CFS furniture /Groupon

davepjones

I am aware that the customer service/sales office has 5/6 people working there from 8am-6pm Monday-Friday and have 6 lines operational, every time I have been into the office all 6 people are on the phone dealing with groupon customers. With the volume of sales generated by Groupon (and over sold by Groupon) we could, at any one time, have 2500 customers ringing in for information. This obviously isn't ideal but we are a small manufacturing company that predominately wholesale to other shops up and down the UK, and weren't geared up to handle the volume of orders generated. Hence the reason we explained to Groupon that we had the capacity to make 1500 sofa sets at the most. We again apologize for any inconvenience caused to customers.

Andie1986

Just been on the phone to Groupon having received a refund without any explanation as to why the order was cancelled. We didn't even receive the email- she forwarded it whilst I was on the phone.

I asked who has had my £250.00 in their bank account accumulating interest for 7 weeks and they stated it has been in CFS's bank account. I said right shall I quote that to CFS when I ask for my money back to which they replied No! Good job those calls are recorded!! Yet when I phoned CFS several weeks ago regarding this matter they said it was because Groupon hadn't forwarded funds!

Groupon have just offered a £50 Groupon voucher - what a joke - why so you can not fulfil another order!!!!!

I have phoned trading standards last week and will phone again tomorrow. I suggest everyone who has been put out by Groupons incompetency contact Trading Standards and also WatchDog. Surely they cannot advertise deals and sell 100s, leave people waiting for 7 weeks over the Christmas period and then just issue a refund!

mlweb

I was chatting to a friend who works for Groupon. CFS would have had to have provided proof of order completion in order to redeem the Groupon vouchers. Groupon work with the supplier to establish the capacity that can can be supplied. Several of the Groupon scare stories published are 90% bull. Especially that cup cake lady, she wanted more sales thru Groupon.

Any how, Groupon refunded me as did Paypal so I'm not out of pocket. Ordering a nicer sofa set from Homebase tommorow (Homebase have their orders underwritten by insurance in case of problems).

dvpower

davepjones wrote: »

I am aware that the customer service/sales office has 5/6 people working there from 8am-6pm Monday-Friday and have 6 lines operational, every time I have been into the office all 6 people are on the phone dealing with groupon customers. With the volume of sales generated by Groupon (and over sold by Groupon) we could, at any one time, have 2500 customers ringing in for information. This obviously isn't ideal but we are a small manufacturing company that predominately wholesale to other shops up and down the UK, and weren't geared up to handle the volume of orders generated. Hence the reason we explained to Groupon that we had the capacity to make 1500 sofa sets at the most. We again apologize for any inconvenience caused to customers.

Are you saying that Groupon sold more deals than you authorised them to do? That sounds a bit odd.

irvingswiftj

I bought the 2 sofa deal for £250 from and they were both delivered in November, within 5 days of the sofas arriving, a friend leant on the armrest of the 2-seater and it collapsed!

I contacted CFS successfully and then confirmed that I would have a straight swap on December the 21st, so I took the day off work and waited at home all day for them never to arrive!

I have emailed them since and heard nothing, I have rang them and not got any response. There website seems to have been removed (I'm guessing the files have been deleted from their webserver because they haven't even put a holding page).

Luckily my purchase was made with a credit card and I can go throught them about getting my money back, but for now, I have a broken sofa in my living room that I can't seem to do anything about.

After this experience, I could not recommend CFS Furniture ltd to anyone.

JB5000

Hi, I have same issue. I bought the deal in September, arranged 21st December delivery, I phoned the week before just to make sure the driver would bring it into the room as states on website as long as you ask in advance (took me 4 days to get through, ringing out so not sure if there are 6 workers why it rings out all day every day, surely it would be engaged if so many customer queries?) finally end of day Thursday I got through to be told all Groupon deliveries have been postponed.

I asked was anyone going to inform me of this as I am phoning you for a query, as far as I was concerned the suite is being deliverd next week, I was told I should have got email which I did not receive, he sent it to me while I was on phone I definately did not receive it.

My problem is that although it was the Groupon offer, I did not do it through Groupon I did it directly through CFS. I phoned them on the day of the offer to see if they had the colour of suite I wanted in stock as if I bought the Groupon voucher which did not activate until 8pm the next day then could not get through at 8pm or they were sold out of then colour I wanted then I was stuck with £250 voucher so when I phoned them they said they could put order through for me there and then.

