Complaint Review: Furniture USA - Clemmons North Carolina

I spoke with Tim Wooten today and he is an investigator with the Forsyth County Sheriffs Office assigned to the case. Tim is in direct contact with the FBI. Tim asked me to share the information to you to file your Fraud report with the Sheffis Office. You must call 336-727-2112. The report you file will be directed to Tim. I urge all of you to file immediatly. Also, file a report with the State Attorney Generals office for NC. That address is : State of North Carolina The Department of Justice 9001 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27600-9001 The more people that are heard from, the more impact it will have.

1. When did you first realize something was wrong? ***If it was last week, I could possibly forgive you. If it was last year, you have no excuse and are just as guilty for not doing something. If you have knowledge that a crime could or is being commited and you fail to report it, you are now an accomplice to that crime and should be held to the same standards of justice. 2. Were the employees coerced into providing ficticious or misleading information? ***If you were not coerced and you applied charges in violation of your own "Conditions of Sale" item #1, which reads "A 35% deposit is required at the time of sale. Customer understands that all goods are specially ordered and hence all monies are due once production had begun at the manufacturer". You could (and should) be found guilty of conspiracy to commit consumer fraud by applying charges to a credit card without ever placing an order. A subpenoa to the various furniture manufacturers will confirm that you were unable to order merchandise and, therefore, were not legally authorized to collect the balance of the order from the customer. YOU HAVE COMMITED CONSUMER FRAUD which is a felony and has a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. I hope you like the color gray! 3. WHO was responsible for applying a charge to someone's credit card. ***If it was Dean Warren, God help him. If is was you or other employees then you will be put on trial as well. 4. WHAT has happened to the credit card info that was supplied to FUSA by consumers, once the doors closed? Is this information secure now? ***Everyone who paid by credit card, do the following: 1. If you have received a credit back to your card, great! Now, report your card as lost or stolen and have a new one issued. 2. If you have not received a credit, copy the BBB report to you CC company and dispute the charges immediately. Write a letter explaining everything that has happened. Make sure you included as much information as you can. (Names, Dates, Promised Delivery Dates, etc..) 5. WHO was checking on order statuses? You? You couldn't have if most manufacturers had terminated relations with you over a year ago. ***This souds more like conspiracy to me. 6. WHAT was the number of outstanding orders that had not shipped at the time FUSA went out of business. 7. If FUSA has not declared bankruptcy, did you hear any ramblings of the company moving/relocating and reopening under a different name? 8. HOW desperate are you to help us now? You sure didn't/couldn't help while FUSA was in business. So how about helping the little guy now? You might even, in fact, earn clemency from the court. Contact the AG and provide them with all the information you can. In fact, why not spill the beans here? You still seem defensive of the company that "you believed in". WIll you believe in them, if you are put on trial? Spare yourself and spill it! 9. HOW many customer service reps are/were there? How many total employees? When was the last time any furniture was shipped? How often did you see Dean Warren? How many folks were in administration? Remember, you may not want to answer us now, but you will answer someone for what has happened. We can't send you to jail. But, we can band together and prosecute you and the company you believed in and throw you to the mercy of the court. More than likely, you could be charged with a lessor count of felony regarding consumer fraud, credit card fraud and conspiracy. You will not get away with this.

I have read comments by both the victims and the victimizer and can tell you a few truths here. I have been in the furniture business for myself and others for 20 years and know it inside and out. I have to say that the so called ex employee is lying to you all!!! There is no way that the employees didnt know that the were cut off from manufacturer's and that merchandise didn't ship. Also about being double charged I have never heard of any store making that mistake ,, EVER!! Anyone that worked there normally customer service or sales staff surely made calls to factories to place or check on orders placed and if they were cut off from their lines then the word would have passed to every employee there in no time. We don't accept credit cards for special orders at our store for the simple reason that people can charge back if they decide they changed thier mind or didnt like it once they have it shipped. I got stuck with a $ 9600.00 dining room table because the lady changed her mind. I had to pay shipping to Indiana and back which cost me $ 600.00 which I lost and it took me 2 years to sell this expensive table. So please understand dealers get the shaft as well but in this case from what I have heard from Factory Reps is that this has been going on for sometime and the furniture industry knew it for quite a while. The reason the factories wouldn't ship to them is simple, they didn't pay their bills.

