Casco Bay Furniture

[drcollie]

Radient and Needstuff, you are no doubt correct in your assessments of it all, I agree entirely! And I was willing to let that be the case until I went back to Casco Bay's Blog and see that it was edited, and added to - and I am going to answer back in a manner that addresses their blog accusations. This reply (and the investigative work) has been developed both by myself and our forum moderator. We have learned a number of things about Casco Bay Furniture:

I. Background

A couple of years ago some members of the forum posted reviews of their experiences with Casco Bay. You will not find those reviews in this forum because, at the time, Casco Bay Furniture contacted me and asked that they be removed. Although the policy of this forum has always been to allow full and open participation by any furniture manufacturer, distributor or retailer who chooses to register, so that they can respond to questions about their products or address consumer complaints, I expressed that I was removing the negative reviews in the interest of fairness.

Casco Bay's request that the reviews be removed would have been fairly interpreted as a demand, if not a threat. In retrospect, it was probably a mistake to respond to Casco Bay's heavy-handed approach to customers sharing their opinions about its products and services. Ever since they objected to reviews of their products, I have limited member commentary on their furniture and service, consistent with their request that their products not be discussed here.

Casco Bay's present accusations have caused me to revisit my prior approach, and I will no longer be removing negative reviews. I will continue to allow and encourage other companies to register accounts in the forum, to identify themselves as representing their companies, and to respond to their customers' concerns and complaints. It will be their choice, whether they participate in the forum or if they instead choose not to respond.

II. Unusual Posting Activity

Any person who tries to run an online forum, open to public registration, knows that spam is a huge problem. There are a number of hallmarks of spam: Some include gushing reviews posted by people who have never before participated in a forum, the posting to threads that have been inactive for weeks, months, even years, multiple accounts coming from the same IP address, and the appearance of multiple accounts from which supposedly different people are making posts while using the same style of writing and sharing the same gushing reviews of the same company.

We had a thread in this forum in which a member had asked innocent questions about Casco Bay Furniture. The member was unable to get that information because I was honoring Casco Bay's request that its products not be discussed here. It was thus a surprise to see new accounts suddenly appear, posting essentially the same review of Casco Bay Furniture, with an increasing level of vitriol and threats. Here are their unedited posts:

---Quote (Originally by Melanie Owens, --

Melanie@pacificwestcontrols.com IP 108.199.160.165

I just learned about this site from someone who contacted me about Casco Bay sofas. I have purchased 3 times from them and have given my cell phone number 559-280-616eight and email contact to prove I am REAL person who is overjoyed!! After reading on this forum of such horrid things stated about Casco Bay, and after closing my mouth that dropped to the floor in disbelief, I registered in order to post. I have only given 5 reviews on ANYTHING in my 55 years on this planet and that is because my socks have to be blown off in order to do a review. CASCO BAY IS BY FAR THE BEST COMPANY I HAVE EVER WORKED WITH and the BEST SOFAS I HAVE EVER OWNED!! We own homes in Visalia, Ca. Lake Arrowhead, Ca San Clemente, Ca and in Avalon, Ca which is an island called Santa Catalina. We have a slipcovered sofa, chair and a half and ottoman in San Clemente. This was my first purchase from Casco Bay. I literally screamed with JOY when we unwrapped our sofa. So impressed with the amazing quality and price,we decided to order two leather sofas for our home in Visalia. We are more than satisfied!!! Therefore, we ordered a sleeper sofa and a sleeper chair and a storage ottoman for our little villa in Avalon. There has never been a more comfy sleeper sofa ever made!! Every piece we own has received comments as to the quality, looks, and comfort! Then I get to brag at my bargain (I am known to shop wisely) price I paid. We are building a larger home now on the island and I will again be ordering at least 2 sofas and 2 chairs. My daughter and son in law are ordering too. They shopped and told me they cannot find anything as nice as CASCO BAY and don't want cheap stuff again. Whoever reads my post can call me. I have even answered my phone on a ski slope! It's so sad that posts as negative as those I have read on this site even exist. It doesn't make any sense. I question who is writing them? Btw I have been emailed by competitors of Casco Bay since they were sure I was not for real!!


