Being disabled from 5 spinal surgeries over the last 10 years I was desperate for something to help relieve my constant back pain. As it turns out buying a set from Anthony Tringale & Southern Furniture Direct AKA Weekenders Furniture found a way to make me feel even worse!!!
Here's the story so far. I have to apologize for the length, but I am trying to get all the details in here.
On 9/1 my girlfriend and I saw an flyer in the Times Union Newspaper advertising a "Distributor's Clearance Furniture Sale 50%-80% off retail - BUY DIRECTLY FROM THE DISTRIBUTOR'S WAREHOUSE, This Monday only, Sept 1st 11am-6pm" [SEE DOCUMENT tinyurl.com/brtqxr].
We didn't arrive until 5:45pm. A salesman by the name of Anthony Tringale answered some questions on a Simmons Beautyrest mattress/boxspring. I mentioned that I have had 5 back surgeries and he seemed to understand my need for a quality mattress. I asked if the price was negotiable. He then stepped aside and after placing a phone call he told us he could go down to $800.00 instead of the advertised $1200 price.By that point it was 6pm and he was closing. Since it was more money than either of us had planned spending I asked him to write down the make and model so we could research prices and get back to him. He wrote down "Simmons BeautyRest World Class Level 4 w / Visco ~25 YR.~
[SEE DOCUMENT tinyurl.com/b2d7rs] and told us to get back to him asap.
On 9/2 we shopped around a bit and realized the mattress set we wanted was very expensive so decided to go back to the Southern Furniture Direct warehouse on Railroad Ave with plans on buying the $800 Simmons set. After sitting on the bed a few more times I questioned its firmness. He told me he could check to see if they had the same model with a slightly firmer pillow top. He placed another call and then told me they do have a Simmons with a slightly firmer visco foam pillow top. He explained only the foam topper would be different from the model we were sitting on and it would be a level 8 instead of a 4.
I asked him about the warranty and he assured me Simmons has a solid 25 year warranty and if anything is wrong to call him before dealing with Simmons. After a lot of research on it we decided it was a good deal and we should buy it before we miss out. We were asked to pay half now and the rest when it was delivered from the warehouse which is also said earlier would ship directly from Simmons. $464.80 was charged to my VISA card under the name "WEEKENDERS FURNITURE" He explained that their credit machine wasn't working and he had to phone it in to his partner (Joshua Tice) on a cell phone which I thought seemed unprofessional. The invoice read "QUEEN #8 MATTRESS AND BOX SET" [SEE DOCUMENT tinyurl.com/b2d7rs]. I questioned why it didn't say Simmons Beautyrest on it and he told me this was a standard invoice and they have all the details at the warehouse. I didn't give his response much thought and to be honest I was thinking more about the new bed and not of logistics at this point.
Ten days later Anthony called and told us our set was in. My girlfriend Chrissy paid the remaining balance [$464.00] with a check. We had arranged delivery the next day through a delivery service that Anthony had suggested. When it was delivered and taken out of the plastic, we both noticed that it didn't appear to be the same model that we had originally paid for. Since the delivery man didn't have any information on it we told him we would contact Anthony about it.
It was a totally different mattress and box spring! We previewed and paid for a Simmons Beautyrest set and we received a SleepMaster mattress and box spring. It was clearly stated on the tags [SEE DOCUMENT tinyurl.com/cy3nop]. It was clearly a different brand mattress and on top of that it also had several defects including loose threads, dirty spots, and holes as well. [SEE DOCUMENT tinyurl.com/au6hh8]. It was also about 10" taller than what we sat on in the warehouse and I had difficulty trying to get on top of it. NO WARRANTY was provided either.
