Foo - Couch buying experience - would you be upset?

This all started on October 19th when my wife and me decided on what couch we were going to buy. I had always said that I would never purchase anything else from Big Sandy but I broke down and purchased it there. I spent around $3,000 for the couch and coffee table. We were told it would be approximately 5 - 6 weeks before delivery and we were fine with that. She said that most of the couch would be in early and they could deliver those pieces then deliver the two other pieces once they came in. We were also told if there was a lower price from that time until a month after we received the couch they would issue us a refund for the difference.

About a week later (approximately 10/24) I saw that they were having a sale so I called up our sales lady. She said she would call us back and let us know. I called back two days later and she said she was working on it and would call me back. She called me back the following day and told me we would be getting a check for about $130 and that she had some good news, "tell Mrs. lowcel that her couch will be in the first week of November".

We were very happy about both the price and the couch coming in early. Over the next couple of days I went ahead and gave my love seat away and my leather recliner. The only thing we still had was a broken down couch that you can't even set up straight on. We waited around for the call to tell us they were delivering for about two weeks. I finally called back and left her a message. Three days later I called and left her another message and told the lady that answered the phone that I had left a message three days earlier but I would go ahead and leave another one. Five days later I received a rather rude message from her stating that she called me back about the price adjustment and that she had never said that the couch was coming in early.

I was a little upset about this but decided not to call back since nothing good could come from it. This past Saturday my wife called to check on the couch. They said they had all but two pieces and could go ahead and deliver that. My wife scheduled delivery for Tuesday (yesterday 11/26). Around 4:30 yesterday the sales woman called me and asked if the couch had been delivered, I told her I didn't know and told her my wife was home waiting. She said thanks and called my wife. She then told my wife that she had some good news, the rest of the couch was in and wanted to schedule delivery. My wife asked if it would fit in my truck and that she would call me to see if I wanted to pick it up. The lady said it would fit in my truck and asked my wife to call her back after she talked to me.

Mrs. lowcel immediately called me and let me know, I then called the store again and was put on hold for over ten minutes. Four different people picked up the phone, none of which were my sales person. Finally I gave up and hung up the phone. If I was going to beat all of the traffic I needed to get out of the office right then so I left about 20 minutes early.

I drove up to the store and told them I was there to pick up the rest of my couch. Their response, "it's not here, it's in our warehouse in Ohio". Needless to say I wasn't happy! From there it got rather ugly once they finally got my sales person to come out. Apparently this was all my fault for "not calling back to talk to her". Also, she "never told me it would be in early". She then said that she called me back after she told me that and said it wasn't going to be early (this was after I had given my furniture away), she said she "always returns phone calls", basicly everything was my fault. She also told me that if we had called back they could have had the couch there tomorrow (now today). Since I didn't call back (which I did, she just wouldn't answer and nobody offered to take a message) it would be there on Friday.

Anyway, would you be upset at this point?

Oh, one last thing. I also told them as far as I was concerned they could just come pick the whole thing up. They replied by telling me that there would be a 20% restocking fee. :mad:

I'd be HELLA pissed.

On your receipt does it say anywhere about a restocking fee? Or perhaps a promised delivery date? If they have the delivery date on there and failed to abide by that then maybe that could be the loophole to get out of it.

If not then I would hope that they deliver the couch with damage, then you can reject it, and perhaps get all of your money back.

Check EVERYTHING, LowCel. I had a leather recliner delivered to me and on the underside edge there was a tear where it was "scraped" somehow. Although it could not be seen right away, it would have eventually torn upwards. The frame was exposed. I rejected it..They let me keep it till the new one came in. (I still wanted a recliner but not THAT one)

The need the restocking fee to recoup whatever is lost when they can no longer sell the item "as new".

They should have this displayed prominently somewhere, or you may have some recourse.

In the meantime, you will need to get all future correspondence in writing and from the store manager. Further dealings with the sales person will only guarantee more installments to this saga.

Good luck.

I'm not returning it, it's not worth the fight (or being without living room furniture for another 6 - 8 weeks). I couldn't believe when they had the nerve to mention the 20% though after all the lies this woman has told me. This will definitely be my last purchase from there though.

