Artisan gone bust & due refund HELP!

stephybambino

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Here's the story...


Just found out that ArtisanFurniture has gone bust on 28/08/09 .

On 22/02/09 we paid £1480, by maestro solo card, on 22/02/09 for a table, chairs and mirror which we were told would be delivered in 6-12 wks. We then got a letter (30/04/09) saying our goods had been delayed due to a manufacturing issue, and that our goods would be delivered by 30/06/09.

On checking the contrat Artisan state that"...in exceptional circumstances orders can take up to 26 weeks....a cancellation or refund request will not be accepted until after this timesacale" We contacted them by telephone on 24/07/09 as we heard nothing further, and were told by 'tracey' that our table and mirror were in their warehouse, but they were waiting for the chairs. She said that all items would be delivered at the start of September.

The 26 week period, after which a refund is due, was 23/08/09. Where do we stand now?:mad:

juliebutterfield

I too have ordered an item from Artisan furniture which I haven't received. I placed my order back in April and haven't heard anything from them despite telephoning and emailing. I have just read that they have gone bust, I paid my deposit of £124 by credit card, how do I go about claiming a refund?

Mark2112_2

Julie, you should now contact your credit card company about a refund, unfortunately anyone paying by solo card won't have the same protection.

I put a deposit on a bed with Artisan in April and they quoted me the magical 6-12 week delivery time. When i phoned to check after 6 weeks, I was told straight away without anyone checking that it would be 12 weeks, I have worked in retail and a wee alarm bell went off with me but decided to gve them the benefit of the doubt. However when the 12 weeks arrived and we were given more excuses. I wrote to them and gave them a delivery date of August 17th and that I was now changing the terms of the contract as you are allowed to under scots law. We received a letter telling us the goods would be in on August the 17th but when August the 17th came there was no answer to any phone calls or emails. I went to the shop and the staff said the bed was in stock and they gave me a mobile number, i phoned this and the warehouse numbers all the following day.

I had been smelling a rat about Artisan for a while, so on the thursday 20th I went to the warehouse with a van to demand they give me my bed which was in stock, or a refund of my deposit. The warehouse was closed, with no signs informing people of this or where any alternative warehouse was. I went round the back and staff were sneakily loading stock into vans, no one would tell me where my bed was or where there new warehouse was. I went straight back to the store to complain and get my refund, the salesman arranged a time for me to vist the "new" warehouse and collect my bed. Their "new" warehouse depot could only be described as a big lockup and they were obviously getting stock out of the way of the administrators.

I was one of the lucky ones and was not surprised to read the news in the daily record on saturday.

Stephy, Im afraid I cannot give you any advice on what to do now as I believe there may not be much you can do, although I am sure there are others on this site far more knowledgeable about such things.

It's a harsh lesson to people though that they should not take for granted what stores tell them, there are plenty of stores out there, so take your business to one who wil supply your goods in a reasonable time. You could have renegotiated your contract under Scots Law and made time the essence of the contract. A simple call to the Consumer Direct info line would have given you all the help you need for that.

Joanne1324

Stephy - Unfortunately, you seem to be in the same position as we are in (and I'm sure as hundreds of others are too). We bought and paid in full for our furniture in the Aberdeen store at the beginning of May by switch card. Of course, we were assured that we would receive our furniture in 6 weeks and at the very latest 12.....funny that we haven't heard a peep about it yet. I have been trying to call Artisan for months, I have emailed them & faxed their manager a letter; all with no response.
I'm not sure on this one, (so don’t quote me on it) however, you might be in a better position than we are, despite the way you paid for your goods with regards your dates because in your case Artisan have actually contractually breached the "agreement" of 26 weeks.
We were informed that one of our items was in the East Kilbride warehouse. If this is so and the item has our name or order number on it, we may be entitled to this piece from the administrators as with this identification on it; title to it has passed from them to us and thus it legally belongs to us. (How we are ever going to sort this out is beyond me…). As for the second piece, I am sad to say that I think we can say goodbye to that as we will just be thrown to the end of a list of people wanting recompense against such a shambles of a company.

