Yep, that’s right, and I’m good and peeved this time too…
Back in May, Eileen and I bought a new sectional sofa (leather) from Macy’s. It’s the first time we bought a new couch in 15 years, so we felt good about making the purchase. They were closing out this particular one and it was comfy and we got a good deal – so we thought.
Soon after getting the piece, I noticed that the back of the chaise part of the sofa moved a bit – like it was loose… so, I called Macy’s and had them come out to take a look at it and repair it if necessary. Keep in mind, that I received the piece on May 18, didn’t really notice the piece moving until weeks later – when I moved the couch to clean behind it (or open a window, pick up a toy, whatever I was doing). So, I called Macy’s around 7/1/09 and they just came today – mostly due to scheduling conflicts and such.
So here’s the rub. The guy came to inspect, a great kid from Brockton named Christopher. Come to find out, the piece was not only broken, but it had been repaired THREE times!!
I was pretty surprised, and told him they need to replace the piece. He was just a third party in this fiasco, so he called customer service and spoke with Tamika (notice how I’m dropping names here?) and discussed the problem. After a few, uh ha’s and um yeahs, he handed the phone over to me and said “you need to speak to her”.
Here comes the payoff – Tamika tells me “well sir, you bought a floor model and floor models are sold “as-is”, so if anything will be done you’ll have to take it up with the store you bought it from”. THE STORE I BOUGHT IT FROM? I BOUGHT IT FROM MACY’S! I could feel my blood start to boil… you mean to tell me that Macy’s “corporate” can’t help me?? She said “No, since it’s “as-is” you’ll have to sort it out with the store you bought it from”.
Grrrr. I can feel the veins in my head about to pop out. She was good enough to give me the phone number of the store where I bought it (Westfarms) and told me “good luck”.
Needless to say, I called them as soon as I hung up with her. Spoke with Carol, the floor manager of the department, who, of course, has NO recollection of the piece in question. Big surprise, right? Tells me that she’ll have the sales person call me back tomorrow because it’s her (Barbara) day off. I told her – why don’t we cut to the chase and have a manager call me… she said, “I’m the manager”, then proceeded to tell me she has to do research and call me back tomorrow.
My B.S.-o-meter was flying right off the charts with that one. I can feel the ‘ol – “all sales are final” schpeal coming. I’m not going to listen to it though.
Rewind back to a week before the purchase, Eileen and I were in Waterford, CT and spotted the same piece down there – a floor model, but they wouldn’t ship it to our house because we were too far. The nice girl there put me in touch with Westfarms (Barbara) who informed us that they have one and would give me the same price. I specifically asked her: Is there any issues with this piece? Damage, broken, etc? She said “NO”, just a few scuffs… which I don’t mind, since I have three kids, it’s going to get scuffed!
We went up the following Sunday and visually inspected it, sat in it, etc. Again I asked if there were any issues, she said “NO”, so I said, “let’s do it”.
I just know that she’s going to call me tomorrow and claim there was no damage or that they didn’t know or that their dog ate their home work or it was her brother’s fault, but I’m not going to listen to it…
The sales check clearly states:
Final Sale/As Is Merchandise: There are no returns on “As Is” or “Final Sale” merchandise due to the damage noted by the sales associate on the front of the sales check… blah, blah, blah.
The funny thing is, there IS NO DAMAGE NOTED ON THE SALES CHECK.
We’ll just see what happens, I’m pretty upset by this right now, and still haven’t paid the bill (6 months interest free). But the point remains that they sold me something that was represented as “not damaged” which was 1) clearly repaired several times and 2) DAMAGED.
I mean if the woman had told me that it was damaged I WOULDN’T HAVE MADE THE PURCHASE!!!
Stay tuned…
UPDATE: As expected, I did not receive a call – big surprise… I’m going to have to call today and get the “Barbara isn’t here today” schpeel and then I’m really going to be upset.