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Report: #168870

Complaint Review: Ashley Furniture - Fort Wayne Indiana

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  • Reported By: Fort Wayne Indiana
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  • Ashley Furniture 311 E. Coliseum Blvd. Fort Wayne, Indiana U.S.A.

Ashley Furniture Incompetent customer service, inability to return phone calls, lack of consistent manufacturing, false advertising, ripoff Fort Wayne Indiana

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My husband and I shopped around for furniture for 2 months before settling on several items at Ashley Furniture. We had just purchased our first house and had several rooms to fill. We knew ahead of time that we were not purchasing top-of-the-line furniture, but we were able to get all of the items we'd been looking for and it was in our budget.

On November 1st, we purchased a couch, oversized chair, ottoman, 2 end tables, a sofa table and a coffee table (all tables were the Protege series)for our family room. We also purchased a complete bedroom set (Protege) of a queen sized bed (headboard, rails, footboard), 2 nightstands, a chest of drawers, and a dresser with a mirror. An estimated delivery time of 4 weeks was given. We left the store excited about the prospect of having new and matching furniture.

We waited for our furniture, and 3 weeks after our purchase date, we received a call stating that our furniture had come in and would be delivered the next day (11/21/05). I was very happy that it was coming sooner than expected. I was told that there was a defect with one of our end tables and the coffee table, and that parts would be ordered. I felt that it was reasonable, and was pleased that they had found these defects prior to delivery.

The delivery guys showed up a hour later than their projected arrival time, but I was home all day, and this wasn't an inconvenience to me. They apologized for being late, and worked quickly to get the furniture in the house and assembled. The family room furniture was put together first. I started cleaning the large amount of dust and fingerprints off the tables while my bedroom furniture was being assembled. When they were finished assembling, I went to look at everything. They had leaned my mattress and boxsprings over the window so the room was dark, but on first glance everything seemed to be in good shape.

About 20 minutes after the delivery guys left, I went to clean the dust off the bedroom furniture. I noticed that my bedroom furniture was not the same color as my family room tables, though they were of the same series. Online, they looked and were described the same, and in the showroom, they were the same. However, my tables were a deep rich red wood while my bedroom furniture was a flat black. I even took a nightstand downstairs to the same room as my end tables to compare. (To prove it wasn't a lighting issue) There was an obvious color discrepancy.

I immediately called into the store. I asked to speak to someone regarding a problem with a delivery. I was transferred to Amanda's voicemail. I left a message asking to please call me back and explained that my furniture was the wrong color. When I hung up, I was worried that I hadn't spoke to anyone directly, so I called back and asked to speak to someone else. I didn't want to get stuck with furniture that was wrong.

I spoke with Jason, who reinterated that I would have to talk to the customer servise rep (Amanda). I asked how long it would take to resolve this, and got a non-commital answer. I also asked if it was ok to use this furniture for now and I was told I would not be charged if something happened to them if it was in fact determined to be the wrong color. I hung up thinking that this would be resolved quickly.

I never received a call back that day. The next morning, I called the store 2 minutes after they opened. I was told that Amanda had called in sick that day, but that I could leave a message. I agreed, and left another message. I then called back and asked to speak with another customer service rep. I was transferred to Brandy's voice mail. I was told she would be into the store in an hour. I left a message for her to call me back.

That afternoon, I had still not received a call back from Brandy. I called the store again. I was told she was with a customer so I left another message. An hour later, no call back, I called again. This time, Brandy answered the store's main number. Why she would be answering phones instead of calling back customers is beyond me, but I was glad that I was finally speaking to a person.

I explained the situation and was told that a service technician would have to come out to the house to inspect the furniture and determine if it was the wrong color. Brandy was very unapologetic and on the borderline of rude. I was then told that the service tech would give me a call tomorrow to set up an appointment no earlier than a week and a half later.

I told her that it was unreasonable that I would have to wait that long for someone to even come look at the items let alone reorder them. She said there was nothing she could do. I offered to bring a nightstand into the store so they could see the color differences themselves. This was declined.

After I hung up with Brandy, I called back and spoke with Kim, the customer service manager. I told her it was unacceptable that my phone calls had not been returned, and I asked that the appointment with the service tech be scheduled immediately rather than waiting for them to call me back. She said she would call me back that day. No call.

The next day, Kim called and set up an appointment the following Monday (1 week after delivery).

The service tech was very nice and professional. He agreed that the bedroom set was black, not the red wood described online and on display in the store. He told me he would relay this information to the customer service reps and they would call me the next day. Again, no call.

11/29/05: I called the store, and spoke with Amanda. She said she was having trouble interpreting the tech's notes and had to discuss it with him, but would call me back. Again, no call. I called back, and she said she wanted to discuss it with Kim, the manager, who was in a meeting all day. I told her to call me by noon the following day. Again, no call.

