About a year-and-a-half ago...an Eyewitness News exclusive investigation led to thousands of dollars returned to customers who believed they were ripped-off by a Bakersfield furniture store.

That store, Royalty Furniture, was also the target of a district attorney investigation alleging unfair and fraudulent business practices.

The store was hit with three-thousand dollars in penalties and restitution to all victims.

Tonight, the business has a different name, but familiar complaints...plus one whistle blower ex-employee with some stunning accusations.

From Teresa Medina...

(Teresa Medina, Customer "He gave me nothing but lies.")

to Maria Medina...

( Maria Medina, Customer "They were already treating us bad. Then they talked to you bad too.")

to Luis Mendez.

( Luis Mendez "At a certain point I thought it was all baloney.")

Just some of the angry customers who shopped at Bakersfield's "America's Furniture" store.

( Luis Mendez "I didn't know if they were excuses or real.")

When Luis Mendez purchased his new Bakersfield home last year...he sold his old furniture and bought entirely new.

Promised two weeks to get his bedroom sets...entertainment center and much more, instead he says,.he got a host of excuses.

(Luis Mendez "There was something missing from the order or they didn't get the right color on the couches, something was damaged or stuff was coming from overseas and they have to go through port inspection.")

Two months of sleeping on the floor his bedroom sets arrived.

Seven months later the rest finally came.

(Adriana, Luis' Wife "It was tiring. everyday my daughter cried and wouldn't sleep well until he delivered the furniture.")

The "he" she's referring to is this man...Juan Rios.

(Customer from first furniture story-7/26/2006 "Now, I'm on t-v and I want him to pay for everything he done put me through.")

A year and a half ago...we documented six small claims lawsuits filed against the furniture store...won by customers in court.

The suits accused Royalty Furniture...now known as America's Furniture...of not delivering furniture paid for...or delivering the wrong merchandise.

(Juan Rios speaking in first furniture story: "i have not done anything wrong to any of them.")

Only after Eyewitness News confronted Rios...did the judgments get paid off.

In the last three years...the Better Business Bureau has racked-up fifty complaints against Royalty and America's Furniture combined.

Most...of *those* complaints...deemed resolved...or were they?

(Teresa Medina, "He'll call and call to L.A., wait, they're coming from Japan!")

Last February...sisters Teresa and Maria Medina each purchased the same sofa and love seat from "America's Furniture."

Teresa also bought this entertainment center.

Both promised...around three weeks delivery.

( "Nothing but lies and nothing of satisfaction.")

She says she got excuses...the wrong color...the order late arriving from Japan and Germany.

(Kurt asks: "And did you believe him? Not me. I didn't believe him. I never believed him."

At one point, she thought her furniture would never come.

Then in May.after repeated calls to the store her 46-hundred dollars worth of furniture finally arrived.

Her sister's order arrived, too. But that wasn't the end of it.

(Kurt Rivera says: "Teresa Medina says she was told by Rios her furniture would be plush and cushy. But she says what she really got was far from it.")

( Teresa Medina touching and showing us sofa "I don't, I don't know. It feels like a small piece of wood put in there and it pops loud.")

(Maria Medina " My family says you have really nice furniture. but I say, sit down and the niceness goes away.")

(John Mitchell, Deputy District Attorney, "Before the ink was even dry on the judgment, he was out doing the same thing in a new company.")

Deputy District Attorney John Mitchell filed the first complaint, then last summer, a second.

(John Mitchell "I can't think of another case where we've ever had anybody who within months, or within a month of the judgment, being signed, were right back at it.")

Charges include..."failing to deliver merchandise"..."delivering merchandise sold as new, but actually "used or secondhand"...and paying court fees with "insufficient funds."

Case in point...a bounced check to Superior Court...we discovered for 180 dollars.

Add to that...Rios has sued close to thirty of his customers in the past year...alleging payments not made.

But perhaps there's another reason.

The D.A. says Rios and his store were quote " In significant financial difficulties, and that the defendants' unfair business practices... were at least in part caused...by the defendant's financial problems."

(Kurt asks: "So are you surprised that this is allegedly happening again?" Mitchell: "Absolutely, yes.")

But that's not all.

Eyewitness News was contacted by a former store employee.

He detailed for us serious allegations about how the store does business.

(Ron Reece/Former Store Employee, 8:47-53 "He tried to screw over these people a lot, a lot of people would just walk out. we had no happy customers that i ever remember.")

Ron Reece is a former "Americas Furniture" store manager.

He says he worked there at the start of last year...then quit last summer.

Reece claims Rios has a system for fraudulently making money....primarily substituting cheap furniture for what a customer really ordered.

(Ron Reece, "Let's order this one and charge us for this one. The guy will pay the price for the nice one, but he gets the knock off. It just happens all the time, that's his main plan in sales.")

Reece also backs up the D.A.'s allegations of used furniture, sold as new.

(Ron Reece, " The delivery guys will go in there with their markers and they would cover-up all the crap, all the cuts and scratches on it.

Anything bumped or cracked on it. They re-glued things if its broke. And not just that, they put foam around it and wrapped it in plastic and then put it back in a box so it will make it look like it was just delivered.")

(Kurt on phone: "Yeah, may i speak to Mr. Rios please?")

To get his side of the story, we tried contacting Juan Rios.

(Kurt on phone: "He's not there.")

Leaving a message one day, then told to contact his attorneys, the next.

( Kurt says: "Mr. Rios, how are you doing?")

But with no calls returned...we went to him...catching Rios leaving his attorney's office.

(Juan Rios/America's Furniture, Kurt says: "I tried to speak to your attorneys. They said they weren't authorized to speak about it.

Rios says: "Yeah, right now, no comment. There's no comment. We have to leave it up to them.")

But as we pressed Rios for answers, he began to loosen up.

(Rios : "Last time, i settled with the district attorney in good faith. This time I'm going to go all the way even if I go broke.")

On the subject of former employee Ron Reece....Rios says he fired him...and denies Reece's claims.

And what does Rios say about suing his customer?

(Rios says: "If they don't pay their bills. If you buy furniture and don't pay furniture, you don't expect to have it for free?")

But ironically...Eyewitness News has discovered Rios has problems of his own when it comes to not paying bills.

Arizona based Aspen home, "Furniture Values International"...winning a court judgment for over $20,000 ($20, 126) for a Rios, unpaid bill.

Sued and a judgment for over $5500 for a bedroom set Rios purchased with a bounced check from Laverne-based furniture wholesaler Orleans International.

And then there's those bounced checks to Kern County Superior Court including court fees responding to the first complaint brought by the D.A.

So, that brings us back to Juan Rios who left us these parting words in our short parking lot interview.

(Juan Rios: "Hopefully this time you'll air it the right way. Kurt says: "I didn't air it the right way before, to your liking? No, not to my liking.").

Late this afternoon, we got a call from the furniture store in Laverne saying Rios paid off his bill in full.

That was for furniture he bought with a bounced check and took with him about a year ago.

When we checked with the state about his license to sell furniture we found it had been delinquent since June.

We alerted the state who sent out an inspector.

He then made the store come current., adding fines, in Mid-November.

Juan Rios also called Eyewitness News earlier tonight to talk to my boss.

He called me un-professional and refused to talk to me anymore about the story despite my repeated attempts to set the record straight.

He told us he called other t-v stations about our story and that he planned to talk to his attorneys.

We here at Eyewitness News stand behind our story and will continue looking out for our viewers.

Click here to download a PDF version of the legal documents