Irvine Business Hit by Injunction : Mail-Order Firm Told to Satisfy Complaints

The Orange County district attorney’s office has obtained a court order against a national mail-order business based in Irvine after receiving about 200 complaints from customers who said they had not received merchandise or had experienced delays in getting refunds.

The injunction prohibits the company, Exeters, from accepting any new orders unless merchandise or refunds are sent to all consumers who placed orders before Aug. 1, said Gay Geiser-Sandoval, deputy district attorney in the office’s consumer protection unit.

Company officials, who blamed problems on an outdated computer system, say they have already complied.

Tom McKinley, president of 4-year-old Exeters, said the company had been aware of the problem and already had replaced an “archaic” computer system that could not handle the company’s growth.

“There were 100 or more complaints. They have all been resolved,” McKinley said. “I think it is important to say that we had purchased everything (the new computer system) before they had complained. Everything they had asked we had already done.”

The company publishes a catalogue that offers electronic products including hand-held copiers, shower radios and cordless telephones. Three issues of the catalogue are mailed out each year to approximately 3 million addresses, said Kimberly McKinley, company vice president. In the past four years, more than 75,000 orders have been filled, she said.

Customers from throughout the nation have sent complaints to their local prosecutors’ offices and postal inspectors’ offices, Geiser-Sandoval said. The information was then forwarded to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

“Promises were made that it would never happen again,” Geiser-Sandoval said. “Letters and certified letters were sent, and they (customers) still didn’t get an answer. I think that is the level of consumer frustration. They were not taken care of in a timely fashion.”

Under the injunction, Exeters will have to notify customers immediately when orders can’t be shipped within 30 days; the company will have to make prompt refunds when merchandise is returned, and it will have to answer all customer complaints within two weeks of receipt.

The district attorney’s office will also make spot checks to make sure people who have complained receive their products, Geiser-Sandoval said.