This is a problem now as I cannot go to Groupon as technically it has nothing to do with them and I cannot get through to CFS as lines just ring out, they do not answer their emails (I have emailed 4 times since Sept as they do not answer phones) so I am down £250 with no suite and no form of communication so not sure where to go now.

I tried to explain to the guy on the phone that I paid my £250 directly to them not Groupon so the Groupon funds issue should not affect me, they have my money so I should get my suite, he said it doesn't matter it's termed under Groupon to them. I may have to fight my corner with them that they have my money not Groupon so I either get suite or refund but that's if I can even contact them! After reading post above that suite fell apart I would rather refund!

starlite01

Has anyone received a refund yet for shipping costs from CFS? I wrote 2 weeks ago and no response. I contacted Groupon and they said nothing to do with them as the shipping costs were paid directly to CFS :mad:. The deal was made through Groupon and if they had properly researched CFS they would have realised that the company director was <SNIP> whom has been involved in previous furniture companys that have gone under!!! The refund was processed by Groupon days after the 45day limit was up to claim back shipping from paypal !

Has anyone contacted trading standards to investigate?

Rabbitface

Hello, I have sent Groupon many emails of which they keep sending a standard response back saying that I need to claim my refund back from CFS, despite me highlighting that other people have had refunds and that CFS is a fraud as they dont answer the phone and their website has gone down therefore the likelyhood of getting my refund is practically zero.

Has anyone had any luck with trading standards? I think we need to get some momento together against Groupon as this is rediculous! I only got a response to my emails because I slagged them off on Twitter.

lukey7

From somebody who works in Customer Service, Groupons service is a joke. I literally can't believe this company makes this amount of money. I have bought deals from groupon before which have had no problems however when you run into a problem it's hard work to even speak to someone. I'd love to take a trip to their call centre and speak to their managers.... Do they have any plans to imporve their call centre? Do they know they work? Please employ someone from a communication provider with experiance in running a call centre! Do you even care about dropped call rates? Call handling time? customer satisfaction? It's a joke. It's on par with CFS... at least they have an excuse of not having the staff... but groupon?? what excuse do you have?!

I also love that a procdure hasn't been put in place for just this deal. Why are some people being offered differently to others? I have my refund on it's way....( I hope) latest they said 4th of Jan which is fair enough with the bank holidays. But why have people been offered 50 quid voucher? didn't I moan enough? Another point! do you care about repeat contacts I'm going to callnow and sit on my bed for 30 mins waiting for you to answer the phone just to get this voucher as they evidentely value other customers more than me.

I honestly can't believe groupons level of service! It's a joke. As for CFS the people who made the decisions were either very clever and got there last bit of dosh or are just a terrible company with people making equally as terrible decisions as groupon.

Rabbitface

I agree, thats what I'm trying to get across to them that you can't offer some people a refund and not others and then hand out vouchers to others. I keep emailing them, highlighting this and they keep insisting I have to go to a company who is fraudulent to get my money back, even though I have pointed out I have heard zilch from them so far. I've taken to writing on their every post on Facebook so at least I might stop someone else from making a mistake and purchasing from them. Can't believe how many bad posts there are about them. Seems they've cocked up every deal they have promoted!

Rabbitface

Wow just been offered £15 Groupon credit - certainly compensates for the £100 I currently don't have having ordered 2 sets of sofas!

"Thanks for your email.

Groupon are unable to offer you a refund for your postage and packaging cost. However I would like to offer you, as a gesture of good will £15.00 Groupon credit to apologise for the inconvenience caused to you while you wait for your refund from CFS. The credit is available right away and is valid for a year. Please tick the 'use credit' box at the check out next time you make a purchase.

Kind regards,

Tamsin

eeeackabacka

Hello, i too have the same problem. However i wouldnt listen to davepjones, you may find the below interesting. Looks like CFS will be going into liquidation i suspect. Direct resigned on 22.12.2011, company accounts showing legally overdue as at 27.12.2011. I dont think the shop shutting and us getting no response on the phone is a coincidence.

