News 4 was investigating FWS at closure

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - News 4 has been investigating customer complaints against FWS for weeks, but before our report could air, the business closed suddenly on Wednesday.

Now, even more complaints have poured into the Better Business Bureau since the furniture shut its doors. For weeks, FWS customers Called 4 Action after ordering thousands of dollars worth of furniture and only got excuses.

The Elmwood Avenue store is closed after the Clarence store was shut down earlier this month. After three months of waiting on her order, Lynne Jensen called FWS to cancel, expecting to get her $800 back.

"Well, then I was informed by the manager that the company was for sale and all the account had been frozen," Jensen said.

And when customers did get their refunds from FWS, Peggy Penders of the BBB said, "We have reports of refunds that have been received through checks, and unfortunately some of those have bounced."

An FWS customer told News 4, "I did deposit it in my checking account, and sure enough, I got it back yesterday. The check was no good. The check bounced. And I was charged a $15 service charge by my bank, for a 'return service fee.'"

Thursday afternoon, FWS released a written statement saying, they are closed, and are preparing for liquidation, adding, "the potential for having to close down all operations became a reality on Tuesday. The company has surrendered the assets of the company to our secured lender, and we are in the process of providing them with all open order consumer information."

Assistant Attorney General Jim Morrissey would not comment specifically on the FWS case, but did say consumers have special protections when ordering furniture, and the seller must stick to deadlines, give the customer choices of accepting a later date, or "a complete refund, or a store credit, or an equal amount that could be used for some other merchandise, and it is the consumer's option, not the store's option of which of those three options they are going to take," he said.

Based on its statement, FWS is officially out of business, so we are referring all Call 4 Action complaints to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's Consumer Frauds Bureau. The BBB is doing the same.

If you have ordered furniture from FWS that has not been delivered or you are waiting for a refund, you can call the New York Attorney General's Consumer Hotline at 853-8404.

The full statement from FWS is below:

Due to very difficult economic conditions FWS will be closing its doors after a liquidation sale is completed. There will be a brief period of time where daily operations will be shut down for inventory.

The potential for having to close down all operations became a reality on Tuesday. As a result we have surrendered the assets of the company to our secured lender, and we are in the process of providing them with all open order consumer information. The secured lender is the process of securing an agent to manage the closing of the company. We advise all customers with outstanding orders to call (716) 874-5740 EXT: 221 where they can leave their contact information, and they will be contacted by the agent.

We would like to thank the thirty-two employees of FWS for their years of dedication and hard work. We would also like to thank the hundreds of thousands of Western New Yorkers who have shopped local and supported FWS for the last fifty years. The current situation is not something that we had ever dreamed would happen, and we are deeply saddened that we no longer have control over the operations of the company.