11/30/05: I called Amanda back the following day. She said she had briefly discussed it with Kim, but needed to call my sales-representative (who happened to be off that day) to see "what had been discussed at purchasing." I told her that was unecessary because my sales rep had nothing to do with the fact that the delivered furniture was the wrong color.

She said she again, would discuss it with Kim. She asked if the tech had taken pictures of the items. I told her no, but I had. I again offered to bring in a drawer from a nightstand and an end table so they could see the dramatic difference in color. Again, it was declined.

That evening, I decided to call and speak with Kim directly. It got nowhere and I was told she'd call me back.

For the next 3 days, I got the run around between Amanda and Kim. I left messages that weren't returned, was told repeatedly that they were looking into the manufacturer's staining process to see if it had changed, etc.

I was so frustrated by this point, that my husband started calling them. Everytime he called to speak to a manager, they were assisting customers or in meetings. He left messages for Kim, Bill (the store manager), and the general manager. None were returned. He finally was able to speak with Bill. He told them that if they didn't trust us to decide the color was wrong it was somewhat excusable, but if they didn't trust their service tech to make that call, then stop wasting our time and give us a refund. Bill also gave us the line about checking with the manufacturer to see if the staining process had changed.

Bill then asked if we could bring in a drawer so they could see that it truly was the wrong color. My husband told them they could come pick it up since we had offerred that same thing 2 weeks ago, and we shouldn't have to waste our time. Brandy came to the house, picked up a drawer from the nightstand and one from an end table for comparison.

Finally, the next day, it was determined that it was indeed the wrong color... big surprise. My husband and I then went to the store, demanded to speak with Bill, and asked what they could do for us. They offered to order an new set, exchange our pieces with the in-store display, or sell us a new set.

We thought about taking the in-store display at a discount, but it had a king sized bed, and we would have to order a queen sized bed at the risk it wouldn't match. Bill thought it was likely a one-time mistake with the staining, assuring us that the process hadn't changed, and we decided to reorder a new set. He also reordered us the end table we had yet to receive and supposedly a new coffee table to replace the one we had with missing parts. A rush was placed on our order.

12/16/05: we received a call saying our new furniture would be arriving on 12/19 and it would be delivered 12/21. My husband called Bill and left a message for him to call back and asking someone to inspect the furniture prior to delivery in case it was wrong again. No call.

12/19/05: Again, called Bill, asking him to call back. No call. I called and asked someone to personally deliver a message to Bill that if we didn't receive a call back, they could cancel our entire order and give us a complete refund. Bill called my husband back that evening and told him that no one could look at the furniture. He stated that our end table and sofa table were also ready to be delivered. However, our sofa table was fine. He reordered the wrong table, and tried to blame it on us. He also told us that this was a waste of his time and that it should have never involved him. While I agree that it shouldn't have gotten to that point, it did. And he should be doing everything possible to remedy the situation.

12/20/05: Amanda called, telling us that the coffee table was on its way and would be delivered around 12/28. At the very end of the conversation, she also said, by the way, we looked at the new bedroom furniture, and it's also black. At this point, we decided that we had given them enough chances to redeem themselves, and they failed. We told them to come pick up the bedroom furniture and give us a refund.

12/21/05: They picked up the bedroom furniture today. There have been no apologies made for our inconvenience, time, or hassle. There have never been any explanations as to why they can't return phone calls. No explanations have been made why the customer service seems to be incapable of handling problems or making decisions. And no explanations have been made regarding the false description and pictures of the furniture on-line and the false display in the store.

We called the manufacturer. They stated the black was within the specifications of the furniture. How a flat, spray-paint looking black is close to a rich, red, wood grain is beyond me. I also sent an email to the company. Surprise, no response.

We are still waiting to see when we get our refund and when that coffee table will get delivered. I urge anyone shopping for new furniture not to be lured into the store with the ads and seemingly great deals.

We have spent 8 weeks, over 40 phone calls (just by cell phone logs alone, not including LAN lines), several trips to the store, and an unreasonable amount of stress over this mistake. And at the end of that 8 weeks, our bedroom is still empty, and pieces are still missing. I hope that nothing breaks because trying to get it fixed will be a nightmare.

Ashley Furniture has the worst customer service I have ever dealt with. If a mistake is made, rectify it. If you can't fix it, apologize and compensate. Ashley Furniture in Fort Wayne, Indiana did none of these things.

Heather
Fort Wayne, Indiana
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 12/21/2005 02:24 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ashley-furniture/fort-wayne-indiana-46805/ashley-furniture-incompetent-customer-service-inability-to-return-phone-calls-lack-of-co-168870. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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