Furnitureland South - Delivery Problems

In June 2005, we went to purchase a living room suite, two rugs, a bistro table and some bar stools. Everything except the bistro table and bar stools were to be delivered between 12pm & 6pm. At 6pm we called FLS & spoke with our sales rep, but he was unable to locate the drivers of the truck. We waited another hour and finally left at 8:15pm for dinner. At 8:30pm, we get a phone call from the driver stating we were not home for the delivery! We told him we are only 5 minutes away and to wait. He said they had already left and were in NC! Mind you we live in SC! The driver was nowhere near our home.

Since FLS had no idea when they could deliver, we cancelled that part of our order and bought living room furniture and rugs locally. I still wanted the bistro table & bar stools and a few weeks later, FLS arranged delivery of them. The table and stools were delivered on time and the delivery people were nice. Unfortunately, when I set up the bistro table, I realized the bar stools would not fit under the table. The table was too short! I sat at the table, on the stools, in the show room. I compared the stock numbers on our list with the table that was delivered and it was not the same table.

My sales rep admitted the display room table was out of stock so he chose the next number. He did not think it would matter! What?! It did matter - it was too short!

My rep said he would ship us taller legs and five weeks later, we had legs delivered that were still too short! Another order was promised for the last weekend in September. Unfortunately, the box that was delivered was for a customer in New Jersey. I did not accept that order but kept all the wrong legs as hostage! Here it is nearly 5 months later and I still do not have a table or an expected delivery date. It has become a joke.

Damages: FLS has had our money for months and has provided the wrong merchandise with poor customer service. The ONLY person in the FLS system that is remotely responsive & professional is Betty in customer service.

To begin the story, my husband and I picked a bedroom floor sample, waited one hour for them to return to say that it had been sold, but could get us one in stock. It would be delivered in 3 weeks(okay, fine) Four, Five, Six, Nine weeks go by and our bedroom furniture is finally delivered. Upon delivery they sent 2 little guys to handle some very bulky furniture which they could not handle. The guys broke a little ceramic monkey of mine not moving the furniture in but tripped and fell on my furniture.

At this point the guy became a little disturbed, as I was very disturbed already because we were actually helping them move the furniture in and they had asked us to go and get neighbors to help to them. He became very rude with us and we finally just asked them to unload the furniture off the truck and we would talk with Furnitureland South later.

We basically had to ask him to leave. I told them I had never heard of such a thing in my life. That this was the most unprofessional and the most ridiculous thing I had heard of or dealt with. So after talking to customer service at Furnitureland South, she said they would send another crew the next week to move the furniture from the garage. We have not heard and no one will return my calls since then.

I have bought furniture from many places in the last few weeks and have not dealt with such unprofessionalism in my life. And after all that they left there trash from the furniture in our front yard, no other furniture company has ever done that.

Our furniture is still in the garage, and I am very very upset.

We purchased dining room furniture and another separate buffet piece in October of 2002. The actual sale of the furniture was pleasant and our sales person was very cordial and helpful. Our bad experience came after the sale and in dealing with customer service. After sending a check and not even receiving acknowledgement for almost a month, I called the customer service department in late November to inquire. They were unable to even give an estimated delivery date at that time. I had to make repeated inquiries about the status of delivery and was unable to get a confirmed date until the week before delivery.

It took 8 weeks to get this furniture. When it arrived right before Christmas, a leaf for the table was damaged so it was returned. I noticed several days after delivery, a stress crack appeared on the sideboard due to the installation of the legs. I e-mailed pictures to customer service and waited a week before anyone finally contacted me. They then decided to come back and pick up the sideboard to ship back to N.C. to determine what to do with it. At the same time they dropped off the repaired leaf for the table. It took another 2 weeks again before I heard from anyone about the damaged sideboard.

I agreed to let them pick up the sideboard with the understanding that I needed it back by the end of March (that gave them 6-7 weeks) to get it back to me. I gave cust. svc. 4 days in March that I would be out of town. They specifically wanted to deliver on one of those days while I was out of town and repeatedly called and left messages knowing full well I was not home. Once again, failed communication on their part.

I just now received the sideboard back - middle of April. The other part of my order that was placed back in October was finally delivered along with the damaged sideboard in April. When I initially placed the order no one told me that it would take 5 months to get this particular piece - I didn't get a confirmed delivery until Christmas on this piece. And, I might add that this piece was also damaged with a scratch when it arrived.

Rather than sending this piece back and dealing with FLS anymore I agreed to an adjustment on the price of that piece. I just recently noticed when I went to put the leaf in the table for a party that I had, it is a completely different finish from the rest of the table. Yes, they repaired it but now the finish doesn't match. A lesson learned - pay more and get better service.

FLS has not yet delivered some of my furniture that I paid 1/3 in advance in February 2002. They do not reply to my emails or calls. They have also not fixed minor problems with the furniture they have delivered so far, two months after I paid and ordered.

My wife and I purchased $9,500.00 worth of new dining and bedroom furniture from Furnitureland South on July 21, 2001.

