furniture order

tinmanscarecrow

Hi Kazie

when your bank said that it was too late i.e.past the four months is that four months since you ordered the goods or four months since you realised that they weren't going to deliver? Because it should be from the time you are sure you aren't getting the goods.
If you live within a reasonable distance from the stores if all else fails I would pay them a visit and ask for your money back in a very loud voice in front of as many customers as possible and tell them you will be taking them to a small claims court and they will have to pay costs and expences.it might not get your money back there and
then but it would make you feel a little better and make them realise you won't let it drop.
I found another link from their site
this registration address is I.P.D. Furniture LTD .
14-15 Rashs Green Dereham Norfolk NR19 1JG. telephone no. 01444 239999

Not sure about the connection but it seems strange the telephone number doesn,t match that area but is very like the ones for the Furniture Warehouse Nr Burgess Hill.If you have looked on the site you will have noticed that they have lost lots of suppliers ,I dont think they are paying them thats why we aren't getting the goods.
I hope you get your money back whatever you decide to do.
GOOD LUCK .:xmassmile

kazie10

Thanks for the info tinmanscrecrow. This company also has a phone number just for you to place an order and they are not anwering that phone line now so I fear the worst.:mad:

As for the bank and its the same one as yours, they are going back to when I placed the order which is 25th August and I placed my order over the phone would that make any difference. They did send me a reciept. It was only two weeks ago when the penny dropped as I was always able to get through to them and as it was a glider chair and stool they told me that they were waitng for the frame which was coming from abroad.

The company is about 70 miles from me which is no problem and I would be happy to shout and show them up but I understand its just a warehouse so doubt if I would get my money from them. I have sent them a letter giveing them 14 days for a refund. I will then send them another and give them a further 7 days then I will try the courts.

I know the name and address of the company director in Brighton and sent a copy of my letter to him as well both recorded delivery. I am so upset but just pleased thats all I ordered from them.

Kazie

darrylb

Furniture warehouse has gone into administration - no orders can be fulfilled appaerntly, they order stuff from the manufacturers and have a credit limit, and have to pay them within thirty days - they haven`t been doing this - so they cannot fulfil any orders at all - the company dealing with the insolvency is a company called whitemaund and the phone number is 01273 731164 - and ask to speak to Laura
and at the moment, talking to them, they are just about to go to court regarding Peter Ablewhite paying back his creditors, and they will be offering around 34p in the pound - so a major loss! - this amount is subject to the creditors accepting or rejecting this amount - so everyone would foolish to accept the first offer - unfortunately the major creditors would be getting the lions share, whilst the smaller creditors like the customers basically have to share the breadcrumbs!

kazie10

What a lot of information you managed to get hold off.WELL DONE YOU

Thank you very much for your feedback darrylb. My bank told me they won't do a chargeback because I am outside the 120 days I have phoned them three times and on the third time I told them I have been in touch with Martin Lewis and in the next breath the guy said oh I may be wrong I will send you a form :mad:

If the company are in trouble does this mean Barclays won't e able to do the chargeback?

Kazie

darrylb

The advice from Valma from furniture warehouse was (unofficially of course) to go along the charge back route if possible - but obviously if you say the company has gone into administration then they won't pursue it at all - so just say you've sent a letter saying they are in breach of contract, and that furniture warehouse say they don't know when they will be able to honour the contract.

tinmanscarecrow

Hi Darrylb,
How can they still be trading from the website if they are in administration ? the people dealing with the admin should have to make them cease trading , surely it is commiting fraud to take orders while in administration ?

kazie10

Hi All

When I notified the bank it was true I didn't know they had gone into administration it was thanks to your post derrylb. I did send a letter to there two addresses in Burges Hill and one to the director in Brighton I also sent the letters recorded delivery so have the receipts to prove it.

When the bank finally agreed to send me a form they also gave me a reference number the form I haven't received as yes if it's not here by Monday I will be back onto them again. Once again thanks to everyone for your posts and of course this wonderful site. I will keep you all updated so fingers crossed.

wadsterboy_2

Dear All

I am also a customer who has been left out of pocket and have been following this thread with interest.

After no luck with phones and emails, in the end, I spoke to Gainsborough who confirmed they hadn't been accepting orders for months and had a writ out against Mr Ablewhite.

I sent Mr B-I-L round to the BH store in late November (he lives near to them), and he literally collared a member of staff, said to them that I wanted to speak to them, and thrust his phone against their ear!

The member of staff I spoke to claimed it had been taken over and the 'old' company was in administration, but they would still be able to deliver my order! However, I now think this was lack of information and awareness of the true picture, rather than staff lying to me.

