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Ripoff Report


 

St Augustine, Fl- According to numerous reports, Richard Hersey, owner of Old City Design Center is accused of cashing deposit checks and failing to deliver merchandise to their retail customers. Shortly after Channel 47 news released the story, Old City closed its doors; citing reorganization. Several years ago, a man named Jim Lee; owner of Floor Territory, did the same thing; taking in thousands of dollars in deposits, and never delivered the material. Shortly after his last "private sale", Jimmy Lee left town with several hundred thousand dollars in customer deposits; never to be seen in Jacksonville again.

A little over two years ago or so, I met the owner and staff at Old City Design Center. During My first initial visit, I did a sales presentation for the owner and his staff. During our meeting we discussed various product and display options, and specific ways to penetrate the St Augustine market. At this point, Old City Design had no experience in the retail hardwood flooring industry. Upon our conversation, Richard instructed me that he does not purchase displays, nor was he willing to pay for samples. Sensing that I could not trust the man, I immediately said, "this is going to dramatically affect our ability to to business together". After I refused to give away a showroom floor, as well as displays, tensions started to rise. I turned to the retail sales person (who originally called me in for the presentation) and said, "everyone wants something for free". Old City tried several times over the next few months to contact me, but I never returned their calls, nor did I ever step foot in their showroom again. Call it intuition, or what ever you want, but I knew if I did business with this guy, my company was going to get burned. Thankfully, I walked away from the opportunity and nothing was lost.

Let this be yet another lesson to retail consumers. If you do not research the company prior to spending thousands of dollars in home renovations, you may just get burned. I suggest going online (complaints.com is a good starting place) and looking for customer complaints. Remember the old saying, "If sounds to good to be true, it probably is". Remember, buyer beware.

Best Regards,
The Floor Man

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