Ashley HomeStore — Local services in Ontario

I very rarely leave bad reviews but I’ll make an exception for this company as whole if it can help to deter any reader from shopping there. Note that the character limit has made me omit quite a few details, but my complaint to the Better Business Bureau will include everything.

In February 2024, my partner and I came to this store to shop for a couch. We found one we liked and bought it that day. After tax, the total came to just over $2,900. Expected delivery was May 4th. This was a long wait but at least we were told of the delay.

Finally, in late June (nearly two months after the expected delivery date) I get the couch. Seems nice at first. After about two weeks, the cushions are totally shot. If you’re curious, the model is “Larce-Exclusive 2 Piece Sectional with Chaise”. If you read the product reviews on the Ashley website, there are several complaints of the cushions having poor support, not holding their shape, and essentially letting your butt sink down to the springs. My partner and I are both lightweight, yet with hardly any use, the couch completely lost its shape and we’re flipping the cushions every day just to get the slightest bit of rear support. Funny enough, the product page reads “… maintains tight, wrinkle-free look without dips or sags that can occur over time with sinuous spring foundations”. Again, after only a few weeks, you could visibly see that cushions are sunken in and uncomfortable. I’d expect this after five years with a cheap couch, but how can you justify charging $3k for this garbage?

At first, we put up with it. In September, we decide this is enough. We go back to the store because we wanted to show staff pictures and videos of our couch compared to their pristine floor model. The first employee to speak to us was understanding, but uninterested in hearing us explain what our problem was. She said she’ll get the sales manager for us. So we wait. While waiting, a second employee named Manpreet approaches us and asks what we’re waiting for. We tell her there’s an issue with our couch and we’re waiting for the sales manager. She tells us there’s nothing they can do, the sales manager is busy, and even if she was available, she would tell us to report online. I understand this is how Ashley has set up their complaint system (deflect and redirect until the customer gives up), but the very least they could do was hear us out. We felt unseen, no one looked at our videos, not a single staff there has the slightest idea what our problem is because none of them cared to listen. Manpreet hands us a paper card with a phone number to text an automated “Eva”. She tells us we can even send Eva pictures. This company rather us send images of our issue to an AI text system rather than have an employee standing right in front of us take a look.

Anyway, we go home after Manpreet shoo’d us out of the store, and we text the mighty robot Eva. She asks for our serial number tag, and when I ask Eva where I can find that, she just keeps repeating herself (screenshot included). So now I’m at a dead end.

I call customer service. I speak to an agent, and before hearing my whole issue, she also tells me to text Eva. Classy. I told her I can’t do that because she’s not understanding what I say. I get redirected once again to start an online chat with an online agent. This agent says all they can do for me is a ONE TIME restuffing of the cushions. I tell her I’m inclined to just ask for a refund, because obviously the issue will persist after ten days of using the same poor quality cushion. She says I cannot request a refund after 2 days of having the couch. Absolute joke. If your couch from Ashley has a major failure on day 3, you’re stuck with it I guess.

We accept her offer. This week, the cushions were delivered. We were told it’s best to contact them again once the cushions are delivered so that a technician can properly restuff it without tearing the fabric. Today, I reach out to schedule the technician. The soonest date? December 5th, two months...

