On July 26th, my wife and I decided to purchase a Benchcraft leather couch and love seat set, as well as a coffee table and end table set, from Ritz Emporium in Lynnwood. We had been in the day before to order a sectional, but discovered the dimensions would be larger than our space would allow. When we realized this we immediately called to change the order. It was literally less than 12 hours after the order so I didn't imagine it would be an issue, and to their credit the people at Ritz Emporium were helpful (I'm sure because they didn't want to risk losing our business and $3k we were spending). This was the last time the people at Ritz were in the least pleasant.
The couch/love seat set that we ordered were a dyed analine set that can apparently show some marks because they don't over process it and restamp a hide pattern like some types of leather. That being said, the demos that we looked at (at 2 different locations) were almost completely free of marks, scars, and what I would call imperfections in the leather. I understand now that these can appear in this type of leather, but at the time didn't know that. Based on the lack of what i will henceforth refer to as "streaks" in the demo models we had no idea that these could be present on the furniture or to what extent the people at the store would insist on calling it "normal for this type of leather".
When the couches were delivered, my wife called me at work to tell me how bad they looked. I could tell by her voice she was crying. She said that she had tried to refuse delivery, but that the couches were already in the living room and when she complained the delivery guys just said, "call the store" and took off. I had hoped that she was exaggerating about how bad they looked, but when I came home early to look I saw that she wasn't. We had someone doing work in our house and he actually said why do you still have the tags on 5 year old couches? (He showed up an hour after the couches were delivered.) The kick plate on the front of the love seat was so streaked with marks that it literally looked like a 2 year old had scribbled on it with a brown Sharpie. There were places where the leather looked dry and cracked like it had never been treated.
Someone from Ritz came out and looked at our couches and had the audacity to argue with us and tell us that all the streaks that were on our couches, but not on the demo "weren't that big a deal" and "hey, it can happen", but never did reply when I asked if it was normal why weren't we warned that this can be the case? Especially when the demos didn't have nearly the level of marking. At this point we felt in necessary to speak with Cathy, the store manager.
We decided that we didn't want to spend several thousand dollars on couches that looked like crap so we wanted to know how to go about returning the couches. We offered to keep the tables (about $500, I believe) which our down payment covered and just cancel the financing on the couches and return them, but we were told that we couldn't do that we'd have to pay for the tables and pay a restocking fee on the couches (another several hundred dollars).
We asked if we could just get less marked versions of the same couches and were told that it would take 3 months, consequently the same amount of time it would take for the financing to come due. It took them almost 2 weeks to remove the old couches, putting divots in my walls both on the way in and the way out. We were supposed to be informed by Cathy of a solid time frame within a month. That didn't happen.in fact they didn't even call us to tell us when the tables arrived (2 and a half months ago).
It has now been almost 4 months and we've been informed that it will be minimum of 2 more. Moreover, the company moved (from 4520 200th St SW # 104 to 20423 Hwy 99) and didn't call us to let us know. We had to look on the internet to find that out. I tried to have them put me in touch with Cathy's boss and one point and they refused to do anything.
I guess the moral of the story is that it is November 23rd and I'm sitting on a broken futon that I've had since college, when I should be sitting on nice leather couches because these people can't be counted on to provide even remotely passable customer service or to follow through on anything. Further, I have paid them over $3,000 and received nothing in return. When I call to find out what is going on they don't care, they don't call back if I leave a message. They have my money and I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get the furniture.
At this point I don't even care any more about the horrible customer service or the fact that these people can't be trusted. I just want my damn couches. If you need furniture in Lynnwood get as far away as you can from Ritz Emporium.
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