ASHLEY FURNITURE HOMESTORE

Poor experience

My wife and I were interested in purchasing furniture to furnish our new apartment. We both just graduated from college and were preparing to move to Champaign, IL, so that I could begin graduate school. Over the summer between cities, we were staying at my wife's parents' home about an hour south of St. Louis, MO. We visited several furniture stores, but eventually settled on Ashley because of the quality for the money seemed really reasonable and they offered some great financing options for us. We spend several hours in the store picking out furniture for several rooms and talking with the saleswoman, Dana Wood, about our plans. We told her that we needed the furniture in Champaign, IL and planned on just having the furniture we ordered sent to the Ashley Furniture Homestore there. She told us that this would not work because the stores were all independently owned, but that the St. Louis store would be glad to deliver there. When we finished picking out everything and writing down numbers, it came time to put everything into the computer. Dana put the information in and said "Uh oh, it says there is a $500 deliver charge for Champaign." She acted very surprised and asked where Champaign was. We told her it was about 3 hours east of St. Louis. She said, "Oh no, I thought it was just across the river, we don't deliver there." So now we had a choice. My wife and I considered asking for all of the product numbers and just talking that to the Champaign Homestore and placing our order there. (Should have done!!!) We explained in detail our plans to move and our current residence an hour south of St. Louis. We asked if the store could deliver the furniture there for free, not unbox it, and we would load it onto the trailer and take it to Champaign. We had to take a trailer anyway and thought this might be a reasonable trade off. She said that would be JUST FINE. We finished placing the order and agreed on a delivery date. The truck arrived on schedule, and the delivery men loaded the furniture (in boxes) onto our trailer. When we arrived in Champaign, unboxed, and assembled our furniture we noticed several problems. First, the queen sized Simmons mattress we purchased with our order was too short and narrow for our new Ashley queen sized bed frame. We measured the mattress and found it to be a full-sized mattress with a queen label on it. The second problem regarded our dresser. This was a full sized dresser and mirror that was just under $1000. Unlike the other bedroom furniture, which included a large media chest, which was totally packed in foam, plastic, and cardboard, the dresser was wrapped on the sides with a single layer of cardboard that was then shrinkwrapped to the dresser. The top and bottom of the dresser were completely exposed. The dresser's actual legs touched the floor, and the dresser top was open to the elements. We didn't notice that it was packed unusually when we received the order because we really didn't know what normal was. After unboxing everything else, however, we knew this was weird. When we removed the cardboard from the dresser we found that the corners of the dresser were chipped and scratched. The rim around the dresser top had rubs the entire way around, and the dresser top had several large, deep scratches. I called customer support and explained the situation. The man informed me that moving the furniture after receiving it voided my warranty and that the store would be willing to repair it for a fee if I brought it in! I asked to speak to his supervisor and spoke to a woman named Natalie. I again explained the problem and Natalie informed me that technically the store's warranty had been voided by moving the furniture. I was outraged by this because the sales rep (Dana) had assured me warranties would be intact. I also argued that it was hardly a warranty issue, as the mattress and dresser had been delivered in their present state. She agreed and told me she would call me Monday after talking with her boss. Natalie called me and told me the company would be willing to replace the products if I took them back to St. Louis. My wife and I were three hours away in a new city (where we were originally told our warranties would be fulfilled by the local Ashley stores). I was not able to move a 300 pound dresser alone and I didn't know anyone in the area to ask for help yet. I told them that I really felt like I had been misled about the service I was purchasing and that, honestly, this was their company's fault for delivering me defective and damaged materials. I'm not a furniture professional able to recognize mistakes on sight, but supposedly several of these professionals handled the products in my order and failed to raise concerns. Natalie called me back a few days later and told me she was attempting to work something out with the Champaign Homestore and facilitate my replacement through them. She also passed me mattress complaint to the area Simmons rep. I want to continue this review as two stories, one for each product: 1. The mattress: Three weeks went by while I waited for Natalie or Simmons to call me about my incorrect mattress. No one did. Natalie stopped returning my voicemails and emails. Finally, I left a message for her supervisor, Greg Ball, and told him I didn't appreciate being ignored. She called me back later that day in a very poor mood. I told her that I had not heard from her for two weeks and that I just wanted to know what was happening with the mattress. She told me that Simmons was handling it and that it would take however long to took. I told her that I really thought that I had waited long enough and that the defective mattress could just as easily wait in her warehouse instead of on my bedframe. She told me there was nothing more she could do. It would be two more weeks before Simmons would get me a replacement through a local store. The St. Louis Homestore couldn't have cared less about how long it took 2. The dresser: This was by far the more difficult issue. Finally, after insisting for two weeks that I should not have to pay for my dresser to be hauled back to St. Louis because of that store's mistake, the local homestore was contacted and became involved. They sent a tech to inspect the dresser. He took pictures and wrote a report. A few days later, Ashley in Champaign called me back and told me they would like to send the tech again and have him repair the dresser. They told me the St. Louis store had agreed to pay the bill. The tech returned and performed in-home maintenance on the dresser. He did a great job, but unfortunately made things worse! The edge of the top of the dresser no longer had rubs around it, but wavy splotchy stain patterns. The tech told me that the dresser had been previously repaired, and poorly, using some sort of wax product that rejected his repair stains. He took photos and left. Two more weeks went by and I heard nothing from St. Louis or Champaign. At this point I called the Ashley Furniture office in Wisconsin. After being bounced between the same three departments for an hour and being told by multiple people that the stores were independently owned and that I had to go through my store, I talked to a woman in Consumer Affairs that listened to my story and told me the corporate office could facilitate my replacement dresser through the local store. Two weeks later I new dresser was delivered to my door. Finally. Still no word from the St. Louis store. My main complaints: 1. They delivered defective/damaged materials. Someone should have noticed and corrected this. 2. The saleswoman lied to me about my warranty coverage surviving the move. 3. The St. Louis store stopped returning my calls! Very unprofessional. I understand that I was persistent throughout this issue, but I spent a lot of money and only ever wanted what I should have been delivered in the first place. 4. The customer service managed LIED. About three weeks into this issue, when I had a defective mattress and a damaged dresser and no prospects for getting them replaced, I filed a complaint with the St. Louis Better Business Bureau. Greg Ball, Natalie's supervisor who I had never spoken to directly, filed a response letter detailing how I had received a replacement mattress from Simmons already and that they local store was going to replace my dresser. He assured the BBB that "I had been helped." At this point I still had not heard from Simmons and the Champaign store had just told me my dresser had been previously damaged and was unrepairable. They said nothing about a replacement. The BBB closed my complaint citing "adequate corporate response" when the supposed response was what I had asked for from the beginning but that had not happened!!! I notified the BBB of this and they refused to reopen the complaint. 5. My last complaint builds on the first. At first I thought the St. Louis Homestore (Owned and operated by Phillips Furniture of St. Louis) merely accidentally brought me a damaged dresser. When the tech found evidence of previous repairs to damage as well, repairs he assured me were attempted using professional furniture products, I could only conclude that these repairs were attempted by the St. Louis Homestore and/or the Phillips Furniture warehouse. That means they KNOWINGLY tried to pass off damaged furniture as new and then refused to replace it. Bottom line, I had the worst experience of my life with this company and recommend that you stay as far as possible from Ashley Homestore in St. Louis and from Phillips Furniture (which operates it and performs customer service).