IDdesign Furniture Store

whoareya · 16-11-2004 6:28pm #1

any one hear of this furniture company closing down!! it was on joe duffy today,apparently they just closed the shop and kept people`s deposits and that..........

dudara · 28-11-2004 2:52pm

Just read this in todays Sunday Independant

I didn't run away, I had to shut shop'

LIAM COLLINS

A DIRECTOR of a Scandinavian-style furniture company who "disappeared" from his premises two weeks ago said he had to shut up shop because he was "threatened" with physical violence by irate customers of the company.

But Frank Petersen, who ran ID Design in the Airside Retail Park at Swords, Co Dublin claims he will still meet up to a thousand orders to customers who have paid for goods - by Christmas.

"I didn't run away - my plan was to continue trading from our premises - but because of the rumours people started calling to the shop and myself and my staff were threatened.

"We had to close the shop, which didn't make life easier, but we have made 100 deliveries this week and we are texting and contacting customers with new delivery dates," he claimed. "People weren't very nice, but we are doing our best," he added.

Mr Petersen said he and 10 staff were now "working behind closed doors," fulfilling orders to customers who have already paid for furniture.

ID Design, which is a Danish franchise, is owned by a company called Wiltoncliff Ltd registered in Dublin. It has had a troubled history and, according to Mr Petersen, who lives in Malahide, Co Dublin, he was planning a relaunch of the business with new investors.

In the meantime, he held a "renovation sale," but because of logistical problems with his freight forwarding agents, he wasn't able to make deliveries as promised. This led to complaints from many people who had paid large sums of money for furniture.

One customer, James Syder from Finglas in Dublin, said that after paying the balance of a €1,900 bill on November 6, he heard nothing further from ID Design and he has not been able to speak to any company representative so far.

"I'm a first time buyer, I'm moving into my new house in a couple of weeks and now I don't have any furniture," he said.

Mr Syder and other ID Design customers haven't been able to make any contact with the company since it went "underground," leading to further uncertainly and complaints to Joe Duffy on Liveline and other media outlets.

But speaking for the first time to the Sunday Independent last Friday, Mr Petersen pledged that anybody who had already paid for furniture will get it.

He appealed to customers to be patient as he and 10 staff try to deal with the backlog.

"We only need a little bit of breathing space from customers, but they don't understand, they're not nice to us," he said.

One former investor in the company, Roddy Comyn of Sutton, Dublin, said that he resigned as a director six months ago "because I didn't have time to devote to the company". He said he had since been unable to sell his shareholding.

Other shareholders named in company documents as investing in Wiltoncliff two years ago include two companies in the Isle of Man and a Danish firm.

kenmc · 29-11-2004 9:01am

Well one of the lads who works here told me he popped in to check on the delivery date of a bed, and he could tell they were gonna be closed the next day. he managed to get 80% cash back from them for the bed, and goods for the other 20%. Said that there were salesmen there selling stuff which already had "sold" stickers on it - ie, sell it twice!!!!
Useful tip for the future - only pay the minimum deposit you can ever get away with, until such a time as you get the goods into your dirty paws....
He was in there for 6 hours fighting his case - was even on the phone to the suppliers in sweden, who told him the IDDesign weren't getting any more deliveries cos they didn't pay for the stuff!!!

WUSBDesign · 13-01-2005 1:03pm

So, what's the latest story about IDDesign - have they actually closed down with a public notice in which newspaper? My bank advised that if purchases have been made with a credit card, then something can be done about the money.

MorningStar · 17-01-2005 7:53pm

I got a letter threatening to sue me for non payment of my bill. Not only is the bill approx ten times the outstanding amount I am still waiting for them to replace an item that arrived damaged.
The solicitor acting on their behalf in this matter is:

William Davis & Co.
14 Herbert Street,
Dublin 2

Williamdavis@eircom.net

I am sure if they have your money this is the man to deal with.