BE AWARE*When purchasing furniture be aware there's no quality check on delivered items it seems like as we received a bed frame that has multiple defects and structural issues. We have sent in a claim and we were told we do not qualify for a replacement as Ashley tries to repair first over replacing. We now have to wait 3 weeks for someone to come to deem it repairable and supposedly we were told they are highly skilled to repair items (we shall see and send updates as the repairs look beyond repairing where it will look decent like the floor model). We have taken time off work to be here to receive this defected bed frame that looks nothing like the floor model in store, quality is awful and from the pictures we sent dont do it justice how bad it is. We also provided a detailed description of the damages i.e. warped frame, spaces between mider edges and uneven, multiple chips and paint cracking along the whole frame as well as multiple other defects. We were hoping to be able to put together our bed frame and now we are stuck with this mess. Also you have 48 hours to claim anything in order to replace I believe? Likely they would still try to repair over replace since that's their policy anyway but we weren't told this when purchasing so we will see what happens and if we can finally get this issue resolved in a few weeks or if we are going to be given the run around. Just thought I'd let other people be aware before purchasing to save them the hassle, time and stress UPDADE: Ashley Home Store sent out their "highly skilled" person to fix our bedframe after waiting 4 weeks. The guy trying to fix the problem told us that it's not something that he can fix and that it would need to be taken back to the factory to fix. We have this all on camera as we have cameras all throughout our home for intruders and the cameras are visible. When we had mentioned this to customer care the next day about what the guy had told us the lady on the phone said he must be a new guy and she couldn't help us further. She also gave attitude stating why we are recording their workers that come fix things (which obviously we aren't intentionally recording and as far as I know it's not illegal to have cameras up in your OWN home). This tell me that they are more concerned with poor customer service being exposed rather than actually help like they are supposed to and come up with a solution. Instead after asking to speak to a manager we were dismissed stating the manager would call us back. Hopefully they are able to do the right thing and honor the process of their terms which we were told on phone if something is not able to be repaired that they will then replace the part or item, but first we would have to wait to see if it could be repaired which we have ALREADY done after 4 weeks of waiting. UPDATE After 5 months and 4 or 5 failed deliveries (more defects, sending the exact same bed a 2nd time, etc) we finally received a decent enough one- still with some defects but more minimal to which we just accepted as we never want to go through this process again. Mind you we were supposed to receive approx $45 for the damages on the recent one however never received this amount. We called up customer care to which they said it was likely a store credit given which is not true because my partner specifically said he will not be shopping there again so prefers to get money back on the bedframe so instead of giving us a 65 or so credit to the store the representative we were talking to agreed to give us approx 45 money back. They have a recording of the conversation for proof but wont review it to give us that refund they agreed upon. We made multiple calls, then after the finance department reviewed it we were told they denied offering that amount to us and we never got that...

HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE! In short, save yourself days of stress and attitude, DON’T BUY FROM THEM!! They are scammers that will do anything to make a sale, they will deliberately hide information and will lie to you about the “terms and conditions” just to push you to buy on the spot. Once you’re tangled in their web of lies, there is no going back. As soon as there is an issue or you have to return the item they will have you jumping through hoops with “customer care” that will eventually do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for you and will tell you that it’s the policy and that it’s basically your fault for not reading the fine print in the terms and conditions. Their so called customer care is made up of individuals that know nothing about customer service, they are rude and hostile!

We unfortunately bought a couch from the store, the “assistant store manager” Swastha kept trying to make us buy something by coming over to us every time we stopped to look at a piece of furniture. She ended up pushing us to buy a couch that’s out of our budget by offering price reductions and signing up for their “deal” which apparently was only valid until the end of that day where you can pay in instalments over 36 months no interest. We had concerns that the couch is too big for the small apartment we have m, however she so clearly told us multiple times that we can buy it now and if it arrives and it doesn’t fit we can return a part of the couch easily “as long as we call her within 48 hrs from delivery” she repeated that very clearly and said word for word “the ONLY thing is that you have 48 hrs.” When we received it and it turned out to be too big I started the return process right the same hour. To my surprise they start telling me I will only be refunded 90% of the price and 10% is in “store credit” when I said I was never told that, they told me it’s in the terms and that they are not required to say that! Things only started to get worse from there, where they also told me that I either return the couch myself to the warehouse in Sauga (from London) or pay $80 for pick up!!!! If there was anything worse than the store and their lies, it was the “customer care team” they were extremely terrible and unhelpful!!

The “transport team” that brought in the couch were the most obnoxious and unprofessional people i’ve ever met. They were running around shoving the couch pieces through the door and dragging them on the floor trying to rush as we were the last delivery of the day. They were handling the assembly so roughly that they made 2 gigantic deep scrapes in the hardwood floor (shown in pictures) and left in a rush. I only saw the damage after they left when I was adjusting as it was covered by the couch. Dealing with their claims “service” was a whole other beast!! Different agents would tell me different things, and the last one I spoke with told me that they basically can only deal with the “owners” in my case a property management company since I’m renting!!! It is WILD to even think about!

I basically lost money because i’m never buying from their crappy store again so store credit is useless, i’ll pay for the pick of their garbage couch, I have a damaged floor, I wasted my time and effort talking to them, and I still didn’t get anything resolved!! I will make sure I personally tell my experience to every person I know to avoid this scam. Replying to this with “sorry to hear that please call bla bla” is useless i’m not wasting another minute of my time and I have already done so for 2...