Fuming....

I'll admit it... I'm not always a super cool, even tempered gal. In fact, I've been known to totally fly off the handle from time to time. *Always* justified, of course! LOL. Seriously though, right now I'm totally hot, and feel I've been taken advantage of, and that makes me down right furious.

Here's the deal.... and seriously, I'm opening this up for public critique, so if you disagree with me, please feel free to tell me I'm ridiculous. I can handle it! LOL

Matt and I had been looking for new furniture for a while, but hadn't found anything we really liked. Around this time, our niece was moving to town, and into an apartment by herself. She need furniture, so Matt offered up ours. It was the perfect catalyst to get us into gear. After all, I wasn't going to look at an empty living room and sit on the floor for very long. So we made another trip to all the local stores and then went into Pottery Barn and were close to special ordering some things, but I just couldn't pull the plug. I wasn't 100% sure about the fabric, I wasn't sure how the couch would look in our room, and thought that it would be too "deep" to fit us comfortably -- both Matt and I are short people. So, once again, we left without making a purchase.

Around this time, Matt found two Thomasville leather chairs which he immediately bought and told me about when he got home. I wasn't thrilled at the time, but have since come to love them. They couldn't be more perfect! In addition to finding a couch we liked, it also had to match these chairs, stylistically. We just couldn't find the "right" furniture to go in the room....

Finally, we decided to use an interior decorator. On August 2, we bought a couch, side chair, rug, two pieces of art work and a bench/ottoman thing that would double as a foot rest/coffee table and additional storage. We were thrilled. We found exactly what we were looking for and couldn't wait for it to arrive.

The bench thing took AGES to arrive. Literally, it came February 3. Since the fabric and the frame were from different companies it took that long to have it made. For those of you that are doing the math -- that's a FULL 6 MONTHS that we waited for it to arrive. (I paid for it in August since it was a special order).

Several days after it showed up in the house I sat down on it and noticed that 6 of the 8 buttons on top were coming off. They were literally coming unsewn. After a closer look, I realized that the fabric that was leading up to the point were the buttons were located was also coming undone. The whole thing was coming un-upholstered. How could this possible be?

I called the store and told them about the problem. Our designer told me that they had problems with this company in the past and not to worry, they'd take care of it. That was February 23. TWENTY DAYS after it arrived, and also noted as such in our file, which I later found out about. Not exactly the quality I expected.....

They picked up the bench at the end of February, and by mid-April I still didn't have it back. At this point, I'm hot. Seriously ticked. Why in the world should I pay XXX (the amount is down below) for a piece of re-furbished furniture? The simple answer is that I shouldn't .... and I won't.

Now... here's the "personal" part (aka money talk).

Last Thursday the owner calls me and we have a rather unpleasant conversation. She tells me that she'll give me a credit for the bench, and send it in the mail. By "credit" for the bench, I assumed *cash back*. Remember, I paid for this thing in August and it didn't arrive for 6 months and was only in my house for 20 days.

AAAAHHHHH, no.... that's not what happened. She gave me an * in store* credit for $984. Which was for the frame of bench -- not the fabric, tax, fabric warranty, etc.... She actually owes me $1386. I know... shameful. I can't believe I ever spent that much on a footstool, but I did. Furthermore, I can't believe that she tried to "hide" $400 in the fuzzy math. That irritated me too!

So, I call her back Friday, but she was out of the office until today. I left a message for her to call me back today, but I had to call her this afternoon... Great customer service, huh??? We go over the money part, and agree on the number. She'll give me my money back in the form of an in-store credit but doesn't want to give me the cash back. UUUUUUGH. I. am. so. ticked. Seriously. ticked.

I explain to her that if I had bought a piece of furniture at Target and it fell apart in 20 days they'd give me cash back, and they were definitely a classier operation than Target. Oh, and I wasn't returning the piece because I didn't like it. No, I was returning it because her and I both agreed it was faulty (aka junk).

She told me that she'd have to think about it -- whether or not she was going to give me my money back -- and she'd call me back. I asked her to call me back today, but she was "just too busy" so I told her I expected a call tomorrow. If she doesn't call my by three, I'll be phoning the store - again.

The real kicker of all of this is.... when I tell people about the problem, I've had so many people tell me that they've had a similar experience with this store. No one has said to me, "Wow... I'm shocked. I absolutely love what I got it. It's great quality". In addition to this, we have had issues with both the rug and the side chair. Trust me when I say... for what I spent in this store, it should be perfect. I should have ABSOLUTELY NO issues!!

No my friends, I've been totally had and it makes me furious.

So -- do you think I'm over-reacting, or do you think my anger is justified???

Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow! We'll definitely have another "unpleasant" conversation! UUUUUGH. Really, do you think I'm out of line???