MorningStar · 25-01-2005 9:39am

If anybody else is having problems with ID or plan to get in touch with their lawyer could you just post a small note. I know a few people in a real bind with them .

WUSBDesign · 26-01-2005 1:26pm

I've just got a letter (dated 21stJan05) in the post TODAY, from IDDesign/Frank, confirming that this store is going to be closed.

Also, the letter indicated that customers can either continue their orders (indicated BEFORE 27Jan05) with other suppliers (not mentioned), or these orders are deemed cancelled. Anyone else got the same letter?

What's frustrating is that this letter did not refer to refunds. Is this supposed to be automatic under consumer protection laws? Is there a lawyer who is going to take this up for all ID Design customers?

MorningStar · 27-01-2005 6:22pm

Either way I would guess that the lawyer I mentioned earlier is ID Designs lawyer. If yoiu want your money get in touch with him

gsmith303 · 31-01-2005 6:07pm

I've been compiling information about ID Design on my Blog site:

http://gsmitheidw.blogspot.com/

I've gathered quite a lot of both facts and rumours about ID Design so far - hopefully some of it may be useful to those of you here too.

It might be worth a read to save any of you wasting time going down avenues that some of us have already tried without any success.

I think people wouldn't be so angry if we hadn't been lied to and with the myriad false promises of forthcoming delivery. Or indeed felt that this is a genuine case of a company that has just failed. But there are too many aspects of this situation that just don't add up and it makes people extremely suspicious.

One thing I didn't mention on my blog site is that I know somebody who ordered some furniture long ago (when ID Design was only opened) and he paid on receipt of the furniture which did eventually arrive (in dribs and drabs over many months following much hassle, phonecalls and demands for money). Then afterwards they started to claim he hadn't paid, despite him having credit card receipts etc and called in debt collectors. It turned out they had lost most/all of their computer records showing who had paid and who had not. So apparently they accused everybody of not paying in the hope that those who hadn't would. Anyway it seems that from the very start they seem to have been trading in a very unsatisfactory manner.

G.

WUSBDesign · 07-02-2005 9:28am

It looks like Club8Company/EuropeanLiving has intervened, promising to deliver the goods for orders which a deposit has been paid. Anyone received this letter? Is this trustworthy?

gsmith303 · 14-02-2005 1:53pm

It looks like Club8Company/EuropeanLiving has intervened, promising to deliver the goods for orders which a deposit has been paid. Anyone received this letter? Is this trustworthy?

Nope I didn't get this - perhaps it depends on what furniture you bought. They probably only supply a portion of what ID Design supposedly stocked. More probably they only contacted customers who paid a smaller sized deposit. I paid in full so no chance they're likely to honour that!!

Are they trustworthy? I don't really know. I'd be more inclined to trust a long established name -
Arnotts, Clerys, Queensway and other such stores that are generally considered reputable.

There are a few questions about this letter which may be worth pondering:

1. Where/how did they get your name and address details? It may well be paranoia but I know "House of Denmark" customers who received mailshots from ID Design. Interesting parallel of the flow of such information!

2. They appear to be taking on a possible loss whereby they absorb the original deposit value. What are their motives? Is business that tight that they need to gain customers this way from a company that has all but vanished in suspicious circumstances.

3. Why would you trust any company that would seem to do a "deal" with ID Design of any sort?

4. Presuming you didn't give any specific permission for your customer details to be given to a third party by ID Design, it isn't very ethical of another company to take/buy those details.

G.

idontknowmyname · 14-02-2005 5:09pm

thats really ****. I heard it had closed down again. The first time it opened about 2 years ago it went into liquidation not soon after it opened...leaving a load of customers stranded with nothing...no money back or furniture.