I don't blame you for not wanting to return the item. But at the same time, I was wondering how the collective minds of Foo would respond to the challenge of making it as painful as possible for that retailer.

:)

I'm not returning it, it's not worth the fight (or being without living room furniture for another 6 - 8 weeks). I couldn't believe when they had the nerve to mention the 20% though after all the lies this woman has told me. This will definitely be my last purchase from there though.

+1 I wuold never do business with them again, And I would make sure (in writting) that the company knows why.

I would be pissed. Really pissed. I would probably steam about it for a week and then do nothing about it, but make a mental note to never, NEVER, EVER buy anything from them again.

Sounds like you need to hook up a tape recorder to your telephone.

Go over her head and talk to her boss. Be calm when you do it so he knows you're not just some whacko customer who likes giving service people a hard time (there are plenty of those). Make sure he knows you won't be buying anything from them again.

Go over her head and talk to her boss. Be calm when you do it so he knows you're not just some whacko customer who likes giving service people a hard time (there are plenty of those). Make sure he knows you won't be buying anything from them again.

And, if the boss does not give you satisfaction, have them come pick it up and tell him you will not pay a restocking fee. If they charge one, dispute it with your credit card (may be wise to write it out in a letter, too, that you do not agree to it). Also, you may want to contact your BBB and even the state Attorney General to file formal complaints about bad business practices. Finally, if nothing else works... call your local news station; I'm sure they have one of those consumer reporters that's attempting to get a Pulitzer by terrorizing local stores!

After hearing a delivery date for the first week of November and not getting anything delivered, I would have cancelled the order and demanded full refund of any payments that were made.

The Girl and I don't put up with that kind of BS, especially if we're shelling out 4 digits at the shop. There was a similar cock-up when the furniture shop was supposed to deliver her new recliner; and when she called to cancel the delivery/order, the SALES GUY got in a van and brought it to us and returned our delivery fee since I had to help him bring it in.

This all started on October 19th when my wife and me decided on what couch we were going to buy. I had always said that I would never purchase anything else from Big Sandy but I broke down and purchased it there. I spent around $3,000 for the couch and coffee table. ...

This is where I would have started being pissed.

I hate shopping for furniture because of the ridiculous run around at the the store. Last time I bought a couch and chair set I was living with my mother and she brought me (dragged me) to the store to pick out a new set. After 2 hours of looking, sitting, and searching in the store she finally picks out a set. The first thing she asked the salesman was "is this in stock now so it can be delivered this week?" since she was burned in the past with a set that was not in stock, ordered and took 3 months to appear, and then was the wrong colour. "Oh yes, it can be delivered on Wednesday" the salesman said and included the date on the receipt.

Wednesday -- no delivery. Phone call, will be Thursday. Thursday -- no delivery. Phone call (not a happy call, I spent 2 days waiting for the stupid things). Will deliver Friday. Friday -- you guessed it, no delivery. We go in a Saturday and speak to the salesman, and he is angry with us because we were disturbing his busy sales day. So we cancelled the order and had to argue with the manager because, of course he doesn't want to lose the sale. The manager and the salesman said the delivery date on the receipt was only a "projected" date. I pointed out the date was in the "confirmed date" box. Manager and salesman claimed it was a clerical error and we should just wait til the set arrived. And the "projected date" was 6 weeks or maybe 12 weeks.

My mother and I laughed at the manager (by this time the salesman had slipped away). And told him to refund the credit card or we'll just call Visa and have them reverse the charge. Refund made, and we never shopped at that store again.

$3000.00 is nothing to sneeze at, and the store needs a good kick in the backside. A restocking fee? They didn't even complete the transaction, why should they benefit from a restocking fee?

I would have started demanding things in writing after the first "miscommunication". Sorry to hear about the troubles, crossing my fingers that things go soomther for me when I go furnature shopping soon.

Just a quick update. Remember how the sales lady said the rest of the couch would be at Big Sandy and ready for pick up on Friday? Well, we figured they would be extremely busy on Friday so my wife gave them a call (Friday evening) to let them know that we would be picking it up on Saturday. To our "suprise" they told us that the pieces weren't in but should be in the first week of December.

