Help me understand

[SueCT]

I was told today that my H&M City Sofa in Cavalier Mocha, which was estimated to be ready in late April, will be delayed because H&M is out of that leather. They expect it to be until Mid-Late May before they can make it. I ordered this, not through Duane I must clarify, on Feb. 20 or shortly there after, since it was late in the day when I stopped to by to finalize my order with my nail choice. The estimate I was given was 10 weeks from my initial order. I have seen complaints from people online who have had this happen before. Since this is a program sofa, if H&M had say, 150 orders for this sofa in this leather when I ordered it, and only 100 or 125, or even 149 kits left in this leather for this sofa, why does it take 6 weeks to realize this? Why did my sales person just get this letter? This is very frustrating. I stopped by there today to look at a carpet or rug ottoman, whatever they call it, that they got in, but the colors are not what I need. This makes me leery of ordering a leather ottoman from H&M because there seems to be no real way of knowing if or when they will actually be able to make it from this leather since they don't seem to keep up much on inventory vs. outstanding orders. Who knows how many orders have been placed since my sofa 6 weeks ago, or if they will get enough in for my sofa much less an ottoman that I have not ordered yet, when they get more leather. I am now considering ordering an ottoman from Sherrill or another manufacturer in a coordinating fabric pattern instead.

[drcollie]

Did you know I have (2) of those in stock (# 9840 City Sofa in Cavalier Mocha). One on the floor, one brand new in the crate. I always keep at least one in the factory crate/box in the warehouse, since its a popular model. You *could* have had it by end of February if you called me on Feb 20th! Oh well.....

To reply to your question:

1) That's a JIT program sofa. 3 weeks build time, about 1 week shipping. 95 % of those Married Cover JUST IN TIME units arrive in 4 weeks from the day H&M gets the order. They never take 10 weeks unless H&M is out of stock of Cavalier Mocha, and its very rare that they are - I've not known them to be out of that hide and married cover kit at all in the past 15 years. I order sets of those constantly and continually, and I have not had a backlog issue on that model in that leather.

2) H&M does not notify dealers on timeliness or out-of-stocks. There are no letters sent out. A dealer has to make a phone call to check status.

3) The problem is not always with the manufacturer, sometimes it's the dealer. I don't know your selling dealer, nor do I want to know the name of them, however different dealers do different things. Some hold orders to get a lower bulk shipping rate (or drive their own truck to the factory), that's pretty common. It costs more to ship one or two pieces, rather than a truckload as it saves them maybe $ 30 to $ 40 on a sofa to pack a whole trailer. Some dealers don't pay their bills on time and get put on credit holds until they clear up old bills - that's common, too. If that happens they tend to make up an excuse and throw the factory under the bus.

I order pieces the same day the customer orders them from me, usually within 2 hours. I never hold for bulk ship rates, either. I always am 100% paid up on my bills and not subject to credit holds - ever.

On the chance the leather truly is out-of-stock, then its sourced from China (Cavalier) and it's not air-freighted, its container-shipped. Takes several weeks to get the leather across the ocean by ship, then railcar from California.

[SueCT]

I did know you had those sofas, but without the nails I wanted and the shipping charges, and a local dealer to handle things if I had problems down the road. I did read your entry about the advantages of using a local dealer as well. She said she would have to check the letter she got about my sofa for something, so that is why I said she got a letter. I might ask to see it.

I understand why it takes so long to get the leather, just not why they don't know that information when the order is placed. Or for that matter, why they would not notify the dealer of timeliness or out of stocks.

Also, I know you give tons of quotes and probably can't remember most of them, but I did call you first, we spoke on the phone, it was before you got those sofas in, and you told me that the price I got locally was right about where you would be, within a couple hundred dollars, and there was no real advantage to using someone like you with additional shipping costs. I appreciated your honesty. I also checked back with you before I placed the order and those sofas you had in stock were not the exact configuration I wanted.

[drcollie]

None of the makers notify dealers of out-of-stocks, half the time we struggle getting acknowledgments on orders. This is still a largely 1970's era pre-computer industry, just having a web page for a manufacturer is a major accomplishment. Ordering is done by fax machine or email, there is no central ordering system for any of the makers. No dealer can check status on an order other than picking up a telephone and making a call (Hooker / Bradington Young is slightly better using an archaic database that sort of works if you can decipher it). The makers do not send out letters on notifications or delays.

I think customers assume more, but its not there.

Imagine if Amazon worked like the dealer/supplier interface! Here's how it would go:

* You would type up an email of what you want to purchase. You better make sure YOU have all the parameters needed in the build. And you put the cost on yourself from the price books.
* You email it to Amazon, to a general mailbox called ORDERS. Or you Fax it.
* If you left off a critical part of the order, such as color of a component or other variable, it may be a 3 to 5 days before you get a call back on it. Or it can just sit in the email box for a bit.
* A paper acknowledgement shows up in the mail about 10 days later (most the time). You check the Acknowledgement against the order you sent in to make sure its correct.
* ..........Nothing happens......from that point on
* After the item has shipped, you get an invoice in the mail to pay the bill. It shows how it was shipped, but there is no tracking number or estimated date of arrival, just when it left the dock.