Apparently they got new investors and they re-opened again but the place was hugely expensive! I wouldn't buy in there. I feel really sorry for anyone who's affected by this new closure. If the branch manager had people coming up threatening them then why didn't he do a press release to reassure people they weren't closing. The manager is tellin a load of bull. Bet the manager knew ages ago it was gonna close but still continued to take orders and deposits from people knowing full well it was gonna close and that they'd lose everything

gsmith303 · 14-02-2005 5:48pm

Well its a bit more complicated than that.. the company you mention is (on paper at least) a different entity to the previous one 2 or 3 years ago or so. That one was called House Of Denmark and ended in warrants for the arrest of the directors. Apparently they escaped from the country and went to some costa de gangsters in the mediteranian.

This current company ID Design (technically it is Wiltoncliff Ltd trading as ID Design) although seperate, does have some links with that company - as in the aforementioned sharing of customer information plus they just so happened to be another Danish owened company in the same unit in the same retail park. Which of course thats all pure co-incidence... hmm...

Frank Petersen (Managing Director of ID Design) did actually meet with the media. There was a report in one of the newspapers where he claimed there were to be new investors. He refused to give any details of those. This company hasn't as yet gone into liquidation officially.. technically all they have done is close their doors to their shop in Airside and Warehouse in Santry The reason most customers are so very angry is the lies and deceit and rumours of the entire operation having been a complete scam. They way they have operated is certainly "reckless trading" at the very least.

The last contact most people had was a letter sent out dated the 21st January or so, that only arrived to most customers on the 27th. It basically said confirm your order in writing by 27th or it is considered cancelled. Which is utter nonsense and they are not entitled to end a contract of sale in such a manner.

Some people who have contacted me have lost huge sums of money. First time buyers who furnished most of their house from this place etc

G.

Slicky · 23-02-2005 10:18am

The last contact I had with ID design after recieving the letter re- confirming you still wanted to go ahead with the order was a text from Frank Petersen stating " Please sent the letter back signed and we can bring it to the supplier in DK asap and he will then look after you "

I recieved no word back after this so texted again and recieved this text when asked had they recieved the letter wishing to still get the order placed in October 2004.
" we have thanks. I am in DK and we will sort it mon. Have a meeting with iddesign dk " that was sent to me at 17.00 on Thursday 3/2/2005.

All I have asked for all along is on honest answer yes/no re the order and to this date Frank could not have been more shifty and evasive. The mobile numbers have since been disconnected and ID Design DK have no record of meeting with Frank.

Why bother send out this letter if they had no intention of fulfilling their order??
I agree with the previous posts on how deceptive the store was in taking orders into December knowing fine well that they would never be delivered.

WUSBDesign · 11-03-2005 3:32pm

We are (finally!) going to collect the orders from European Living in Kylemore Road. So, at least the "compromise" made by ID Design stands after all.

I would suggest to anyone having this trouble try their luck with Club8Company. The contacts can be found on their website http://www.club8company.com . Good luck!

MorningStar · 11-03-2005 3:56pm

I'm impressed. I am still waiting for a reply from their lawyer and a replacement table. Anybody know how long before I no longer have to pay the remainder of the bill?

whoareya · 11-05-2005 12:50pm

any luck with getting your furniture ppl?

gsmith303 · 07-07-2005 7:51pm

No money or furniture but you may be interested to know Frank has started some new enterprises in Denmark:

http://www.uturn2.com

http://skyfurn.com

http://ideco.dk

Here's a pic of him on his new site:

He's looking good for a conman. And he has our money.

If any of you are interested i'm also keeping a log of things at my blog site
here:

http://gsmitheidw.blogspot.com

RicardoSmith · 07-07-2005 8:05pm

Might be an idea to get your story to the local press there and here.

CCOVICH · 09-07-2005 11:10am

His new e-mail address is frank@ideco.dk

drdre · 10-07-2005 9:26pm

loads of furniture companies have gone into liquidation after opening a premises in ireland. they all do it to make easy money from pre orders. now when id opens again with new investors t owes no money to the customers that already paid as thye proved that they have new directors etc and thats it not id design anymore.
they are all scammers

IDdesign Furniture Store

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