My wife and I are expecting our first child in January and have spent the past few months preparing for the arrival of our little bundle of joy, Hannah. Amazingly, the hardest thing we've encountered wasn't sitting through the breast feeding class or trying to figure out which diaper pail will smell the best, it was ordering the furniture for our child's future room.
After visiting both big and small stores, we decided to purchase our furniture from Crib & Teen City's store in Marlton, New Jersey. The store, itself, was a little drab and the exterior could use some serious updating, but we were drawn to a great bedroom set from a company called Munire that Crib & Teen City carries exclusively.
Ahhh... yes... the Charleston Collection. Unfortunately, little did we know, that decision would be one that'd cause us headache after headache for months.
Beginning of August 2007
We went to Crib and Teen City and decided on the furniture, which was shown on the floor in a great "pecan" color, which my wife loved. The saleswoman gladly took our order for the convertable crib, combo dresser, hutch, five drawer dresser with shelf and conversion railes. All in all, that's around $2,500+ in furniture.
The saleswoman called the warehouse and was told that color was no longer available because Munrie was in the midst of switching manufacturing facilities, but they had the set available in "cognac" at Crib and Teen City's warehouse in Paterson, New Jersey. Unfortunately, there were no samples available with this color, so my wife and I ordered the set for delivery in October - sight unseen.
Now, during the ordering process, the saleswoman tried to charge me $129 for delivery and setup, which I thought was obscene. Apparently, their "local" delivery charge was $79, but as our house is 9.5 miles from the store on Route 70 in Marlton, that was considered outside the local area. Baffled at the thought of 10 miles not being "local," I haggled the delivery charge down from $129 to $79 based on the fact that I was buying furniture I hadn't even seen the color for. Fair enough...
We plunked down our money and went on our way, looking forward to delivery in October. (Well, my mom actually paid for the furniture as a gift - THANKS!)
Early October 2007
I received a call from Crib & Teen City to schedule a delivery date for our furniture. (Whoo hoo!) So, I picked October 11th and thought I was good to go. Unfortunately not as the woman from Crib & Teen City's warehouse proceeded to inform me that I'd need to have an extra $25 cash available at the time of delivery for "additional fuel charges." Fuel charges? FUEL CHARGES? I though that's what the $79 (or obscene $129) delivery charge was meant to cover!
After a few calls and angry emails, I discovered that the store was charging customers the additional fee, even though the sales agreements had been signed, but they offered to waive it for me. (Gee, thanks... I thought the fact that I already had paid them in full meant that I was paid in full, so I'm glad we saw eye-to-eye on that.)
October 10, 2007
The afternoon before our furniture was set to be delivered, I'm on my way to see Bruce Springsteen in North Jersey. While crusing up the Turnpike, I received a call from Crib and Teen City that almost made me veer off the road: all of our furniture would be delivered the next day except for the conversion rails. Those, somehow, were backordered and would not be available for at least a few weeks to a few months.
I know... I know... I'm still trying to figure this one out too. If the saleswoman called the warehouse in August and everything was in stock and we paid for it in August, then where'd it go? Was it ever there to begin with?
The woman who called to confirm the delivery time and pass along the bad news couldn't quite grasp why I was upset. I told her the whole story about ordering the furniture in the color we did because we were told everything was in stock, but she didn't quite seem to comprehend it.
I then tried a non-furniture example to jog her mind: If I were to call up and order a pizza, would I expect that the store would take my order, tell me to be there in 10 minutes and then have someone drive to the supermarket for sauce and cheese after I showed up and paid?
I thought it was a great example of the way things shouldn't work, but I guess not everyone thinks of customer service logically.
October 11, 2007
After giving me that annoying "8am - 6pm" window to wait for our furniture delivery, Crib and Teen City's delivertmen actually showed up by 9 and did a nice job moving the furniture in. So, kudos to the delivery guys who probably don't get paid nearly enough... Now, back to their overpaid administrators and front-line workers.
Mid-November 2007
Another call from Crib & Teen City. This time, they wanted to schedule a date to deliver my backordered conversion rails. Good news, right? Uhh... no... the rep informed me that they'd be delivering the rails and "modifying" our crib's headboard and footboard as the manufacturer had changed the design.
Now, just to make sure we're all on the same page. Modifying, in their use of the term, means to drill additional holes in my $2,500+ of furniture. Hmm... let me think about how many ways they could screw that one up.
So, as any good husband would do, I scheduled the rail delivery and, after serious hesitation, our "modification" for the first day my wife would be home on maternity leave. Didn't make her happy, but at least I didn't have to burn a whole day off waiting for them from 8am - 6pm.
December 10, 2007
I get a call from my wife that the deliveryman showed up at 10am with the conversion rails, but looked at her like she was crazy when she asked how long it'd take him to "modify" the headboard and footboard. He called the warehouse and, apparently, they had some rails in stock that wouldn't need to be modified, so we were good to go.
Unfortunately, things never seem to work out that easily with this store. Upon getting home from work, I took a look at the rails and could instantly see they were not stained properly. I mean, just take one look at those pictures and tell me you don't see what's wrong!
I immediately fired off an e-mail to the warehouse and the Marlton store on Route 70, recounting the latter part of this story and demanding that they replace the rails they delivered with the original, properly stained rails we had paid for in August. I also informed them that, if I did not receive a reply within 48 hours, I would do everything in my power to share my story with everyone I can. That's why this blog is here...
When You Pay a Premium for a Product, You Expect Premium Service
When we chose to purchase our furniture at Crib & Teen City, we were not only choosing to purchase the Munire furniture, we were choosing to pay a lot of money for that furniture. In fact, a set from Baby Italia at Babies 'r' Us with comprable features and design would have saved us about $1,000. But, we wanted the best for our baby and thought we had found a store that would make the experience as pleasant and hassle-free as possible.
Instead, we had been fraught with frustration at every turn.
So, who’s to blame here? Is it incompetence in the store? Is it incompetence in the warehouse? Is it a combination of both along with horrible customer service?
I’m inclined to go with the latter and will do everything I can to inform everyone I can not to shop at this store. No one should have to worry about deliverymen drilling holes in their furniture or whether or not their $2,500+ investment is going to match when you have an increasingly uncomfortable wife to deal with. Not for that kind of money.
And, if I hadn't of spoken up, I would have paid an extra $50 for the "non-local" delivery and an extra $25 for additional fuel charges just to end up with conversion rails that don't match.
If you want that hassle, I suggest you visit your local Crib & Teen City store. They're just waiting to take a couple thousand from you with no regard to your satisfaction.
Sincerely,
Andy Gradel
