In my report about Cost Savers Furniture (aka Samples Furniture), I detailed my experience with their misrepresentation of a $1836 piece of furniture. They represented the piece as solid oak both verbally and in writing, but I discovered after the purchase that it was veneer on particle board. I attempted to return it for a refund within one business day, which Cost Savers refused to do.
After this attempt to resolve the dispute with the company, I called the Fairbanks office of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and relayed the above to its representative, Carmen. She contacted Cost Savers, and reported back to me that the store has an "all sales final" policy and does not accept returns. I repeated my allegation of misrepresentation, but even after faxing her a copy of the receipt she would only acknowledge that there was indeed misrepresentation but then simply repeated the store policy of no returns. Several further contacts with the Fairbanks BBB yielded similar results.
I wrote to the Anchorage BBB and ultimately complained about this to Mr. Al Tobin on June 26. He was very annoyed and curt on the phone with me. He reluctantly agreed to review my complaint if I would send him the appropriate documentation. I did, and received from him a letter dated July 12 denying that Cost Savers and the Fairbanks BBB had done anything wrong.
I convinced my credit card issuer (CitiBank USA) to charge back to Cost Savers, and Cost Savers filed for collection. The collection agency sued me, but just before the trial, the Checkworks attorney offered to settle on the terms I had been requesting all along: I return the entertainment center in new condition within 10 days, and they would drop their suit and remove the negative rating in my credit report. I complied fully with the terms of the settlement, and Cost Savers accepted the return. Asked why they sued me, the collection agency attorney told me that Cost Savers had lied to them, too.
Having "won" against Cost Savers, I again contacted Al Tobin of the Alaska BBB. He angrily refused my complaint again, saying that my complaint had been satisfied by the settled suit.
I am angry with Cost Savers, to be sure, but I ultimately "won" the case after spending dozens of hours writing letters such as this one. Yet there is no warning to other potential customers of Cost Savers, thanks to the refusal of the Alaska offices of the BBB to accept a negative report. I am frankly very disillusioned about the BBB at this point. I even tried contacting the national BBB council office to complain about the local and state offices, but they only referred me back to the state office.
It is worse to have a corrupt BBB than none at all.
David
Ester, Alaska
U.S.A.
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