Furniture Sales Sparks Attorney General’s Ire

October 26, 2008  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on October 2008 New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ordered Utica-based Affordable Furniture to change advertising he claimed was based on “fictitious” comparable pricing.

The store blamed the problems on an unnamed third-party sale promoter and said pricing has been changed.

The Attorney General’s office sent a cease-and-desist letter to the business, which has locations in Utica, Watertown, Rome and Syracuse. The letter stated that the store’s posted prices “had no relation to the usual store prices of the merchandise, nor were they tied to any other comparable price.”

The letter demanded that the store stop listing “fictitious usual pricing” as part of its “Remerchandising Relinquishment” sale, stating that the store may hve been violating state laws that prohibit false advertising. It also demanded that the store deliver all furniture that has not been delivered within the time frames in customer contracts.

According to published reports in Syracuse media outlets, the retailer issued a statement saying the sale was being run by a third party, which created all of the sale’s advertising and pricing information. The store also stated that all furniture sold during the sale was at a lower price than the store’s normal pricing. The statement said the store has corrected price tags to list the suggested retail price, the store’s customary price and the sale price.