{"id":489562,"date":"2026-06-08T20:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/489562\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T20:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:59:11","slug":"up-to-7000-rathwood-customers-are-warned-they-will-only-get-nominal-sum-back-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/489562\/","title":{"rendered":"Up to 7,000 Rathwood customers are warned they will only get \u2018nominal sum\u2019 back \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">As many as 7,000 people who paid troubled retailer Rathwood for products they never received have been warned by the examiner they will only get \u201ca nominal sum\u201d back. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The assessment is contained in a letter being sent out by the examiner, Padraic Bermingham of Strata Financial, to customers of the homes and garden furniture shop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The letter to thousands of customers has led the consumer watchdog to tell those who have been impacted to act immediately to try to secure refunds through their credit or debit card provider through the chargeback process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Affected customers have also been asked to provide details of their claim before the end of this week. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In April, Rathwood, which is run by brothers Thomas and James Keogh, announced it was seeking the appointment of an examiner to try to secure its financial future and announced that it would continue trading through the process, which is set to reach its conclusion in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/your-money\/2026\/04\/25\/rathwood-goes-into-examinership-says-it-is-not-in-a-position-to-issue-customer-refunds\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rathwood goes into examinership, says it is \u2018not in a position\u2019 to issue customer refundsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">An examinership is a legal process that gives a financially-struggling company a period of court protection to allow it to restructure itself, negotiate with creditors and seek new investment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Last month provisional figures provided to the High Court as part of the process, suggested  Rathwood had liabilities totalling \u20ac18 million, including \u20ac10 million owed to trade creditors, \u20ac1.4 million to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/revenue-commissioners\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/revenue-commissioners\" target=\"_blank\">Revenue Commissioners<\/a> and \u20ac2.5 million in customer deposits and vouchers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The examinership process came weeks after the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) outlined how Rathwood had signed a legally-binding commitment to issue refunds to consumers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The undertakings came after an investigation found the company was in breach of consumer protection legislation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It also emerged Rathwood was the second most-complained about company in Ireland in 2025, just behind Ryanair. It attracted 565 contacts to the CCPC helplines compared with just 24 a year earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2026\/05\/01\/rathwood-the-unravelling-of-one-of-the-most-complained-about-companies-in-ireland\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rathwood: The unravelling of one of the most complained about companies in IrelandOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In the letter being sent out to customers this week, the examiner confirmed that Rathwood\u2019s records \u201cindicate that a significant number of customers have outstanding claims in respect of unfulfilled orders and\/or unpaid refund requests arising prior to the examinership\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It said that to establish whether someone has a legitimate claim against Rathwood they will have to complete an online customer claim confirmation form by June 12th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">They will have to confirm the nature of their claim, including reference numbers, dates and amounts paid. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Customer have also been asked to outline if any refund requests have been made or paid, and if they have instigated a chargeback with their credit or debit card provider. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI expect that only a nominal return will be made to customers with claims in respect of unfulfilled orders and\/or unpaid refund requests,\u201d the examiner warned. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThis means that if you have a claim against Rathwood, you will only receive a very small sum.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The CCPC has advised affected consumers to take action immediately.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe advise any affected consumers to review the correspondence from the examiner carefully and to complete the form provided as soon as possible,\u201d said the watchdog\u2019s director of communications Grainne Griffin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThose who wish to request a chargeback should contact their bank or card provider immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As many as 7,000 people who paid troubled retailer Rathwood for products they never received have been warned&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,203000],"class_list":["post-489562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sir-jeffrey-donaldson-court-case-pa2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}