---Quote (Originally by Michael Owens, [email)---

Mike@pacificwestcontrols.com IP 108.199.160.165

My wife Melanie Owens directed me to this site to see her post she wrote regarding Casco Bay. I couldn't find the post. So she tried to log in and within a few hours of writing her post and she had already been deleted as a user from this forum. Which will probably happen to my post as well. We have purchased from Casco Bay three separate times beginning in 2011 for a total of 8 different pieces of furniture. All of which were separately written about on the Casco Bay website with praises. We have been so pleased with their quality and pricing my wife has given out her personal phone number 559-280-616eight and her email address to give truthful testimony to our overwhelming satisfaction. When a potential buyer called her today and stated that this website had quite the opposite of what she had experienced she researched for herself. She was appalled at what she read. So she joined the forum and posted our experiences. Which have been great. Obviously, upon my inspection of t
his website and verifying the domain owner I discovered a Duane Collie is the registered owner. Is this man a competitor of other furniture sales companies?? Is the moderator of this site somehow influenced by other furniture companies and only willing to post slanderous defaming remarks about Casco Bay and other competing companies and not allow anything positive to be posted about other companies? It would seem to be highly probable to me since my wife's post and account has been removed. This is all the proof that I need to form my opinion that this is a biased forum. No rebuttals to my wife's praises nor a phone call to her cellphone to verify she wrote the post. She wrote about competitors emailing her after reading her reviews on the Casco Bay website to make sure she was for real and not a fake. She has even answered phone calls on the ski slopes! If this is a real forum the moderator should call me at 559-280-622six. Or send me a message. I am documenting this post f
or future reference.


---Quote (Originally by Meredith Cavanaugh,

Mercaven1@gmail.com[/email IP 108.199.160.165

Wow, really? Fearless leader? How fearless can you possibly be when you are called out in a post that you are removing posts that support a furniture company that you apparently desire to demean? My dear friend sent me an email about what happened to her post on this forum that was taken down within an hour about CascoBay. Then, this morning her husband checked to see if his post from last night was removed as well. Big Surprise, his positive review of Casco Bay was also removed and while he was on this website he received a message he was banned. You are not fearless mr leader, I believe your actions show you are more of a coward and a bully. Especially since you write in your post below, "it seems like it'd be hard to prevent people from talking about stuff on an online forum." Mr Fearless you darn well know it isn't hard at all to prevent positive reviews from being posted on this online forum because YOU REMOVE THEM! How embarrassing. Any attorney worth his salt would have a field day with your. You should be ashamed of yourself. BTW you have been reported to GoDaddy by Mr Owens I just heard.

With all of these posts coming from the same IP address, sharing the same style of writing, and advocating fiercely for Casco Bay Furniture, it appeared I was dealing not only with a spammer, but with a single person who was intent on disrupting the forum. I responded by banning the accounts and the IP from which all three posts were made.

III. Who Am I (And Who is Casco Bay Furniture)

The post made under the name of Michael Owens raises one valid point,

(Originally by Michael Owens)
"Obviously, upon my inspection of this website and verifying the domain owner I discovered a Duane Collie is the registered owner."

When you're dealing with a furniture vendor, it should be obvious who you're dealing with. You should be able to identify the owner of the furniture company. You should be able to find its office addresses or retail outlets. You should be able to see if it's incorporated and where it's incorporated. If the business has been contacted by the Better Business Bureau, you should see that it has been responsive to inquiries for basic information about its location. Anybody reviewing this forum can easily learn my full name, as I share it at the bottom of every post that I make. You can follow a link on this forum to my physical store and see pictures of the store and its contents. You can come to my store while it's open, walk around and examine the furniture I have in stock. If you are interested in a custom piece or special order, you can examine wood, fabric and leather samples from the furniture companies I represent. I am incorporated in the State of Virginia as Collie Enterprises, Ltd, d/b/a as The Keeping Room. I have been in the same brick and mortar location since 1986 and have a landline phone (not cell phones) registered under my business. You can find me every business day and walk into a real storefront where I shall be on the premises. I am not invisible.