The entire bunch of FUSA thieving hoodlums need to be put on the same list as the Taliban's and Al Queida's and hunted down. The top FUSA, Dean Warren, should probably be moved to the top of the list. We are coming Dean'o, hang on to your panty hose!!!! Every where you go, every thing you do, be looking over your shoulder. Who is going to find you first, is it the Fed's, is it the IRS, is it one of the people you swindled or could it even be Barney Fife coming out of retirement. I hope you planned it out all the way for your sake. However, some day you will slip up and somebody is going to grab you by the shoulder and your name will come off the list.

To Bill: VERY IMPORTANT! Call immediately your bank and report this fraud. Explain what happened (i.e., promises of delivery which never came) also explain the delay for filing a complaint (i.e., company promised backorders, etc.). Your credit card company/bank will probably have you fax/mail your statement with proof (enclose your receipt, date of charge, and a copy of the BBB report on Furniture USA along with their website and address). It will be easy for your bank to see that you are telling the truth and depending upon which bank you deal with, they may have already issued several chargebacks to this company. As I stated in my earlier comments, FURNITURE USA HAS NOT FILED BANKRUPTCY AS OF 8/18/04! To Deb - I'm very sorry that you paid by check but all hope is not lost. You have made some extremely good suggestions for the "ex-employee" that calls us all "ungrateful". If that "church-going" ex-employee really believes she was "trying to help us", which as we all know, was no help at all (you see ex-employee - lying to people doesn't help them), then she should (as you suggest) provide us with one thing that no one who works for Furniture USA has....the truth! And if Ms. Ex-employee is sincerely sorry for our lost, she will go to the Attorney General and bring as many other EX-employees as she can, and help us in our suit. If not, EX-EMPLOYEE, NEVER NEVER SAY YOU ARE "SORRY FOR OUR LOST", BUT JUST KNOW THAT YOU ARE TRULY SORRY...A SORRY INDIVIDUAL AND POOR EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN BEING!

To all the employees of this company that accepted deposits from customers that had a "clue" that something was wrong, if I were you I would seek legal council immediately. Why you ask? In most states it is considered FRAUD to do what you have done and possibility of a felony depending on the amount of the money you accepted knowing that the items ordered would not be delivered. You are as guilty as your owner and can be charged as such if your state allows it. I would also suggest to all victims to find out what state they ordered their items from and follow up on this. In many states in the U.S. this is a crime and you can file civil against the individual who accepted your funds. Please check this out. As to bashing the customer service reps, you deserve what you get.

I wrote the initial letter above. As Deb in Leesburg stated, there is a proper way to conduct business and handle bankruptcy and this wasn't one of them. To Joyce - I paid my deposit by check - and I too am a single parent who saved up to sit in an empty house. To the ex employee - I believe some of you didn't know what was going on but felt that there was something very wrong going on! You chose to keep your blinders on for the sake of your income rather than having enough integrity or ethics to stand up for yourself. The hell you went thru trying to deal with the customers was caused by your owners/management - not our "ungrateful" butts - it was their "ungrateful" butts you actually helped!! We too spent hours on the phone trying to find out what happened to our life savings, some of us begging and pleading for a simple phone call - when there was no one there the whole time. How demeaning. We aren't talking about a handful of people here but hundreds or more people. We are the victims as some of you are with the loss of your wages, however the atmosphere of that office had to be your first clue of what was to come. We didn't get any warning or even an explanation. Not just SOME people were double charged on their credit cards MANY were and others had charges not authorized at all. One person never even orderded yet and they had a charge to it. Money and orders were still being taken in mid July - well into the time this whole thing s****.. Just ask the manufacturers who Dean Warren wouldn't even talk to to explain that one! Where did all that money go? They were only two months behind in their lease and many of the creditors would have worked with them if they had just worked things out and bothered to talk with them. There were thounsands of dollars pouring in with many others wanting to place orders. How is that Bankruptcy? Why the lockout suddenly with the employees? This whole thing appears to be planned to me. People aren't always what they seem to be and some can change depending on their circumstances. Let's face it, without the employees making excuses for them instead of demanding to know what was going on, they couldn't have gotten as much as they did and played this for as long as they did. I personally would have walked from the demands from the phone alone! I can honestly say this because I was once in a similar situation and refused to lie for them. I was let go 6 months after buying my home and a 2-year old to feed but I would not lower my ethics or integrity for them or anyone else. I don't regret my decision to be honest. I can still feel good about myself. What I would like to hear from the ex employees is how things transpired and changed over time in that office. Was there any changes in management or ownership recently? We need to know what happened so that we can take the proper avenues to try to recover our money. When/how did things start changing? If you really want to help us ungrateful souls, tell us what really happened so that we can start spending our precious time cleaning up this mess that someone else created for us! I used to have a life too, but now I have to deal with this crap and think about it at night as me and my daughter sleep on the floor. Better yet - have all the ex employees could go to the Attorney General's office and give them a hand on helping us, along with the Sheriff's office. I truly would like to know what they were telling you to say and what you were told as to why all these people were complaining. So why don't you all help us get on with our lives??

