By Petulia Clarke, Staff ReporterTHE FAIR Trading Commission says it is considering taking to court, directors of The Warehouse furniture store, as they have closed shop while owing thousands of dollars to customers.
The company operated from six locations Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Brown's Town, Village Plaza and Kingston Mall, Kingston.
But the FTC, like the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC), which has fielded dozens of customers' complaints, won't be able to file suit because none of The Warehouse directors can be found.
Barbara Lee, executive director of the FTC, told The Gleaner that the FTC, which investigates and imposes penalties in customer complaints against merchants, saw legal action as a prospect, as The Warehouse seemingly closed its doors without making promised deliveries.
"We don't know what they have in terms of assets," Ms. Lee said.
CAC reports that numerous complaints have come in with customers complaining of being duped by The Warehouse on quality and delivery.
However, the commission, which deals with individual consumer complaints, has lost contact with the one director with whom it had communicated previously. Others have either migrated or have died.
Pedro Hodges, CAC's director of research, information and communications, said last Friday that the commission's directors were knocking heads trying to find a way to deal with The Warehouse issue.
"We have to see how we can fight this. We are trying to find the directors but we haven't been successful," Mr. Hodges said. "The only thing we can tell the customers is that we'll try to get the courts to get the police to find these people, as there's no agency currently that deals with people who just pack up and leave."
Locks are on the doors at the last existing Warehouse store at Village Plaza, Constant Spring Road, and the listed phone numbers have been disconnected.
"The Warehouse must have known that it was going to close down. Yet up to the time of closure it was taking money and not effecting deliveries," Ms. Lee said in an earlier Gleaner interview. "That is highway robbery."
CAC reports 49 complaints against The Warehouse for the year, with 14 cases still outstanding. Some complaints have been referred to the small claims court. The unresolved claims started coming in August/September when the store apparently closed.
Among the complainants was Maureen Scott. She told The Gleaner that in May 1999 she purchased from the Warehouse at Kingston Mall, a $3,900 wing chair and an $8,000 recliner. Another customer said she bought a dresser in February and the bottom of the drawers have already fallen out.
"The chairs were not delivered and when I went for them I was asked to wait until August 1999," Mrs. Scott said. "In August I went to collect the chairs and to date I have not been able to collect them. I was told that the company could not find the records for the chairs so I produced my returned cheque. I was given several dates to collect but to no avail. I even bought my own material to cover the chairs because I did not like the material they had at the time." She added: "In January 2002 I had to collect my material because I was told there was no one to make the chairs."
The Warehouse was started over 30 years ago at 107 Harbour Street, then moved to Kingston Mall in 1971. The Warehouse had always concentrated mainly on furniture and living room suites. It offered customers the flexibility of being able to choose the fabric and whatever piece or pieces of the living room suite they wanted.
