FARMER'S FURNITURE

Upon entering Farmers Furniture, (I entered ahead of my husband), we were approached by a salesman. He shook my husband's hand and introduced himself to my husband, asked him for his name, what he did for a living, etc. I might as well have been a bookend for all the attention paid to me. He never asked for my name or occupation or anything. When I asked questions about the furniture I was interested in, the salesman answered them with a "Don't worry your pretty little head about it" sense of condescension. This elicited several snickers and eye rolls from my husband, as it was me wielding the checkbook and my income paying for the sofa and loveseat we were planning to buy. I chose to be amused rather than slighted by the ongoing treatment. The furniture was coming from a warehouse in another part of the state, which meant it wouldn't arrive for approximately a week. We arranged for a morning delivery, knowing our autistic son would be at school at that time. He is sensitive to anything outside his routine, so we made it a point to not opt for an afternoon delivery. The financing process took a terribly long time. With my special needs child due to come home from school soon, we ended up rushed by the end of the transaction. According to the sales circular, we were to receive a free 5 x 7 rug with the purchase of the particular pieces we chose. When I questioned the salesman about it (he never brought it up), he said, "Well, I can show you the rugs, but they aren't all that good." In a hurry, I again let the condescending attitude go, and we left for home. The day of delivery, the morning came and went. A call to Farmers Furniture ended with the person on the other end of the line promising to look into our delivery and she would call right back. An hour passed, and there was no return phone call. Meanwhile, my son had come home. Finally at 4 p.m., the furniture arrived. The delivery men were polite but uncommunicative. They did do a good job of setting the furniture up, and I have no real complaints about their work once they made it to my house. As suspected, my son was hyped up by the unexpected activity and could not be calmed down for quite awhile following the delivery. Today we received a call from Farmers Furniture telling us our first payment was late. We had not received a monthly bill yet, so we were surprised. The representative who called told my husband, "Payment is due the first of the month. We don't send out bills." This was the first we'd heard of it. The salesman had never explained the payment procedure, so we simply assumed that like our past experiences with every other furniture store we'd ever bought from, we would receive monthly billing. Our payment options were something of a surprise as well. We could not mail in our payment, which would be the most convenient option given we live 20 minutes from Farmers Furniture. We either had to pay in person or over the phone, which would result in a $2 'convenience fee'. With the payment already late, my husband went with the telephone option. He was put on hold while the payment was processed. He remained on hold for several minutes. In frustration, he hung up and called back. The person who answered told him the payment had gone through but did not apologize for him having to call back.