doug in Toronto

Beware!!!! We first contacted Vartan from Custom Royalty Furniture, approximately 4 months ago. We e-transfered a $2000.00 deposit for him to fabricate a sofa. He gave us a deadline of 8 weeks to complete. 8 weeks passed and no contact from Vartan. We eventually responded by text saying he was really busy and needed another three weeks to complete. We tried to contact him several times over the 3 weeks with no response. I went to his shop and was able to catch him in person. We asked for our money back. He begrudgingly wrote us a post dated cheque. One week later we deposited the cheque....which bounced like a bad spring in a sofa. I visited again to his shop...front door was locked. I knocked on the back door, his father opened the door.(A family-run "business")....again empty promises to send an email transfer that evening. All-in-all we feel hurt and ashamed that we let this guy swindle our money....not sure what recourse we have...we will be shy about trusting small business again....