What a crock!!!!

I picked up the last two pieces of the couch last night. Only one problem so far. One of the cushions is missing part of the pad. I already have a service call in. :rolleyes:

On a side note, while I was there another guy was there to pick up a piece of furniture. He waited about ten minutes until the warehouse guy came out (very politely) to apologize but the piece wasn't there. He recommended that the guy call to make sure it is there next time before coming to pick it up. The guy replied by saying that he had called his sales person earlier that day, the sales person told him that it "was there and he was looking at it". Needless to say, he wasn't happy.

I asked the warehouse guy if this was common and he said yes, it happens on a very regular basis. I feel sorry for that guy, it's in no way his fault but the customers are always upset with him.

Did you use a credit card?
The CC company could get the money back if you return it.

This is where I would have started being pissed.

no kidding. you can haz the best leather poofy couches for far far less. just have to know

But why would you even want a leather couch?? It gets all hot and sticky in summer and is freezing in the winter. And they aren't very comfortable....

I worked at a furniture store in High School. The only profession that is more dishonest than car sales is furniture. I don't know why, as I am not that into the business, but the whole thing was rife with lies and deceit.

There is one rule and only one rule that applies in the furniture industry:

1) If you can't put your hand on it, it doesn't exist, has never, and won't ever, even if you pay for it.

Only buy in-stock items. Never ever order anything special. 90% of the time, you will never get it.

Every time a furniture store is going "out of business," it's simply a financial shell game to screw the creditors, pocket the money from the sale of inventory, go bankrupt, and open the next day under a new corporation. They start a corporation, spend a year building some corporate credit, then buy a crapload of inventory on credit to "expand," announce the going out of business sale, sell everything for whatever they can get, use the money to pay "payroll" to the overly-paid owners, then the corporation goes bankrupt against the creditors, the inventory sold for pennies to the owners, then the owners open a new corporation the next day in the same location. Of course, any deposit money collected for furniture not delivered is gone.

Rinse.. Repeat...

But why would you even want a leather couch?? It gets all hot and sticky in summer and is freezing in the winter. And they aren't very comfortable....

Leather is awesome! I want all leather furniture, Leather also looks good on the ladies! :thumb:

The new couch is actually microfiber. I'm pretty happy with it. My dog isn't real sure what is going on though. When she plays around on it too much it actually builds up a little static electricity so she keeps getting shocked when she touches me. :eek:

Here are some pictures of the living room after our "remodel". I still need to clean the brick on the fireplace, get a subwoofer RCA, mount the center channel speaker, find the permanent locations for the towers, and organize all the wires. It's getting closer though.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/LowCel/IMG_0443.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/LowCel/IMG_0444.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/LowCel/IMG_0445.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/LowCel/IMG_0446.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/LowCel/IMG_0447.jpg

Here are a couple of pictures of the pool room. I still plan on tearing out part of a wall and adding a bar to the room.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/LowCel/IMG_0448.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/LowCel/IMG_0449.jpg

Did you effectively disable your fireplace to have a spot for the TV?

It's all very nice except for that one error. :)

Yeah, I did away with the fireplace that I was never going to use. If I would have kept the fireplace the room was really split up and no way to have nice furniture and a nice television without having to cram everything into the room. It can easily be returned to normal once it comes time to sell the home though.

...I did away with the fireplace that I was never going to use. ...

Gah!

:cry:

This all started on October 19th when my wife and me decided on what couch we were going to buy. I had always said that I would never purchase anything else from Big Sandy but I broke down and purchased it there. I spent around $3,000 for the couch and coffee table. We were told it would be approximately 5 - 6 weeks before delivery and we were fine with that. She said that most of the couch would be in early and they could deliver those pieces then deliver the two other pieces once they came in. We were also told if there was a lower price from that time until a month after we received the couch they would issue us a refund for the difference.

