One man’s voice Thoughts, rants and commentary from a husband, father of five and professional web geek

Worst customer service ever award goes to Ashley Furniture

Last year, around June or so, I bought a sofa, loveseat, chair and ottoman from Ashley Furniture. It was a nice little leather set that my wife and I agreed on and decided it was worth the almost $2000 we spent on it. Knowing we have kids and what our kids are capable of we decided to also buy the warranty for our furniture. The warranty was provided by Montage Furniture Services.

I should have known by the delivery of our furniture that our dealing with Ashley were far from over. I won't go into those details but needless to say, our entire experience with this furniture started before we actually ever sat a butt on it. Carrying on...

A few months ago we decided that it was time to call in our warranty because out of nowhere one of the seatback cushions decided to just start tearing all on its own. There were also stitches that came undone, arm braces that just sunk into nothing and a few mars here and there that needed touch up. So we called Ashley and they called Montage. Then we waited. A few later we got a call from a guy that was the inspector for Montage. He came to the house a few days later, looked at the tear and said "Yep, that needs to be fixed.". Wow, that was reassuring. I was so not sure that our tear needed repair.

A few days later we got a letter from Montage telling us they needed us to fax them a copy of our receipt proving we purchased a warrant. Uh, excuse me? Why would you send a repairman to my house without checking our warranty first? Was this a way for them to get out of providing service to us in the event we could not find our receipt? This was so stupid I couldn't find the words to muster a complaint. I am thankful that my wife is organized though. Because she had her stuff together I was able to send them our receipt and within a month or so had a package at our door. The contents? Mmm hmm, a new piece of leather.

Now I know what you are thinking. Why do you have a new piece of leather and not a fixed couch? The reason I know you are thinking that is because I was thinking the same thing. So we called Montage and were told that they ship us the replacement parts and the repairman comes and installs them for us. THAT MAKES A WORLD OF SENSE! Why didn't I think of that? Oh yeah, because that is the stupidest thing ever thought.

Meanwhile we have to wait for Montage to contact the repairman again so he can come out and fix our couch. By now the couch back tear is about 16 inches long. The kids cannot keep their arms out of the huge gaping hole that is there. There is fuzz everywhere. Oh, and did I mention that if we so much as tried to tape the tear shut we would void our warranty? That means the breaks, nicks, etc have to stay as-is until they are fixed. WHAT?!?!?!?

But I digress. I should be happy that this past Monday was the day the repairman was supposed to come to the house and spend six hours in my living room repairing the leather of my couch. I should be happy. But I am not. You know why? Because the leather they sent was for an arm not a seat back. That's right, you guessed it. More waiting. Even the repairman, the one that discovered the wrong part, told us we should not waste our time with the one repair. He said we should file claims for everything that needs work so they can take care of all of it once.

That is about the best thing I have heard in this entire ordeal. Now all I have to do is prepare myself for a year's worth of waiting and frustration and I should be good to go.

References:
http://ashley-furniture.pissedconsumer.com/