I have been in business for 45 years as a professional designer and I was a customer of this company for ten years. Never owed them a penny. Generally pretty good, although expensive.
That said, about a year ago I noticed they were not doing their job - they did not inspect items upon delivery or even let me know when something was received. As a designer, that information is critical in case there is a claim that has to be filed for damage. When I asked why they were not telling me when deliveries arrived or why they were not being inspected, I was told by Cate, the office manager, that they were "too busy."
Last month a very expensive custom cabinet that was made in Europe was received by them and subsequently scheduled for delivery to my client. When it arrived at my client's house, the delivery men showed me that there was a huge chunk of wood taken out of the edge on the top of one of the cabinets and the box was a mess - torn, broken, dented. It was clear that nobody had bothered to inspect the piece for damage when it arrived although it is SOP when a carton is received by a receiving warehouse that is damaged the first thing that is done, and done immediately before accepting it, is open the box, look for damage, document it on the Bill of Lading, and advise the customer.
I told them to put it in the house, went directly to my office and called a furniture repair company. About an hour later I got a crazy voice message from the owner, Chris, stating repeatedly that he had "made an executive decision" to go back into my client's house without my permission or knowledge and take the item back to their warehouse. I was flabbergasted.
They then took it upon themselves to try to fix it, also without my permission, all the while insisting that they had not damaged the cabinet. I asked them why, if they did not damage the piece, did they take it back in order to repair it? No response.
I called two weeks later, and they said it was done. I asked for a photo of the repair. It was clearly unacceptable - so bad that they didn't even argue but said they would try to fix it again.
I told them to just return it but they refused and insisted they get paid for the delivery. The charge was an inflated bill for $600 and when I questioned how a 20 minute delivery could cost that much, they said they were billing me a "three hour minimum" (for a delivery service?) which I had never heard of. IMO they were trying to cover their cost for the failed repair. When I asked the if that meant for every 8 hours of work they were actually billing for 24 hours, they hung up on me.
In an effort to get my merchandise, I agreed to sign their ACH withdrawal authorization form. They had refused a business debit card, asked for CASH, and, when I said I would not drive an hour to deliver cash, which is totally unbusinesslike to begin with, they insisted that I sign the form for an unspecified amount before releasing the furniture to another trucking company. Every time I called they hung up or did not pick up the phone. The only way I finally reached them was to hide my number (*67) when I called. THEN they picked up and were shocked to hear me on the phone. I asked for the owner, who took the call and without a word hung up the phone again.
FOLLOWUP: I ultimately received the cabinet by sending the ACH form and hired another company to pick up the cabinet. which cost me additional monies. The moving company found - and documented - additional damage on the cabinet when they went to pick it up, damage that could only have been done in the Twin Forks warehouse. Now this will cost me even more in order to have the cabinet fixed.
They lied, they were rude, they were totally unprofessional, took the merchandise from my client's house without authorization, refused to take responsibility for their damage, refused to return my cabinet, did not do the job they were supposed to do, and held me hostage for money in the face of damaging a $5000 cabinet before agreeing to release the cabinet to another delivery service.
Needless to say, I will be suing them for diminished value and out of pocket expenses.
The worst. read more
