Ashley's

Ashley's is a furniture store.  We bought some chairs for the dinning room and some other items.  Anyway one of the chairs was caddywumpus, it was uneven.  When the chair was assembled like all the rest, it would not sit flat, it wobbled.  So I decided to take it back .... apparently they have a deadline for returning things.  Beyond this if the item is returned they will order parts and it will take two weeks. 

I decided to carry the chair in the front door, into the main room where all the customers are shopping.  I requested that they change the chair for one on the floor and they could order parts for that one....seems perfectly logical to me, it takes care of the problem, keeps the customer happy.  Mind you this is already paid for and muchos thousands of dollars have been spent by us at the store.   Each time they insist we pay cash, or use their financing. 

I have discussed this principle with them before, why do I have to pay the whole amount, why cant I pay half and the other half when you deliver.  Apparently the fairness of my suggestion is to radical.  I say why should I take all the risk, you have all the money and I have no furniture, what if you cant deliver?  The young lady says, "we always deliver".  Well these people only make 20% on the sale, they can afford to say things like, "we always deliver", "we will order the part and it will take two weeks".  Its the holiday, we have company coming, we dont have another two weeks to wait on the chair you promised to deliver.   We want it now, just trade it.

So they called the customer service representative and she called the technician, immediately they decided that I was at fault for not doing the assembly right.  So I said, BS.  They said you should have called us, this way they could tell us over the phone ..... what their policy is.  The customer service person took the chair to the technician and in a short while returned, with the chair.   He put it on the carpet and said it was fixed, I told him to put it on the solid floor and he said that that floor wasnt even, but he had a board in the back and if I went with him he would demonstrate the problem was fixed.  

I checked the chair figuring they  would cut off the extra 1/8 of an inch, they denied this.  They said they only adjusted the screws.  Then I noticed that the plastic cover from the seat was missing, he said he took it off, that it is the same chair.  

Then they made me go around to the loading dock to pick up my chair because they dont want the customers to see me hauling my chair around.  The evidence shows that first they sanded one leg and then the other.  They also left on screw loose.  The chair is other wise identical to the others, and if it is not it is not otherwise discernible.  The plastic cover was pulled off because the static electricity attracted the wood fillings .... it was easier to take it off than take off the saw dust.

Now I know that the items are manufactured en mass, that on occasion something will go wrong, and it would be unreasonable to think otherwise.  However the staff has left me thinking that they cant be trusted, that they prefer to lie, and have no intention of keeping the customer happy.  So now you know my fellow Americans, when you buy furniture, you do it at your own risk .... just because you pay cash and are a return customer that in no way entitles you any integrity .... bring the furniture through the front door where the customers are and call you representative, Half now, Half when you deliver is the law.

Happy Thanksgiving my readers and friends.