New York AG nets victory for furniture buyers

Kudos to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for giving some consumers a small victory in the fast-paced bankruptcy proceedings of Fortunoff’s.

The furniture and jewelry retailer, which began a going-out-of-business sale Feb. 26, had canceled deliveries of prepaid, in-stock furniture and told consumers they would not get their money back. And to add insult to injury, that same furniture was going to be sold again in the liquidation sale.

Cuomo’s office intervened and put a halt to this nonsense, and the retailer agreed to fulfill those orders.

Unfortunately, consumers who partially paid for an order, or who fully paid for furniture that wasn’t in stock, are out of luck. If those payments were made by credit card, they might be able to get their money back by disputing the charge with their credit card issuer. If they paid by cash or check, they have to file a “proof of claim” with the bankruptcy court and probably will wind up on the retailer’s long list of unsecured creditors.

It was the second time the attorney general’s office had intervened in the Fortunoff case. Last month, the retailer was forced to back off a pronouncement that Fortunoff gift cards would not be honored during the GOB sale. The retailer agreed to honor the cards through March 8.