Joyce E. I too am a victim of this Furniture USA Fraud. I'd like to know more about how you got your Credit Card Company to refund money for charges older than 6 mos? I am a Nov. '03 victim to the tune of $598. Any advice is very much appreciated. To Dean Warren I say: Do what's right or be judged otherwise! Thanks

Cry me a river. I actually have one of the first messages to Ripoff concerning the blatant criminal activity of anyone that worked at that place more than 1 hour. I state in my own report that you all took me for $2,000. It was a bank wire transfer - so I can't call the credit card company. I have repeated e-mails and phone conversations from your company that assurred me my furniture was ordered from day 1, since Feb. 7th and was just being delayed by the furniture manufacturer for 6 *%%^@!#*& months. Guess what American Drew claims that your Furniture USA has not placed any orders in the year 2004. I am sure that is how the majority of all your customers were treated. So, hopefully the District Attorney that covers Clemmons, NC will take all of these complaints and realize that all of this can be compared to a bank robbery where the guilty was packing heat. The only difference here is that no one needed a gun to steal from all of us. Everyone needs to contact detective Tim Wooten in Clemmons, NC (336)748-4100 and please file charges against Furniture USA. Hopefully with all the info he can help us to get some justice.

QUOTE: 2. someone commented that we are all liars. as i said before, we really believed that what we were telling you was the truth, and when it didn't come about month after month after month, we were upset. but you know what? you have to believe in something, and we believed in our company. what else were we supposed to do? just up and leave you all wondering where your furniture was and why your salespeople and customer service reps left you? no. we CHOSE to stay and help your ungrateful butts. QUOTE: we CHOSE to stay and help your ungrateful butts. NOW MY RESPONSES Sometimes we wonder what is going on with society today. This told me right here, that the person was speaking of just how they looked at consumers when you walk into their business. I am really sorry that you Katie were taken by this company, as I am sure were alot of others. Your money down the drain and that is unfair. You have nothing to show for your purchases. TO: The person that wrote what I had Quoted, you say you lost your Job, SO WHAT! You deserved to lose that job, you are a theif just like your company, you knew what was going on, or you wouldn't even had been to this site and made the DUMB a*s Remarks you made. You and Your x-company are RIP OFFS! Just remember, you took money, your company want refund to the consumers, so you are a theif and don't even try to say they or you are honest and sitting in the pew on Sundays....They are too stingy and selfish to want to even give money back, so why would they even start by refunding to GOD in church on Sundays! PLEASE... Don't try to hand us this BullShit! Katie, you keep fighting for your money, I Pray you get it! I would do everything I could and hire a lawyer and take all your documents and print this out and show what this company does to consumers .... Don't let them Rip You OFF!