When I tried to find out who "Casco Bay Furniture" is, I discovered that the company is run by people who go by the name of "Rob" and "Kristina". There is a person called "Richard" who posts to their blog. Despite considerable effort, I could not find their office location. They don't disclose their location on their website. They don't have any business directory listings that disclose where they operate. It appears that they were once located in New Hampshire, but declined to tell the BBB their location (http://www.bbb.org/concord/business-...nd-nh-92028976). I saw a forum post where somebody claiming to represent them said that their offices are now somewhere in Maine. There is no information about their company on their website. You can find no information at all about any physical location, other than the address of shipping company where their furniture is temporarily stored, which they describe as "our Warehouse located at Peace Transport". From their website:

Casco Bay Furniture knowledgeable staff is ready to help you between the hours of
9 AM-10 PM EST, 7 days a week. After hours or out of the office we do forward calls to our cell phones and we will answer calls if we are available. If not please leave a message we will call you back later that day or by the next business day.
Please call us at 207-272-0557.
Please fax us Toll Free at 866-303-4850.
Please email us at support@cascobayfurniture.com
Factory Showroom:
Traveling to Hickory, North Carolina? Would you like to visit our Factory Showroom? Call us for an appointment, Monday through Thursday 10 AM - 3 PM.
Pick ups from our Warehouse located at Peace Transport:
CascoBay Furniture
1811 Baker Road
High Point, NC 27263

Peace Transport is a real company. Within seconds of learning its name and address I was able to confirm its location and identify its owners (http://www.bbb.org/greensboro/busine...int-nc-4005534). That's how it should be. When you buy products or order services through the Internet, the best and most reliable companies make it easy to verify their legitimacy. While some mom and pop operations may be very good and trustworthy, but amateur in their operations, as a general rule the less information you can find about a company, the more of a gamble it is to do business with that company -- and even with a good "mom and pop" operation, you are taking a gamble because if problems arise, they can disappear with your money or be unable to honor their warranties.

With "Casco Bay Furniture", the owners don't identify themselves except by first name -- and you have to dig for that information even on their own website. They don't disclose where they do business. They don't identify whether they are a corporation and, if so, where they are incorporated. They use an anonymous service to hide the registration information for their websites (cascobayfurniture.com, cascobayfurniture.net, letstalkfurniture.com, letstalkaboutfurniture.com). From what they do write about their business, it appears that they outsource every aspect of the business except for sales: They have a contractor who designs the furniture, they work with a couple of furniture factories that build their pieces, and storage and transport are handled by Peace Transport. They are located in the Northeast while their furniture is built through independent contractors in North Carolina, and is shipped from there, suggesting that there is no day-to-day oversight over any portion of the manufacturing or shipping process.

If any part of that is incorrect, and if they are in fact willing to be open with prospective customers about their identity, location and business, I invite them to come to the forum, register an address, and share the information I was unable to find.

Although I am described on the Casco Bay blog as its competitor, I do not consider myself to be a competitor of Casco Bay Furniture. Quite frankly, when I look at their website and what they sell I’m reminded of that famous debate exchange in 1988 when Lloyd Bentsen said to Dan Quayle in the Vice Presidential Debate “Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy"... Casco Bay is no Hancock & Moore.

IV. Caveat Emptor

There are a lot of people who have decided that online, drop-shipped furniture sales is a fast and easy path to riches, and many of them disappear when they find out that the business is harder, and margins smaller, than they imagined. There are many companies out there that operate out of a spare bedroom in a house and have little more than a website as a presence. We once had complaints on this site about another furniture seller who, upon investigation, was found to be representing a small, single family homes in a residential neighborhood as the address of its office and "showroom". We have seen many complaints in this forum about companies that, after offering the lowest bid for furniture, took little or no responsibility for errors in ordering, damage that occurred during shipping, or other customer concerns.

As a consumer, a question you should ask yourself is "Am I buying from a solid company that will be around to honor warranties? How do I find them should I pay for an order and never receive it? Whom do I go to to get my money back?" It's easy to swap out a cell phone and shut down a website then disappear with no trace. Before you spend your money to order a product, ask yourself if you feel comfortable with the information available on a given seller?

V. What is "My Furniture Forum"?

www.myfurniureforum.com was not started as a sales and marketing tool. Rather, its an informational forum for the free exchange of information to all members and participants without sales pitches or claims that my retail business is the one you should buy from. I own the forum, pay for it, and have sole determination along with my moderators on the contents of posts made as to if they are appropriate for the readership and topics.

I welcome any company, large or small, to participate in this forum and to address any customer concerns that may arise in this forum -- the only cost of participation is the time it takes to register a free account. There is even a special forum where they can post their special offers to try to reach new customers, again at no charge. Any company that objects to a customer review in this forum, or wishes to address the concerns of prospective customers who cannot otherwise find sufficient information about their company or products to make an informed purchase, is encouraged to sign up and participate constructively in those discussions.