We called Anthony right away and left a message. When he called back and heard all of this, he insisted it was in fact a Simmons brand mattress and he was sorry that he failed to mention it was a FACTORY OVERSTOCK! I told him it wasn't what we had tested in the warehouse and we weren't happy with it. At this point he became very defensive and wouldn't admit that he sold us a Simmons mattress and delivered a much cheaper Sleep Master set. After talking with him for nearly 45 minutes he then told us to try it out overnight and if we find we do like it he would replace ours with a defect-free version with warranty and if we were not happy he would take care of it. I was upset and exhausted and it was 5pm on a Saturday and nothing would get refunded anyway so I decided to do what he suggested.
The next day [Sunday, 9/14/08] I gave him a call told him we wanted a refund. He told us he would send out an email and get back to us on Monday morning.
[Monday 9/15/08] We called him Monday afternoon and asked if he had heard back and he told us "nothing yet". After waiting a few hours I felt like we were getting the run-around so I called him back and told him to issue a refund and arrange to have his mattress and box spring picked up. At that point he became very rude and told me that isn't possible. I questioned if it was a "manufacturer overstock" why did it have a manufacture date of SEP 08 2008 and at that point he told me he had helped us enough and hung up!
He called back telling me I had 3 options. 1. He would send us a real Simmons Beautyrest like we ordered, 2. We could have the floor model (which had a big tear through the side of it along with being used) 3. We could get a refund minus a 35% restocking fee and pay to have it delivered back to him. I told him I want a refund, but I wasn't paying a restocking fee and he said those are your options and hung up.
We have since contacted the local police (Colonie) and waited over an hour for them to show at a location near his storefront. The policeman seemed to know Anthony quite well and told us he'd rather not file a report on him because he felt it was more of a BBB situation.
I filed a fraud complaint with my Chase Visa card and Chrissy put a stop order on the check. She was able to stop it in time. My credit card company credited me for the other half. 3 Months after that, they took the money out of my account AGAIN! The only explanation I received was this...
Chase: (when a customer signs a receipt with "All Sales Final" clearly printed on it, it severely limits our ability to dispute a charge.) First of all I never signed the invoice. You can see Antony's signature at the bottom:
[tinyurl.com/b2d7rs].
I am very upset by their decision and thought Chase would value a customer over rotten sellers like this. I lost all faith in their "buyer protection". I told them I am thinking about canceling my account which has been in 100% perfect standing for over 12 years now. They even tried to sell me extra buyer protection when I called to complain... Now that really *#^$% me off!
I am very stressed out over this and feel it's so obvious what they have done here. I have voice recordings of Anthony telling me it was a Simmons brand and even offering to swap this SleepMaster $200 mattress for a Simmons Beautyrest, but after all of his lies and rudeness I didn't want to dig a deeper hole. I just wanted to return this set and buy from a another store. I even have him recorded telling us that we are wasting our time trying to get our money back. As he said "Many customers have tried to get their money back and no one ever does"... That line pretty much sums up their intentions and ethics. Weekenders Furniture's shady business should be investigated and all the customers who have been scammed by them deserve a refund.
Thinking this was finally behind us we purchased a Serta mattress and boxspring set from a reputable company back when the credit from Chase Visa was posted. Now that they Rebilled us for Weekender's Furniture a second time we're having to pay for both sets and it's left me financially unstable.
To sum up, We were shown a name brand mattress (Simmons Retail $1600), lied to about the invoice (which he signed, not me) and delivered a $200 SleepMaster mattress (which he called an "overstock" and never mentioned the company SleepMaster).
He had several cell phone numbers which are all OUT OF SERVICE now. He claims to be very religious, ending most phone recordings with "Have a blessed day". Yet he told me not to SCREW HIM, along with other very rude language.
He ran a business in Colonie, NY, which is now an empty warehouse. I recently came across someone else on here that was scammed by him [# Report: #432198] and I'm guessing there must be many more people that haven't filed. To be honest if Chase didn't do a REBILL and take the money back I might have just dropped this.
I ask other people to please file with BBB and usacomplaints.com. Maybe if we have enough people come forward, we will stand a chance of getting justice against Anthony Tringale, Joshua Tice, and Weekender's Furniture.
Thank You
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