WALTER E SMITHE FURNITURE INC

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Overall the shopping experience, the choices, and even the pricing for the quality were all excellent.  We purchased 2 couches, same design, one all leather, one a mix of leather and fabric, a matching leather ottoman from the same line, and a leather chair with ottoman; pretty much exactly how they had the set displayed is what we purchased.  When we walked by this particular grouping we actually stopped in our tracks and immediately knew this was the one.  Although we spent significantly above our target amount, we knew this was exactly what we wanted in our home.  I would definately shopped at WES without hesitation again, but as we did with this purchase, I would wait for a sale.

They have someone who will help you out in the store. You tell them what you want and they will help you with that. I was also impressed with their delivery guy. It was the most professional delivery I have ever had. They were good about moving an old sofa to the basement. They made sure the furniture was down and everything was cleaned up. You never would have known they were there except that I had a new sofa. They were very friendly.

In summary, got the bed, had some issues with getting the bed assembled, never got a floorplan. The Walter E Smithe promotion at the time was $500 off if a salesperson to comes out to your house and takes measurements, so that they can provide you with a floor plan and make product suggestions. At the time the salesperson Bob came out, at the end of April, our house was still mostly vacant. The master bedroom still had bare window treatment rods, and no furniture or artwork; just a mattress & box spring. We had gotten a quote from Bob on a Henredon armoire ($6000) and Henredon bed ($3000) before he came out. So, given the bedrooms emptiness I would have thought Bob would have been eager to pull a whole plan for the room together. It should have been clear to him that I was interested in his suggestions and recommendations since I was. Bob took measurements quickly and didn’t really seem interested in discussing his ideas for the bedroom or in even looking at our family room where I had told him I was also needing all new furniture and window treatments. He said he would get us a floorplan for the bedroom in “a couple of weeks”. My husband and I were shocked it would be that long given the state of the economy this summer and slow furniture sales. It’s been 6 months now, still no floorplan. Based on his lack of interest during the appointment I don’t think he had any intention of sending the floor plan. I never called to follow up since I’ve learned if someone isn’t interested in doing something in the first place, you probably won’t get good results if you harass them to do it. So, when I have bought two additional pieces of furniture from Smithe in the 4 months since then (antique nightstand and custom leather ottoman), I did not go back to Bob. And I bought all the bedroom window treatments, bedding, chaise lounge, chaise lounge table, and other nightstand elsewhere. Had Bob given me a floor plan with suggestions, perhaps I would have made all those purchases at Smithe. To date, I still haven’t found a salesperson at Smithe (Arlington Heights and Schaumburg locations) that I would want to go back to (more about that in my upcoming Smithe reports). We did buy the $3200 Henredon bed from Bob at the Arlington Heights location, but bought the armoire elsewhere. The bed did arrive during the quoted lead-time. Smithe was very good and professional about giving updates on delivery status. When the bed came, it was beautiful and as I expected it to be based on the catalog picture, but there were broken dowels lodged in the side rails of the bed. Turns out they assemble and disassemble beds before delivery to make sure there are no assembly issues. However, in doing so, they created an issue by leaving broken dowels in the side rails and footboard for the time-limited installation guys to deal with. The installation guys, who were very nice, incredibly professional, and very tidy, could not remove the broken dowels in the timeframe allotted to be at our house; they were late for their next customer. They also didn’t have enough unbroken dowels to put the bed together anyway. So, we didn’t make the final payment for the bed, another service call appointment was scheduled, and dowels were ordered from Henredon. Even though my husband told the customer service dept. over the phone that the old dowels needed to be drilled out, the service guy who arrived for the second appointment didn’t have a drill to remove the old dowels, and had the wrong size dowels from Henredon. Since it is a hassle for us to keep making appointments since we work during the day, and their Saturday service appointments book up quickly, we asked customer service at that point to just mail us the dowels when they came in so that my husband could finish the installation himself by drilling out the old dowels and inserting the new ones. The whole process, from when we ordered the bed, until it was finally put together, took about 3-4 months. Each time dowels were ordered it took about 3 weeks for them to come in. About a week after my husband got the needed dowels, which was the end of August, we got a LATE NOTICE in the mail from Smithe saying we hadn’t paid in full for the bed! I found receiving this pretty upsetting since I always pay my bills on time and have an excellent credit rating. When I called the billing department they said they understood the situation, that their late notices go out automatically after a given period of time, and that I didn’t need to worry about receiving the notice, and I told them I would be mailing a check in the next few days since my husband had just gotten the bed together. All in all, I do think the customer service department did what they could to remedy the bed assembly situation. However, I don’t think they should run the same promotion again where they require someone to come out to your house get a discount card unless that person is going to do something with the measurements they take, and I think they should revisit their bed assembly/disassembly procedures to make sure they aren’t giving the installation guys a headache to deal with when they get to your house. And also make sure that if there is an issue, they don’t send you a LATE NOTICE in the meantime.

My experience has not been good with them. We ordered a sofa, and the one in the store was much more comfortable than the one we got. Right now we're trying to get them to change out the collapsing cushions. They just told us that that was what we ordered. If we want any changes, we'll have to purchase a better grade. They don't seem like they want to be much of a help. The couch is only 8 months old. They told me to wait, and I waited, and it's still not comfortable.

I WOULD RECOMMEND THEM, I RECEIVED EXCELLENT SERVICE FROM THEM

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