Appliance store sold our custom order to someone else when it arrived in inventory that we had paid for

Question

We bought and paid for custom appliances (5 items) that took about 2 months to get them in. We were told everything was in inventory and when did we want them delivered. We had to wait a couple weeks to get the painting done before delivery. When we called to schedule delivery we were informed they did not have a few of the items; they had been sold. What are the laws about this? We paid for all of these in full and they basically double dipped for commission sales. We have still not received any of the items; one of which will take over 4 months to get another one made.

Answer 1

Your main and probably sole legal recourse is a lawsuit. The basis for suing the store would be breach of contract. You pay them some money, they provide some goods. They failed to provide those goods – so far. The contract might say something about when the goods would be delivered, but otherwise the requirement would be "in reasonable time" (they can't wait 10 years to deliver). Especially for custom orders, two months is not unreasonable time. They might have run afoul of the FTC's Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule, §435.2, so read that section to see whether any of those circumstances apply to you.