Hello Ashley's Shoppers,
I'm going to tell you a story about why you should NEVER shop at Ashley's furniture again.
In July of 2017 my wife and I went to Ashley's Furniture at 1959 FX Sabourin, Saint-Hubert, Quebec, looking for an everyday use hide a bed solution. After speaking with the sales rep we decided on getting a cabinet bed. We also bought a two-seater sofa.
We were told that it would take 6 or 8 weeks for the cabinet bed to arrive as each one was hand made. We felt it was a long time to wait, but we figured the trade off for good quality would be worth it.
As the cost of the cabinet bed and the sofa was over $2000 and we were also in the midst of costly renovations on our home, we opted for a payment plan with the "Ashley's Card" which was enthusiastically suggested by the sales rep.
More on their his later.
Everything seemed fine. There were a lot of other nice items in the store and my wife and I talked about coming back again. That will never happen now.
The first problem happened two weeks later when a rep from Ashley's called my wife to inform her that we could not get the two-tone model that we chose as it was no longer available, which is odd because we were told that they are all hand made, so unless those hands are no longer available I don't see what the problem was, but in order to speed things along we just accepted it.
Finally the cabinet bed arrives at around the 8 1/2 week mark. However it was delivered with significant scratches on the side panels. The delivery people suggested, rightfully, that we refuse the delivery so that the damage can be addressed by Ashley's, and that the store would contact us about it right away.. A week went by and we received no contact so we called ourselves and were told that Ashley's would repair the damaged unit and send it back to us.
This was a problem for me because now the item that we would be receiving would be a refurbished item for which we were paying the cost of a new one. We requested that either we receive a new unit or a price reduction. The rep from Ashley's then said that they would send us a brand new unit.
THIS WAS A LIE.
The damaged unit was sent back to us 3 weeks later, with the damage fixed but clearly not a different, new, unit. But in the interest of just getting this resolved, I decided to let it go.
But wait! There are more problems!
While putting the bed together the delivery men discovered that the base and cabinet didn't fit together properly. This time the delivery guy suggested to accept the delivery and that the store could send someone to fix it otherwise it could take another 8 weeks. So I agreed to accept he delivery (bad idea) on the promise that Ashley's would send someone to fix it in the next couple days. A week went by and I didn't even get a phone call.
Finally I call myself and Ashley's arranges to send someone. Another week later the repair team finally shows up at my house to inspect the item only to discover that it cannot be fixed because of additional damage caused by when the original damaged panels were repaired. I was told that a report would be filed and I would be contacted by Monday.
Another week and a half went by and I still didn't get a phone call. They are REALLY bad at following up.
So finally I called them back myself. By his point I was pretty furious. I'm a really busy guy and I have a newborn baby at home so my spare time is pretty thin and quite valuable to me.
3 more weeks of back and forth calls with no sign of what should be a very simple resolution. Just send a new bed.
Let's cut forward to another month+ of me playing phone tag with Ashley's just trying to get a resolution. Meanwhile the payments on the cabinet bed that I still cannot use have started.
THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART!
I mentioned earlier that we had opted for the payment plan with the "Ashley's Card", something I would normally not do, to avoid creating a financial strain due to ongoing renovations on my home.
I only found out afterwards that the payments are not actually made to Ashley's. Instead the payments go to a company that pays Ashley's upfront for the furniture cost, and then collects from the buyer.This is also why their customer service is so bad. THEY HAVE ALREADY GOTTEN PAID, SO THEY DONT NEED TO HELP YOU.
And if you refuse to pay as a pressure tactic it will not hurt Ashley's. It will damage just your credit rating.
I was finally told the week before Xmas that the store manager decided to have a new bed ordered, but that it would take at least another 3 weeks.
It has now been more than six months since I made the purchase and at least 3 payments have been made
My hope is that by posting this story to social media, Ashley's will respond in a responsible and appropriate manner that is relative to the situation.
If that happens I will update this post with those results and we can have a happy ending to this mess.
If not....
I look forward to your response Ashley's. read more
