Today's experience at Furniture Consignment Gallery in Colleyville, Texas left me totally shocked, insulted, flabbergasted and speechless (till now). I can honestly say, "I don't think I have EVER been treated more rudely or unprofessionally at a retail establishment"!
The FACTS of the incident:
I have shopped at Furniture Consignment Gallery many times over the years. I stopped in there yesterday and ending up purchasing almost $600. of furniture. I was not expecting to buy anything, so while making my purchase; I told them I would need to return the next day with a truck to pick-up my things.
This morning, I called the store to inform them that I would be by to pick-up my purchases in a couple of hours. When a friend and I arrived at the store, we were told the guy that loads the purchases was not there. That was not communicated earlier when I called, but I was perfectly willing and able to load my truck myself. I then asked the employee where my purchases were located so I could begin loading the truck; the employee found 3 of the 4 purchases for us, but was unable to find the final item. The employee said she called the owner and that she would be at the store in a couple of minutes. We were outside waiting for her arrival and after waiting a lengthy amount of time, we finally went inside where Robin, the owner was sitting behind the counter. She was totally unaware or concerned that we had been waiting for her.
When I inquired about the final upholstered chair, Robin Vander Stoep, the owner, said she had sold and loaded that chair yesterday. I reminded her, with receipt in hand, that she did sell it to ME. Robin then remembered the transaction in detail. She continued by saying, "Well, I loaded it in a SUV yesterday!" She repeated this comment several times as she continued to look on her computer. Finally I said, "You keep repeating that the sold chair was taken yesterday. Are you accusing me of stealing by taking the chair yesterday and coming back today"? My friend then calmly spoke up and said, "She does not have a SUV", and then Robin looked directly at her and said, "This does not concern you so stay out of it." My friend then said, "I have shopped and bought many things over the years, but due to your lack of professionalism, I will never be back"! I was totally speechless at Robin's reaction. I questioned Robin about her rude response....she said my friend was the one being rude. My friend then said she would wait outside for me after she did not deserve to be spoken to like that. As my friend was leaving the store, she passed another customer who witnessed the whole exchange and was as stunned as we were.
Robin, the owner finally credited my charge card, handed me the receipt and promptly turned her back to me. I asked if the transaction was complete....she said, "Yes"! Robin never showed any remorse, accepted any responsibility for the mishap or offered an apology!
When I got home, I could not get this unexpected, rude, unprofessional experience out of my mind. I decided to look at other customer reviews for Furniture Consignment Gallery. What I found was very interesting. For the most part, the business got either a score of 1 OR 5 stars. The score on the reviews were about half and half. The common theme of the 1 star reviews were "rudeness" by buyers while shopping and questionable business practices by sellers.
Finally, today's incident exposed multiple weaknesses and flaws of Furniture Consignment Gallery! A consignment store is basically an agent to sell someone else's merchandise to a third-party consumer. I was the third-party consumer today, but many of my friends have consigned furniture for this store to sell. There was not any inventory organization or security measures to protect the "buyer" or "seller". The "seller "of the upholstered chair, now has no chair OR the money from the sale of the chair OR an explanation on the location of the chair! Sorry, your $300. chair was loaded in a SUV!
In closing, everyone makes mistakes or can have a bad day, but this unfortunate mishap quickly escalated due to the unprofessional behavior of the owner, Robin Vander Stoep, who could not accept responsibility for her mistake, control her temper, show any remorse or offer an earned apology! There are plenty of other business owners that value and respect their customers.... they are the ones that will earn my dollars and loyalty in the future! read more