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American Blinds ceases operation and winds down business. Isn't paying its suppliers. Is it fraud if they took consumer orders - charging consumer credit cards - knowing that they were not going to ship orders? Being one of their suppliers we were stiffed for over $7, 000 - We are one of their suppliers - they continued to send us orders to ship even though they knew they were on credit hold and we were not going to ship any new orders until we got paid. This went on for more than 5 weeks. It is my understanding that they are/were owned by Contrarian Capital http://www.contrariancapital.com/ - a very successful investment group that is worth over $3 billion - yes - that is BILLION DOLLARS - the secured lender was also the same Contrarian Capital. Below is an e-mail from the President of American Blinds to folks like me - their vendors - BUYER BEWARE.
From: Joel Levine
To: Joel Levine
Cc: Bill Tufts; Nick Darin
Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2010 9:51 AM
Subject: Wind Down Of American Blinds and Wallpaper Factory, Inc
April 8, 2010
Re: Wind Down of American Blind & Wallpaper Factory, Inc.
This letter is to inform you that effective April 7, 2010 American Blind & Wallpaper Factory (“ABWF”) ceased doing business. As you may be aware, ABWF has been experiencing financial difficulties for some time due to a reduction in consumer orders corresponding to the current economic conditions. ABWF’s secured lender, which has a security interest in all of ABWF’s assets, determined that it would no longer extend credit, making continued operations impossible. ABWF’s debt to the secured lender significantly exceeds the value of ABWF’s assets. Under these circumstances, ABWF and the secured lender decided that the best course of action was for ABWF to turn over its assets to the secured lender. ABWF understands that the secured lender has disposed of the assets on April 7, 2010, in a sale to a strategic buyer for less than the secured lender was owed.
Because ABWF’s secured debt is so much greater than the value of its assets, ABWF does not anticipate that there will be any funds available to distribute to unsecured creditors, including your company. Furthermore, ABWF will rapidly wind down its operations. Because, ABWF has no assets, any collection efforts will be a waste of resources.
ABWF regrets to inform you of these events. Under the circumstances, ABWF has no realistic choice but to cease operations.
If you require additional information or want to discuss the situation please feel free to contact me by phone or email at [protected] (direct), [protected] (cell), [protected]@americanblinds.com, or [protected]@verizon.net .
I personally thank all of our business partners for the partnerships and working relationships we have developed over the years.
I believe that the strategic buyer will be contacting you to discuss ongoing business relationships and future opportunities including the fulfilling and payment for open orders not yet shipped.
Sincerely,
Joel Levine
CEO
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
The quality of the blinds this company produced were awful. Paper blinds were more reliable. I spoke with Joel Levine about 2 years ago. Instead of trying to resolve the issue, he was suggesting that I was asking for too many replacements. I had blinds breaking every day. I'm not surprised orders were dropping with the quality and customer service of American Blinds and Joel Levine.
I was a supplier of blinds to American Blind and Wallpaper Factory. They owe me a lot of $$$$ for orders that were shipped to their customers and then I didn't get paid. There have been several postings about this. I have done some research and this is what I have found. The guy that owned American Blinds is Jon Bauer who heads up a multi-billion dollar hedge fund called contrarian capital. He was also American Blinds "secure lender". I am told that over the years his company took out millions and millions of dollars out of American Blinds. He bled them dry and then decided to pull the plug on the operation and stiffing American Blinds vendors for millions of millions of dollars. Without any notice he partners Jay Steinfeld, who owns Blinds.com which is one of American's largest competitors. Jay buys the "assets" of American Blinds leaving the company with all this unpaid debt. Jay Stienfeld, the President of Blinds.com posts the following post on a window covering blog. Of course he doesn't idnetify that he is the president of Blinds.com. Jay, maybe you can tell all of us vendors what happened to all the money american blinds made. where did all the money go? Customers paid for orders upfront, we shipped orders and then American didn't pay us the money. How can that be? How do you and John Bauer think that you can just do this backroom deal in the middle of the night, close up shop and walk away from millions of dollars of $$$ owed to American Blinds creditors. Do either you or John bauer have a consious about all of the jobs that have been lost at American Blinds? How about all the families of the employees that lost their jobs at American? You both should be ashamed of yourselfs.
Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:57:39 -0500
"Jay Steinfeld"
American Blinds-response from the purchaser of its assets
I'm the CEO of Global Custom Commerce, the company that bought the
assets of American Blinds from their lender. For those of you who don't
know me, I've been in the window coverings business almost 25 years. I
started with one window coverings store that I owned along with my wife,
Naomi. She and I went online, 17 years ago, way back in 1993.
Hopefully, this post will shed some light on what's recently happened.
As has already been publically disclosed, AmericanBlinds for whatever
reasons was not doing well, to the point where their largest creditor
foreclosed. That creditor lost many millions of dollars, despite the
foreclosure.
It's true that when American was foreclosed upon, several suppliers were
stuck with unpaid bills by the former owners. Apparently the one
"secured" lender lost even more money on the deal than suppliers were
owed. But it's all relative - $7, 000 for one company might be relatively
the same as $7 million for another. It's still real money, a terrible
situation, and a bitter pill to swallow.
What's also true, however, is that after we purchased the old
AmericanBlinds' assets from the lender, we paid hundreds of thousands of
dollars to vendors, to make sure that every customer got their product
for which they had paid. Specifically, all the manufacturers were paid
for every open order they were ready to ship, but were holding due to
credit-hold.
If the person who originally posted [anonymously] would contact me, I'll
make sure that his or her firm also gets reimbursed for all open orders.
So it's true that suppliers lost money when the old owners ceased doing
business. But now my company is running the website, taking orders, and
paying suppliers promptly - just as we've always done. Hopefully we will
do a better job with the company than the former owners.
Jay Steinfeld, CEO
Global Custom Commerce, LP
I am a customer of ABWF that lost money. ABWF took my order on 4/12/2010, after ceasing business on 4/7/2010. I can not contact ABWF by email or phone. Shame on you Joel Levine.
Hi – I’m with the company who bought the assets of American Blinds from that lender.
1) You are right that when American was foreclosed upon, several suppliers lost money. Apparently the 1 “secured” lender lost far more money on the deal than suppliers were owed. L
2) But after we purchased the assets from the lender, we paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to make sure that every customer got their product they paid for.
But a new (much more financially stable) company is running the website, taking orders, and paying suppliers. And we are committed to restoring the company to its former glory.
-Jonathan