Three former employees of N.C. Furniture Buy Direct say the online retailer never ordered 75 percent of customers' furniture.

"We all wondered where the money went," said Dee Whitt, a former employee in the repair department. "We weren't allowed to ask many questions."

N.C. Furniture Buy Direct required customers to pay in full, but Whitt said only 25 percent of the furniture was ordered from a manufacturer.

"A lot of manufacturers quit having anything to do with the company," she said. The listed phone number for the High Point business is no longer in service. An attorney representing the company said the company isn't commenting, citing ongoing litigation.

The N.C. Attorney General's office was granted a temporary restraining order last week against the online retailer by Wake County Superior Court.

The court filing stated about 322 customers filed complaints about N.C. Furniture Buy Direct with the Attorney General's office since November 2004. More than 529 complaints have been filed about the company during the past three years with the Better Business Bureau of Central North Carolina.

N.C. Furniture Buy Direct worked with almost 75 manufacturers as recently as April, according to notes taken by Cassie Baldwin, former customer service representative for the company.

Former employee Cassie Baldwin said her job was answering hundreds of calls each day from complaining customers. "Customers really couldn't get anywhere with us," she said.

Jeannie Rutkowsky, another former customer service representative, said she often was told to lie to customers about a delay at the manufacturer.

"There was a script," Baldwin said, adding she was constantly giving customers excuses as to why their furniture hadn't arrived.

N.C. Furniture Buy Direct told customers to allow four to 12 weeks for delivery. If furniture was not received after 12 weeks, they informed the customer the company was under new management and it might take another eight to 12 weeks for delivery.

"It was holy terror what these customers were going through," Baldwin said. "My heart went out to them."

Whitt said N.C. Furniture Buy Direct not only owed customers millions of dollars in refunds, but also was behind about $10,000 in rent. The company was evicted in September from its suite at 305 N. Main Street.

Meanwhile, Guilford County District Attorney Doug Henderson said his office hasn't launched a criminal investigation of N.C. Furniture Buy Direct over its business practices.

The N.C. Attorney General's Office last week secured a temporary restraining order against the High Point furniture retailer to prevent N.C. Furniture Buy Direct from taking further orders. The Attorney General's Office move came after months of complaints from hundreds of customers across the country who claim they've not received orders or refunds.

Henderson said the Attorney General's Office typically relays information to a local prosecutor if the agency suspects some type of criminal activity.

"We've not heard anything out of them as yet," the district attorney said Monday.

A spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office in Raleigh said Monday that it would share any information with the Guilford County District Attorney if contacted.

"Our Consumer Protection Division has civil, but not criminal, authority in these cases," said spokeswoman Noelle Talley.

If a criminal case was pursued, Henderson said prosecutors would have to show that the business was set up almost exclusively as a criminal enterprise, with no intent to serve customers legitimately.

"Criminal intent is a tough thing to show in those kinds of cases," Henderson said. "You're not obtaining money by false pretense unless somebody can show you took the money knowing you couldn't deliver and had the intent to defraud."