Several times in the past we mentioned Strictly Wood Furniture, their excellent prices and the seemingly high quality Mission Revival reproduction items they sold. However - and I have to admit I'm definitely behind the times on this since the complaints date back four years - I found this thread on Gardenweb detailing dozens of people's very serious problems with the company. Some have waited years for furniture or refunds that never came, others took delivery of obviously broken or incomplete orders; all had one thing in common: that they were unable to get any kind of honest answer from the seemingly friendly folks who worked for Strictly Wood. SWF went so far as to give completely fabricated fedex confirmation numbers - meant to maintain the illusion that a refund check was on its way to the customer - on multiple occasions. What a scam! And, as of last year, their flagship showroom in New York City is shuttered.

The good luck is that they have closed down; the bad news is that they've only closed down under that name, and keep reappearing under others: watch out for their other fronts (they are apparently still selling, or rather promising to deliver, via constantly-changing Yahoo stores and various auction sites, too).

Ralph Jones helped them go into receivership and writes that most of the customers who never got their money back or the furniture they ordered were eventually given something; however, after contacting a half dozen people who had posted in the Gardenweb thread, only one had received any communication at the time Strictly Wood closed down. The Turkish company that made the furniture, however, was never guilty of any wrongdoing, and still makes excellent furniture and sells via other vendors - these problems were completely the fault of the American vendor, Strictly Wood. Furniture.