Hudson's Furniture + Mattress — Attraction in Altamonte Springs

While my original purchase was a pleasant experience and the employees I dealt with were very nice, today I stopped in to try and match leather samples I had to the leather couch I ordered a week ago (the couch won't be in for 14-16 wks). When I entered, an employee rushed after me asking how they could help me. I tried to explain I had already purchased my couch and I wanted to match leather for an ottoman I wanted to re-cover to match the leather couch color, so she let me continue and she disappeared. Since none of my leather samples I brought in matched, I wanted to find out if I could order a sample of the couch leather. I saw a gentleman that worked there nearby so I approached and Inquired if I could ask him a question - he acted extremely irritated and after asking my question, he snapped back at me that I could not order samples since it was an overseas foreign company. I went back to looking at the store samples comparing to the ones I brought in. When I originally ordered my couch, I was told not to look at the samples in one of the leather books because it was outdated and no longer valid but to look at the newer leather sample books to choose the leather color I wanted. Since that was the case, I noted that the old book had 2 samples of the color I ordered my couch in, so I wanted to ask if they could cut out a small piece of one so I didn't have to keep driving back to the store to try and match my samples to the samples in their book since I live 35 miles away. Again, the same male employee was nearby so I approached him and asked if I could ask him another question. I was standing no more than 2 feet in front of him and he completely ignored me so I started walking away when he snapped at me asking what I wanted in a very irritated manner. I started to tell him that I had a question regarding the store samples when he interrupted me and asked who helped me when I came into the store and started to demand that I tell him who it was. I got a bit flustered at his demeanor and advised I didn't really recall because I had told the employee that I had already purchased my couch. He got even more irritated at me and stated "that is the employees job to stay with you even if you already purchased the couch now who was it?" I advised all I could remember was that it was a tall, thin female.... He started naming names and demanded I tell him who it was. I didn't have a name - I only spoke to the person for a moment. At this point I was ready to leave the store and was questioning myself if I should have purchased my couch here if this is how they treat not only customers but employees. Even it this wasn't a manager, if he didn't want to help me himself, then he should have been pleasant to me (the customer)and advise me he would get me some assistance and then address the issue with the employee in private. It is completely inappropriate to be telling me that the employee was not doing what they were supposed to and be completely rude to me to boot! Eventually he found the employee that originally greeted me and she was almost as rude to me (possibly thinking I got her in trouble with a manager???) , advising that they could not provide me a sample and if there were samples in their book where pieces were cut out, then the customer did it, not them, however she would check if the company would be able to provide a sample, but it's not something she has ever heard of a company doing before. I am having serious second thoughts on my purchase from Hudson's as these were some of the most unprofessional unpleasant people I have ever dealt with. Based on this experience, I don't feel comfortable ever going back into the store and wonder if I can cancel my order at this point. I only see problems down the road should I have any issues with the couch if this is how they treat customers . Needless to say, I would not purchase anything from them in the future. I think they need to do some serious customer service training beginning with...

UPDATE:

After writing this review, the owner himself contacted me within the hour. I explained to him in more details what had happen throughout this whole process. He sincerely apologized and wasted no time in trying to remedy the situation.

After a couple conference calls between the owner, Peter, and myself, they acknowledged that there was a misunderstanding and understood why I felt like this was a bait and switch situation. So, they honored what was originally told to me and asked me to come into the store to confirm the reselection for the material I wanted, at no additional cost. This in turn restored my faith back in Hudson’s furniture.

I went in, we discussed everything, and Peter also apologized for his actions. He seemed genuine so I choose to believe I caught him on a bad day when we had our first conversation.

Would I continue to buy from Hudson’s Furniture? After everything was said and done, I actually would. They truly do have quality furniture at a sensible pricing. The sales reps and the interior designer are extremely patient and will work hard on getting you exactly what you want to make your house a real home.

original review:

Over the last couple of months, I have had nothing but problems with my orders. I’ve had incorrect orders placed, missing items, missed deliveries, incorrect items delivered, items arriving damaged, false promises, incomplete set ups during deliveries and the cherry on the top was having to deal with the most confrontational and condescending regional manager ever, Pete Venute.

