Clint Engel — Furniture Today,
HIGH POINT — North Carolina’s attorney general has obtained a temporary restraining order against N.C.

Furniture Buy Direct, an online retailer here charged with taking consumer deposits, then failing to deliver.

A Wake County Superior Court judge agreed to AG Roy Cooper’s request for the order to stop the business and its owners, Darrel and Russell Buck, “from deceiving consumers,” the AG’s office said in a release

“We’ve heard from hundreds of people who paid for furniture they never received,” Cooper said. “We’re taking action to stop it.”

The company began selling furniture online in 2004, and the the AG’s Consumer Protection Division has received hundreds of complaints in the past two years. About 170 complaints remain unresolved, with Buy Direct failing to provide refunds or fill orders, the office said.

Consumer were required to pay at least 50% of their order as a deposit and were told goods would arrive in four to 12 weeks, the AG said in the suit.
 
The suit also said N.C. Furniture Buy Direct took out a loan from First Bank in High Point in June and told the AG’s office it would use the money to pay refunds to dissatisfied consumers, but that didn’t happen.

The company recently began taking orders under a new name, N.C. Furniture World, and instructed employees to deny any connection with the Buy Direct name, the AG said.

Attempts to reach the Bucks were unsuccessful. The telephone number for N.C. Furniture World has been disconnected. N.C. Furniture Buy Direct is not affiliated with N.C. Furniture Direct. The latter is owned by Cathy and Wayne Billings, with a store in High Point.