I would also like to add that I am sorry that people have lost there jobs but at the end of the day, the staff (and no one else) are responsible for throwing us off for months and being completely unhelpful and unprofessional. When I eventually got through to the store (which was weeks ago so those saying they only found out a couple of days ago I think are telling porkies…) the response I got was “… listen lady, I don’t really care about your furniture; I am going to lose my job.” The staff also claim that they worked with no regard to health & safety and no contract of employment (which is illegal btw). My opinion to this – More fool you. The signs are perfectly clear that the store was closing down: (closing a depot; relocating online & telephone queries; massive sell offs; closing the Aberdeen & Ayrshire shops, not delivering goods to customers; never answering calls….need I continue.) Yet the customer service advisors happily accepted money from people and continued to take orders from their online store which I think makes them as guilty as anyone else – it’s practically theft.
The customers that had already paid in full should have been shown the same good faith as was shown to the company when they made full payment; whether they paid 320 or £2000. The fact that instead the stock was collected by the van load by opportunist bargain hunters is in my eyes appalling.

It makes me sick. Personally I would have rather thrown £1000 up in the air on Union Street than allowed for a company such as Artisan to get their hands on it. I guess hindsight is a wonderful thing…….

fleagle21

Same situation here, £253 paid as a deposit in may for a dining table and six chairs - luckily I paid by credit card so have just phoned them (the credit card co) and they've said they'll put in a dispute and will get a refund that way.
Have found out (for those who paid by other means) that the phone number for the administrators dealing with them is 0141 8874141, so hopefully that will help some of you in some way, although there are probably a lot of people gonna be queueing up for money from them....

Mark2112_2

Seems to be so many people in the same boat, its disgusting!! The staff definitely knew what was going on! if they didnt then quite simly they must be stupid as I could see there was something dodgy going on for the last few weeks.

All i can say to people is get on the phone to the administrators!! and dont give up but I think there will be a big queue.!!

Incidentally to anyone who thinks there items may have been delivered and in stock in the warehouse, when I visited the original depot, the staff were loading vans of stock at the back door and getting moved to a lock up in the same estate. I think they were moving stock out of the eyes of the administrator, so they could move it on by other means!!

Just in case anyone wants to make any enquires this new depot was at the college milton estate at 16 Hawbank Rd, up on the hill at the corner of James Watt Place. It was full of stock!!

stephybambino

"You could have renegotiated your contract under Scots Law and made time the essence of the contract. A simple call to the Consumer Direct info line would have given you all the help you need for that."

Had no idea this was possible, and that's after spending ages on the pc checking out laws on unfair contracts and stuff when they first lettered me about a delay - I read the contract stating 26 weeks in the small print at that point. I actually went onto the consumer direct website at the time, but couldn't see anything helpful and left it at that... if only I'd phoned... but decided to wait it out and cancel after the 26wks 'cos I didn't want them having my money after the hassle.

We don't usually have money to pay for 'big stuff' but had a small inheritance and decided to treat ourselves - learnt my lesson BIG TIME.

Have spoken to the administrators and they're hoping to fulfil all orders either from stock or direct from manufacturers, but can't make any promises. Am also sending a recorded delivery letter to both Artisan and the Administrators giving all our details, (on advice of consumer direct) - here are the details for anyone else who wants to register theier 'claim':

Administrators: Campbell Dallas, Tel: 0141 8874141

Thanks for all the replies
time to get a credit card - only for big items that are immediately paid off of course!

stephybambino

had meant to say thanks to mark there...
and Julie as well - you're right about being legally entitled to the goods if they have you're name/ order number on it but how do you get 'proof' of this '? especially when they're 'looting' the place daily. My partner went up to the warehouse yesterday (cheers again Mark) and spoke to the head honcho, but he said they couldn't trace any stock as the administrators have frozen them out of the computer system etc. He also went back again in the afternoon but it was completely closed up - there were two women with a van who'd been told to come for thier stuff too.

Also, apologies to fleaeagle (spelling?) didn't notice you'd already listed the administrator info - maybe I've learnt nothing after all!!

good luck to all Artisan customers!