I have just ordered a couch for my living room, which now leaves me with the TV and home theatre as the last major components to completely furnish my new home, hopefully in time for Olympic fun. So, as I research front projection vs rear projection DLP technologies, I look to the first piece I bought - my dining set - and hedge bets that it will end up being the last to be completed.
I bought a simple, yet elegant, 9-piece pub-style dinette set from Leon's; a table, eight chairs, and a lazy susan thrown in for the authentic pub feel. As it turns out, the only piece that wasn't defective was the lazy susan, and that's not even considered one of the nine in "9-piece". The following defects were discovered and service problems experienced:
- Table was gouged in two places and had a crushed corner
- Delivery team did not assemble the table
- One chair had a cracked back brace
- One chair had a scratched back rest
- One chair had a severe unsafe wobble
- One chair was missing pieces
- Four chairs were not completely assembled
- Four chairs had the two front legs reversed
- The plastic was not removed from the seat cusions before assembly, making it labouriously difficult to remove
- Stain guard was not applied to at least four of the chairs
- Service representative did not believe me when I suspected the stain guard had not been applied, and only went to consult warehouse staff after I repeatedly insisted, who then confirmed my suspicion
- Replacement table was not in stock
- One month later, replacement table is still not in stock
I was stunned (and, to be frankly honest, somewhat impressed, albeit in a negative way) that Leon's had managed to send me a 9-piece set in which all nine pieces were defective. I am also disgruntled, though by now not the least bit surprised, that more than a month has gone by since delivery and they have yet to provide me with the final, undamaged product.
What really sets the amazement factor to an all-time high, however, is this chair in particular. This one is the worst of the lot; it is broken, scratched, a bit wobbly, incomplete, misassembled, and unprotected. It also has a little sticker on one of the misassembled braces that reads "Supervisor Brian". Somehow, of all the pieces to inspect, Brian had looked at the one piece with so many errors that it's challenging to think of anything else that could have been wrong, AND GAVE IT HIS STICKER OF APPROVAL. Sweet zombie Jesus, I am impressed!
In contrast, I have bought two dressers, a bed, a wall shelf, a just-ordered couch, and acquired a previously used desk all from Ikea, and have not yet experienced a single problem with any of them.
In the morning, I am going to call Leon's again and inquire in what district of the Ether my new table is currently sitting. I will read the above list to them again, note the torturously difficult time I've had dealing with the company, casually mention that I have many friends in the position of buying a home and looking for ways to furnish it, and explain the joy I get in telling this story many times over. I will remind them of the old adage that when a customer receives poor service, he tells nine people (one for each piece of my defective dinette set), inform them that many more than 9 people read this website, and finally ask what compensation Leon's is going to provide to prevent me from telling the complete and ruinous version of the edited and cleaned-up story told above.
