Cecile M is the owner of Main St. Kidz, a children's furniture store located in Somerville, NJ. On November 7, 2009, I visited Ms. M's store and paid her $800 cash for a baby's dresser and was advised that (1) the dresser was a special order that Ms. M had to place with Dutailier, a Canadian private owned company that only processes orders that are placed through one of their authorized dealers, which Main St. Kidz was listed as being on of; (2) Ms. M would waive the NJ State sales tax because I paid cash for the transaction; and (3) Ms. M would contact me in mid-January 2010, the anticipated delivery date for the furniture, so that I could pick the dresser up from her store.
A sales receipt was also provided with the details of this transaction. Subsequently, Ms. M never contacted me and I had to call her numerous times beginning in January 2010 to obtain a status of the order. I finally received a return call at the end of January 2010 and was advised that the shipments from Canada were delayed due to snow. I further contacted Dutailier directly in mid to late February 2010 to inquire about the order and learned that Dutailier had no record of any order coming from that retailer for almost a year.
Dutailier put me in touch with Ms. M's store representative, who is responsible for placing her orders with Dutailier, and he further confirmed that the order was never placed. My father visited Ms. M in her store a few days later and she continued to attest that the furniture was on its way, but due to recent snow conditions, delivery time was out of her control. I met with Ms. M in her store on March 3, 2010 requesting a refund and advising that I had obtained information from Dutailier, as well as her sore representative, that the order was never placed.
I had also prepared a Complaint and Summons to file in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Special Civil Part Small Claims Section and advised Ms.Mitrani of my intentions to file same. Ms. Mitrani then agreed to provide a refund in the form of a check, which she post-dated for March 10, 2010. After much aggravation and wasted time I was able to cash the check and receive my refund, although there remains an empty space in my sons nursery (who is now almost 8 months old), for his dresser that never arrived.
