SuitePlay! files for bankruptcy
ALGONQUIN – Having been burned when Kitchen Distributors of America suddenly shuttered its showrooms last month, Crystal Lake resident Tom Geiger wasn’t taking any chances when he bought a pool table May 4 during the SuitePlay! half-off sale.
“[SuitePlay!] insisted on 100 percent payment,” Geiger said. “I specifically asked them if there was a risk of bankruptcy, and they said absolutely not. They said. ‘We’re moving to a new location in South Barrington, a better location.’ They even had a sign up showing where.”
Now he is out about $1,800 – with no pool table and no way to contact the recreational furniture store. Geiger feels betrayed. After all, he dropped by the Algonquin store Sunday to pick up some bar stools, only to find a sign that read “closed for inventory until Wednesday.”
That was the day SuitePlay! filed for Chapter 7 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Chicago. Its locations at 1600 E. Algonquin Road, as well stores in Downers Grove, Deerfield and Naperville and a warehouse in Elk Grove Village, are closed. The company Web site is gone and phone calls are going to voice mail.
“When I start seeing that kind of stuff, it’s like, 'Oh my God, here we go again!' ” said Geiger, who added that he was out about $900 for cabinets that he never received from KDA. “I don’t want to give that kind of deposit anytime, but I foolishly did it.”
Charles “Rick” Weber, chairman and chief executive officer of Rec Room Inc., doing business as SuitePlay!, blamed the bankruptcy on a struggling economy, a shrinking housing market, and tightening credit.
“The bank did some things that make it impossible to go forward,” Weber said Thursday. “With Bay Furniture and Wickes Furniture going out, and these people taking all kinds of losses, the minute there is any hint of a problem, they overreact.”
The company said it was working with secured creditors to ensure the delivery of all orders.
But Weber urged customers who paid by credit to immediately call their credit-card companies and protest the charges for the amount of goods paid for and not received.
“That is what we are advising every customer that calls,” he said. “I don’t like to see them hurt.”
Those with claims who paid in cash will join the list of creditors handled by the court. A meeting with creditors is scheduled for 3 p.m. June 25 at the DuPage County Courthouse in Wheaton.
Begun in 1992 as Rec Room Furniture and Games, the company expanded eight years ago to its current 32,000-square-foot showroom. It later opened stores in Downers Grove, Deerfield and Naperville and changed its name to SuitePlay! in August to better reflect its product line.
It sold everything from billiards tables and cues to lighting, bars, counter stools, wine storage, game tables, commercial grade casino and arcade games, home theater seating, entertainment centers, framed art and authentic sports memorabilia.
“These are high-ticket items,” Weber said. “We’re not talking about a gallon of milk here. We’re talking about discretionary purchases.”
Weber, who joined the furniture and games company in 2006, said he does not expect to resurrect a leaner SuitePlay! or rehire any of his 38 employees.
“The stores are closed and will remain closed,” he said. “Once you file for bankruptcy, I’m no longer in the position where I can act on behalf of the company. ... Right now, I have zero employees. I am unpaid, and I’m sitting in the office alone dealing with customer calls. I don’t even know how to use the phone system.”
Purchases as part of the “Cubs Win, You Win” promotion are fully insured by SCA Promotions Inc. Customers were offered rebates for purchases made in March and April if the Cubs go on to win the 2008 World Series.