Bassett Furniture — Local services in Newton

I write this review for the benefit of other customers and do not wish to engage with the store in any further discussions. I ordered a custom made Clyde sofa - my first piece of what I thought would be a 'last me a lifetime furniture'. I was excited to finally be able to afford new furniture and support an American company. Everything was fine until there was a problem. The modular sofa arrived in different color shades almost undetectable, with an additional significant flaw visible to the naked eye. The movers also damaged my hallway wall when they were delivering it into the house. Instead of refusing the order, I decided to be a good customer and follow the Bassett's preferred approach in these circumstances. I reported the issue and waited. I was ignored and stonewalled, and instead of having the store take the initiative to resolve the mistake and hurry to contact me, to provide assurance that they are on it, I was the one chasing answers, and often talking to people with such poor customer service skills who didn't think it was common sense to introduce themselves. No-one wants responsibility and accountability for their mistake, and for that, I have no respect. I was made to feel like a fool for making claims about the sofa being in different color shades; I was not believed. Bassett finally commissioned an independent inspection of the sofa which not only confirmed my claims, but found additional problems that only demonstrate the non-existent QC/QA process. At the end, Heather called me to offer an exchange or another product; I insisted on a refund because the trust is gone. I had to get my credit card involved to get the refund. It's unbelievable that Bassett didn't think offering me a refund after my experience was a reasonable and fair option? To allow me to decide whether I trust them enough to give them my business again. The lesson learned here to pass to others is that if and when you do have a problem, you might be disappointed and even shocked by how the store will handle it. Heather did ask me for my feedback about my experience with the store on the phone, and we chatted in what I thought was a frank conversation. I add a star to my review for that reason. But I hope for the sake of the good name of this business, Bassett will spend some time reflecting on my case and use my experience for staff training, QA/QC audits, and further improvement. I will never buy anything from Bassett again as a matter of principle; the outcome could have been different had they had invested a little...

If I could give this place negative stars, I would. We bought couches and were told by the sales associate, Denise (Chestnut Hill location), that they were in stock, ready to ship and would meet our desired timeline. Timing was very important to us, as we were moving into a new house and have no furniture. The furniture is fairly expensive, but we were willing to pay a high price for furniture that could arrive in a timely manner.

We are now going 3 weeks without furniture to sit on. We cannot return the couches and buy something else, without being charged a 15% restocking fee. It's also impossible to get straight answers on timing; each time we call, we are told something different.

In addition, it's clear that this company doesn't care much about their customers or the customer experience. Their attitude is that there's 'nothing they can do', even after I offered a few basic suggestions such as provide us a discount, or arrange for the furniture to be delivered to my house ASAP after it arrives at the local warehouse (as it can take up to two weeks to get your delivery 'scheduled' even once the couch is just miles from your home.) Hard to believe that no one at the company can take such basic, relatively inexpensive, actions to try and mend a customer relationship. As a result, I'm left to assume that they just don't care about their customers.

I suggest you NEVER shop here. This was my first experience with the company and it's not something I will ever...

Zero stars. Terrible experience. Boils down to setting incorrect expectations on availability and timing followed by worse customer service. We entered Bassett with clear expectations on our timeline to receive the furniture which was known by the design consultant Denise. We found items that would arrive by the end of the month, subsequent signed invoice said the same thing. Three weeks later, nothing. Bassett could be more upfront on timing but chooses not to, why?, because they don’t want to lose out on the immediate sale, but are blind to the lifetime customer value. Surprising for a public company.

Furthermore, not one of the customer service employees seems to care or is empowered to do something about it. To add insult to injury, these employees are also given conflicting systems to provide information. The phones think the order is coming in 3 weeks and the store says 2, how is this possible? I would think the company would have a consistent way to track the hundreds of thousands of dollars of inventory moving throughout the country, but I guess not. Do not shop here. Nice to see couches in person but this is a reminder of why better run online businesses will continue to...