TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — More than a dozen homeowners who paid tens of thousands of dollars to One Stop Kitchen & Bath want to know where their money went after the company abruptly closed its three locations.

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office confirms it is investigating what went wrong.

Kari Stirling of Carrollwood said she and her husband saved for years for a complete kitchen remodel. In October, they forked over a $26,000 deposit, and the project was to begin in late January.

Stirling said she received excuses and then the company closed its doors and then she learned her cabinets were never being made, as she says she was led to believe. The manufacturer confirmed to Better Call Behnken that it was not paid any money toward Stirling’s cabinets because it had already placed the company on a “credit hold” due to failure to fulfill earlier financial obligations.

“I’m really angry and need it back,” Stirling said. “$26,000 might be a rounding error to someone but not to us. It means that everything that we were planning on doing is on hold because we don’t just have that amount of cash on hand.”

Numerous customers have called Better Call Behnken, seeking answers about what happened to their money.

The company’s website lists showrooms in St. Petersburg, Oldsmar and Tampa.

On the door of the Oldsmar showroom is a letter explaining the closure was “forced upon us unexpectedly due to severe financial pressures beyond our control.”

The last line of the letter says, “this notice marks our final communication regarding the closure.”

In addition, Stirling received an email saying the company is insolvent and placing some blame on the cabinet manufacture, MasterBrand.

The email said any deposits were submitted to Masterbrand for production.

However, Consumer Investigator Shannon Behnken reached Farand Pawlak, a spokesman at MasterBrand who said that for Stirling and many others, no money was received because MasterBrand had already placed the company on a “credit hold” for failing to meet financial obligations.

“They are responsible for their own financial difficulties, and any claim otherwise would be inaccurate and misleading,” Pawlak said.

Stirling said she wants accountability.

“I feel like the couple, the owners, should have to pay us back. They took money for a service they didn’t deliver. You can’t just way oops, sorry, we’re bad business people, oh well.”

Public records list the owners as Robert and Meriam Vaniglia. We were unable to reach them by phone, and a text message was not answered.

In addition to the sheriff’s office investigation, the Pinellas County Consumer Protection office said it has more than a dozen complaints and asks impacted consumers to call their office, even if they don’t live in Pinellas County.

Consumers can also reach out to the Florida Attorney General’s Office and the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.