Horrible experience. No, horrible doesn’t suffice. The worst buying experience I have ever had in my entire life. There, that about sums it up.
My wife and I recently visited the Duluth, GA store in search of a sectional sofa for our living room. We chose to shop at Ashley because of its great reputation and vast selection of furniture. Within minutes of walking in the door we were greeted by a personable salesman that helped us find the perfect couch. A few minutes later we were signing a few documents and arranging for the sectional to be shipped to our house. During this time both the Store Manager and the salesman were all standing with us and both fully understood that our purchase was contingent upon them shipping us the couch on 11 August. Both said that 11 August wasn’t a problem and that we would receive a confirmation call on 9 August.
On 10 August we decided to call the store due to the fact that we had not heard from anyone. The receptionist told us that we were never scheduled for an 11 August delivery and the earliest she could get it to us would be 16 August. After multiple phone calls to the store we finally got to speak to the Store Manager (on 11 August) and he confirmed that the sectional would not be arriving as scheduled (really nice to find out after wasting a day waiting on it). He did, however, guarantee that he could get us the couch at 7am on 12 August (Saturday). By this time we were backed into a corner because our old furniture was gone (so our living room is empty), and although we had pre-existing plans for that Saturday we decided to give them another shot. After all, everyone makes mistakes.
12 August comes and we are awake at 6:30am with the front door open ready to see the Ashley truck pull up… and we wait… and we wait. Nothing. Not even a phone call. I called back to speak to the Store Manager who said that he wasn’t sure what happened, but he would find out and call us back. At 2pm I was tired of wasting my Saturday so I called him back. He still had no idea what happened to our delivery, but offered to try and deliver it the next week. I declined and canceled the order. He accepted and told us that we had every right to do that.
On Monday morning I called back and asked to speak to the Regional Manager, mostly because I wanted an explanation of what went wrong (the Store Manager said that this ordeal wasn’t his fault because he had no control over the distribution center). He said that the Regional Manager’s information could not be given out but he would be happy to give him my contact information so that I could settle this with him. I assumed that he would, but after 24 hours of hearing nothing I called the Store Manager back. He told me that the Regional Manager was very busy and that he would like to take care of this “in house.” I said “that’s fine, but I still want to talk to the Regional Manager.” Yet again he promised to pass along my information and that I would receive a call within 24 hours. The last time I heard from anyone was 16 August… it is now 18 August. The Store Manager will not return my calls and I am assuming that he never told the Regional Manager about his failure to uphold a promise… multiple times.
I don’t usually speak out about bad experiences, but I absolutely cannot let this go. I’m typing this from an empty living room and I have wasted more than 14 hours of my time (between the store visit and phone conversations). I am appalled at the ineptitude of Ashley’s management and the simple fact that they do not care about customer satisfaction. So, take heed. Don’t waste your time, save your money, and shop elsewhere. The Ashley Homestore website says: “we are committed to you, our customer, and want to ensure you have an excellent experience each time you visit one of our store, ” but I can assure you that this isn’t the case.
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