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Buyers say company selling wooden flags made by veterans never filled orders

ATLANTA — Buyers say a company that claimed to sell "veteran-made" wooden flags to help veterans never delivered a product or refunded its customers and now thousands of customers have lost money.

Channel 2's Justin Gray first learned about the issue from a Georgia woman who tried to buy a flag after seeing an ad on Facebook. Kelly Young said she has been waiting for a year for the flag she ordered from The Rustic Flag Co. and she's given up on getting her money back.

Young said she ordered the flag for her retired Navy grandfather for Christmas. That was in September of last year.

Gray tried to call phone numbers associated with the company's owner, Justin Scott, but they have all been disconnected and the company's website and Facebook page are gone too.

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"I think it's unreal that he's still not been held accountable for his actions," Young said.

Young said she isn't sure if Scott intended to rip customers off at first.

"I think when he realized how much money he could make in the form of those ads," Young said.

Gray learned that the Better Business Bureau has received more than 2,000 complaints about the business.

Scott told the BBB that demand for his flags was more than he could fill, but he didn't refund Young or thousands of others.

Gray reached out to the Tennessee attorney general and learned the office has now launched an investigation.

A spokesperson said that, because of the high volume of complaints, the attorney general's office has suspended any mediation efforts with the company.

Young told Gray she feels like the company took advantage of her patriotism.

"I feel like he's doing a disservice to the veteran community," Young said.

Scott has not only shut down the flag business, but he's also closed up shop on another Tennessee business he owned.

State investigators told Gray they are looking into how to resolve the issue of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in orders that were never filled.