Bob’s Discount Furniture and Mattress Store — Local services in Town of Riverhead

I’d like to start this by stating that I’ve purchased several pieces of furniture from Bob’s Discount Furniture in the past. From different stores, not this particular one in Riverhead. I like Bob’s. I like his ad’s. I like how he’s a self-made man and started his business from the ground up. I like to support people like this, which is why I made a purchase.

It was a wonderful experience. Until it was delivery day.

I specifically requested a delivery window in the afternoon. I was given three choices by my sales person. Morning, mid morning/afternoon, late afternoon. I selected the one in the middle stating that I needed a delivery after 12 PM due to an elderly person in the residence.

The day before the delivery I received a text message informing me the delivery would be between 8:30 AM and 11:30 AM. I responded via text that this would not be acceptable and asked that it would be delivered after 12 PM. I then called called Bob’s customer service department. I spoke with a young man who listened to my concern and after 10 minutes on the phone, checking with supervisors etc… informed me that my delivery would not take place before 12 PM. I then received a call from the sales person who began the conversation with “I did not tell you it could be after 12 pm. I explained that I had already spoke with customer service and in fact, they promised the delivery would be after 12 PM. But I must say, after such a positive experience with the sales person, I was a bit disappointed in the immediate backpedaling… Because I clearly stated and selected the late morning/early afternoon window… Which seems to have been completely disregarded.

Delivery day… 8 AM. I received a text message that my delivery would occur within 10 minutes! And sure enough at 8:10 AM there's banging on my front door by the delivery drivers. I ask them if they knew how to tell time, because I don’t think 8:10 AM is the same as after 12 PM when customer service told me the delivery would occur. Additionally the text message that I was sent said the delivery would be after 8:45 AM! They responded to me that their route supervisor insisted they had to make the delivery then. There was much misinformation communicated on the delivery part of this sale. Honesty… No one gave a damn about what my needs were.

So there are two things to note here.

First… Bob’s employees at this store do not appear to be truly concerned about the customers request after they receive the sale. I was told all kinds of excuses that had to do with routing etc…. Routing is a minor issue that can be corrected through the route programming software that the drivers use, if they are truly concerned about a customers reasonable request. I feel requesting a delivery after 12 PM is a reasonable request considering I’m caring for an elderly 92 year-old person. It didn’t have to be exactly at 12 PM, it could’ve been ANYTIME AFTER 12 PM.

The second item that is wrong is that on Bob’s delivery schedule It said that deliveries would not be before 8:45 AM! Apparently the delivery route supervisor and those delivering don’t know how to tell time. Showing up at someone’s door at 8:10 AM when they were not supposed to arrive before 8:45 is a little much to accept. even the delivery guys themselves admitted they were way too early… apologizing, begging for forgiveness, etc.… Yet they didn’t think about the customer… They just thought about their own schedule and getting done as soon as possible. This delivery put a hardship on myself and the person I am caring for.

I received a text message asking for my feedback from the store the afternoon after the delivery. Interesting that no one from the store reached out to me after I texted my disappointment with the delivery aspect of the sale. Again… they don’t care!

I wonder what Bob would think of his employees if he was in my place. Maybe I should write to him directly.

It’s due to the delivery aspect only that I am awarding two stars. My next purchase will probably be from...

be very careful with the lender they set you up with if you’re financing. the “no interest if you pay it off within 12 months” is set up in a way which purposely misleads you and scams you into paying extortionate amounts of interest.

when i was setting up the delivery for my couch over the phone, the lady from bob’s told me that my first payment would be due on february 22nd of last year, i thought that was pretty strange since it was early january, so i asked if that would be when the 12 month period would begin, to which she replied yes. taking her word for it was a very expensive mistake on my part, because i believe she was just telling me what i wanted to hear. the 12 month period actually begins the moment you receive your furniture. the couch cost $2237.69 in total, it has been less than a year since i made my first payment, and i have paid $2,254.56, which means i have overpaid by $16.87.

the lender claims that i still owe them $646.52.

the lender (fortiva) was extremely shady, their website conveniently makes it very difficult to access your statements etc if you are trying to look for yourself, but has no problem accepting payments. when trying to log in, it would tell me that my name, D.O.B and last 4 digits of my ss# were not recognized in their system, but when i would call the number they could pull my account up with no issues. they were also very reluctant to provide any actual help over the phone.

looking at the statements they reluctantly allowed me to access after a lot of back and forth, a majority of the payments i was making towards the balance were far more than the minimum payment, which is deliberately set up to be the default amount unless you change it, which is SO grossly predatory, they are deliberately trying to trick you into paying the minimum amount so that you can’t pay it off within the year. so despite me paying more than the couch cost within a year of the first payment date (which was presumably set up by bob’s, i did not choose it) i am being extorted for SIX HUNDRED AND FORTY SIX DOLLARS.

this is all a real shame, this couch is nice, and i probably would have returned for more furniture if it weren’t for all of this, but these types of businesses do not care about returning customers, they do not need you to be happy with your experience, they just want your hard earned money, and will do and say ANYTHING to get you to give it to them, even if that means outright lying. i must have missed something hidden in the fine print that gives them the right to operate this way, so theres nothing i can do about it other than warn whoever i can about bob’s. i do my absolute best to do right by the customers i deal with every day at my blue collar job, because i like to be able to sleep at night, but salespeople and credit lenders who work for stores like these can’t say the same, and they should be ashamed of themselves; especially in...

I cannot help but feel like the sales rep took advantage of my elderly mother when she went in to purchase a full size mattress 2 weeks ago. It seemed like a simple enough task, I even spoke to the rep (Patricia) on the phone while my mom was there to make sure she was buying a mattress that would work with a platform bed, and even though I was told on the phone that it was a memory foam and what showed up was a traditional mattress, my mom seemed happy so I didn’t raise any alarms. Where I have a problem is that after I was off the phone, my mom was somehow persuaded into purchasing a $300 “cooling package” that consists of not one but TWO mattress protectors, (which, if they worked why would anyone need TWO at the same time?) and 4 queen size pillow protectors which I know for a fact my mom did not request because she does not have queen size pillows nor does she need protectors for them. Fast forward, I try to return the unopened, unnecessary items this past weekend and was met with a very short and not so sweet message from the representatives at the desk that you can only return them within 3 days and that it was very clearly explained to my mom when she bought it, which was quite a defensive assumption to make because it absolutely was not explained to her. No one discussed return policies outside of the 90 days she has to try the mattress. They also pointed out that it’s written in the very fine print on the receipt as well and she should have read it which is really nice for them to point out that a 75 yr old should have been more careful to have not been taken advantage of. Also, if the mattress isn’t delivered for 5 days, why do you only have 3 days to return the protectors? That policy alone is a little suspect in my opinion. I’ve unfortunately learned my lesson about how Bob’s Furniture sales tactics target the most vulnerable. Hopefully I can help someone else not be in this position in the future. We are definitely done with Bob’s after this experience.

UPDATE: While I still have the same feelings about this particular store, I was able to work with someone from the corporate team who understood my situation and authorized the return. I've updated from 2 to 4 stars due to the help at a higher level but I still don't think it should have...