I have a serious concern with the lack of customer service provided by the sales department, customer service department, and management of the Frisco, Texas, Ashley Furniture Home Store. I made a purchase of what I thought was a leather sectional in September of this year. I was erroneously misinformed by the salesperson regarding the make-up and construction of the pieces of furniture. I had a friend and colleague present with me at the time of the sale that witnessed and heard every word the salesperson told me as well. It was not until delivery of the furniture that I was able to read the accompanying tags attached and determine that I had been blatantly lied to by the salesperson in an effort to make the sale. Not only was this a clear violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practice Act, but the furniture was also damaged in several places. The end piece recliner would not close at all once opened, and several other pieces had tears and places where the seams where sewn in an overlapped fashion. I have made multiple attempts to resolve this issue, and neither the customer service manager, Mr. Tommy McManaway, nor the store manager, Chris Cox, will return my phone calls. When I asked Mr. McManaway for the name of his supervisor, he refused to give me any information. Hence, I am turning to you in an attempt to resolve this matter without being forced to resort to contacting my local news channel hotline for assistance.
I am attaching telephone contact documentation, along with a letter that was drafted by my attorney in November that has yet to be responded to. I have forwarded copies of all additional e-mail correspondence to my attorney’s office. I have never in my life as a consumer been treated so disrespectfully or with such absolute disregard for customer service. At this point, I could never recommend doing business with an Ashley Furniture Home Store. Thus far, I received notification on 12/27/11 from “Cathy” in the Consumer Affairs Department that she would forward my information to the Head of Customer Care in Frisco, TX. However, I have yet to be contacted by anyone in Frisco, and I have left several messages for “Cathy” inquiring who specifically she forwarded my information to, but she has not returned my calls or provided this information. I pray that you can be of assistance in resolving this issue in a more timely manner.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Attempted telephone contact with Ashley Furniture management personnel:
9/28/11: Immediately after the deliverymen left my home, I sat down in the end recliner, popped it out, and discovered that it would not close. The metal mechanism underneath was bent and there was no way to close the recliner. I then began inspecting this piece further and discovered a small tear on the back of the recliner where the seams did not match up properly. I called Ashley Furniture Customer Service within 10 minutes of the deliverymen leaving to report the problem and ask them to return to pick up the furniture. I was told that all they could do was see if they had a replacement piece in the warehouse and deliver it at a later date.
9/30/11: The deliverymen brought a replacement recliner. At this point, I was much more careful with my inspection. I discovered seams that were overlapped on the back of the new recliner and one piece of the material on the back gapped so that you could view the inner workings of the recliner. I asked the deliverymen to pull out the sectional, which they had previously placed up against the wall, so I could actually inspect the backs of the other pieces as well. I found a tear on the back of the chaise lounge and multiple other places where seams were folded over or did not match up properly. At this time, I also read the paperwork describing Durablend, which I never saw until delivery, and it stated that DuraBlend was composed of 57% polyurethane, 26% poly/cotton, and 17% leather. This was in direct contrast to what I was told by the salesperson, named Reggie. He told both me and a co-worker, Angela Anderson, who accompanied me, that Durablend was “leather everywhere the body touches and a synthetic blend on the back and sides of the furniture.” He shared this information when I was contemplating this particular sectional versus another truly “leather” piece of furniture at another store. I was shocked to learn that I had been blatantly lied to by the salesperson simply to make the sale. I immediately tried to reach a manager in Customer Service, since that is what the deliverymen directed me to do. I left four messages with Lamar (he refused to give me a last name) at Ashley Furniture Customer Service stating that I needed to speak to a manager immediately about a sectional with flaws on 4 of the 6 pieces delivered. I communicated that it was my desire to have the deliverymen take the entire sectional back with them due to my unhappiness with the quality and the fact that I had been misled about the product make-up. Each time I called, I was assured that Mr. McManaway would return my call within 10-15 minutes. I did not receive a call back until 4 hours later at 7:30 P.M. He was very unconcerned about the damaged furniture I had received and said all he could do was send out a repairperson for my BRAND NEW furniture and that I would need to send him pictures first. I had already taken off 2 days from work to facilitate the delivery and subsequent re-delivery of this furniture. Next I was informed that I would have to take off yet another day to meet with a repair person and that I would be given no more than 12 hours’ notice via a telephone the night before, so I could not even schedule my day to accommodate the interruption. I replied that I would be speaking to my attorney for advice.
10/5/11: Left a message with Bridgette (difficult to understand) and on the voice mail box of Mr. McManaway, Ashley Furniture Customer Service Manager. I had taken pictures and needed to know where to send them.
10/6/11: Left a message for Chris Cox, Ashley Furniture store manager.
10/7/11: Called again to speak to Mr. Cox. I explained the situation to him and the fact that I could not get Mr. McManaway to return my calls. He asked me to send him the pictures, which I did, and said he would forward them to Mr. McManaway and have him call me. He has still not called me back to this day.
10/18/11: Left another message with Customer Service for Mr. McManaway to contact me.
11/11/11: I received the only phone contact initiated by Mr. McManaway today after his receipt of the letter from my attorney. He still refused to pick up the defective furniture and said they only thing he could offer was an exchange. He said he would follow this conversation with an e-mail explaining how I was to facilitate the exchange and the specific sales person I was to deal with so that I would not be given any more inaccurate information. I have never received said e-mail from Mr. McManaway.
12/9/11: I sent yet another e-mail message to Mr. McManaway with Mr. Cox, Ms. Fairbank at Dallas Morning News Problem Solver, and Ms. Kraatz and Ross & Matthews, P. C. copied, requesting a response to my attorney’s letter dated November 1, 2011.
In addition to telephone contacts, multiple e-mail messages have been sent as well. All copies of these e-mails have been documented at my attorney’s office.
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