I already had two dining room chairs from a particular collection still offered at Ashley Furniture (Protege). Before deciding to place an order for a table and 2 additional matching chairs, I visited two Ashley Furniture showrooms to make sure the chairs were still the same. They were. Subsequently, I placed my order on May 22. As soon as I took the chair seats out of the box, I knew the fabric was quite different and it did not match my existing chairs or the chairs displayed in the showrooms. The next day, I called the manager of the store. He asked me to bring in my chair seats for comparison. He agreed that the fabric was different and told me he would call his Rep and "get to the bottom of it." It was just before a holiday weekend, however, and I was told he may not have an answer until the following week. I was fine with that and left feeling that my issue would be quickly and fairly resolved. A week later, I still had not heard anything, so I called the manager. He said he had spoken with the Rep, and that this was simply an issue of "dye lots" - meaning that customers run a risk of having slightly different shades of fabric when they do not purchase all items at the same time. He told me my option was to purchase additional fabric and recover my exising chair seats. I strongly disagreed with this assessment, stating that the seats were very noticeably different and that I would not be paying more money to get 4 chairs to match. I explained that a slight variance of "shade" was not the issue - color scheme and pattern were quite different.
After my suggestion, the manager offered to have me drive back to the store and "switch out" my new chair seats for "floor model" seats. I agreed to do this, as I wanted my chairs to match. At this point, the issue had been 1.5 weeks old. Even the warehouse workers stated that the seats were very different - both in style and construction. After making the switch, I asked for contact information for someone in a position higher than the store manager. Though I thanked the manager for helping me, I indicated that I felt due something for my inconvenience. He gave me the name and phone number of the Regional Manager, who I planned to call the next business day.
In the meantime, I brought my floor model chair seats home to attach to my "new" chairs. The first one went smoothly; however, the second chair was actually missing a critical piece of metal which would allow me to securely fasten the seat to the wooden frame. I immediately called the warehouse staff who had just given me the replacement seats. He indicated that he would send me the missing part (since I did not want to drive back to the store once again - given the commute and today's gasoline prices). He told me I should expect the part in 2-3 days. It was actually 5 days later until I received the part (due to inaccurate postage on the envelope sent by Ashley Furniture). Then, the part was not even correct!
At this point, it had been 2 weeks and 1 day since my purchase. I had made 2 trips to the store (17 miles roundtrip each time). I had also left 3 voicemail messages for the Regional Manager with no return call.
On Monday, June 9, I once again left a message for the Regional Manager, as well as contacting the store manager to explain that I still was not able to assemble my remaining chair. He offered me a complete floor model chair if I brought my "new" one back to the store. I did so on June 10. The floor model chairs had some scratches, and I chose the one with the least amount of wear.
After ANOTHER phone call to the Regional Manager on June 11, I finally heard back from him. He apologized, but stated that he rarely checks his voicemail. I explained the entire situation to him: 3 trips to the store, nearly 3 weeks of not having a functioning dining set, having to re-arrange dinner plans because of it, and paying for 2 "new" chairs but instead being left with 1.5 "floor model" chairs." He said he understood my frustration. He also said that all managers received an email just that day - indicating that, indeed, this particular style of chair had been changed and that they should replace their showroom models. Apparently, this email indicated that a customer had been having issues (presumably me!) which led to the discovery. The Regional Manager left me with the impression that he would do what he could to leave me a satisfied customer. He would call me back the next day.
He did call the next day. His tone today was very matter-of-fact, as he told me that Ashley would credit $50 back to my account. When I expressed dissatisfaction, he simply said "There's nothing more I can do." He mentioned that I had already purchased the chairs "on sale." He was very short and curt about this.
Overall, I am left with a very bad taste in my mouth for Ashley Furniture. This was my first purchasing experience with them. They had the opportunity to handle the situation quickly with little inconvenience to me.instead, the issue dragged out for nearly 3 weeks, and along the way, I was led to believe I was in the wrong. Even after the "mistake" was revealed on Ashley's part, they did little to compensate me for my several trips (of nearly 50 miles), time spent dealing with the issue, floor model furniture, and inconvenience of not having a full dining set for several weeks.
I have purchased the majority of my furniture from a competitor of Ashley Furniture and will very likely go back to them for any future furniture needs.
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