AMHERST, New York (Legal Newsline) — Carolina Furniture Inc. will pay $30,000 and comply with state laws after allegations it made deceptive claims in its advertisements and failed to obtain a proper license prior to the sale, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has announced.
When Carolina Furniture’s lease ended at one of its three retail locations in February 2014, the company decided to run a “store closing sale” at all of its locations. Schneiderman’s office alleges the operation of this sale was deceptive in many ways.
The company says it was holding a furniture liquidation, yet allegedly was not being compelled to liquidate and never planned on doing so. Additionally, it sent out letters that it was holding a private sale, yet stayed open to the public during that sale. The company purportedly alleged to be offering its lowest prices ever, yet used the same sales formula it had used since 1995.
“It is against the law for businesses to make false promises to get customers in the door,” Schneiderman said. “My office will keep fighting to ensure that all companies doing business in New York play by the rules.”
Assistant attorney general James M. Morrissey, Karen Davis, senior consumer fraud representative, Ken Peters, supervising investigator, and Jennifer Hill, investigator in the Buffalo Regional Office, handled the case.