Buyer Beware

I won't go in to too much detail as the below letter speaks for itself.  However I will be mailing this letter on Monday morning.  I encourage anyone who is in need of furniture and may purchase in the near future to read this post.  I hope for your sake that your experience does not match that of ours. 

Re:        Customer Complaint & Disappointment

It is with great disappointment that I write this letter to your corporate headquarters.  Unfortunately, I felt my experience needed to be brought to your attention as by a quick and simple Google engine search I can see that I am only one of many customers nationwide with similar experience and complaints with your company.

Recently I purchased my very first home, and quite honestly, the excitement of the process of closing and being handed those keys was equal in comparison to the excitement I felt knowing that I now had a legitimate reason to go to your local showroom and pick out brand new furniture for my newly purchased home. 

I visited the store in Durham, NC and was greeted warmly by a Sales Associate.  Not only was the greeting warm and friendly, but after asking numerous questions regarding the pieces of furniture we were interested in, I could tell that she was very knowledgeable regarding your products and services and explained everything clearly.  My questions ranged from the protection plans to the credit application process to the set and up delivery process and each question was answered honestly and precisely.  It was without hesitation at this point that I felt sure that this furniture purchase was the best decision for us.  The quality of the furniture, the high level of sales associate support, and knowledge regarding product offerings made me feel confident that we would be satisfied with our purchase and our experience would be positive. 

Sadly I can tell you that after I left the showroom that day that the positive experience I expected and satisfaction I anticipated were very short lived as I waited for my furniture to be delivered.  Because I needed the furniture quickly I decided to accept the terms and conditions of the Express Delivery option in which you are not given an exact time for delivery, only a date, so I quickly arranged with my boss to be off from work that day to ensure someone would be home for the delivery.  By 2pm on my scheduled delivery date I had not heard from anyone but was not concerned.  However it was at this time that I did step outside to check my mail and while outside for that brief moment I missed a call from a representative of Rooms To Go explaining on my voicemail that a driver called out and they were not going to be delivering my furniture that day and that they will just come the next day from 12-4 to make the delivery. 

As I listen to this voicemail this is rather puzzling to me as to how it is the middle of the day and I’m just now being notified that a driver is out resulting in my delivery date needing to be rescheduled.  Not only that, but the new delivery date and time was not even discussed or approved by me.  How did they know anyone will be home?   Also, from my perspective it seems to me that a driver not showing up for their scheduled work day is something that would have been discovered that morning, not after lunch.  Meaning I could have gone to work that day as I was scheduled to if I was notified in a timely manner. 

Unfortunately that was not the case and after three phone calls to your Customer Service line I grew even more irate.  I also must admit that I had to apologize more than once to the Customer Service Representatives I spoke with as I was not being very friendly due to my frustration.  During my third call to the Customer Service line, I attempted to reschedule the appointment to the next Saturday so it would meet my work schedule however I was told if I cancelled the delivery date that I would have to wait 48 hours to call back and reschedule.  It is again at this point that I’m dumbfounded that I’m even in this situation.  It also did not help that no one could explain to me how it was that a representative from Rooms To Go could take it upon themselves to reschedule my delivery date and time without my authorization and then make me, the customer, have to go through additional red tape in order to reschedule it at a time that was in fact actually convenient for me?  Because of this I had to take an additional day off work to be home to accept delivery of my furniture.  So we are now at two days missed from work during a very busy time and I can guarantee you that my boss was none too pleased with me. 

The next day I was ready for a fight and ready to hit send on my phone to the customer service line, as I anticipated the day would entail some sort of drama with your delivery crew or Customer Service, however I was pleasantly surprised that your delivery crew did show up within the window of time I was promised and set up my furniture.  I can tell you that they were polite, quick and efficient with the set up and cleaned up after themselves.  After my experience the day before this was somewhat redeeming so I decided at this point that maybe my complaint letter that I had been drafting in my mind the day before when I was irate was unfounded and that this whole situation was just an unfortunate event that most customers do not experience.  Basically this was my way of giving Rooms To Go the benefit of the doubt that this is not the way you conduct business in an attempt to calm myself down and not complain.

Fast forward to the next Saturday (today) as I have the other half to my sectional couch which was on back order scheduled for delivery.  Per the three courtesy phone calls I received yesterday, I was instructed three times that my delivery was scheduled between 11am and 3pm and to be home during that time.  I appreciated the confirmation of delivery date and time but thought it was rather ironic that the week before the communication seemed lacking regarding delivery and now I’m receiving three calls in one day.   But never the less it seemed very clear when I should be home for said delivery to occur.   

