Where not to buy furniture...

[J.J.]

Excuse me while I rant:

When looking for your next piece of furniture I suggest that you do not buy from The Room Store.

December 28th 2004:  
    Fiancée and I bought our first new piece of furniture a beautiful couch.

Mid March:  
     One of the cushions of the sofa came apart at the seams (faulty manufacturing) called the store about getting the faulty cushion replaced&
March 22nd 2005:
     Technician came out said yup its a bad cushion.... We will order a new one have it shipped to your door call us when it arrives so we can take the old one...it will take 4 to 6 weeks tops.  

Beginning of May:
     Call The store to enquire about our replacement sofa part.  
Mid May:
     Receive two phone calls telling us that the cushion will be on our doorstep no later than May 31st.

June 2nd:  
     Call The Store:  It has been shipped it will be here any day.  Shipped by Fedex but can't provide us with tracking numbers.
June 6th:  
     Tried to contact the store manager of the store.  Was rude to my fiancée and reluctantly agreed to look into it and calls us back
Later the same day:
     A customer service lady calls us back and tells us she has no clue where it is and will contact the manufacturer and call us in a few hours.
Morning of June 8th:  
     Call home (corporate) office...yet another rude lady.  Says she will call us back in a few hours.  Never receive a call back from her.
Afternoon of June 8th:  
      The stores customer service lady calls us and says she will check on our problem and call us back the next day.  After saying a sentence that i find amusing now "Its not there.  It should be there.  Why is it not there." (GRRR Thats why I am pestering y'all I think to myself.)
Present Day:  
  We have no clue what to do we have been running circles and our new sofa has a large ugly rip in the cushion.  
The Store manager won't help us The Corporate office won't deal with us.  

I guess the only recourse we have is to write a letter the BBB and complain and let others know about the horrible service that we have had from this particular chain.

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

BBB tends to be kinda useless, but worth a try.

Does TX have a Dept of Consumer Affairs?

Small-claims court is also an option. But start by writing 'em a letter (registered, return receipt requested) demanding your money back and stating that you don't want credit or replacements. Your attorney can also write the letter, which would signal that you're ready to follow through, but it's cheaper if you go this route first.

If you bought it on a charge card you can dispute the charges through the credit card company.

- NF

[yesterdaysyouth]

if it's busted in the seam, do you know how to sew??

[DigMe]

My experience with them was pretty good.  We ordered a leather couch and loveseat.  The couch had an indentation in the back when it arrived as if something had been pressed against the leather in the delivery truck and caused a slight stretched area.  We told them and they replaced the couch promptly.

brad cook

[J.J.]

Brad:

  Yeah at first it was great for us too.  It seems that if the whole thing is not going to be replaced thats when problems show up.

I am just really dissapointed because we are wanting to purchase a dining set and a bed frame (if I don't make it myself)  and they are within our budget (one of the few stores) and have really nice looking stuff.   But over 3 months for a replacement cushion is outragous in my opinion.

The main problems is that we keep hearing different stories from the one lady who will talk to us.  Its been shipped.. It should be there.  It got shipped today.  It hasn't been shipped. It has not been ordered etc.

everytime we call we get a different excuse.  I just wish the whole thing would have broken so that they would have been forced to give us a replacement within a week or two.

[K Frame]

I won't go into room store.

They've established themselves in Northern Virginia as a crime friendly zone by banning firearms from their stores

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

For future purchases, check out Ashley Furniture.  I have been in one of the local DFW stores and the quality seems ok.

http://www.ashleyfurniture.com/ and  http://www.ashleyhomestores.com/default/home.aspx

Of course, my house is largely furnished in 'Early Warehouse' style.


Regards,
Rabbit.

[duck hunt]

I've been thrilled with Ashley Furniture.

I saw an interview once with one of the Room Store execs where he admitted that they aren't in the furniture business, they're in the financing business.  The furniture is the gimmick to get you to sign up for their loan.

FWIW.

[DigMe]

I've never been real impressed with the quality of the Ashley stuff that I've seen.

brad cook

[Dave Markowitz]

"Where not to buy furniture..."

Ikea.  Cheap crap and lousy customer service.

[duck hunt]

I bought this very basic sofa at Ashley for my TV room:

http://www.ashleyfurniture.com/Catalog/MoreDetail.asp?ITEMNO=6580538&NA=0&ITEMNAME=Sofa&SERIESNO=&65805&SERIESNAME=Infinity+%2D+Navy&PHOTO=65805%2D38%5FBIG%2Ejpg&DIM=87%22W+x+37%22D+x+39%22H&GROUP=11

I like it so much I'm going back for the chair and ottoman.  It's super comfortable, great for snoozing, and it was reasonably priced.  The Ashley people here in Richmond are great.

I generally don't buy a lot of new furniture -- everything else I have is antique, even my stove -- but I wanted one couch I could lie down and nap on without wondering how many decades of butts had been where my face was.  I have definitely gotten my money's worth out of this couch.

[Standing Wolf]

Small-claims court is also an option. But start by writing 'em a letter (registered, return receipt requested) demanding your money back and stating that you don't want credit or replacements.

The company is stalling in the hope you'll give up and go away. Take it to small claims court for a full refund, and make sure the company is entirely responsible for the costs of picking up the defective couch, too.

[J.J.]

Wow.  Suprised that my rant got so many responses.

Ashley from what I can tell is a great place.  The quality goes from low to high so a nice selection to choose from for whatever price range you have.  (Low quality I am talking about is the all veneer stuff.)  We plan on buying from them next.

Another place I might try is Rooms To Go.  What I love about the store is the website lists prices and has a large selection.  I wish all of the furniture company websites did that.

[J.J.]

Just in case anyone is wondering.

Our cushion was sent out 2 weeks ago (again?)  well We called again and this time it was sent out today and we have a tracking number (that doesnt work)  After reading the fine print we can't do anything about returning the sofa.  We are going to contact the BBB agian (fat lot of help that would do.)

My wedding in less than 3 weeks lots of family coming in town in a little over a week. And we have the eyesore of a sofa.  I can flip it over and hide it some but the thing still shows the rip.  Well maybe its me because I know that the rip is on it.    But still this is unacceptable.  Every time we call and they realize that we are angry they throw a line of BS to try and placate us.  I have a feeling that this time (the what 3rd or 4th time that my cushion has been sent out)  is the same.

[Harold Tuttle]

threaten to take the sofa back to them and spend the day parked in front of the store with a sign

[DJJ]

Wow - that's exactly what I was going to say. Except don't threaten. Just do it.

Dodge (that's Ken Zangara Dodge in Albuquerque) was giving my sister-in-law a bad time about replacing the defective ball joints on her Durango - until she took her complaints into the showroom, loudly. Things happened real fast then.