Ashley Store — Local services in San Marcos

Complaint Regarding Sofa Sleeper Purchase and Customer Service Experience

Dear Ashley Furniture,

I am frustrated and disappointed with my recent attempt to buy a sofa sleeper. As a long-time customer of Ashley Furniture, I expected better service. I've spent thousands of dollars with Ashley. In this particular case, it was an urgent situation.

On December 19, I began calling the Colton location. I wanted to buy and deliver a sofa sleeper for my cabin in Big Bear, California. I called several times during business hours. But, I couldn't reach anyone at the store. Instead, I was routed to Ashley's new AI call operator. It failed to assist me and transferred me to an overseas call center. The call center could not reach the Colton store either. They claimed to have emailed someone for call back. I never received a call back.

I urgently needed this sofa sleeper for my vacation rental. It's fully booked for Christmas at over $2,000 a night. So, I resumed calling the next day, Friday, December 20. After hours of repeated attempts, I finally managed to reach a salesperson, Steven. He told me that, due to the holiday schedule, delivery to Big Bear would not be possible in time. It normally occurs every Saturday. Instead, he suggested I arrange a pickup from the warehouse.

To facilitate this, I found a handyman willing to drive to Colton and transport the sofa to Big Bear. When I asked Steve if I could pay for the sofa over the phone to expedite the process, he said it was not allowed. I also could not order the sofa for pickup online. He assured me there were nine sofas in stock at the warehouse and, that ordering for pickup would not be an issue. I asked if I could buy one from another Ashley location closer to me. He said that would be OK. I told him I felt bad because he wouldn't be earning the commissions. I would've gladly ordered it over the phone with him if that was an option.

Trusting this info, I drove to the San Marcos store to buy the sofa. I live in Carlsbad. The staff at the San Marcos location processed my purchase. They also gave me a phone number to arrange a pickup. After hours of trying to reach someone, I was told I could not pick up the sofa the next day. That's even though both the Colton and, San Marcos salespeople had assured me it was possible. I had made them aware of the urgency of my situation.

The warehouse blamed the store for selling me the sofa without confirming pickup. The warehouse said they had sent the store an email letting them know next day pick up was not available. The San Marcos store showed me emails from the warehouse. They indicated only that same-day pickup was unavailable. There was no mention of next day pick up being unavailable. Neither side took blame for the miscommunication. I needed a sofa for my guests. I spent days trying to get it and had already paid. But, I was left without it.

If I had been told that next-day pickup was not possible, I would not have bought it. I would not have wasted time trying to fix this issue. I must now find a solution for my guests. They expect a fully functional bed at the busiest, most expensive time of year.

This whole experience has been unacceptable. I could not reach the Colton location, San Marcos or the warehouse by phone. Your staff and warehouse gave me conflicting information. Ashley Furniture's misrepresentation and customer service was atrocious.

I request an explanation for this debacle. Also, please resolve it by improving communication between your stores and warehouses. Additionally, I would like to know what Ashley Furniture will do to make this right. The significant inconvenience and stress this situation caused was unacceptable.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this...

To future customers: Do not buy from this store unless you want to have a horrible experience. My wife and I recently purchased from the store and have had nothing but a huge headache from start to finish.

This will be a lengthy review so please bear with me.

In-store experience: During our in-store walk-through the service agent who initially took down and wants and needs was called away in the middle of the walk-through to attend another shopper’s needs. (We should’ve ran from this store right then and there) so we had to re-explain our requirements again to another service agent. This is unacceptable as it seems the store puts its interest in what they believe will make them money and not the customer experience.

Back order item: I’d ask if any of the items you’re interested in are in a back order status. We bought a rug to complete our living space area and we’re not notified the item was in a back order status during the purchase. We were notified about the back order status the DAY BEFORE our scheduled delivery date.

Damaged Furniture process: during the delivery process a piece of our sectional was damaged, it was apparent a forklift poked right through it because of the type of tear and damage to the structural wood. At some point this should’ve been caught by quality control. But nevertheless this item was delivered to us, the customers, and were asked if we wanted to accept two out of the three pieces. I advised you guys not to make the same mistake I did and take the delivery team’s advice of accepting a partial delivery. Here is why, you would think that a multi-billion dollar company would have some sort of immediate response team for damaged furniture on delivery days with an automated system that notifies the warehouse about the situation. But they don’t, Ashley’s Furniture store forces you to wait for THEIR system to update, at the end of the day once the damaged item is back to the warehouse, after the delivery team is done with their route. They will not rescheduled your delivery until the system has been updated, at best you’ll get a text the following morning with a new delivery date that best accommodates Ashley’s Furniture store and not yours. Our initial delivery date was on 6/13, we now have a partial couch sitting in our living room with the last piece “scheduled” for 6/18.

Customer Care Center: we spoke multiple customer care representatives and expressed our horrible experience thus far and all their reactions are the same. They give you a nonchalant apology and tell you they cannot do anything about your specific situation. They also try to emphasize that every situation is different: this is a furniture delivery store, how has this company not realized that damaged furniture will be delivered and that they need a better system in place to meet the CUSTOMER’s REQUIREMENTS.

Also, I called the San Marcos Ashley’s Store in an attempt to get scheduled through them for the following day (6/14) and was told someone from the store was to call back on whether or not that was possible. I called at 11 am, again at 2 pm and then at 7pm, the last two calls were met with a great amount of attitude and my last call was rudely ended when the agent on the phone hung up on me.

If I could give this store negative stars I would. I will never buy from Ashley’s Furniture...

edited review The store eventually resolved my issue. I am grateful.

My relationship with this store started five years ago. Newly married and at the time deployed to New Zealand for training my wife went to this store. We had decided on a full bedroom set as the start to building our life together.

First we purchased the bedroom set while I was out of the country, it was delivered and set up which was amazing because I wasn't home to help, and a couch later after we received orders to Okinawa, Japan for three years. This set served us well through a move across the world and life in a different country.

Upon return we purchased our first house and it was time to upgrade. We moved the old set into the guest room and went back to the store that helped keep us comfortable through our journeys. We picked a new bedroom set and king bed. Well keeping in mind we just bought a house we weren't able to cover the finance with just one of our accounts so we split the order.

We were promised 60months no interest. Sadly the complete furniture set did not fit in our room so we had to cancel the dressers, but we kept the bed.

After 6 months I realized that a mistake had been made. My account suddenly began accruing interest and 6 months of interest suddenly all hit at once. My account also had the bulk of the purchase on it. I quickly went into the store and the Store manager remembering me admitted to the mistake and created a a case telling me it would be handled.

Being patient I waited months before I returned as nothing had been fixed. At this point I was gaslit by the store for signing a contract that wasn't completely explained to me unlike my wife, as we were separated for the signing, and told I should have understood the fine print coded message underneath my signature meant I was getting 6M instead of agreed upon 60M. (Provided in picture below) After driving to the store on two separate occasions and being promised by the store manager it would be fixed. Calling multiple times and being promised a call back only to wait days and have to call back multiple times, I am told nothing can be done, because my signature is on the contract.

After years of being a loyal customer to this store to be treated like this is disheartening beyond belief. I will never shop at another Ashley Furniture again and I make sure to inform my fellow service members to shop elsewhere...