CFS FURNITURE LIMITED

LAUREL HOUSE UNIT 1 AND 2
LAUREL TRADING ESTATE HIGGINSHAW
LANE ROYTON OLDHAM
GREATER MANCHESTER
UNITED KINGDOM
OL2 6LH

</SPAN>
Manufacture of chairs and seats

Legal Information

Accounts Overdue (as of 27 Dec 11)
Company Registration No.: 07150620
Incorporation Date: 09 Feb 10
1 Year old
Financial Year End: 31 Jul
Capital: £1.00
on 18 Feb 11

People connected with this Company

MR ROGER JOHN HALLAS23 Nov 11 director - Appointed
ROGER HALLAS01 Nov 11 director - Appointment ended
CAROLINE MULDOWNEY31 Oct 11 secretary - Appointment ended
JOHN ATTREE05 Apr 11 director - Appointment ended
MR ROGER JOHN HALLAS04 Mar 11 director - Appointed
MARTIN MULDOWNEY09 Feb 11 director - Appointment ended
JOHN GILBERT ATTREE09 Feb 11 director - Particulars Changed
MARTIN MULDOWNEY05 Aug 10 director - Appointed

Mr Roger John Hallas</SPAN>

[URL="javascript:void(0);"]inShare[/URL]


Director Summary

Mr Roger John Hallas has 9 company director or secretary appointments.
Short name - Roger Hallas
Director ID : 904279851
Month/Year of Birth: 01/1951
(For security reasons we only show Month/Year)
Address

Laurel House Unit 1 And 2
Laurel Trading Estate Higginshaw
Lane Royton Oldham
Greater Manchester
United Kingdom
OL2 6LH


Company Summary

Company Name
Company Status

CFS FURNITURE LIMITED
Active

CHEERS FURNITURE IMPORTS LIMITED
In Liquidation

CFS FURNITURE LIMITED
Active
(Director Resigned)
WALKER MANUFACTURING (UK) LIMITED
Dissolved

WALKER MANUFACTURING (SHEFFIELD) LIMITED
Dissolved

SPORTS PRODUCTS (2000) LIMITED
Dissolved

THE SPORTS SOUVENIR COMPANY LIMITED
Dissolved

THE SPORTS SOUVENIR COMPANY LIMITED
Dissolved

R.J.H. MANAGEMENT SERVICES LIMITED
Dissolved



CFS FURNITURE LIMITED


Appointment Date: 23/11/2011
Position: Director
Occupation: Accountant
Company Status: Active
Last Updated: 1:15pm 15/12/2011
Address:
LAUREL HOUSE UNIT 1 AND 2
LAUREL TRADING ESTATE HIGGINSHAW
LANE ROYTON OLDHAM
OL2 6LH
GB
Directors and Secretaries
[URL="javascript:%20loadDirector('company0',%20'07150620')"]Load Officers[/URL]
Company Accounts:
To view financial summary login


:mad::mad::mad:

Samminbarney

I too am caught up in the Groupon Saga, managed to get a refund for the sofas are much correspondance but no where near getting back my £44 delivery, after 2 weeks of writing and eventually only recieving back the orignial email they sent 2 weeks ago (telling to contact CFS direct) I was totally frustrated so I posted & reposted my complaint note over & over again on every Groupon Wall there was going, they deleted, I reposted, In fact the USA Groupons responded pretty much immediatly.

Anyhow cutting a long story short, been emailed today see response below .......


I'm sincerely sorry to hear of the inconvenience this deal has caused.
Our phone lines are closed for the weekend and will reopen on Monday. However, I have escalated your details to my supervisor who will request the £44 be refunded to your method of payment. Unfortunately, I am unable to offer the refund from our end since it is physically impossible on our system but we are currently investigating this on behalf of all our customers.

Please accept my apologies for the disappointment caused. Please do not hesitate to get back in touch should you have any further queries,

................................Who knows if it will actually materialise, will keep you updated, however did make me laugh that 10 mins later this email came through............


Hi there,

We'd love to hear what you think of our customer service. You can rate the service received from our team by clicking either of the two links below:


How would you rate the support you received?
Good, I'm satisfied

Bad, I'm unsatisfied


If your query is still not fully resolved, we kindly ask that you reply back to the original email exchanges you have had with us rather than in your feedback comment. This is to help us ensure a speedy resolution.

