Furnitureland South Ripoff Selling Used Furniture as New Jamestown North Carolina

I drove to Furnitureland South from NY in June of 1999 and purchased 10k worth of home furniture from them. I paid 1/3 down as required in cash as this is the only form of payment they accept, which I thought was odd. I later found out they do this as they defraud people and it's next to impossible to get your money back once they have it, but I'm jumping ahead of myself.

I was excited to get the furniture as I had just purchased a new house and I couldn't wait to get the stuff. I was promised all of my furniture within 6 weeks. A few weeks later I get a telephone call from them stating my stuff has been delayed and it will be another 4 weeks. I reluctantly agree to this since they have my money already and I really need the stuff. Then a few more weeks pass and I get another telephone call telling me I have to wait another 4 weeks as my furniture has again been delayed. I freak out and demand my money back at this point. They refuse claiming that part of order has already been completed. I'm pissed off, but what can I do? They 3300k of money and I'm stuck since I can't afford to just let the money go.

I finally get a call that my furniture is on its way and I am given a date for its arrival. I'm told to have a cashiers check ready as they won't give me the furniture without it. I take the day off from work and anxiously await the delivery. It never arrives on the date promised. I get a phone call at 8:00pm that night from the driver of the delivery truck that he's lost, tired, and can't make it, but he'll be there the following day. I'm now out a days pay, $416.00, and I have to take off the following day again to get the furniture.

The following day the delivery guy arrives and he immediately requests my cashiers check for the balance of the order. I tell him "no", not until I inspect the furniture. He refuses, we go back and forth, and I eventually give him the check after calling the company and being assured that if anything is wrong with the furniture it will be quickly taken care of.

The nightmare now begins. I examined the furniture as they began bringing it in and every single piece of furniture was damaged except the leather couch, which they damaged trying to get into the front door. One end table had been completely reduced to splinters of wood despite being in a boxed container.

I demanded my check back and they refused to return it saying I had to deal with Furnitureland South to resolve this problem as they are only the delivery company and are not Furnitureland South employees. They claimed to be a separately contracted company who only make deliveries for them on a per diem basis.

They agreed to take the leather couch and splintered end table back, but they refused to take anything else back. They claimed the damage was only minor and Furnitureland South would send someone personally to my home to make the repairs as it happens all of the time. This I found was a lie later on. They were supposed to take everything back that was damaged, but they didn't want to out of laziness.

I tried calling Furnitureland South to complain that day, but they were closed. The following day I called them to complain about all of the damaged items and was then informed the delivery company was supposed to have taken all damaged items back with them. This would have been all of my furniture. When I mentioned the in home repair she said they didn't do that and never did. I requested a complete return of my money and she refused saying it's not their policy and I would have to wait until a truck was in my area for them to pick up the damaged items. All of my furniture had to be shipped back to them to be repaired.

The process of getting them to come and take the furniture, get it repaired and sent back to me took almost 2 years before I gave up. They would take 1 or 2 items every 6 weeks and ship them back for repair. It took 6 weeks for them to fix stuff once they got it, and it came back in worse condition every time. Parts were missing that originally weren't, new damage was done to the furniture, and items came back stained the wrong colors after their failed fixes.

I complained to the New York State and North Carolina Attorneys General, Better Business Bureaus in both states, the Federal Trade Commission, and to the owner of Furniture Land South without success. I was eventually mailed a check from Furnitureland South in the amount of $600.00 to cover my damaged items, which didn't even cover the amount to fix 1 piece.

My 2 year battle with them is much abbreviated here. It would take up too many pages to properly document all of their lies and fraudulent sales practices. I recorded many of my phone calls with them and caught them lying almost every single time I called. Hopefully, someone will sue them out of business with a class action lawsuit.

Furnitureland South's motto should be "Damaged used furniture at new prices" because that's what you get when buying from them.

Douglas
Nanuet, New York
U.S.A.

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