Empire - www.empirecarpet.com - Window Treatment order cancelled due to slow delivery - no itemized bill - battling now with GE Capital Credit Card Company also

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on July 15, 2002:

From:

RE: Empire - www.empirecarpet.com - Window Treatment order cancelled due to slow delivery - no itemized bill - battling now with GE Capital Credit Card Company also

RE: http://www.empirecarpet.com I placed an order for window treatments in August 2001. I had bought a new home and needed blinds for the entire house. I was drawn to Empire because they were offering "no payments for 1 year". My order totaled

$4,800. They guaranteed 1/2 of the blinds to be delivered the next day and the rest within 5 days. The first 1/2 was delivered next day as promised. But the remainder of the order did not arrive the following week. When I called customer service they stalled me. After 3 weeks they gave me a delivery date for the remainder of the order that was 2 weeks out. I said that if they were ready why couldn't they deliver them sooner.

They said that was the soonest they could get out to deliver them. OK I've been angry for a while now! So I insist that they be delivered sooner, the truth comes out -- they don't have them made. (These were

custom order blinds). I finally said just cancel the remainder of my order and send me an itemized invoice for what they've installed. But I never received an itemized bill from Empire. I call several times requesting an itemized bill. Then I receive a bill from GE Capital Credit Card Company (whom empire sells the account to) -- for $1,600. But now I don't know what I'm paying for because I have no itemized bill. So I continue to request

itemized information from empire. By this time, I cannot even get anyone to return my calls. Now I have this bill from GE that comes every month (of course the $1,600 isn't due yet because the deal was no payments for a year). I call GE and explain the situation and am told by the customer service rep over the phone that they can dispute the charge and get the itemized information. Then a couple weeks later I get a letter from GE saying that they cannot dispute the charge because I did not request the dispute within 60 days following the receipt of their invoice. (during those 60 days of course

I'm still battling Empire)! NOW WHAT! I've seen other very similar complaints at the complaints.com website that sound a lot like mine. I would strongly recommend that consumers not deal with Empire no matter how good the deal sounds.