And if you still have the time, we would be grateful if you could answer our customer satisfaction survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/csgroupon

Thank you!


........ Laughable eh :-)








See More

Samminbarney

Next update...


Hi there,
Thanks for getting back in touch.
It can typically take between 14-21 days for our partner to be in touch with you and, as such, I am unable to give you a guaranteed date for when the refund will be processed. If you still haven't heard back from our partner within a fortnight, please do get back in touch and I will be more than happy to chase this up on your behalf.
Kind regards,
Emily

So pretty much then, they will go back to CFS, in 21 days the refund wont come & ill be given another £10 Groupon voucher, bleurgh
I am so infuriated, I know that I should really let this one go but its the principle ! So i have written another letter of complaint questioning when it is 14 days from ? today ? when the deal fell through? Who the partner is ??
I also made clear that I was sharing all corresapondance with discussion boards of disgruntled customers !
Will keep you updated

dlrpkris

Thanks Samm and good luck! Just tried to file a claim with PayPal tonight. They've closed it already! Not been in touch and say they are unable to file it. And that the 'seller' is unable to respond to it. What the heck?

Rella

Well I did finally get the money paid to Groupon back, this was the response received on 22nd Dec after the last mail chasing them on 13th Dec: -

We have important information for those of you who purchased this Groupon. Regretfully, due to reasons beyond our control, including but not limited to failure of certain customer quality assurance checks, CFS Furniture are no longer in a position to fulfil orders made by Groupon customers. As such, we have no option but to cancel this deal and refund customers in full for their Groupons. Please allow up to 5 working days for this to go back into your account.

To claim back your postage and packaging, please write to:

CFS Furniture Ltd
Unit 1 & 2
Laurel Trading Estate
Higginshaw Lane
Oldham
OL2 6LH

This incident has no bearing whatsoever on other deals offered. We hope to bring you a similar deal in the near future and thank you for your understanding at this time.

I did write to CFS aswell as e-mailing them and heard nothing, so I have today sent the following response to the mail from Groupon: -

To whom this may concern,

I have received no response to my written request for the delivery and upgrade costs of €94.99 from CFS. And from reading various accounts of other persons on discussion forums who were let down on the same deal both in the UK and Ireland, it is highly unlikely that CFS are going to respond.

To this end , to avoid further bad publicity I believe that as the promoter of CFS Furniture, Groupon should take responsibility and reimburse their Groupon Voucher customers who were caught up in this fiasco and then claim the monies back from CFS themselves.

Rest assured I will be advising all interested parties how this incident is handled by Groupon and am more than happy to take it further if necessary, as although the money may not be a large amount the inconveience and upset caused not to mention the principle of it all need to be accounted for.

I look forward to hearing from you in the very near future.

I suggest we all do the same, hopefully a combined effort may improve our chances!! I will let you know if I get a response. But please let me know if you do the same.

Rella

delshannon

oops looking at these posts this is another dodgy purchase and i thought it was the extra turkey and beer!

i bought back in sept 09 received dec 11... upgraded for the better fabric.

arm collapsed as per another earlier post.

informed i need to write back to CFS to get them returned so Groupon can issue a full refund.

not holding my breath for a response by the looks of it.

has anyone got the email address so i can speed up the process a bit as i can imagine i will be making a phonecall to Groupon saying that noone from CFS responded.

cheers

Rella

delshannon wrote: »

has anyone got the email address so i can speed up the process a bit as i can imagine i will be making a phonecall to Groupon saying that noone from CFS responded.

cheers

Hi,

the only one I have is - martinmuldowney@btconnect.com. But I got no response from it!

heleneindub

For my part now it is too late for getting my money for the delivery, I have called paypal and I had only 45 days to be able to claim the refund because of their sluggishness I was well over the limit grrrrrrrr , I have been told to call my bank but even my bank can do nothing for me ...
I have to go to lodge a complaint with the garda what do you think??

Dmac1

I have not been successful in contacting CFS. I had a very quick response and refund from Groupon, but not for the delivery.

