Furniture Fiasco

In December, we ordered furniture – a sofa, chair and matching ottoman – from AAFES. We had to go online, print out the page, bring it in the store, fill out paperwork and be told to wait 2 – 6 months. Great. We didn’t know it would take so long and were understandably (in my opinion) a little disappointed.

It actually didn’t take that long which was awesome, considering as it’s a crazy amount of time to wait and also because it was ordered and shipped in the middle of winter. We received something that might pass as a phone call telling us it was in and were able to schedule a drop off a a few days later.

Unfortunately, we also had to schedule a pick up for our “rented” furniture. The pickup was scheduled from 7am to 11am the the drop up from 1pm to 6pm. Now, as anyone can see, this plainly takes up the majority of my day.

With relatively little pain, our rental furniture was picked up including a few pieces that had just been in the way for some time. They came early enough that I was able to fall back asleep until early afternoon but excitement woke and kept me up. Shortly after, the delivery guys rang the bell and I let them in.

The first unfortunate thing I noticed was 2 packages rather than 3. “Where is our ottoman?” I asked? The delivery man told me it was indeed on the list to be delivered and perhaps it was packaged with the chair. “Okay,” I thought. But it wasn’t.

The second unfortunate issue I had was when the delivery man told me “Ma’am, your furniture has some damages.” This was exactly the opposite of what I wanted to hear. The couch is beat up on both back corners with rips and, on one corner, parts sticking out. Additionally, it’s torn on the center back.

The delivery man offered to call the furniture store but wanted to open the chair, too. That was was damaged, albeit less severely than the couch, with a bent up corner. So he called the store and explain the damaged products and the missing ottoman and I talked to a man at the store and explained, again, the issue.

Both men were sympathetic but the man on the phone didn’t seem to be accustomed to this issue and offered to have someone else call me back.

In the mean time, we have no furniture so we must use it and he instructed me to have the delivery men bring it in, which they did.

Now, the third unfortunate point which is not entirely anyone’s fault is that what we expected to be nice red furniture was, in fact, an ugly orange. The color difference from monitor to reality was more than a little disturbing.

So yesterday we go down to the furniture store only to find nothing we like and decide we’ll just order the same thing again and pray it shows up okay. I decide that, in the event it is damaged, as long as we can switched colours, we can just get it mended back in the states later this year.

This is where the woman tells us that she’s just finished dealing with a family who have ordered something 3 times and, each time, the furniture was damaged. Add to this that they had also ordered from the same company and Ryan and I are pretty anxious by the time we leave.

The woman says we need to return the furniture and to give a call when we have arranged rental furniture for temporary use.

It would be nice if the story ended there, at that less than desired ending but, alas, it worsens. After calling to inquire about getting rented furniture again, I was politely told we can not, despite the fact that our furniture was damaged and we must give it back to the furniture store.

So, we need to return our damaged furniture and cannot have any rental furniture in the meantime? I’m sorry that’s just ridiculous.

What really adds insult to injury is that, one of the major factors in purchasing this set, is awesome. It looked incredibly comfortable and is! The chair is huge and I can lie across it completely. The sofa is just as comfortable and I’ve secretly been wanting to sleep there instead of in bed.

What to do, what to do? I could sure use a miracle now.