An example of bad customer service: Rooms for Less Furniture
Posted by drocolate on October 14th, 2009This edition of An example of bad customer service is brought to you by drocolate.
NOT drocolate's couch
Rooms for Less Furniture in Plano, TX…
…is a small-scale, discount furniture retailer that specializes in blowout sales and everything-must-go pricing. I recently came in contact with them on my search for a new couch. My old couch was too small and too hideously gaudy (it was red and green, and kind of goldish/brownish, and it also somehow managed to have a subtle leafy, floral pattern going throughout) to keep around for much longer, so it was time to upgrade.
However, because I am merely a lowly blogger, I needed to upgrade on a budget. I can’t afford any of that Cindy Crawford shit at Rooms To Go. I need something affordable.
Enter Rooms for Less (RfL) and all of their glorious bargains.
I went in, quickly found a couch and bought it. I set up my delivery and left with a good feeling.
Then yesterday the delivery team from RfL set out to find my apartment. They told me they would be delivering the couch “sometime after 5pm”, so I left work a little early to ensure I’d be there to meet them.
5pm passes.
6pm passes.
7pm passes.
At this point I was starting to wonder where the hell my couch is so I called the Rooms for Less store and asked about it. The man at the store told me that the delivery dudes had been driving around my apartment complex for an hour and could not find me.
Did they try to call me? No.
Did they have my number? Yes.
So I politely reminded the guy on the phone that these drivers have my number and that they should call me if they’re having a hard time finding me.
A few moments later I get a call from the lost drivers. This is how it went down:
DRIVER (D): HELLO?!?
drocolate (d): Yeah, hi, is this the delivery guys from Rooms for Less?
D: [Indecipherable sounds] YEAH! WE DROVE AROUND FOR AN HOUR! WHERE DO YOU LIVE?!
d: I’m really sorry to hear that, I wish you would’ve called me. Listen I can guide you guys here. Just tell me where you are now.
D: WE’RE IN FRONT OF THE MCDONALD’S. [More indecipherable sounds]
d: Ok, that’s good! Just turn out of there and take a left and-
D: -WE DROVE AROUND FOR AN HOUR! WE COULDN’T FIND YOUR PLACE!
d: Uhmmm, yeah, ok. I’m sorry about that. I really wish you would have called me. You had my number after all. It’s ok though because you’re very close now so-
D: -WE ARE IN FRONT OF THE MCDONALD’S! [Even more indecipherable sounds that sound kind of like scratching] WE DROVE AROUND FOR AN HOUR LOOKING FOR YOU!
d: Wow. So what’s the plan then? Do I need to drive down to the McDonald’s and lead you guys back here?
D: Yes.
d: Shiiiiiiiittttttttt…
So that’s how it went down. A simple furniture delivery turned into an unnecessary caravan.
Honestly it wasn’t the fact that it took so long that bothered me at all, it was the bizarre resistance the delivery dudes had to listening to my directions. It also didn’t help that they were practically yelling at me over the phone about the location of my apartment. I’m sorry I don’t have a giant illuminated sign with my apartment number on it.
I just don’t get it. These dudes deliver furniture for a living. This can’t be the first time they got a little stumped finding an apartment. What did they do in the past when this happened? Give up? Drive back to the store and say “yeah we couldn’t find it, just don’t answer the phone for a while”? What the hell? Just pick up the phone that I know you have in your truck, call the phone number the customer provided and ask for help. It’s that easy.
And thus endeth the rant.
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I actually purchased a table and couch from Rooms for Less Furniture and my experience couldn’t have been totally different than yours. I also asked them to come to my house after 5pm knowing that since I requested for them to come so late they would have to make me the last delivery on their route so I knew I was asking to be stuck waiting cause who knows what they had to deliver before me. When I called the store about 6pm asking when they were coming they stated the driver will call me an hour before arrival so I wouldn’t have to just sit there and wait during a time frame like you have to do when getting TV installed. You know what I mean…between 8am-12pm or 1pm-5pm!! I really hate that cause when they say that I just sit there and wait and wait and with my luck they always come at the last minute before they would be considered late! And what sucks is if they are going to be late they always wait till 10 minutes before the deadline to tell me they are running an hour or two late! You know why couldn’t they have told me a couple hours earlier they were going to be late. Like they didn’t know till 10 minutes before they were behind schedule. But they always inconvienience me making me wait 4 hours in there time frame window, then they call and say I’ll be an hour later!! Anyways I wanted to write this cause I found Rooms for Less Furniture because I wasn’t able to afford all the over priced stuff at Rooms To Go or The Rooms Store, so finding Rooms for Less was a blessing cause I foound out they carried basically the same stuff as the other stores just at a lower price.And the other thing I came to find out was when they came and delivered my table they put everything together for me. Cause I remember in the past when I had something delivered from Rooms to Go they just dropped off my table in the boxes and I was stuck assembling everything so that really sucked!! So when I read something like this saying they had bas customer service and felt I had to come to the store’s aid and give them credit, where credit is deserved. So long story kind of long…In the end I got a great quality piece of furniture for what seemed to be a wholesale price and I would