In the end, I got details of Whitemaunds out of the person, who turned out to be an insolvency practitioner rather than an administrator. They have been working on the IVA - eg a 'way out' of this for Mr Ablewhite.

Can I just clarify, that despite what the Furniture Warehouse website says, Mr Ablewhite is a sole trader, and therefore the company cannot go into administration. He is personally liable for all debt, and can only go bankrupt, and this is what the proposed IVA of 34p in the £1 is designed to prevent. If he goes bankrupt, we all get nothing, but he loses everything. The IVA would mean we get something, but he probably keeps his house!

Of course, if the relevant proportion of the creditors don't accept the IVA, he goes bankrupt, but it's likely the big creditors would rather get something back than nothing, so this is unlikely.

Whitemaunds (01273 731144), the insolvency practitioner dealing with this, told me the 'new' company set up at Burgess Hill - Furniture For You was just a rebrand, designed to keep the business ticking over, to try and swell the coffers for the creditors.

I rang this FW number on the off chance today - 01444 810090 - and someone answered. She is the last remaining member of staff and has been collating details of everyone who has outstanding orders, to be passed to Whitemaunds. She tells me the BH store is now closed, and advised going down the chargeback route.

If you contact her, she can send you an email that acknowledges that they can't fulfil the order and she can't authorise a refund, which is what your bank will need when you submit your form for a Visa Debit chargeback. Do persevere when you ring your bank - ask to be put through to the Visa Debit team, as most frontline staff don't know about the chargeback system. They should send you a form.

It does seem the website is still running and accepting orders - I plan to launch a web site after Christmas designed to flag this up and to advise people to avoid Mr Ablewhite's businesses - including his Uckfield store, which is apparently still open and trading (although apparently the building is owned by his son Gary Ablewhite).

The staff appear to have been led to believe everything was fine and orders were being processed (although in reality, Ablewhite wasn't paying the bills) and they have used some very choice words to describe him. So we can't blame them, and many weren't paid for their work in the final weeks/months.

Good luck everyone - PM me if you would be interested in exposing this man in the media. It might be one for Watchdog if enough us are willing to speak up. He certainly deserves lots of bad press.

Wadsterboy

tinmanscarecrow

Hi Wadsterboy,

Thanks for the info,seems I may be one of the lucky ones ,will be very interested if you get any more updates on what is happening.

tinmanscarecrow

wadsterboy_2

Got my IVA papers yesterday - if you register as a creditor with Whitemaunds, you will get a proxy vote for a meeting on 6th January to vote on the IVA. However, it is those suppliers who are owed big money who will get the say, as the more they are owed, the more influence they have.

So don't worry too much about the vote - just get in touch with them and get the appropriate paperwork sent, so you are registered as a creditor should the IVA go through.

If it's passed, it's estimated unsecured creditors with get 35p in the £1. If not, Mr Ablewhite will be declared bankrupt, creditors will get 12p in the £1.

The reason for this is higher costs associated with bankruptcy and the forced sale of his house (worth 450k), which means that he can't run his cattery business from there, which will bring in 75k for creditors over five years.

The proposal is for 22p payment in the £1 within the first year, and then 3.25p in the £1 per year for 4 years.

The papers reveal some interesting things;

* Total owed to creditors = £471,000

* One secured creditor is HSBC, who have a charge on his property for a maximum of £187,000 to cover "any chargebacks from customers for unfulfilled orders". The estimated liability for this is put at £75,000 - which means lots of customers haven't got what they paid for!

But it does mean that if you claim for chargeback on Visa / Visa Debit, your bank can retrieve the money from HSBC, which can claim it back from Mr Ablewhite (he intends to arrange to add this money to an existing loan), so there shouldn't be too much problem, so long as you can prove your goods haven't delivered.

* He's selling his Jaguar for £10k, and asking for £1,500 back to buy vehicle to run his cattery business.

* He has £50k in the bank from a property sale which will go into the pot.

* Both businesses in Uckfield and Burgess Hill will close and fittings and fixtures will be sold. Estimated value is £17k, plus £1k for a van.

Obviously, if you can't claim your money back through your bank, you will have to go down the IVA route, but on a £1,000 order you will only get a maximum of £350 back, and then you will have to wait several years to get it all.

Hope that's useful. If anyone has trouble proving their order has not been delivered, and think a copy of the IVA papers might help with this, please PM me.

As I said earlier, Valma (last remaining staff member) is apparently compiling spreadsheet of customers who paid money for orders which weren't delivered to Whitemaunds, so they may be able to send you a copy of this as proof to show the bank - see earlier post for details.

The IVA papers are great for nosy people - and of course you get Mr Ablewhite's correct address, should you want to send him a Christmas card!