I too was a victim of Furniture USA. This is what I know: I became suspicious of this company when my furniture did not arrive when promised. When I contacted FUSA, my sales rep told me of delays, then quit responding to me. Cust Svc reps told me of further delays and explained that "because they were having such an increase in business" the factories could not keep up with their orders. That was a blatent lie! I called many, many times and NEVER got anything but deceit and denials that this company was in trouble. I only got a response from my sales rep when I looked her home number up on the internet. When she returned my call, I was on a speaker box and her responses were 'controlled'. Whoever is the rebuttal employee here is only trying to shirk her responsibility as a human to tell people the truth and to quit deceiving new customers. Yes, she may be out some money, but it was her choice to stay and be complicit with the con game going on there. She could have contacted all her employees and tell them to cancel their orders immediately and to notify authorities (police or atty general) that the owner is committing fraud. She made the choice to stay until the end and to continue to lie her butt off.

Yes, I do agree that some things were bad decisions on their part, I'm not saying they weren't. All I'm asking is that people stop saying that they employees are at fault because they're not. You mentioned that we had to have had a CLUE. Yes, we did have a CLUE, and that's why we were trying to help. Also, a CLUE is a lot different than knowing the whole truth. Like I said, I'm sorry you were ripped off and that it was done in that manner, but please stop bashing the employees who are just as much a victim as you.

Here is the lastest as of 12:00EST August 17, 2004: I phoned Bankruptcy Court in Winston-Salem and Furniture USA has not filed for bankruptcy to date. As for the comments made by the ex-employee, I have the following to say: I too, am a victim of Furniture USA and its employees in the worst kind of way. I ordered furniture in October 2003. After repeated excuses of "backorders" and the whole shabang, I was just recently phoned and told my order was ready for shipment and to send money orders for the balance. In total, the company got me for $9,200! Fortunately, my credit card company did refund the $3,290 initial deposit fee. I URGE ALL VICTIMS OF FURNITURE USA TO CONTACT YOUR CREDIT CARD COMPANIES AND DISPUTE THIS CHARGE IRREGARDLESS OF HOW LONG ITS BEEN. BE SURE TO INCLUDE A COPY OF THE BBB REPORT. This was helpful in resolving my claim. However, unfortunately, the company is getting away with $5,900 of my hard-earned money! As a single-parent, this was all I had to furnish my new home. This is an absolute outrage and as far as the "ex-employee's" statement of how good and pure they were, here's a thought: If you are sooo good and pure, why didn't you let your customers know your company was having problems? Please don't even try to underestimate the public's intelligence by stating "you had no idea"! Here's a suggestion: If as you state, The owner of Furniture USA is indeed, not a "criminal", then I propose that he sell/auction all of the furniture he removed from the store/warehouse on August 9, 2004 and return the money (as much as possible) to his customers starting with the customers with whom he collected the money first.

Thank God all of the other listings for Furniture USA are not the NC company. I don't believe one word you say and your letter obviously has an unsincere tone. I have had many many interactions with customer service and at no time did I feel as if your company was bending over backwards to try to help me. I was told "I'll call you right back" dozens of times, no phone call, no promised email updates. Not even ordered furniture. How do you defend your company to all of the customers who thought their furniture was on order for months and when they called to manufacturers to check, we were told there was no order? Furniutre USA has had my money since Nov 2003 and my furniture was never ordered. Customer service didn't know that? When you claimed to call the manufacturer to find out " where the furniture is" you weren't told that? I don't believe you for a minute. My credit card disputes have to be filed within 60 days and within 100 miles of my residence, which doesn't help in getting my money back. What about the people who paid cash? Even if I do get my money back, I am still filing all of the appropriate suites. I am not dropping it. I was stolen from and lied to. I did end up purchasing the same furniture from another company for a higher price and if there is a class action suit I will sue for the price difference since I do have a sales agreement with Furniture USA. As far as coming to your house, don't count on it. I do have a life and could care less about coming after a customer service rep. The fault lies with the president of the company. But don't come across as saying everyone was trying so hard to help the customers. I can only speak for myself though, I was not being helped. I was actually treated as a hinderence.

