Hold It Contemporary Home — Local services in San Diego

BEWARE! We purchased a number of items from Hold It over the past few years and it was all fine, but now that Eddie is in charge, it's no longer the same place.

We make an effort to support local stores like Hold It. Our recent attempted purchase was for a couch my wife found on the internet. We found out that Hold It was an authorized dealer, so we went to the store to make the purchase to keep them in business, even though we knew we'd have to eat the cost for sales tax. Our salesperson Netali was helpful, which is why this is 2 stars instead of 1.

While the salesperson was pricing the couch, my wife found a coffee table she liked on display. Of course, we felt compelled to purchase from Hold It because we found it there. It's available cheaper online, but just trying to be fair and give Netali the sale. Hold It had an online ad that said everything from this manufacturer (Mobital) was 25% off. They still have it up as I post this a month later... The showroom price was 15% off, so we asked Hold It to match their own ad price. Seemed pretty reasonable! Turns out the ad was for a sale that just ended. Fine, but most places will honor their price if they keep advertising it. Eddie, the manager (and owner?), said the manufacturer controls pricing and they wouldn't allow him, even though they still had the ad up. So, I called the manufacturer (Canadian company, so nice folks) and they emailed Hold It permission to sell the table at the 25% off advertised price. Great . . . but Eddie then went back on his word and said he no longer is willing to honor the price. He didn't care that he had wasted my time with calling the manufacturer and handled the entire discussion in a rude and condescending manner. Said he didn't need our business and dared me to post to Yelp. He wanted to be a "winner" and prove how tough he was. He was clear that nobody was going to push him around! So I just ordered it online and saved money and effort.

By the way, Eddie didn't do so well with the couch either. He gave us a price 50% over the cost at multiple other places, even though he knew we found the couch online and what the price was. We went out of our way to support local brick and mortar, but it didn't seem reasonable to pay more than the price we'd already found it for. We were trying to do Hold It a favor and keep them in business! It took 60 seconds to just purchase the couch on my phone instead, so whatever, that was their choice.

It's a sad situation. We used to like this store. It's a lot easier to buy online, but we tried to support them and keep them in business, even understanding it costs us more. It's bad for all the salespeople to work for a manager like this. He keeps them from getting the commissions they earn with their efforts to make sales. I don't see how the store will last, which is unfortunate. It used to have good salespeople and fair pricing under reasonable management. Still have the salespeople, but be aware that ultimately all decisions are made by Eddie who is not going to honor anything you're told--which is theoretically the big advantage to shopping a local store. Turns out that it's easier and cheaper to just buy online where you get email confirmation and everything is clear. So sad...

If you do buy here expect to get treated like you did a Craig's List transaction off the back of a sketchy guy's beat up pick up. Horrible customer service. Zero, zilch nada flexibility on their policies. Intentionally aggravated customers. So, here's the deal: Ordered a sofa from their warehouse stock on Wednesday afternoon. Went home and did some additional measuring. It is actually a little too small for the space. So, I went back to the store in under 24 hrs to cancel it. It is a stock item at their local warehouse ---per the Sales Associate and the Sales order form--- and was not scheduled for delivery until four days from now. So, at this point it is only paperwork as the stock sofa is still unmoved in the local warehouse. And, it isn’t a clearance item. No reason NOT to just take care of the customer. Why a retail store manager would be this rigid is hard to explain—unless there are solvency or cash flow issues. Before retiring I was the President of a company with nearly 300 employees. If I gad a District Manager being this unreasonable he’d have been gone that day. But, Hold-It only has 3 stars so that’s pretty indicative

Store Manager said it is just not "our policy" to give refunds on any furniture items. Yet, paperwork says I can "return" any stock item within 10 days. I'm now filing a Small Claims Action against them and have filed a dispute with the credit card company. So, ridiculous. But, a cautionary tale: If this rigidity toward a first time customer over something so easy to resolve is any indication you will get zero support should their be an issue with your very pricey contemporary furniture. I'd recommend that you avoid at all costs. If you do buy here expect to get treated like you did a Craig's List transaction off the back of a sketchy guy's...

Do not trust this store. The management is untrustworthy, arrogant, and careless. They will tell you anything to sell their goods without ever having any intentions to honor their commitments. I bought a few sets of furniture for my house from this store about two years ago. At the time, they told me that per their return policy I could return them for a full refund if the furniture did not fit my house the way I like. However, when I tried to return the furniture, they reneged and made the excuse that because the plastic wraps around the furniture were opened!!, they could only give me store credit. Naively, I initially agreed to get store credit. I got two chairs and agreed to get two art pieces for the rest. The salespeople and the manager all knew me. I was told to come back the next week to get the artworks. Sadly, the store manager passed away during this time, the old salespeople were let go, and a new manager with new salespeople was brought in. The issue dragged on unresolved for a long while. Not knowing what was going on with the store management, I returned to the store to get what I was promised. This time, they simply denied the whole thing and no one at the store was willing to follow up and do what they had agreed to do. I tried to contact the new manager and resolve the issue. Several times he asked me to wait a week so he could resolve the matter. It has been six months now and I have had many unreturned and ignored calls and emails. The manager is totally untrustworthy. I am weighing my legal options in dealing with this store and its management. Do not do...