Stockdale Music files for Chapter 7
| Monday, Mar 30 2009 06:26 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Apr 02 2009 02:27 PM
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Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Stockdale Music is closed.
Music students, parents and teachers are scrambling for somewhere else to do business following Stockdale Music's sudden Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing.
A local institution for decades, the business at 4903 Stockdale Highway sold and repaired musical instruments and leased space where musicians could give music lessons. It was owned by Doug and Randy Lovegreen.
The retailer filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection late Friday listing assets of $628,886 and liabilities of $867,704.27, of which $850,569.33 is unsecured.
Instructors and customers had no warning, and in some cases had less than a day to find a new location or claim belongings.
Instructors were told Thursday, said guitar teacher Bill O'Neill.
"I was in the middle of a lesson, and they pulled me out to tell me I had to clear out my stuff that evening," O'Neill said. "I was like, 'Did I do something wrong?' They told me it had nothing to do with me."
O'Neill was frantically calling students Monday to let them know his lessons are moving to American Sound Recording Studios.
Tehachapi resident Janet Tehee, 41, had a clarinet she has owned since she was 11 years old at the shop for repair. Store employees left four messages on her voice mail Friday telling her she had until 8 p.m. to come get the instrument, but she didn't get home or hear the messages until 10 p.m.
Now, when she calls, no one answers and the voice mailbox is full.
The store's doors were locked Monday and there was no number posted for customers to call for information, although several teachers and vendors had put up notes letting customers know how to reach them.
"I'm just devastated," Tehee said. "I don't have a clue what to do."
Hans Oviedo, who sublet space inside the store, is negotiating with Stockdale Fashion Plaza for a storefront where he can continue selling pianos and offering piano lessons.
In the meantime, Oviedo is worried about losing customers.
"I'm calling everyone trying to let people know I'm not going out of business," he said.
The Lovegreens could not be reached for comment.
Attorney Max Gardner, who is representing the store, said the short notice was to protect assets from a creditor that was positioning itself to be paid at the expense of others also owed money.
"They weren't trying to stick it to customers, they were just trying to make sure everything went through a trustee so all the creditors had an even playing field," Gardner said.
The store is working with the bankruptcy trustee to establish a way to return instruments to repair customers, and those owners will be notified of that process "soon," Gardner said.
Stockdale Music also rented instruments to children in school band programs. Gardner said rental customers should continue paying, as usual. The payments will be credited to a new, yet to be determined vendor who will be taking over rental accounts.
Customers in that situation will be among those hardest hit by the store's closing. There are lots of competitors selling common garage band type instruments, but there are few other options for players in marching bands.
Stockdale Music was founded in 1976 by longtime local band director Ken Fahsbender, who ran it with his son, Bryan Fahsbender. Bryan Fahsbender, now The Californian's director of display advertising, bought the store from his father in the early 1990s.
Four years ago, he and his wife, Teresa, sold the store to Doug Lovegreen and his son, Randy Lovegreen, who had been Stockdale Music's manager.
On Monday, Bryan Fahsbender, who is still owed nearly $31,000 from the sale of the store, likened the bankruptcy to losing a loved one.
"It was sad," he said. "Part of me wanted to go by and have one last look, but I thought, 'No, it won't do any good. I'll just remember it the way I want to remember it.'"
Californian staff writer Gretchen Wenner contributed to this report.