About a week later (approximately 10/24) I saw that they were having a sale so I called up our sales lady. She said she would call us back and let us know. I called back two days later and she said she was working on it and would call me back. She called me back the following day and told me we would be getting a check for about $130 and that she had some good news, "tell Mrs. lowcel that her couch will be in the first week of November".

We were very happy about both the price and the couch coming in early. Over the next couple of days I went ahead and gave my love seat away and my leather recliner. The only thing we still had was a broken down couch that you can't even set up straight on. We waited around for the call to tell us they were delivering for about two weeks. I finally called back and left her a message. Three days later I called and left her another message and told the lady that answered the phone that I had left a message three days earlier but I would go ahead and leave another one. Five days later I received a rather rude message from her stating that she called me back about the price adjustment and that she had never said that the couch was coming in early.

I was a little upset about this but decided not to call back since nothing good could come from it. This past Saturday my wife called to check on the couch. They said they had all but two pieces and could go ahead and deliver that. My wife scheduled delivery for Tuesday (yesterday 11/26). Around 4:30 yesterday the sales woman called me and asked if the couch had been delivered, I told her I didn't know and told her my wife was home waiting. She said thanks and called my wife. She then told my wife that she had some good news, the rest of the couch was in and wanted to schedule delivery. My wife asked if it would fit in my truck and that she would call me to see if I wanted to pick it up. The lady said it would fit in my truck and asked my wife to call her back after she talked to me.

Mrs. lowcel immediately called me and let me know, I then called the store again and was put on hold for over ten minutes. Four different people picked up the phone, none of which were my sales person. Finally I gave up and hung up the phone. If I was going to beat all of the traffic I needed to get out of the office right then so I left about 20 minutes early.

I drove up to the store and told them I was there to pick up the rest of my couch. Their response, "it's not here, it's in our warehouse in Ohio". Needless to say I wasn't happy! From there it got rather ugly once they finally got my sales person to come out. Apparently this was all my fault for "not calling back to talk to her". Also, she "never told me it would be in early". She then said that she called me back after she told me that and said it wasn't going to be early (this was after I had given my furniture away), she said she "always returns phone calls", basicly everything was my fault. She also told me that if we had called back they could have had the couch there tomorrow (now today). Since I didn't call back (which I did, she just wouldn't answer and nobody offered to take a message) it would be there on Friday.

Anyway, would you be upset at this point?

Oh, one last thing. I also told them as far as I was concerned they could just come pick the whole thing up. They replied by telling me that there would be a 20% restocking fee. :mad:

Did it eventually get delivered? That's piss poor customer service, but if they did eventually deliver it, I'd just drop it.

If they didn't deliver anything, tell them to shove their 20% restocking fee up their behinds and contest the entire charge with your credit card. Capital One has yet to fail to side with me in such a dispute.

I say you use the tv to show a fire at all times now.

Nice room BTW, I am either jealous or envious, not sure which.

I had a Bi-Level with forced air heat run between floors. The family room was downstairs, but always cold in the winter. I put in a ceiling fan to keep the air circulated.

We had a pastor come visit us one winter weekend, I had a good fire going. She said: "If I had a room like this, I would never leave". :)

I had a Bi-Level with forced air heat run between floors. The family room was downstairs, but always cold in the winter. I put in a ceiling fan to keep the air circulated.

We had a pastor come visit us one winter weekend, I had a good fire going. She said: "If I had a room like this, I would never leave". :)

This is why I have gas logs in my fireplace.

Actually, I have gas logs because the chimney is not on an external wall and does not have an ash pit. Too much hassle to clean if you use it often.

Nothing beats a good wood fire :)

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm145/SB-Public/BackpackingMicheauxNov2008/number1077.jpg

Did it eventually get delivered? That's piss poor customer service, but if they did eventually deliver it, I'd just drop it.

If they didn't deliver anything, tell them to shove their 20% restocking fee up their behinds and contest the entire charge with your credit card. Capital One has yet to fail to side with me in such a dispute.

I ended up making two trips into town to pick up the rest of the couch and the coffee table. They would have delivered it eventually but neither my wife or myself wanted to have to take off more time from work to meet them. It was easier to just pick the remaining pieces up myself.