On September 3rd of this year, my wife and I went to Furniture Fair near Fairfield, Ohio looking to purchase a new bedroom suit. We were greeted by a Kathy P. who proceeded to show us around the store and help us determine an appropriate bedroom suit.
When first speaking with Kathy P. I made it ABUNDANTLY clear that there was really only one stipulation as to which suits we were wanting to look at and potentially buy: they must be manufactured in the United States, and as such, price is NOT a determining factor. My reasons for wanting American made furniture are my own, and I won't go into further detail as to those reasons here, but again, this was made ABUNDANTLY clear to Kathy.
After some perusing, we made our way to a particular bedroom suit: the Belmont Storage Bedroom Group by Napa, all of which can be found here at the following link:
https://furniturefair.net/search?type=products&q=Napa%20Belmont*
Throughout our tour of the store, I re-iterated several times to Kathy that the furniture must be made in the USA, and she kept acknowledging that she understood this stipulation. She had an iPad (or some other sort of tablet) with her, which she used to pull up information regarding the bedroom suit. She assured us that the bed was sustainably manufactured, and that it was from Connecticut. I was under the assumption that, because she worked for a large furniture retailer, she was utilizing some tool or software for inventory on her iPad that could absolutely verify that the furniture was made in the USA. In fact, she was even telling us which items she had in-stock currently in their warehouse. I assumed that because they are a large retailer, they have that sort of insight per their relationships with distributors and manufacturers. What I now know is that she was really only looking at the Napa company website, which isn't forthcoming about where they manufacture from, and which anyone can do on their own device.
Once we got the final piece of furniture delivered last Friday, November 5th, I was proud as a peacock that we had a bedroom suit that I thought was made in the USA. Then, I finally decided to look at the back for stenciling confirming this. Being the trusting fool that I am, I never bothered to look at the back of the furniture prior to this. That's when I found out that the entire bedroom suit we were sold was manufactured in Indonesia. Upon further research, we determined that only Napa's business headquarters is based in Connecticut, not their manufacturing process.
I quickly called Furniture Fair and asked for Kathy P. She immediately went on the defensive, telling me store policy stated that there was only a 3-day "happiness guarantee" (or something along those lines), and that I was basically stuck with the furniture, as there was nothing she could do to help us. She claimed over and over that her selling us furniture under a false pretense was not malicious, and that she gave us the best information she had at her disposal, and that she's "not that kind of person".
If this is the case, then there's a word for this: negligence. She'll remember me saying that exact line verbatim from our phone call. Because of her ineptitude, I'm stuck with furniture I don't want, and here's the kicker: after adding an additional night-stand and a mattress, after tax, we spent over $10,000 - yes, TEN-THOUSAND DOLLARS.
I think the thing that made me angry the most (besides the $10,000 price tag) was Kathy's question during our phone call: did I do my research on the product before coming in? To answer that: no, I didn't. But that's because I thought I could trust the sales person to have done the research for me before pushing a product on me under false/mistaken pretenses. If we can't trust their knowledge of the product, what purpose do they serve other than to increase pressure on customers?
And to Furniture Fair: I don't want my money back. I don't even want a rebate, discount, or any of that. I just want American-made furniture. I wanted to GIVE YOU MONEY, and it should be obvious from how much I've already spent that money is no object in this matter. But I'll also say this: our business relationship has been greatly sullied by this experience, and I cannot in good-conscience ever conduct business with you again. If nothing else, this has been a very expensive lesson that I will never trust salesmen again, and if I buy furniture, it will never be through another retailer such as yourself again as long as I live. I'll buy directly from the manufacturer, or I won't buy at all.
So, to all of you who are reading this review, please beware before purchasing anything from Furniture Fair. A great number of you have already posted positive reviews. To you, I say: that's great. I'm glad you had a good experience. However, I have not, and I can only relay that here. Hopefully you don't get fleeced by negligent, inept salespeople like I did. read more