The Pine Factory - www.wimbledonpine.co.uk

I brought a chest of drawers from this company when they had a retail location in Wimbledon in 2010. I only noticed them due to the retail location.

The shop assistant at the time insist that I didn't pay for the item and get it delivered but I should take it with me immediately in the boot of my car. This was even though it was just about too heavy for me to carry on my own. In fact the shop assistant helped me carry the item to my car and put it in.

I then looked all over the web and found that this company had taken orders from people but not delivered them.

I have just googled the company years later as I was looking for another chest of drawers and they still exist. However Royal Mail's post checker indicates the postcode for the address on their website is completely wrong. It is also no longer in London let alone Wimbledon.

If you run a small business, which myself and a few of my friends' do, you ensure your address is correct and reflects your location otherwise you lose business.

Thanks to the fact that I came across this site, I have not ordered anything from this trader. I'm still angry and very frustrated though because I can't find the range of pine furniture I want anywhere else. I've searched for possible retailers and manufacturers with no success.

I wonder if anyone here can help me locate this range. On the Pine Factory website, it's called Cathedral Pine and is distinctive because of the little carved butterflies on each piece. I very much want to find this range. Please help me if you can.

Ordered goods tried repeatadly to find out what had happened to the order. Found that they had gone out of buissness now find them back on the web advertising. Glad I used my credit card and got a refund. Would not use this company at all would avoid any contact with them. Would not trust them to nbe around for long.

I want to thanks everyone for taking the time to write their reviews.I was about to purchase a dining room table for £500,but thanks to you guys i will be purchasing elsewhere

Thank you all

We ordered 3 CD chest cabinets for £620 in March and of course have never received confirmation or delivery date, and have had no contact from the retailer.

However, having read all your reviews on website, we took the following approach:

1. Contacted Consumer Direct, who logged our complaint and informed us that we needed to check with Company House to see if it was a registered company. And sure enough this company wasn't registered and was trading as a sole trader

2. Company House then recommended us to write a letter to the retailer and obtain a proof of posting and then to contact our bank

3. We then contacted our bank (Barclays), as we paid for our product by Debit card. The bank sent a complaint/claim form, and together with proof of posting and evidence of the website no longer active, we sent a formal request to our bank to refund £620

4. Within 14 days the bank replied that the bank itself could not refund as it was purchased on a Debit card but will pursue the retailer's bank on our behalf.

This week, we had wonderful news that our bank has successfully recovered the full £620 from The Pine Factory's bankers and refunded to our account.

We started the process in July and would recommend that if you have paid by credit/debit card to pursue with your bank to recover your money. I hope this information will help some of you.

We are another of a long list of disatisfied customers of John Hancock

Thank goodness my wife used her credit card - we applied for, and got, a chargeback - which means our money has been refunded. I googled wimbledon pine today in order to cut and paste their phoney "no nonsense terms and conditions" and send them to Merton council trading standards.

However from this site I now realise things have moved on since our "run in" and it sounds like Mr Hancock is now trying to claim he is bankrupt. Personally I wouldnt buy that one without some form of external confirmation.

If he ripped you off via credit card you can still get your money back. Phone your credit card supplier and ask them to apply a "chargeback" to the account.

I understand he has already changed his trading name from Wimbledon Pine to the The Pine Factory and I would not be surprised to see another trading name emerging soon.

If its useful to anyone on this forum the original furniture manufacturer IN OUR CASE was Devonshire Pine, Caddsdown Industrial Park, Clovelly Road, Bideford, Devon EX39 3DX. We have already discussed Mr Hancocks activities with them so they are at least partially aware of the situation. They can supply a list of more reputable dealers, but after this experience we will of course be checking them out on this site. Of course he may well have used other suppliers so do check where your furniture came from.

We bought a dresser from The pine factory in April unfortunately we paid cash as it was money we given as a wedding present from my brother, I have also contacted Watchdog. we do have an address of where used to live in Kinston, but his wife says he no longer lives there. So currently we cannont find him and have no way of getting our money back, my last email contact with him was not very helpful as he could not give me the name of his receiver. If anyone knows where he is then it would be helpful to know, or if a receiver has been appointed

samantha Lewis

I purchased a Pine Dresser in April for my wife with the money my late Mother in Law left my wife, OK it looks like I'll my money back from the card company but never the less, can someone pass on Mr Hancocks Address to me as I will personally pay him a visit which would leave him feeling somewhat less smug...I've also contacted BBC Watchdog

I ordered a blanket box in March and despite repeated requests I've not heard from them or received my money back, I think we can get our money back through our credit card companies it's part of their insurance, I'm going to investigate. I'm never buying anything significant from a small retailer again.

I ordered a TV unit in January and I have nothing from them yet. Since they have closed down, how can I recover my money?