Truthfully, I have never had such a sickening experience with any other company I do business with than what I’ve experienced after speaking with this man. Not only did he dismiss my concerns, but he also overpowered the conversation, and he treated me like I was just an inconvenience to his day. He would constantly interrupt me when I was trying to explain what happened and continuously spoke over me and made it seem like my business was insignificant.

I was bothered before but after speaking with him, I was infuriated. He made the situation 20x worse. Mind you, this man was supposed to call me to deescalate the situation. His tone was unsympathetic and patronizing. He ultimately told me there was nothing much he could do. After arguing with me for 20 mins, he then told me I had to physically bring in all 6 chairs that were (incorrectly ordered) to the store and swap them out for the material I wanted. I explained to him multiple times the material is custom and needed to be preordered. Again, he dismissed me and told me the only option I had was to bring the chairs in for an even swap.

I went into the store to speak with the sales rep, and she told me it would NOT be an even swap. it would cost me $1,868 more to upgrade to something I was thought to already be promised. I spoke with the interior designer, and she was also under the impression that the price I paid was for the waterproof material.

In a span of 2 months, we’ve spent almost $20,000 and have only received an awful experience. I still have 2 more rooms, 2 living rooms, an office and entry way I still need to furnish, and truth be told there is absolutely ZERO benefit in continuing to purchase from Hudson’s Furniture.

Hudson’s slogan is “WE DO MORE FOR YOU” … clearly no one informed Pete Venute. He is just a direct reflection of how awful you...

Ill start by saying I have purchased $50,111.12 worth of furniture from Hudson's Furniture in the central Florida area over the last 10 years. My review is judged upon all experiences combined. Therefore, not a emotional reaction to a poorly handled claim, yet overall judgment of Hudson's core customer values & service.

1st Delivery: On my initial order all of my furniture was delivered a week later than originally promised. We humbly understood, things happen right? Well once delivered and brought into the house, 3 of the 6 pieces were completely wrong pieces of furniture. Over the next 30 days management worked at correcting the mix up and finally 47 days after original promised delivery we received our order correctly. It was exhausting to say the least.

2nd Delivery: This order was a few years later and almost twice the size. Totaling over $30,000.00. Once again, we had wrong items shipped, end table & living room rug completely different than what we originally ordered. One damaged piece that required re-delivery and two hanging lights retailing for $1235.00 missing all hardware! To conclude, two large lower hutch pieces were completely missing and after several days of the tops of the hutches just sat on the floor Hudson's management team declared the lowers to have been overlooked. Resulting in a higher bill overall as they apparently forgot to charge for the pieces in addition to even order them. This resulted in filling out all fiance paperwork all over again and a major inconvenience for my schedule.

DON'T FALL FOR THEIR WARRANTY SCAM! To wrap up, although such continued poor experiences we have always appreciated the companies overall quality of furniture. However, we were duped into purchasing the extended warranty program for over $2000.00 additional dollars! With the very aggressive sales team claiming bumper to bumper accidental protection for 5 years. Here we are 2 years into the program and face the unfortunate circumstance to need to utilize our invested protection plan after our kids scratched our living room couches while we were out of town on business. Only to find out it was all a sales ploy! We have spent the last two months emailing & calling the "claims department" where they have requested an extensive amount of photos, explanations, & repetitive information until I finally demanded clarity on the status of my claim. They concluded with, in their opinion the damage caused is "excessive damage!" Our contract of coverage billed to us & paid for 100% clearly states our claim situation & or circumstances are under the policy guild-lines and Hudson's is claiming "its a different department".

Please be very vigilante when dealing with their sales teams. They are doing all they can to close and close aggressively. However, the company as a whole has proven time and time again they lack the ability to honor and follow through on promises made and or services offered. I am now in the process of legally seeking recovery for my loss of investments and plan to help protect anyone interested in purchasing furniture to avoid getting taken advantage of by...