It is also at this time I must pause to inquire how is it that a two piece sectional couch has one half of it on backorder?  I would imagine that when a customer purchases this piece that they get both halves?  I pride myself on logical thinking, and it doesn’t make much sense to me to only get one half of a two piece sectional.  So with the assumption that a two piece sectional is in fact sold in a pair, it is quite puzzling to me that half of my newly purchased sectional couch is on back order.  But this is the least of my concerns at this point. 

I apologize for getting off topic; however, as previously mentioned, my delivery time for today was scheduled from 11am to 3pm.  I have sat around my home all day anticipating the other half of my sectional couch only for it not to arrive during that time period.  By 4pm I am rather anxious and feeling trapped in my own home as I can’t leave and risk missing my delivery, and I reluctantly call Customer Service.  The number is on speed dial in my iPhone at this point.  I was instructed that they should arrive within the hour and that I would get a phone call if that is not the case.  Two hours later I have resulted in having to call the store for information because no one has shown up, or called and I have once again called the Customer Service line to be informed that the Customer Service line closes at 5pm.  The store representative I spoke with called Dispatch only for Dispatch to inform her that it was puzzling that the driver had not shown up yet as the driver told Dispatch they were on their way here over an hour prior.  It is at this point that it was approaching 3 hours after my delivery time table and I was still trapped in my own home unable to leave with no answers from the store, the customer service line or dispatch.  Quite frankly I was once again rude to your Dispatch representative because just like before, no one can offer me any answers or provide me a definitive time that they will be arriving.  Getting the response “within the next hour” was not only unsatisfying it was quite frankly a lie every time I heard it.  I will refrain from boring you with a minute by minute replay of the entire evening as this letter is already rather lengthy, however I can confirm that I did not receive a call from the driver notifying me of his estimated arrival until 6:49 pm and he arrived around 7:10 pm.  So a delivery time of 11am-3pm turned in to your driver not showing up until after 7pm for whatever reason. 

Let me also be upfront about the fact that I had to leave the house prior to your driver’s arrival because I was so irate.  Thankfully my significant other arrived home from work around 6pm so I left him at our home to await the delivery because I was so upset that I knew once I saw that Rooms To Go truck rolling down my street I was probably going to go postal on someone.  No one needs that.  Trust me, and by the way, you’re welcome. 

After supplying you with all of the aforementioned information, I will summarize the point of this letter as quickly and precisely as I can. 

This furniture buying experience has been the worst experience I have ever encountered as a consumer.  I do not retract my previous statements in that the Sales Associate that sold me my furniture was superb.  However once I left the showroom the product delivery experience has been so bad that I can guarantee you I will never purchase anything from Rooms To Go again.  I can also assure you that I will be sharing my experience with my many friends, family members, and co-workers in this area.  Lastly I will be posting a copy of this letter on my blog in which I share on Facebook with my 300+ friends who will probably share it with their friends as well. 

Lastly, I am in no way soliciting my complaint in an attempt to obtain free merchandise or coupons to get 20% off an item since it is clear that delivery times are a total shot in the dark and may or may not be met.  However I do expect to be reimbursed two days of missed work because of the incompetency of whoever within this organization is over the delivery scheduling.  I honestly feel this is the least you can do considering the unsatisfactory experience this has been for me the consumer.  This series of events is rather unfortunate because I actually need a new dining room table and chairs as well but like I said after this experience I will definitely go elsewhere for my furniture needs. 

On a positive note, now that I have actually received my furniture I love it just as much now as I did when I saw it in the showroom.  Sadly, because of this experience my superb Sales Associate will lose potential future sales from me and the individuals I know because I do not want to go through this experience ever again.  Nor would I want any of my friends and family to as well.   I really hope that this was just a series of rather unfortunate uncommon events.  If not, I urge the appropriate parties within Rooms To Go to take a high level look at their delivery infrastructure and restructure accordingly to ensure positive customer satisfaction for future customers. 

In closing, I have provided my contact information above for your convenience and look forward to speaking with you further regarding this matter and a possible resolution.  If you feel offended by this letter I offer my deepest and most sincere apology.  However I trust that if you were in my situation you would feel the same way.  I urge you to go over the details of my experience as outlined in this letter and put yourself in the shoes of the consumer and tell me if this experience is how you want your company to be known?  I can not tell you enough how disappointed I am. 

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.

If anyone sees anything that I should consider removing from the letter before I send it please let me know.  I'm still mad at the moment so I may be a little too disgruntled in the letter to be taken seriously by corporate headquarters.  What do you think?