Got My Order

[JackOlso]

My order for a Hancock and Moore sofa and two recliners arrived today. Basically everything worked out very well.

Duane is excellent to work with. He's one of the few people I trust to buy expensive soft or hard goods from and have them shipped from the east coast. In addition, he's very knowledgeable, and tells you what you need to know instead of simply what you want to hear.

He takes care of his business very well.

Over the years I've bought a lot of furniture for both my homes and my commercial buildings, and frankly I've been offered more wrong answers, crap recommendations, misrepresentations and blatant lies than you can imagine. I educate myself really well about what I am buying before I talk to any one selling anything of any value. I often ask questions that I already know the answers to in order to gauge who I am working with.

The vast majority of sales people are trained on the job, which essentially means about 75% of what they have been taught by other people is partially or totally incorrect. Eighty percent of them are just passing along the mythology they learned and aren't trying to mislead. But the other 20 percent do intend to mislead, so it's up to the consumer, not the government, to protect against poor information or deliberately false information. If you have to be warned by a sticker on the side of the toaster that you aren't suppose to stick your tongue in it, then protect yourself and those around you by eating out.

With Duane you don't have to worry about any of this stuff. He's straight up and on the money.

In regard to delivery, West Express did a good job. They had unpacked the furniture from the Hancock and Moore crates, wrapped it and put it on the truck before hauling it across country. This is both good and bad. The Hancock and Moore crates are stronger and provide more protection during shipping, but they take up more room on the truck which means more freight costs. In addition, improper unpacking of the H&C crates can result in damage. Any packing materials, either from H&C or put on my West Express are left with the customer. It's a pain in the butt to get rid of those, but it's part of ordering furniture rather than buying it locally.

West Express wrapped the furniture well. They stuff every square inch of the truck just like any furniture mover, so the recliners were sitting on top of other boxes nearly at the ceiling. It's always unnerving to watch them try to get those down from the top of the stack, but they were careful and did it well.

The night before the delivery I cleared the furniture out of the hallways and living room. My old couch and a chair that I didn't want were picked up by 1-800 Got Junk. Very few charities will remove furniture from inside a house, so I use Got Junk. It's relatively inexpensive, they show up on time, know how to remove furniture from inside a house just like movers, and they donate any usable pieces to the local charities, or they sell them to a used furniture store which means the pieces get recycled.

I never ask movers to wear booties or take off their shoes. It's really impractical and often dangerous. I just expect to clean up behind them. In the long run, that works out the best.

I watched West Express take down all three pieces from the truck, unwrap them and stage them for moving into the house. If anything had happened that made me suspect there was a risk of damage, I would have checked the pieces outside the house.

There were a couple of close calls wiggling around the tight spaces, which I expected, but Jason and his partner maneuvered everything into the house carefully winding up with only one small ding on the sofa in the corner. It's so small, it won't be visible after I touch it up. I don't know if it happened getting the sofa into the house, off of the truck, or back in North Carolina when it was un-crated. Knowing where it happened won't change the fact that it needs touching up.

There's a lot of common sense, logistical thinking and the ability to understand how furniture has to be turned and moved to get it through the typical door openings. If I build another house, I'm going to try to make every door opening a full 36 inches, but until then, it's plan, rotate, encourage and maneuver.

You'll have to pay the freight company before they'll unload, so you won't be able to withhold payment if there's anything wrong. Yes, there are people who actually try to stiff the movers, so the freight companies have to collect before unloading. Twenty percent of the customers cause eighty percent of the problems. I've never meet anyone who thought they were one of the problem people. Customers can rationalize all kinds of thinking, especially in this generation of entitlement.

Once the furniture is in the house, you'll be handed a sign off sheet. Basically, it's a release for West Express as the shipper and The Keeping Room as the retailer, so you should inspect every square inch of the furniture before signing and note any problems on the sheet. One or two small ****s are normal. Five or ten aren't. Check the frame and the feet. Sometimes feet can be removed and replaced and sometimes they're part of the frame. Frame damage can't be repaired. Neither can deep cuts in the leather. If either of those two things happen, call Duane before you sign off. Hancock and Moore has to replace the cushion cover or body panel. Duane will help get that done. Small ****s can be touched up and that's almost always what's done. Sorry there's no such thing as perfection, at least not here on this planet.

Here's the bottom line. I saved somewhere around $3500 to $4000 on three pieces of furniture over local pricing, including the shipping, 1 800 Got Junk and the driver tips. Duane had enough margin to make the deal work for him, Hancock and Moore got another order in a tough economic environment, and I got some really good quality furniture.

I offered the local guys $1000 over Duane's pricing plus shipping. They all turned me down. Oh well. You can bet the furniture wouldn't have arrived **** free from them either and Hancock and Moore wouldn't have shipped it to them any faster, but for the extra $3500 they would have taken the packaging materials with them.

That's my story. Thanks Duane, West Express and Hancock and Moore.