The abrupt closing of an Abilene furniture store has left many customers wondering when they will get their money back or receive the furniture they ordered.
Ashley Furniture HomeStore was closed Monday, with a sign taped to the door saying that stores in Abilene, San Angelo and Wichita Falls “have temporarily closed their doors due to shipping difficulty.”
Attempts to reach the owner of the store, San Angelo-based Lanford and Bratton Holdings, LP, were unsuccessful Monday.
Mary Ross, executive director of Workforce Solutions of West Central Texas, said her organization will conduct an informational session Wednesday for workers who lost their jobs.
“We don’t think that there will be any jobs coming back,” Ross said.
For customers, the locked store doors offered no direction about what to do regarding orders already placed with the store, though the posted note said “a buy out negotiation” was in progress, with “more details as news becomes available.”
“I’m feeling worried,” said Joseph Plata, who pulled into the lot Monday morning hoping to find out the status of a $1,200 order for living room furniture he said he placed in October. “I don’t know if I’m going to get my furniture or my money back.”
The store is the third furniture store since September to either close or announce it is closing in Abilene, following Lacks and Havertys, both chain stores. The Lacks chain announced it was filing for bankruptcy, while the Havertys chain announced it was closing its Abilene location.
Andrews Furniture on North First Street; Gallery Furniture (three locations, including South Danville Drive); and Thomas Everett’s Fine Furniture on South First Street are among the few remaining new furniture stores in town.
Tom Rose, owner of Thomas Everett’s Fine Furniture, said he was surprised to hear about the recent closings, though sales have been down at his store.
“This year, we’re down from the year before. We were steadily climbing for a number of years, and I would stay in the last three years it’s decreased every year,” Rose said.
His store focuses on service and also stocking American-made merchandise, he said, adding that he was optimistic the economy would improve and that he was “looking forward” to staying open for many years.
“I think there were more stores than Abilene could support,” Rose said.
Christian Rambo, manager of the Gallery outlet store on Butternut Street, also said that Abilene was “oversaturated” with furniture stores.
Furniture purchases can be seen as optional by consumers in a tough economy, Rambo noted.
“You don’t have to have it,” Rambo said.
The Butternut store mainly features items ranging from $299 to $499, showcasing items with at least one in stock, Rambo said.
Both Gallery and Thomas Everett’s Fine Furniture carry Ashley furniture.
“We have a lot of people calling us already” since the HomeStore closure, Rambo said.
People who already paid money to Ashley Furniture HomeStore expressed frustration, however.
Beverly Snyder is among the Ashley customers unsure of what will happen with their furniture orders.
She said she called a 1-800 number provided by the company’s corporate headquarters, but wasn’t satisfied with what she was told.
“They had been given instructions to tell people that called that they didn’t know what was going on. As soon as they knew something, they would call each and every person that purchased furniture,” Snyder said, adding, “I feel like we were just absolutely taken advantage of.”
Snyder said she used a check nine weeks ago to pay about $850 for a sofa, then received different answers about when the item would be delivered when she called to check on the status of her order.
“About three weeks ago, they told me it was supposed to be here the 29th,” Snyder said. “Well, I called again the next week, and it was, ‘Well, we don’t know when it’s going to be here.’”
Snyder said last week, she was told “it was going to be here sometime in December, not to worry about it.”
The Wisconsin-based manufacturer of Ashley furniture does not operate the stores that carry its name. On its website, the company states that each store is “independently owned and operated” by a licensee, through a licensed operating agreement. The company, which has 42 such licensed stores in Texas, as well as stores in other states, did not return a phone call from the Reporter-News seeking comment.
But the Abilene Better Business Bureau has received plenty of complaints about the store’s closing.
“The phone’s been ringing constantly since we got here this morning,” said Steve Abel, president of the Abilene bureau, on Monday.
Abel said his only advice was for customers to “have some patience.”
“Hopefully, news will develop later on about the current status of these particular stores,” Abel said, though he added, “I couldn’t even venture a guess as to what might happen.”
Annie Shegen said she had paid about half the cost of $15,000 in furniture. She said she thought a national brand like Ashley would be less likely to close abruptly.
“I never thought something like this would happen,” Shegen said.
Kevin Willhelm, an attorney with Weir & Willhelm, said he didn’t know what sort of contracts people had signed with the furniture store.
But customers might have a basis for a claim with the store owner — “‘I paid X number of dollars on a piece of furniture, I either want to finish paying that amount to get the piece of furniture or I want my money back,’” — Willhelm said.
Rodney Bratton is listed as the registered agent for Lanford and Bratton Holdings, according to online records from the Texas secretary of state, which list the address for the organization as 2639 Sunset in San Angelo, the address for the Ashley Furniture HomeStore in San Angelo.
Recent news accounts have described Bratton and Tad Lanford as owners of the stores.
In an Associated Press article published in May, Lanford said he planned to open three new furniture stores in West Texas.
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