I (stupidly) paid by bank transfer into CFS bank account. Any suggestions???? :mad:

Rella

I paid by credit card through Paypal but missed the 45 day window so Paypal could / would not assist. I have contacted my bank who advised me to write to the "Charge Back Unit" attaching all correspondence sent to CFS, which I have ready to go in the post tomorrow. Will let you know how the saga pans out!!

fiofee

Hi All,

I'm the latest member of the club!!

Pretty much the same as everyone else, ordered 3+2 seater, heard nothing, sent a number of contacts through the website & rang numerous times. Eventually got through & the girl said they had my order but she couldn't email me confirmation and she wouldn't give me her 2nd name. I refused to hang up until I had some sort of confirmation of my order. I spoke to 3 different people and eventually "Callum" sent me an email confirming receipt of my order.

I was told delivery would be that week or the following week (that was mid November), I got a call to say it had been delayed until the first week in december, then another call saying it was delayed again as they were waiting on a shipment of material, at which point I reiterated that I really needed my sofas before Christmas.

Then like the rest of you I got an email less than 2 wks before Xmas saying no more deliveries would take place in 2011 due to a *funding issue*. This was a completely different reason to anything I'd been told on the phone so out of concern for my money I sent an email to both CFS and Groupon expressing my dissatisfaction that I was being left in the lurch 2 wks before Xmas & requesting a refund immediately.

Groupon refunded me about a week later - thankfully. But like everyone else I'm still down a delivery charge of €60. I've emailed "Callum" 3 times and had no response or refund so I've emailed again today saying if I don't hear from them by 13 January (5 working days) I will pursue the issue through Visa.

Unfortunately when I tried to open a dispute through PayPal, it was over the 45 day limit & they closed my case without so much as a courtesy email.

I will follow up through Visa & file a report with the gardai if necessary - its the principle of it rather than the money at this stage.

I also noticed today that their website has disappeared. No sign of it on a google search. I mistakenly clicked into "CFS furniture" and cc'd their contact email address on my earlier mail and they kindly wrote back informing me that they are "nothing to do with that CFS Furniture LIMITED lot".... So I get the impression that these scoundrels piggybacked onto this companies name & reputation.

Will update if I have any succes! Good luck to everyone.

Rabbitface

Hi, has anyone seen todays Groupon national deal - its the same as the CFS one - unbelievable!

Anyone had any luck on getting their delivery back? I tried my local trading standards and not heard back so trying the national ones.

Lisamsaunders1

I am so glad that I discovered this forum. I ordered the 3+2 seat through groupon in September and paid 19.99 for delivery.

The delivery guys turned up 3 weeks later, knocked at the door and said you've paid for basic delivery so we will be leaving them outside on your doorstep! I thought this was some sort of joke, but they weren't amused. I had to argue the fact that there was no other option for delivery, the only amount you could pay was 19.99, it was raining outside and my husband was at work for the rest of the day, after much convincing and huffing and puffing from them they agreed to push the sofas 1 metre forward inside my front door for me.... How kind of them!

2 weeks after delivery I leant on the arm and the whole thing collapsed! There were nails and staples sticking out everywhere, a total safety hazard with 3 young children in the house. I must have tried calling cfs over 100 times with no luck and no reply from emails, groupon also advised they couldn't help. In the end I just cut my losses and my dad offered to try and fix it, looking more closely at it I would say my 6 year old old could have done a better job at making the sofa than cfs, it was ridiculous!

However I just decided to try to contact one last time ang googled the company and found that the director has had 9 previous companys that have gone into liquidation, then came across this website and read about the refunds in this forum so just called groupon and they have said they will refund it, success! Made my day!

3chihuahuas

Lisamsaunders1 wrote: »

I am so glad that I discovered this forum. I ordered the 3+2 seat through groupon in September and paid 19.99 for delivery.

The delivery guys turned up 3 weeks later, knocked at the door and said you've paid for basic delivery so we will be leaving them outside on your doorstep! I thought this was some sort of joke, but they weren't amused. I had to argue the fact that there was no other option for delivery, the only amount you could pay was 19.99, it was raining outside and my husband was at work for the rest of the day, after much convincing and huffing and puffing from them they agreed to push the sofas 1 metre forward inside my front door for me.... How kind of them!