And that's how it works - from all makers. 2018.

Now imagine having 80 to 90 orders ongoing all the time, in process from various makers. Mine are simply in an file folder on paper. Most other dealers likewise. I go through them about every three weeks and think "Is this running about on time or should I call on it?" The best way to get a prompt is for the customer to call or email the dealer and ask "Can you please give me an update on my order?" Then the dealer makes the call and finds out (in a more curious note, for some reason people make these calls on late Friday afternoons or on Saturdays - when there is no one at the factories to check with so it holds over to the following week).

Why don't they update? Simple... money. It's a low-margin business, the money is not there to implement modern computerized systems.

[SueCT]

Maybe they have someone who does the same thing and follows up on outstanding orders, because I never asked for an update. I just assumed it would be ready roughly within the time frame they gave me unless I heard otherwise. It may have been an internal email or something, but she clearly said "I will check your letter" to make sure. I don't want to ask invasive questions about how they run their business, but I would like to be sure they are being up front with me about what is going on. I did tell her that another store said they could get it for me within the quick ship time frame when she had told me it would take 10 weeks. She did not dispute that but did say "well no one can get if for you if they don't have the leather". I half jokingly asked if I could cancel it and just buy something they had on the floor and she said that was an option. But what they have on the floor is also not the color or nails I wanted, so I was not really serious, just frustrated. 10 weeks is a long time already, I hope it doesn't turn into even longer. I wonder what happens if they suddenly start applying tariffs to the leathers and kits coming over from China? I don't think the goverment cares if I already ordered it at pre-tariff prices, and I wonder if the furniture companies can absorb any increases on materials to fill orders they have already accepted at prices that won't cover the costs? Are you concerned about the current trade issues? There already are not enough people making good quality furniture without driving more out of business. Fingers, crossed, I hope nothing else happens to my order.

[Danw99]

I don't understand where your dealer got 10 weeks from in the first place, since this one is in the quick ship 4 week program. And those models are supposed to be very popular and the leather is ordered by the batch, so they should not be out. Just seems weird to me and I would bet there is something shady going on at your dealer that they did not tell you about.

[drcollie]

On occasion, H&M can run out of a married cover - it's pretty rare for that to happen, but not unheard of.

There is really no tannery industry in the USA any more, so I can't imagine a tariff on tanned leathers - there is no domestic competition for that product so a tariff would not make any sense.

[SueCT]

Thanks for the info on the Tarrifs. I stopped in and spoke to my salesperson again today and she said they call in and check on orders every couple of weeks. They are told about shortages when they try to place a new order on something the factory is currently out of.

I am still looking for an ottoman. I sent a quote request for the Roger's Bench. Would you ever recommend putting a higher end leather on an ottoman than on the sofa? The sofa will be the City in Cavalier Mocha, but I was wondering if a leather with more tones or colors in it would make a more interesting combination than something matching. I would have to look at the swatches but from the online swatches I was thinking something like Burl Cocoa Polished or even Capris Tobacco would have some of the darker tones as well as lighter ones.

[drcollie]

Sometimes its fun to put a more exotic leather on an ottoman than to do a match, it all depends on the look you are going for. If you go that route, use an exotic leather like an animal print. You won't get your money's worth on it doing a leather like Capri Tobacco - that will just make your Cavalier Mocha leather sofa look bad.

[SueCT]

OK, thanks. I just spoke to my dealer again, they actually update the status of orders with H&M weekly, maybe because they have many stores and process lots of orders, they might have orders coming up as ready to ship that often. Regardless of why, she did tell me that they have more covers coming in to fill orders that were already placed, but new orders for the City 9840 in Cavalier Mocha will take longer. It does not sound like they are completely out of that leather, but the kits used for the 9840 sofa, so she would still quote me 10-12 weeks for a non-program ottoman. They seem to be staying right on top of things and in frequent contact with H&M. So anyone reading this who is waiting for an order to ship in that sofa and in that leather that they have already placed, hopefully it will not be delayed too long. Anyway, I might wait until after the Market to order an ottoman, just to see if anything new and interesting comes out. I still love the rug ottomans, but even the smaller one is quite large, and I would love them to start offering it in a slightly smaller ottoman. At least not quite as deep. Or at the very least, somthing not in blue, lol. I could do red, purples, greens, browns, but not blue. I was excited to hear my local dealer was getting one in and prayed for 2 months for anything but blue. Guess what color it is, lol? I don't dislike blue but that is the color of my bedroom, and I don't plan to redo the main floor of the house in the same color to accommodate a blue ottoman. The last several I have seen have all contained a lot blue.