Judy Rosekrans is doing a slow burn over her stove. She’s venting about the professional hood that ought to be in her nearly remodeled kitchen.
Instead, it remains behind locked doors at the former Couch’s Appliance and Furnishings in Fife.
On the morning of Oct. 1, Couch’s employees showed up for work and found the doors locked and the windows covered. Customers came next, and read a note taped to the door. It stated the obvious: The store had closed. It gave no contact information.
Two weeks later, customers who had paid for appliances locked inside the building don’t know if or when they’ll get them. People who wrote deposit checks for new kitchens are wondering how long the line of creditors in front of them is.
No one has answered calls. No one has taken responsibility for what customers say feels an awful lot like theft.
Angry as they are, they’re puzzled. They feel sorry for Couch’s employees. They speak highly of the service they received at Don Couch’s store since 1979. Over the past 36 months, the Better Business Bureau received only 11 complaints about Couch’s, and gave it a rating of A-.
But after the economy belly-flopped, Doug Clark, president of Choice Construction in Gig Harbor, noticed subtle changes. There were uncharacteristic delays in service, he said.
“Don has been in the community and has worked hard,” Clark said. “He’s a guy who cared.”
Contractor Bill Sweatman of Sweatman-Young Inc. agreed. “I bought all of our own appliances from him, and the appliances for our jobs,” he said. “We’ve had many experiences with him, and they’ve all been good.”
(I tried but failed Monday and Tuesday to reach Couch for comment through several of his friends.)
Customers, including Donna Keith, called Couch “Donny” and considered him a friend.
Keith is old enough to retire but cleans houses for a living. She figured she deserved a new refrigerator. She paid for it, set a delivery date, then learned it had been sold out from under her. She ordered another, and set the delivery date for Oct. 3. The day before, she called to confirm the time, and got the store’s answering machine, but no return call.
“They owe me $1,141.09,” Keith said. “I work hard for my money. That’s sticking my head into a lot of toilets.”
Keith is a tenacious woman. The Couch’s Web site mentioned a new Shoreline location in 2008. She took her receipts and drove to that store.
A Shoreline salesman told her the two stores are not affiliated. He said they were being flooded with phone calls, including one from the salesman who sold Keith her fridge. His final paycheck had bounced, and he was looking for a job.
The Seattle salesman took a copy of Keith’s receipts, but did not refund the money or send her home with a refrigerator.
Niki Horace, vice president of marketing and public relations for the regional Better Business Bureau, also called the store in Shoreline.
“They advise consumers to e-mail terryp@vikingbank.com with any questions or comments,” Horace wrote in a consumer alert Tuesday afternoon.
She also suggested consumers file complaints with the Better Business Bureau online at www.bbb.org, and with the state Attorney General’s Office at www.atg.wa.gov/fileacomplaint.aspx.
Sending the e-mails to Viking Bank vice president Terry Pickering is fine, said Emily Wiseman, the bank’s assistant vice president. People can also mail copies of their Couch’s paperwork to Pickering at Viking Bank, 4 Nickerson St., Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98109.
Viking did not close the store in Fife, Wiseman said.
“We were just as surprised as the customers,” she said. “My deepest sympathies go out to the people affected.”
Viking is going through records, sorting out who is owed refunds or merchandise. That does not mean it can make refunds or ship stoves. Couch, she said, should be responsible for that, and customers should get their claims to him.
The mess will likely move through investigations and possible litigation, and customers may never get their money back, she said.
We can only hope Donna Keith’s old refrigerator lasts another 16 years.
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677
kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com