2 weeks after delivery I leant on the arm and the whole thing collapsed! There were nails and staples sticking out everywhere, a total safety hazard with 3 young children in the house. I must have tried calling cfs over 100 times with no luck and no reply from emails, groupon also advised they couldn't help. In the end I just cut my losses and my dad offered to try and fix it, looking more closely at it I would say my 6 year old old could have done a better job at making the sofa than cfs, it was ridiculous!

However I just decided to try to contact one last time ang googled the company and found that the director has had 9 previous companys that have gone into liquidation, then came across this website and read about the refunds in this forum so just called groupon and they have said they will refund it, success! Made my day!

Hi Lisa
I'm in the same boat as you and can't get hold of CFS - rang groupon last week who said I should write to CFS which I have and e-mailed them/telephoned but no response - what did you say to Groupon and do you have the number you called as it may be a different one - hope you can help and I can get a refund too!
thanks
3Chihuahuas

Lisamsaunders1

I don't even think CFS exist anymore. I said it was a health and safety hazard and that it's a faulty item, the lady put me on hold to speak to her manager and then said it would be refunded as the item is faulty. The number I called was 020 3510 0410, I was on hold for quite a while but they answered eventually. Hope this helps.

3chihuahuas

that's really helpful, thanks for your help - am on the phone now on hold!
will let you know how i get on!
3chis

Lisamsaunders1 wrote: »

I don't even think CFS exist anymore. I said it was a health and safety hazard and that it's a faulty item, the lady put me on hold to speak to her manager and then said it would be refunded as the item is faulty. The number I called was 020 3510 0410, I was on hold for quite a while but they answered eventually. Hope this helps.

davepjones2

hi me again. I no longer work for cfs furniture, been made redundant, what a surprise! The old managing director (Martin muldowney) has been sacked for his disgraceful handling of and decision to take on such a stupid, unrealistic groupon offer. the offer and s@#t management has sent Cfs furniture into administration and lost over 80 of us our jobs! the company has gone into administration and is looking to start up again with a complete new board who actually know what the hell they are doing! I just hope this means I can have my old job back as I know the new management and they are very good at doing what they do and will make the company work! if not I will be deeply upset and angry at my redundancy. this obviously means that people chasing refunds for their delivery charges relating to the groupon offer will unfortunately be hitting a dead end as the company assets, including bank accounts, will have been frozen and will be untouchable. looks like the old managing director knew he was on his way out and thought he would take as much with him as possible. I'm really sorry for all the upset and inconvenience caused to people with this offer as a former employee. this has no reflect on the work force in the sales office or anywhere else in the company as they were just passing on information as told, but the blame lies with the poor management.

Jimmy_S13

Bunch of crooks. Total disgrace. I hope Martin Muldowney has a very unpleasant New Year.

How are these thieves able to repeatedly start businesses up and scam innocent people out of hard earned money, only to dissappear with all the money when the game is up ?

I called at the store on the 19th December as I was nearby, I have some photos. It was all shut up, showroom was a ransacked mess of various bits of furniture, paperwork all over the floor, nobody to be seen.

tootlewagon

davepjones2 wrote: »

hi me again. I no longer work for cfs furniture, been made redundant, what a surprise! The old managing director (Martin muldowney) has been sacked for his disgraceful handling of and decision to take on such a stupid, unrealistic groupon offer. the offer and s@#t management has sent Cfs furniture into administration and lost over 80 of us our jobs! the company has gone into administration and is looking to start up again with a complete new board who actually know what the hell they are doing! I just hope this means I can have my old job back as I know the new management and they are very good at doing what they do and will make the company work! if not I will be deeply upset and angry at my redundancy. this obviously means that people chasing refunds for their delivery charges relating to the groupon offer will unfortunately be hitting a dead end as the company assets, including bank accounts, will have been frozen and will be untouchable. looks like the old managing director knew he was on his way out and thought he would take as much with him as possible. I'm really sorry for all the upset and inconvenience caused to people with this offer as a former employee. this has no reflect on the work force in the sales office or anywhere else in the company as they were just passing on information as told, but the blame lies with the poor management.

Many thanks for the update - it's clearly now a waste of time pursuing the delivery charge refund with CFS. Fortunately I have now purchased some better quality sofas from Tesco, at a bargain price:

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.208-5516.aspx