 - Muy husband sent her a message to her personal facebook page and told her that we we had flied charges with the police department and that we were going to file a lawsuit.  She replied back on 12/12 after a detective from the police department contacted her and said that we had repeatedly refused to pick the bedroom suite up even after we agreed to and said we wanted to (keep in mind she had never given us a address or a date for pickup and had repeatedly said she was in the process of painting it and would deliver once done).  She also said that we brought it as is and that she had offered to paint it for free because she was trying to be nice.  That was tired of us being wishy washy that if we didn't want it as is we shouldn't have brought it.  She accused us of Slander and Harassment and for us to come get it the following Thursday at the police station. She said for me not to contact her again, that she had been nothing but nice and we had been nasty and rude and that if we didn't come pick it up on Thursday then we were relinquishing all rights to it.  and BLOCKED me again

She also sent a text message to my phone and told me the same thing, to come pick it up on Thursday "as is" and if I didn't like to sue her.  I had to work that Thursday so I messaged her back and told her I could come Saturday or any day the next week.  She told me the arrangement was Thursday, that was was tired of being played by me (???) and that if I didn't pcik it up on Thursday then I was relinquishing my rights to it.  At this point I sent a copy of all of the messages to the detective and told him I wanted to proceed with charges.  He called her again and she finally agreed that I could pick it up the following Thursday between 12 and 1 at a truck stop in Murfreesboro.  I told her i pick it up at the police stations at at 1.  She would not meet at the police station and she said I couldn't come any later that 12:45. So after 4 months,  I finally got the bedroom suite,  not painted,  no repairs done (even though she told me 3 different times that they were delayed on painting it because they were doing repairs), and I had to drive 90 miles to get it.  I'm now going to have to pay someone else to repair it and paint it and sue her in order to try to recoup my money.

DO NOT buy anything from this woman.  I found several ripoff reports after I had already gotten involved with her,  it seems this is the rule rather than the exception.  She is contantly changing the name of bother her business facebook page as well as her personal one so the names may be different from what I had listed but be very careful. I learned a very valuable and expensive lesson,  I will never pay for anything upfront again,  it is really sad that they are people that thrive on taking advantage of others like this.  I just hope this saves someone else the trouble that I went thru.