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January 31, 2006
Customer [un]satisfaction
Today is the tale of two companies I've recently done business with. One company is the Custom Comfort Mattress Company, the other is ABE Office Furniture
A few months ago I spent about two hours in the Custom Comfort store before ordering a brand new bed for myself. I tested out every bed in the place before making my decision. I paid a large sum of money, and received a yellow slip of paper promising delivery 4 days later.
A few months ago I spent many hours in the ABE Office Furniture store, over several trips, evaluating desks. I tested out every desk in the place, before sitting down with a salesman. About an hour later I left with the promise of a quote via e-mail. That quote arrived. It was for exactly what I wanted, so I ordered the desk, and received a promise that in 4-6 weeks I'd have my desk.
Four days later, the new bed arrived. It looked beautiful. It was exactly what I ordered. I put the new sheets on it, and, later that night tried to sleep. It was terrible. After 5 minutes of laying on it, I hurt. Badly. It took hours to fall asleep. Over the course of the next 3 weeks, I adjusted to the bed, and it went from terrible to uncomfortable and disappointing.
Then, the desk arrived. It was beautiful. It was also wrong. Oh, sure, it was the right shape, and even the right size... but all the details were wrong... the drawers had the wrong handles, the edging was wrong, the bookshelf was the wrong color, the drawers were damaged, and the credit card bill showed the wrong price (I was overcharged -- by about $75).
So, twice in one month I ordered expensive pieces of furniture, and twice I was left disappointed... Well, that was months ago, each company has had their chance to fix the problem...
Custom Comfort Mattress Company
I called up Custom Comfort, and said that my bed was very uncomfortable, and that I needed help. I was very calm, very polite. I got exactly what I ordered, so I knew that there were limits to my recourse if I couldn't convince them to help me out.
They invited me to return to the store, and, having now experienced a "really soft bed" and hating it, to try and find a different bed I liked better. I spent 2 hours at the shop trying first one, then another, then the first again, then a third... I picked one out. I left 15 minutes later with a yellow slip of paper promising that the next morning someone would pick my mattress up from my apartment, take it to the factory, alter it so that it felt more like the one I liked and return it to me by 6:00pm that same day.
They lived up to that yellow piece of paper, and I now have a bed that I love. As they were leaving, having returned my mattress, they extracted a promise that I try it for two weeks, and if I still don't like it to call again. They didn't promise another same-day-alteration would be free, but they did promise to help me out if ever I needed, and to continue to "be reasonable with me so long as I was reasonable with them."
And I heartily recommend Custom Comfort Mattress Company if you are in the market for a new bed. They have all prices, all sizes, and it's all built to order. And apparently they stand behind their products.
ABE Office Furniture
I called up ABE Office Furniture, and received a promise that "it will be fixed."
About two weeks later I called ABE up again... no response... Eventually, I found out that the guy who sold me my desk has since been fired. Seems mine wasn't the only expensive desk he botched. So, the store manager e-mailed me, and asked to hear my story.
He came to visit my apartment, and looked at the desk. Then he looked an order form that was apparently used to order my desk. He told me that I got exactly what I ordered, and that he's very sorry that I'm not happy, but that contracts are contracts, and he'd be happy to fix it for a price.
I asked him to show me my signature on that order form, since I'd never seen it before... it had, written in cursive and not in my hand, "Phone Order" on the signature line.
He changed his tune, promised to set things right, told me to expect a phone call from him in one hour with options, and he left.
Three weeks later, I finally got ahold of him again... His tune had changed a little bit. Sure, I'd get new drawer faces and new doors... He wouldn't replace the damaged drawer-interiors, though -- so that in addition to the minor damage that's present now, there'd be extra holes drilled in for the new drawer faces. We decided not to deal with the bookshelf color or the desk edging, because they were minor to me, and extremely expensive to fix. I even decided not to fight over the extra charge -- at this point, I was willing to compromise to get a desk that I wanted.
I wasn't pleased, really, but I figured it was better than nothing, and that if he actually made good on all his promises, I'd end up with a desk I could be somewhat happy with, and while $75 is a lot to overcharge me, compared with the price of the desk it was minor... I decided to let it slide if he fixed the rest.
That was about four weeks ago. Today, some delivery guys from ABE showed up with replacement doors and drawer faces... They were beautiful. They were also still wrong. Oh, sure, the handles were right now. In fact, the drawer faces were fine. But the doors... they didn't fit! They were about 6 inches too narrow!
I called the store... they gave me the manager's cell-phone number. I called the cell-phone... no response... so I left a voice message... a very calm, courteous, polite voice message. (remaining calm took real work, by the way) The delivery guys installed the drawer faces, measured the doors, wrote down the measurements, marked up the delivery form to show that the doors were not delivered in satisfactory condition because they didn't fit, and asked me to sign. With all the conditions, alterations, and caveats he and I added to the sheet, I could sign it. So I did.
I've still not gotten ahold of the manager... it's been about a half hour since the delivery guys left. I'm very unsatisfied.
I strongly recommend against buying from ABE Office Furniture because of the extreme incompetence and carelessness their employees exhibit.
So... two companies that delivered unsatisfactory products. One of them I now trust and recommend; One of them I would never do business with again... Who says customer satisfaction isn't important?
— The Shelanman
PS: I'll update this if things change soon... must give ABE the opportunity to redeem themselves (to the extend redemption is still possible) — TS
— The Shelanman
Posted by andrew at January 31, 2006 01:45 PM
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