I recently got a quote from Hickory Park Furniture Galleries in NC...they use Home Delivery Service, Inc for delivery. Any feedback on Hickory Park Furniture Galleries and/or Home Delivery Service would be greatly appreciated...I live in CT.
Thanks!
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I recently got a quote from Hickory Park Furniture Galleries in NC...they use Home Delivery Service, Inc for delivery. Any feedback on Hickory Park Furniture Galleries and/or Home Delivery Service would be greatly appreciated...I live in CT.
Thanks!
What about any recommendations as to the best/better furniture delivery companies that would provide services from NC to CT?
I use A&O delivery (Alpha and Omega) on the East coast, via West Express pickup.
Thanks! Before I give them a call, is there anything I should ask in particular (besides cost)?
Not really! There is no perfect delivery company. Plycon Van Lines may be the most careful of all of them (I have never had a damage claim with them) but they are quite expensive and slow. Of the reasonably priced services, I find West Express and A&O do a better job than their competitors overall.
Thanks again! The furniture place I got the quote from requires a bulk of the payment to be made by personal check and not credit card...should I be concerned about that? I would feel more comfortable using a credit card but have never ordered furniture from another state so I'm not sure if that's standard practice. Should I only consider doing business with companies that accept credit cards? If so, who do you recommend?
There are a number of mail order / internet companies that allow the deposit to be made with a credit card, but require final payment in cash. For the record, my store does not at this time. The reasons they do this:
1) Credit cards - every one of them - cost the merchant between 2 % and 3% to process. That is a significant amount in a low-margin business.
2) By paying cash ahead of delivery, you have no choice but to accept the goods. Credit cards give you as a consumer a measure of charge-back protection. Some chargebacks are justified, but they are frequently abused a lot by people as well who suffer buyer's remorse for one reason or another. Chargebacks are a huge, massive headache for a merchant and require time and manpower to resolve. Cash payment eliminates this.
3) Delivery companies are responsible for damages, not the selling merchant. If a piece arrives broken or damaged, it prevents a chargeback to the merchant. The consumer puts the blame on the selling dealer rather than the delivery company. Many customers do not understand this, but this is also a frequent reason why.
I have had chargebacks because customers did not like the color of their sofa once it arrived, or how it felt to them, and refused to pay for the items. In every case they state the item was 'misrepresented by the merchant'. I even had one guy in Arizona do a chargeback on the entire purchase of a sofa because the delivery company would not take his old sofa down the street to his son's house! In my experience every chargeback I have ever had is without merit, and thankfully they are few and far between. 98% of my customers are pleased with their purchases, so I get very few. Were I to get chargebacks frequently, I too would have this policy.
Really? Come on now. Maybe they were on a very tight schedule or the guy expected them to just do it for free!! When our mattress was replaced by the store, we offered to pay the delivery people to take it to our sons house (5 minutes away). A nice tip, some cold water and treating them with respect did the trick. The delivery guys were quite happy to take care of that for us, but you can't expect them to work for free!!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by drcollie
Yes, true! He refused the sofa and it came back to me. He insisted on his old sofa going to his son's house, Sun Delivery said "No Sir" and that was it.
Oh, the stories I could tell....in 30 years in this business, I have some whoppers. There was that lady in Connecticut with the custom made dining room chairs.....
My sole experience attempting to do a chargeback was with a large and well known sporting goods store named after an individual that listed a kids bicycle on their website as being Made in USA. Thinking I was supporting my own country's workers, I paid about a 50 percent premium for this bike compared to all other comparable products on their website. When it arrived, it said in large letters on the box "Made in China". I didn't open the box and promptly called the retailer to initiate a return. They refused saying that wasn't a valid reason. I indicated the product was misrepresented. They stated the country of origin was not a fundamental specification of the product and thus it did not constitute misrepresentation of the product. After repeated unsuccessful attempts to get them to accept return of the bicycle, I called my credit card and sought their help. They initiated a chargeback inquiry but the store would not budge with them either and the effort was unsuccessful. I ending up having to pay the full amount for the Chinese bike.
Later, I would try and post comments on their website regarding the product stating simply "I purchased this bike and it is actually Made in China." My comments were never posted and they would never change the product description on their site.
Needless to say, the chargeback provision appears to me to give retailers considerable power and a inquiry isn't automatically ruled upon in the consumers favor. I will always believe that I was right, that the store misrepresented the product in a fundamental way, and I should have been able to return it for a refund.