Your integrity is on the line and your owners should go to jail for what they have done to all the consumers out there. I come from a family owned business that did file bankruptcy in 1994 and you know what? We did not have the problems that this company had because number 1 we told our employees what was happening, number 2 we told our loyal customers what was happening and number 3 at a certain date we stopped taking any deposits on any long lead time items. You see it is a law in bankruptcy that you CANNOT make any large payments to any creditors 90 DAYS prior to filing for bankruptcy. Your OWNERS had to have known this information over 3 months ago. We had worked out a schedule with our large creditors to be on a C.O.D. basis so that we could honor any deposits we had for our long lead time items which were mainly custom made cabinets. We SATISFIED every customer!!!! Even though we closed down, we did so in such a manner that we did not upset a single customer. We liquidated all inventory, put it in a seperate account and turned it over to the bankruptcy judge for distribution to the creditors. My own father stopped taking a paycheck for the last 6 months, I stopped taking a paycheck for the last 3 months so that we would not drain the company dry. It is what a honorable company does. It does not disappear in the middle of the night. It does not take deposits up until the very end. What your company did is totally wrong!!! I have a strong feeling that you as an employee did know what was going on or at least had a clue. All of you should be terribly ashamed of yourselves!!! Someone that has been there

Dear Rip-off reporters: Yes, I am a former employee of the infamous Furniture USA. Let me first let you know that I am extremely sorry to all of you for everything that you're going through right now. Also I would like to clear up the fact that I am not even sure what is going on with Furniture USA right now, all I know is that all employee positions have been eliminated. The reason I decided to write on this website is because I think it is pretty nasty of those of you who have bashed the employees of this company. Yes, I feel so bad that your money has been taken and that you don't know if you will ever get it back. But please realize that it's not the employees' fault. After working with them all, they are wonderful wonderful people, who sincerely believed in what they were telling you all. They did not mean to rip you off, and when you called us asking why your furniture wasn't here yet, we were hurting just as much as you were. We poured our lives into helping you, and I know that some of you did not get the customer service that you deserve, but let me just clear up a few rebuttals that I have for the thirteen complaints that I have read. 1. The "nice and courteous" southern accents bit was a little much. when linda read that she went home crying. thank you to miss jill for that wonderful display of care. I also love how you commented on how we would be in the pew on sunday morning. i can tell you that most of the people that i worked with are caring loving people who probably WOULD be in the pew on sunday morning. they're good. and they're HONEST. they didn't know it would turn out this way and they were only trying to HELP YOU for crying out loud. we were just as much of a victim as you were. i know you're thinking, no, you didn't lose any money. well let me tell you... yes we did. we lost our jobs, and a job MEANS money. we also lost a lot of sleep because there were many of us working 10-12 hour days trying to get your furniture to you to NO AVAIL. "how does that feel?" you may ask. not good. we also lost our integrity because our names are slewn all over the internet. so yes, jill, we would be in that pew on sunday morning praying for those of you who choose to make the assumption that we are dishonest liars. which brings me to my next point. 2. someone commented that we are all liars. as i said before, we really believed that what we were telling you was the truth, and when it didn't come about month after month after month, we were upset. but you know what? you have to believe in something, and we believed in our company. what else were we supposed to do? just up and leave you all wondering where your furniture was and why your salespeople and customer service reps left you? no. we CHOSE to stay and help your ungrateful butts. 3. another person commented that the president is criminal and so are the employees. again, not true. many mistakes were made on the part of the administration, they will admit to that. that does not make them criminal. they're trying to make it right, if i know them at all. they're also good people, and i will tell you one thing... the employees are absolutely wonderful nice caring people as well, and that's all i have to say on that issue. 4. this one actually makes me laugh. assuming that we are the same person? hm. somehow that just doesn't make any sense to me but... ok. you know what happens when you assume. 5. about the other locations. i actually researched that. and they're different companies. not us (or what used to be us) at all. don't know why they have the same name as us... but they're not us. 6. the most important thing i think is about the double charges. sorry. sometimes orders got turned in twice. and it was a mistake. so i apologize. i'm sorry. please forgive us. anyway... i hope this helps, not hinders. and i'm scared of you all showing up at my house, so i chose not to report my name or city. again, i'm so sorry to you all. i would take it back if i could. my advice would be to just report it with your credit card company, get your money back, and get on with your lives. there's no criminal activity here, no hot pursuit. leave the drama to hollywood, ok guys?