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If you go to court, you will be the last people to get your money back for the table. Everyone else is paid before you are in going out of business deal. They may not even be going into bankrupicy court.
Good Luck---never put down more then 20% on anything you buy---if they ask for more, you don't really need that item anyway.

Hopefully you paid by credit card. Call your credit card company asap.

Oh wow! That's just plain wrong. What about 1. Mailing a letter to his company's service of process (usually you can find out the address on California's company search) and demand that he return your money. 2. File a police report. What he's doing is theft or at least conversion of your property.

A lot of small stores and shops are on a slippery slope now adays---have you not notice even in your local town shops going out of business, when driving around.

That's just evil...we had a big cabinet distributor, KDA, go bankrupt...they just closed their doors without telling anyone..and people lost thousands of dollars in deposits or were left with half finished kitchens! Lawyers were saying they were screwed. HOw companies can ethically or morally take customers cash when they know full well they are closing their doors in a week....and they know they can get away with it....it's awful.

If you put the down payment on a credit card, you should be able to dispute the charge and not pay it. I have had similar things happen and visa was very helpful.

In a situation like that, is there any way to get your money back?

Not the nicest people

If you made this transaction with a debit/credit card you should file with the credit company FIRST and let them resolve the issue, it's your best bet. I am not familiar with with the legal EZ in your area however, with a little bit of leg work and research at the nearest legal college library you should be able to file a lien in county court against any remaining property in the store for the amount of the debt owed and legal fees. Expect a fee up to $100. You should attempt to contact the property manager by registered letter explaining your situation and desire to contact the owner of the store to resolve this issue ASAP. Good luck and I hope to here about the final resolve in about 90 days.

File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Here in Houston recently, there was a wedding venue (3 actually as they were owned by the same people) that filed for bankruptcy and didn't even tell any of the brides their weddings were cancelled. Brides were finding out from florists and bakeries that their weddings in a few weeks were cancelled. Apparently the owners of a popular wedding venue decided to open a couple more venues, but couldn't afford the construction. They started offering discounts to wedding parties who paid large amounts up front (probably to pay construction costs), then they filed for bankruptcy and closed their venues and phones. My morning radio station spent a few hours on this topic with brides calling in in tears not knowing what to do about their weddings and some having paid up to $20,000 up front. Luckily, lots of local places have come forward to help. But some lawyers said to file complaints with the BBB and the more they get the better, and I think the brides are trying to file a class action lawsuit.

Maybe you can try to find other people who are in the same situation and make a big deal of it. Or call/write the local news media; they love those customers being duped stories.

Wow. This is terrible. I hope you get your money back.

I got defrauded by The Magazine also, and apparently there is a website set up by a guy who put a deposit down and never got his stuff. http://www.blairschaefer.net There is a forum where people can talk about what happened and figure out legally what they can do.