Police Get Numerous Complaints about Debts Owed by Karma Couture

Shortly after Karma Couture on Main Street in East Greenwich abruptly closed its storefront, police soon started getting complaints from former customers who say they’ve been cheated out of money and designer clothes.

Among them is a woman who is out a $750 mink coat and another who has been waiting for half of a $640 payment for the sale of costume jewelry since January.

In each case, police told the customers to contact the Attorney General’s office and indicated that each individual case seemed to be a civil matter, though the volume of complaints — and more likely to come — could compel the AG’s office to launch a criminal investigation.

On April 28, a 76-year-old Warwick woman told police that her $750 mink coat was taken by the store on Dec. 21 of last year to be sold on consignment. If the coat didn’t sell, she was to come to the store to take it home, according to the arrangement.

The woman said she called the store numerous times and “the message on the answering machine stated that they were on vacation until 4/20/15,” according to a police report.

RELATED: Customers Say Karma Couture Won’t Return Clothes or Money

She responded to the store and nobody was there, she said. Police informed her that it appeared the store was closing quickly “for unknown reasons and that we have taken reports for customers who have not been paid when merchandise that was left on consignment was sold.”

On May 3, a 61-year-old Coventry woman had a similar story. She said she consigned a $130 Coach purse, assorted clothes at $150 and shoes valued at $75. She was to get a percentage of the sales and if they didn’t sell after an allotted time, she was to come to the store to pick them up.

The items were dropped off on Jan. 3, and on April 3, she said went to the store where an employee put her on the phone with owner Sandra Picard, who, according to a police report, said she would locate the items and return them to her as soon as possible.

When the customer went to the store to pick up the items on May 3, the store was closed.

On the same day, a 50-year-old North Providence woman told police that she is owed $340 for the sale of costume jewelry since January. Before the recent problems, she had done business with Karma Couture since 2013 and had received payment.

When she called in January to get paid, she was told to go to the website to request payment. After filling out a form, she was emailed notification that her payment would be delivered around April 18. By April 25 no payment had come, so she called and got the vacation voicemail message, which she though was strange because it said the vacation was ending five days ago.

She went to the store, looked in the window and “noticed there were hangers on the floor and other things missing inside which made it look like the place was being shut down.”

And then there’s the complaint filed on April 30 from a 61-year-old Coventry woman, who told police that she felt like she is “being robbed” after she put her Michael Hoban dress on consignment and never got paid for its sale.

She said that she cosigned the dress in February and every month, dutifully went to the store’s website and filed a check request to avoid the proceeds being locked into store credit.

According to the customer, the agreement stated that she had to do the check request procedure each month that the dress did not sell in order to be eligible to get actual money from the deal. Her last check request was in March and when she realized the store had gone out of business, she tried calling Picard with no response.

Police also got a complaint from a 39-year-old East Greenwich resident on May 1.

In an e-mail, Karma Couture owner Sandy Picard said she has had website problems after a family member stopped handling technical things but a link to place a store credit order should be up on website this week.

“As far as refunds go, all orders that have been placed online or via email have been pulled and have either already been shipped or are being prepared for shipment now. Admittedly I’m running a few days slower than normal in getting packages out just due to the backlog. The voicemail greeting on our phones was changed to instruct customers or consignors with questions about their accounts to email us at info@shopkarma.com. I’m personally responding to each one just as quickly as I can. Again, there might be a bit of a delay but I am working overtime to get caught up,” she wrote.

The store, which still lists items for sale on its website including Luis Vuitton handbags and designer clothes, actually started generating a string of complaints last year when customers began reporting that their items were sold quickly but they never got paid.

In a series of Yelp reviews, customer after customer describes being told a variety of stories as to why their payments are being held up. Or they describe items being dropped off only to find that the store gave them away after they sat for a week or more, or worse.

“I brought in some items to sell and the woman working there said they would be a great fit and she would get back to me with pricing info. I didn’t hear back so I called the store the next week and I was told the items were out of season and I should pick them up,” Lauren S. of East Greenwich said. “When I came back I was told my items had been “donated” because I took too long to get them (it had been 1 week because I was out of town). I asked to speak to a manager and when I made a scene in the store asking where my [clothes] and shoes were the manager went in the back room and miraculously came out quickly with all of my things.”

WPRI reported that the state Attorney General’s office is investigating complaints.