The social media advertisements for Edgewater Designs targeted buyers throughout the South and promised farmhouse tables and other handmade furniture. The turnaround time for the pieces was supposed to be reasonable, customers said.
But dozens and dozens of buyers, including some who spoke exclusively with The Greenville News and the Anderson Independent Mail, said they never got the furniture they paid for. Some got partial sets. Some got partial refunds. Many got nothing.
On Monday, the Anderson couple behind Edgewater Designs and those Facebook ads were arrested. Kevin Brian Moore, 40, and his wife, 33-year-old Kristina Hargett Moore, are each charged with more than 40 counts of a breach of trust with fraudulent intent.
Each were jailed at the Anderson County Detention Center with bail set at $200 per charge. Kevin Moore posted bail late Monday night, and Kristina Moore remained jailed as of Tuesday morning but was expected to be released later in the day.
The Moores' arrest warrants include indicate that customers purchased furniture they saw on a social media platform, then received "no communication" about it.
Jail records and warrants show that most of the charges involve orders placed between May and November 2019, but at least one dates back to Christmas Eve 2018.
The Anderson Independent Mail and The Greenville News first reported on Edgewater Designs in January, before charges were filed.
"There is a lot I want to say," Kristina Moore said at her home at the time. Ultimately, she referred questions in January to Anderson attorney Matthew Perkins.
Sgt. J.T. Foster of the Anderson County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that the Moores' financial records led to the couple being charged in this case, but he declined to give more specific details about them.
Foster said in a previous interview that customers' losses at Edgewater are estimated to be at least $71,000.
Efforts to reach the Moores Tuesday were not immediately successful. Four phone numbers listed for them in public records have been disconnected. Perkins did not immediately respond to a message left at his law office Tuesday seeking comment about the case.
The customers who have filed complaints are primarily in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, according to incident reports from the Sheriff's Office, though at least one of the customers is from Missouri.
Chentell Wren, an Edgewater Designs customer who filed a lawsuit against the company, said Tuesday that she believes there are many more than 40 victims of the company.
Wren lives in Pinopolis, about 40 miles north of Charleston. She said she was told she could not be part of the criminal case because she had pursued a civil suit against Kristina Moore.
Wren said she sent Edgewater Designs $1,700 for a table, a bench and six chairs made of aged pine. Wren said that when she told Moore she was going to send the money through PayPal, Moore told her the company didn't accept Paypal and gave her instructions on how to use a different app to transfer cash. She said she was supposed to receive the furniture in July 2019.
She still doesn't have it.
An Anderson County judge ruled that Wren is entitled to $2,327, which is the furniture payment plus court costs. Wren said she has never gotten any money.
She got a used table, she said, and now defines her experience as a hard lesson.
"I won't even buy a dog collar online now," she said. "I'll see something and think, 'Oh, that's pretty,' but I'll keep scrolling. If you see something that you like online, just make sure there is a way to protect yourself, to insure your investment, in case something goes wrong."
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Anderson SC couple charged with taking money for custom furniture but never delivering - Greenville News
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