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Did you ever ask yourself, why did I purchase my furniture at Bellachs leather? Could it be because of the price, or the selection, or the reputation of the business or maybe a combination of all of those things.
Bellachs has brought something unique to the bay area for decades. Jerome Bellach is the man who started what the leather furniture industry is all about. Do you think for one minute that Bellachs has been in business for all these years by being scam artists? If so you are not giving the thousands of satisfied Bellachs customers enough credit.
Have you taken even a minute to check the report on the number of furniture stores in this country that are going out of business? If you have maybe you will understand why Bellachs like many other stores is having some difficulty.
Do you know that Bellachs salespeople do not make a dime on your furniture until it gets delivered to your house and paid for? They have been working for little or nothing for months now. If your employer came to you and said “ OK we are going to file for bankruptcy in 8 months I want you to sell as much stuff as you can, take people’s money, lie to them and do it all for free because they are not going to get heir furniture". Would you do it, of course not? Then why do you think a Bellachs salesperson would do that. I know these people and I can assure you they would not.
I have been working for this company for many years. I have seen it do extraordinary things to give back to the community. I have seen Mr. Bellach feed the homeless in S.F... I have seen Bellachs donate to charitable organizations in Concord, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Rocklin and even areas where they have no store. I have seen employees help out on bay clean ups river clean ups and a number of other things with money and time donations.
I have also been overwhelmed by customers that have called or come by to express their grief at this unfortunate turn of events for Bellachs. I have had customers bring salespeople lunch, water, I have customers call and ask if there is anything they can do to help. I have even had several customers who have called and offered to send in the balance of their C.O.D. if it would help.
I have had a chance to read these blogs about Bellachs on the internet. Most have exaggerations in them and some even have out and out lies. One customer writes that I sat her down and told her that she would not get her money back or her furniture. Nothing could be further from the truth in fact I told her the same thing I have told anyone who has asked. Our intention is for everyone to be made whole. We are not interested in hurting anyone. You all remind me of a pack of wild dogs trying to bring down a wounded animal.
Another blog wonders why I haven’t quit this job. The answer is very simple. I believe in Bellachs, I believe in the people that work for the company, and I truly believe that given a chance every customer will get their money back or their furniture.
If you must join in the gang that is only going to hurt all of those that have the faith to trust us, please try to be accurate and truthful in your blogs.
I sincerely believe even you will be made whole.
Sincerely Michael Reynolds
Jarome bellach came out to my house and told us he would resolve the problems with my chairs by supplying us with matching pillows. He also came out to address the scratches on our coffee tables, the tables were delivered with existing scratches, everything has a lifetime warranty. He came out and cleaned the tables and suggested that if that was satisfactory for the time. He also represented a full warranty on the tables, the scratches appeared back a day later and we called and told them to replace the tables.
The Bellachs have been stuck between a rock and a hard place ever since they were advised to file Chapter 11 reorganization. They felt they would reorganize and honor each and every order (they were all placed) so they could pay everyone dollar for dollar. Some crazy trustee was assigned to take over and the first thing she did was tell the office clerks to cancel all orders sitting at factories and then she fired all the sales staff. She was only interested in making baseless allegations, making her money, and closing the doors. This has been a nightmare for everyone...especially us customers. Nobody's money was stolen by the Bellachs. Hopefully, we won't have to declare bankruptcy and be put in the same boat. I, for one, wish the Bellachs well.
Following is additional information I received 5/14/08 in an email from Shawn Boyd at Call Kurtis, CBS13. I have not personally verified this information and do not know their sources.
"1. The US Trustee is objecting to Jerome Bellach handling the case. They want an independant trustee. Seems Bellach's did not provide details they were supposed to and the US attorneys are concerned about 'insider transactions', which Bellach's did not list in their bankruptcy paperwork. Bellach's also has not provided financial statements or income tax returns that were requested by the US attorneys.
2. Bellach's is paying Mr. and Mrs. Bellach $37, 000 per month in salary. Not to shabby, huh?
3. Bellach's is asking for the court to approve rent payments of $116, 000 per month for the four stores. Guess what! The bankruptcy papers say that Mr. and Mrs. Bellach own three entities that lease or sublease space to Bellach's. Imagine that. They are called 9th Street Design Center, B&B Management and J&K Management.
4. There(sp) list of creditors is amazing. Apparently their original list was eight pages and did not include customers who had pu down deposits. Now the amended list of creditors is 96 pages, most of whom are customers like me. Per the US attorneys, the amount of deposits is about $1, 000, 000 and was used to pay for other things."
Good luck to all of you who paid deposits and did now receive the furniture you ordered. I hope you paid by credit card and not cash or check.
Bellach's has had financial problems since at least 1/24/07. I know because I placed an order for an Elite Leather sectional and ottoman on that date and did not get delivery until 6/20/07. The manufactuer is in Chino CA and I don't think the Italian cows were forced to swim here! Although I got nothing but bs from Michael and Joshua Reynolds regarding the delay, I did finally receive beautifully made furniture from Elite.
When I subsequently went to place an order for two additional chairs and a hide in October '07, Ray Curry had the warehouse in Santa Rosa pull my original sectional receiving order only to find that the special wood trim finish I had been up-charged for didn't even exist. At this time Elite's only Sacramento dealers were Bellach's and Broad Street Furnishings in Nevada City (Who are currently in the process of liquidating stock and going out of business as I write this!).
With no real choice, I placed an order with Michael on 10/17/07 using a credit card for the $2700+ deposit. Of course my order was never sent to the manufacturer - later confirmed with Elite and Lindsey at the Santa Rosa warehouse, although no one in the Rocklin location would ever admit it up to my last contact two weeks ago.
As soon as I received the USDOJ bankruptcy notice, I contacted my credit card's dispute resolution department and faxed them all the information. I followed up with addtional information as I acquired it. They immediately posted a credit with resolution to follow within 90 days; the credit was made permanent this month.
Michael,
Bellachs has breached it's contract with me by not providing the furniture on time as stated in the contract. Despite being in the wrong, Bellach's salesmen have treated me poorly. They've broken promises to return my call and continuously lied by telling me my furniture would arrive in just "a couple of weeks" when they knew that wasn't the case. In the event that I actually got a sales rep on the phone they were hurried and completely non-empathetic to the situation.
I will say that the people at corporate are much better to talk to and have been much more helpful. Unfortunately when you are counting on furniture arriving in December/January and it's the middle of April and you're still sitting on the floor it takes more than "be patient" to make it right.
If Mr Bellach is such a great guy maybe he can try explaining to my pregnant wife why we don't have furniture to sit on in our house and why we can't just have our money back.
If something BIG isn't done to make this right I'll never buy furniture from this store again, even if it doesn't go completely out of business. You can bet that I'll tell all my friends and their friends about my experience.
By the way, my furniture is on a container that's been sitting in Long Beach since January, and Bellachs has been taking orders ever since so why can't they pay to get it out of storage?
If you stop delivering furniture you should stop taking orders.
You have to realize that you are sitting on thousands of dollars that people have provided to you in return for merchandise that they have yet to receive... as a matter of fact, you have roughly $4K worth of my money tied up in your businesses debt. Had I known this would occur would I have purchased from Bellach's? Unequivocally NO. My wife and myself have been very patient and understanding about this situation, but the team at Bellach's has treated us like garbage since my merchandise has been delayed... I have been lied to, promises to contact me have been broke, and updates on the matter have fallen short of my ears. Your response to the people who have trusted you with their money is deplorable. I will wait for my furniture and once it comes, I will never do business with your company again; not for the sake of your hardship, but for they lack of respect you have extended to the decent people who have purchased with you.