Ashley Furniture Home Stores delivered damaged goods, now can't get delivery date on replacement, getting the runaround Gainesville Florida

I have been in a 12 week nightmare. At the beginning of August, I purchased a dining room suite (table, 6 chairs, buffet and hutch). I was told that delivery would be 3-8 weeks. At the time, I was fine with that as Thanksgiving was almost 2 months from the worst-case scenario. At the 5 week mark, I was called and told that my furniture was now in stock and scheduled a delivery for that Saturday. I was told that I would get a call around 8 am to let me know what time the delivery would be (9-12 or 1-4). No call came. I called at 9 and was told that the crew didn't even get in until 10 and they promised to call by 11. No call came. At noon, I was told that the truck was leaving in 30 minutes. At 2:30, I was called to say that the hutch was damaged and would need to be reordered. So much for the truck leaving at 12:30. While disappointed, at least the rest of the furniture was coming. At 4, still no truck. I received a call asking for specific directions to the house (which I had already given to someone else earlier that day.)

It is a 45 minute (max) trip. At 5:20, still no truck so I called the store. They called the driver who said he was lost. They showed up at 6. Both driver and helper appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. First, they unload the chairs. Since I already knew that there was a strong possibility of damage, I was prepared to go over everything with a fine-tooth comb. The chairs were fine but there were 2 large gouges in the front of the buffet and the table top was literally cracked (not scratched, CRACKED.)

I told them to load everything back into the truck while I called the store. The woman on the phone said everything would have to be reordered but they would put a rush on it. She begged me to keep the chairs as she was afraid that something would happen to them in the warehouse while they waited for the rest of the furniture. She told me to call in 2 weeks and get a new delivery date. I told her that it had to be faster than 8 weeks as now it was getting very close to Thanksgiving. She assured me that it would.

In 2 weeks, I called and she told me that the table looked like it would be in at the end of October but she had no answer on the buffet/hutch, please call back in 2 weeks. When I did, I was told that nothing would be in before 11/10. Now I'm really worried. I spoke to the office manager and asked if anything could be done to speed up the delivery. He emailed the warehouse in Orlando and was told that the table was ready. He requested delivery without the hutch. They were getting a truck per week at the Gainesville store and it shouldn't be a problem to have it by the following Thursday.

A week later, the story changed. No table in sight. Another girl told me the furniture is still in Mississippi. Every time I call, I get a different answer. When I pressed the office manager for a date, he told me (and I kid you, not) that he didn't want to give me a date before but he knew that I was angry so he gave me one anyway. He admitted that he was pretty sure that date couldn't be met but he knew that I would be even angrier if he didn't give me a date. He said it as though asking for a delivery date was being unreasonable. Everytime you speak to a different person, you get a different answer. It is infuriating.

I am completely over this. Today, another office woman attempted to get the furniture from another Ashley location that is less than 30 minutes away in the other direction (wouldn't that be a kick in the head if it so close, yet sooooo far away.) She claims that she couldn't get a return phone call all afternoon, she called to tell me so around 6 tonight. I told her that I was done and that I wanted my money back. She told me that I would have to speak to the manager and he was gone for the day and tomorrow is his day off (how convenient). She then told me that all sales are final. My response is that all sales are final ONLY if they live up to their part of the agreement. She stayed on the line but refused to speak. After several minutes of asking her if she was going to respond, I hung up. I called my credit card company and filed a dispute. Tomorrow, I am calling the State's Attorney's office.

After all of my ranting, can anyone tell me if they came to any good conclusions to their dilemmas?? How did you accomplish this? Was anyone ever satisfied after a dispute? Can anyone give me any further advice? I have spoken to the home office in Wisconsin. They said that they would contact the store on my behalf but that it would be a week before I might get an answer and that they couldn't MAKE them do anything. I could not get them to understand that their name is on the door and they should ultimately be responsible for what happens in these stores, independent or not. It is obvious that nobody cares about the consumer at ANY level of the company. The sad thing is, that even if I get delivery tomorrow, I am worried sick that the replacements will be damaged as well. Further, I will have no time to order furniture from another store before the holidays (even if I can get a refund out of these ripoff artists.)

Laura
Middleburg, Florida
U.S.A.