1 Attachment(s)
Southwood Furniture - Kaput!
Southwood Furniture Company, with whom I have been a dealer for 25 years, is in liquidation and has apparently has no work force. DO NOT place an order with any dealer for their products as it is likely you will not get your order. I have been trying to call them for two days to check status on orders I have with them and they have not answered the phone no matter how many extensions were tried. Finally I sent a fax (see attachment). Once I did get that Fax, then I called various people in the trade and indeed they are all done and up for sale, but who is going to buy an unprofitable upholstery maker? No one.
There is a right way to do business and one can do it with style and grace by notifying their dealers of their plight. Instead they continue to take orders that they know they are not going to be able to build. That's unethical - and hence my posting to everyone that reads this forum to put the word out. I will never do business like that and it cheapens our industry when there are companies that do, and that reflects on everyone that tries hard to do business the right way.
Attachment 4234
Re: Southwood Furniture - Kaput!
Does that mean South Wood will just take your money for the order you made, and will neither return your money nor fulfill the order? that's EVIL!
Re: Southwood Furniture - Kaput!
Not at all, as the selling dealer has the customer deposits, Southwood just has the unfilled order. But they should have the decency to inform their dealer base rather than stacking orders. I know their game plan - its to show any potential buyers of the company a stack of orders to be filled as part of the carrot. But is shows they don't have any respect for their dealer base OR their end-user consumers who spend their hard-earned dollars on their products.
Rocky Holsher is/was the owner and he and I never hit it off very well once he bought the company. We REALLY got into it over a sofa back in the 90's. It was an expensive Chippendale Ball and Claw sofa and I had to deliver it to Norfolk Naval Station - 3 hours south. Because it was a nice, sunny day and a long drive I decided to take my F150 pickup instead of the big Freightliner. So I left the sofa in the carton for the ride down and it was well-strapped in. I grabbed one of my delivery guys and off we went. We got on base and carefully lifted the box out of the bed and cut the cardboard off it. As soon as we each picked up an end, the right front leg fell off in all its Ball and Claw glory, and landed on the ground. My customer's mouth dropped open and I was stunned. So much for that delivery....we loaded the $ 5,000 sofa back in the truck and headed home. I was quite angry, as it was very evident the leg had fractured and was glued on before being boxed. I could see the glue all over the fracture on each side.
Now, if you know about woodworking you also know that on a clean break if you use the RIGHT glue and clamp it and let it dry in the clamp, you can do a repair like this if you have to (though never on brand new furniture). This looked like cheap Elmer's yellow glue and was not clamped. So, on the way back home I theorized that one of the goons on the loading dock at Southwood did it when getting ready to box it up, was afraid to tell anyone - so he stuck the Elmer's on it and got it to hold just long enough to box it - maybe 30 minutes or so. I wasted the whole day and the trip cost me a couple hundred dollars so I got on the phone with Rocky. His reply was "One of your people did it". I told him that I don't have "people" and I unpacked it. I returned the sofa on my truck line and told them I expected them to replace the leg and pay the 2-way shipping on it.
Rocky called me and said "The Glue is yellow - we don't have yellow glue in the plant so one of your people did this and we're not repairing it for free or paying the shipping". I reminded him that I unpacked it and no one else had handled it then asked if he was calling me a liar - because if he was them he can send his Rep by to pick up the samples and catalogs. Rocky fixed it and returned it without a charge because he decided that was worth keeping my dealership for them, but it showed me the nature of their company. It comes top down, eh?
I did make a second run and this time we took the big Freightliner as I wanted to completely inspect the piece before we left the store for the trip. We were not going to have any surprises the second trip!
Re: Southwood Furniture - Kaput!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
drcollie
Not at all, as the selling dealer has the customer deposits, Southwood just has the unfilled order. But they should have the decency to inform their dealer base rather than stacking orders. I know their game plan - its to show any potential buyers of the company a stack of orders to be filled as part of the carrot. But is shows they don't have any respect for their dealer base OR their end-user consumers who spend their hard-earned dollars on their products.
Well, looks like it worked - Southwood was sold.
http://www.furnituretoday.com/articl...p_for_sale.php
Ooh, auctioning the contents of the showroom! Too bad I have to work and can't make a day trip to NC!
