Furniture store’s closing keeps customers waiting
May 23rd, 2007 Category Furniture StoreA Wisconsin furniture maker is trying to set things right for customers of a Joplin store that went out of business this month without filling paid orders.
Complaints from customers about the sudden closing of the local Ashley Furniture Homestore prompted an investigation by Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon’s office.
The store, like all Ashley retailers around the country, was owned and operated independent of Ashley Furniture Industries Inc., the manufacturer based in Arcadia, Wis.
On Monday, Jasper County Circuit Judge David Mouton granted Nixon’s request for a preliminary injunction freezing the Joplin store’s assets until all customers receive the merchandise for which they paid.
Scott Holste, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said Ashley Furniture’s corporate office is responding to the Joplin situation by sending trucks from hundreds of miles away with nearly $600,000 worth of furniture for the Joplin store’s customers.
The corporation issued a statement last week saying it obtained a list of customers still waiting for furniture from D&L Ventures, the company owned by Dennis and Linda Casey that did business as the Ashley Furniture Homestore in Joplin. The company said it would voluntarily try to resolve the issue by delivering the ordered furniture.
Nixon praised the corporation’s voluntary action as “immediate and appropriate.”
According to Holste and Ashley’s corporate office, up to 300 customers could be affected by the Joplin store’s sudden closing. About 80 customers had received their furniture by Monday afternoon.
Cassandra Copher received her order - a large one - on Saturday and said it was “awesome” to eat dinner on a real table again.
Copher had bought about $2,500 worth of dining room and bedroom furniture from the Joplin store on April 17.
“We’re very happy to finally have it,” she said.
No charges were filed Monday against the Joplin store or its owners, and Holste said any fines or charges would be assessed only after taking care of the affected customers first.
Information from: www.gazetteextra.com