We received the dining room furniture on September 2nd and noted that the china cabinet and one figure eight chair were damaged. We kept the china cabinet. after agreeing to allow Furnitureland South to repair it, and sent the chair back for a replacement.

Our bedroom furniture arrived on September 21st and contained damaged pieces as well (bed and armoire). This time we we kept the armoire and returned the bed. Just last week we noticed that the dresser unit we received was damaged as well, but I am guessing we are out of luck on this one since the damage was not noted at the time of delivery.

Furnitureland sent a repair man out on October 10th and he was able to disguise some of the damage to the china cabinet and the armoire by using a wax filler. There is still notable damage to both pieces and the repairs are evident as well. I have sent pictures of the damaged areas to the company and they have acknowledged receipt but, to date, they have not agreed to help us in anyway.

Furnitureland South still has not replaced the damaged chair or bed and this sleeping on the floor is getting old!

We have sent numerous e-mails to the company and have spoken to James Lincourt and Holly Gray, both Consumer Relations Specialists, on several occasions. I have written the company on 3 times and I have sent a copy of each letter to the Better Business Bureau as well as the President of the company. As of today, there have been no offers for compensation and it does not look like they are going to do much of anything to attempt to satisfy us.

We have paid $9500.00 for new furniture and have received damaged goods instead. We are still owed a bed and a chair.

We have been sleeping on the floor since September 21, 20001, when we received an e-mail from Furnitureland South that our bedroom furniture was in and was ready to be shipped. We assumed that the shipment would be delivered within one or two days but we were later told that it would be three weeks before the bedroom furniture could be delivered. To make matters worse, our bed was found to be damaged upon delivery! Furnitureland South has not even mentioned compensating us for our inconvenience.

Needless to say we have been worried through this whole ordeal and we can see no satisfactory end in sight!

We should have had one set of furniture in mid June and still have not received it. Another set was due three weeks ago (the set was actually in our driveway and we would not pay the $16,000).

I placed an order in the amount of $12,975 for some Pennsylvania House furniture in October 1999. After being promised that the furniture would be delivered by Christmas that same year, I did not get most of the pieces until April 2000. This was a nightmare in that customer service and sales were nonresponsive to repeated requests for information on delivery. When the furniture arrived, I discovered that most of the pieces were of such poor quality (exposed, light, unfinished wood where there should have been a dark cherry stain, uneven staining, major dings in some pieces, black marker, bubbled finish, cracked wood, wooden inserts/panels that had slipped out of alignment)

The bad part is that Furnitureland South had been paid in full. Ever since then, I have documented through over 100 e-mails of correspondence with over 7 contacts at Furnitureland South trying to resolve all the open issues. Some of which is that I am still waiting for some of the furniture pieces to be delivered. Furnitureland South is for the most part nonresponsive to my inquiries made via phone or e-mails - including pictures and detailed descriptions of furniture flaws.

I even took time to fly to North Carolina from Wisconsin (twice) to talk to the customer service person assigned to my account at the time. I keep being sent to new customer service representatives, all of whom I need to explain my situation and all having the best intentions to resolve the issues.... until they send the file to someone new. I am thoroughly disappointed and disgusted with the lack of customer service that they have exhibited to me. It is going on 17 months since my order was initially placed, and there are still unresolved issues.

The consequences of this are that I had given away most of the furniture to be replaced in 1999 in anticipation of my new furniture promised to me by Christmas 1999. I waited 6 months for the initial delivery while in the meantime had an empty dining room, master bedroom and living room. I spent over $12,000 on the furniture, not to mention a couple plane trips and countless hours on e-mails, phone time(mostly on hold) in an effort to resolve the problems. I became so frustrated, but have still tried to maintain a cordial, yet firm stance with Furnitureland South to try to resolve the issues. I don't know what to do to gain closure to this predicament.

In October 2000, I ordered an L shaped desk and return from Furnitureland South on site. Because we were not sure that the desk would fit through our office door, I asked the sales person (Andy Gragg) to hold the order until we returned home and could verify the door measurements. Upon doing that, both Mr. Gragg and I were uncertain as to whether or not the desk would fit through the door. Mr. Gragg called the manufacturer of the desk with our measurements and he was assured that the desk would fit. Upon delivery on January 26, 2001, the desk was unable to fit through the door without unassembling it (which would invalidate the manufacturer's warranty).

Unsure as to how to proceed, the delivery person called a sales manager at Furnitureland to inquire as to what our options were. I was told via phone that we could refuse acceptance of the desk and return. Further, I was told that if we would order a replacement desk we would not be financially penalized. If we choose not to order another desk, worst case senario would be that we would lose 20% restocking fee.

My husband and I have called Mr. Gragg (sales associate)and Mr. Garcia (Sales Manager) a total of eleven times trying to reach resolution on this issue and have been basically ignored. I spoke with Mr. Garcia and Mr. Gragg once each both times they told me that they had to check with their manager as to what to do. They promised to call me back and have not done so. Because the order was paid in full via certified cashier's check, we find ourselves without bargaining power in this situation.

We paid approximately $1700 in full for the desk and return that we refused delivery.