Ashley Furniture Buyer Beware!!

[pacman]

I really didn’t want to have to resort to posting this on public internet forums, but I feel it’s the right thing to do in order to prevent this from happening to other people.

I am having a terrible experience with Ashley Furniture in Calgary. I’ve placed numerous calls to their Customer Service department and it just seems like they are really not interested in taking care of their customers.

I’m ticked off about this, but I’m trying to be as unbiased as possible when I give my experience so that you can draw your own conclusions.

Here is what happened:

- November 4th, 2005- I purchased a coffee table from Ashley Furniture in Calgary, Alberta for $180. I paid for it in full that day. I was told that Ashley Furniture doesn’t carry any stock in their warehouse and they essentially keep their stock in the U.S and will have it shipped to Calgary. They said it would take roughly 3 weeks to get the product in stock. This was fine with me and I felt it was a great way for them to offer a large selection of goods without having to carry the stock onsite.

- November 23th, 2005- my coffee table came in. I was quite impressed with the fact that they had delivered the table 2 days earlier than the 3 week time period. I brought the table home, unpacked it and attempted to assemble it. This is not a complex table to assemble, and I soon realized that they had sent me 2 of the wrong legs for the table. I had 4 legs that were the exact same when I actually need each pair to be unique. I called the Ashley Furniture Customer Service Department right away and they indicated to me that a technician would have to come out and inspect the table in order for the parts to be ordered. The technician was quite busy and the earliest he could come out was on December 22nd 2005 (I month later!!). I again indicated that it was quite obvious what the problem and asked if they could just send out an extra pair of legs. I was told this was not possible until the technician had visually inspected the table.

- December 22nd the technician came out and had one look at the table and confirmed that they had sent out the wrong legs for the table. He said he would have to order in the parts and it would take about 3 weeks to get them in. This service call lasted about 2 minutes.

-January 12th, 2006- I get a phone call from Ashley Furniture on my home answering machine to tell me that have just ordered the parts that day (They were supposed to order them 3 weeks ago) and they should be coming in 3 – 4 weeks. I immediately called them to inquire as to why it took them 3 weeks just to place the order for these parts, which they had no valid excuse for. At this point also asked to speak to the Customer Service Manager. I left a message for this Manager but never received a phone call back.

-February 2nd, 2006- It’s has now been 3 months since I purchased this coffee table and I still hadn’t received a phone call.. I called up the Customer Service Desk and demanded to speak with the Customer Service Manager. The manager indicated to me that the parts were going to be coming into his warehouse on February 17th and that he would courier them out to me. He also agreed that 3 months is too long to have to wait for a coffee table.

-February 22nd, 2006- Well, Feb 17th has come and gone, and I still haven’t received the parts yet. I called and left a message for the manager to call me back and didn’t get a phone call.

-March 1st- I got a phone call today from the Customer Service Department saying that they ordered in the wrong parts and now the next set of parts will be coming in on March 13th. I expressed my displeasure with the whole situation and asked if they would simply return my money for the coffee table so that I could buy one somewhere else. The CSR quickly reminded me of the “All sales Final” policy they have. I asked the CSR if this she felt this is good customer service and she said to me “it’s basically buyer beware, I can’t tell you if this is good service or not.”.

So this is where I am. It’s basically been 4 months and I still don’t have a coffee table. I’ve tried asking to speak with managers, only to be told that Ashley Furniture doesn’t have a manager and that all customer complaints are handled through the Customer Service Center located in Winnipeg.

Granted, $180 is not a lot of money, but this is more about the principle than anything else. When I was buying my coffee table that day, the group next to me was spending close to $7,000 on a full bedroom/dining room suite. My goal is to tell as many people possible about this and ensure that this coffee table is the most expensive $180 that Ashley Furniture ever makes.

I would be very cautious to buy anything from this store. Once they have your money, they don’t seem to care about whether or not you get your product in a reasonable amount of time.

Regards,
James Dixon

[FastFokker]

RFD'ers should unite and forward this message to their local Ashley Furniture location.. that should get you some kind of results!

[dolphie]

we don't have one of them 'round here, but good, clearly typed post

[mcewen]

This is not a buyer beware issue.

By taking your money, the company entered into a contract with you to deliver a specific product. They did not.

They also did not attempt to rectify the problem in a timely manner.

Here is a web page:
http://www.ashleyfurniture.com/Legacy/ContactUs.asp
where you can write to the head office to explain your problem.

I would first notify the particular store that you will be advising head office of the problem you are having unless you get both financial compensation for your troubles AND assurance that this will be resolved within two weeks (that should be enough time for a manager to contact the head office and have a rush order placed to get you the legs).

If you must contact the head office, explain your problem and still say you not only want the legs, but you think it fair to be compensated for your time, and especially because you made this purchase before Christmas so you could show it off over the holiday season when you had company over- but were unable to because it wasn’t complete. Follow the email up with a fax copy of your comments.

Best of luck,
M

[FastFokker]

No doubt, I'd be pissed to if I bought a *COFFEE TABLE* months upon months ago, and it's still not being used to hold my coffee.

Do the method above and if you get no help from Headoffice, let us know and I'm sure a bunch of us will forward your messag to headoffice as well and tell them we will not do business with them.

Honest mistakes are fine, but they seem to be really not care about your problem and that is not acceptable.

[700mb80min]

just to add , i`d remove the e-mail address or you`ll get spammed to death.

[Kuurgen]

My guess is the table is import, which is why they can't get you the legs in a timely fashion.

I would just call them and tell them to switch out the entire set.

Why wait for parts when you can pack it all up and just switch it out.

[yellowsugga]

I can say that I agree with the OP. We bought a coffee table from them and it fell apart in a month. They were very difficult about the situation and were not helpful at all in reslving it. In the end we got our money back and bought a table at another store. It was not a cheap table either (over $500). It was a big hassle dealing with them. This was in Ottawa by the way (actually the store is in Orleans).

[Princess Buttercup]

I must admit if it had been me I would have taken the coffee table right back and demanded they replace the whole thing.

but get in touch with head office,

NOTE TO SELF
never buy anything from Ashley Furniture.


The same go's for Arrow now that is another story, much worse than yours

[cil254]

NOTE TO SELF
never buy anything from Ashley Furniture.

Thanks for the heads up.

[wiggy]

Enough with the BS. Take 'em to small claims court. You've been patient and have a well documented situation. Refund + money for all the hassle + court costs. No mercy.

[Bunkhouse]

I'd say screw it and return the table for a full refund.

[camzie]

Ashley's stores are all independantly owned, so the problems you've had don't necessarily translate to the whole organization. I've purchased many pieces of furniture from Ashley and never had a problem.

Sorry to hear you've had such an issue though - I would be taking this issue up with their head office, minimum they should accept a return + 100% refund, I would push for more compensation personally.

Good luck

[toky]

The same go's for Arrow now that is another story, much worse than yours

Is Arrow that bad too? I always thought they have the cheapest price from the flyers even though I've never bought anything from them.

[jakorn]

Ashley's Funiture is nothing but junk, include that with the worst possilble customer service, worst possible delivery service, and even more disturbing is how a company like this can even stay in business. I could go on and on about my nightmare with these people but I think the last thread pretty much sums it up. Although I do feel a little better knowing I wasn't the only one so PO'd at this people. I did filed a formal complaint with Better Business Bureau. They're a rip off Company so please don't let their so called "hand crafted" furniture fool you. As far as I'm concerned this place is run by nothing but physcopaths. They have no conscience and could care less about their customers!