Re: Unpleasant experience - Hancock Moore delivered by A&O
There is a huge difference in local deliveries making time stops vs trucks coming from North Carolina headed to New York. I've made that run myself in my trucks over 200 times and a trucker can lose over 2 hours at the weigh stations alone along the way if they get pulled for a log book check or DOT inspection. Also, you can fuel a car in 10 minutes but a truck is 30 minutes at the pumps. Additionally on I-95 trucks have to stay in the right lanes, and many a time I've been caught over there at 45 mph between dozens of trucks while the cars zip by in the left lane at 70 and that can go on the whole length of an Interstate / Turnpike.. Point is, there are so many variables on long distance runs that to accurately predict an arrival time 500 miles away is just wishful thinking. FYI, on local deliveries that I do with my team, we do +/- 30 minutes on time estimates and can make 90% of them within that time frame. Much more control over short hops vs long ones.
On average I speak with forty customers a day via phone, email and in-store. It's impossible for me to remember verbal communications for even a day, much less four months. Please be sure everything is in writing, that's why I send out a Special Order form with every single order so you - the customer - can review it and make correction and changes as well as understand the terms of the order. If its not written down, then its likely I will not recall it. As to small marks, the majority of pieces WILL arrive with them, even in my store. That's expected in the trade and dealers are to look pieces over and 'deluxe' them as its called in the trade. I go over every piece and have a touch up kit I use to detail them - when they come to my store and before delivery. Most are very minor and require no more than 5 minutes. When you order long distance, there is no one going to do this (I have addressed this in several forum posts in the past). That's your trade off for a lower price! You become the 'deluxer' in effect. We are talking cleaning off tool or grease pen marks, adding a color touchup to a leg finish, or perhaps a bit of color to a welt trim corner, nothing major. That is part of the long distance furniture experience no matter what dealer you purchase from. The key is to recognize when a mark is not something that is an easy fix and refuse such a piece at time of delivery. Use good judgement and realize that if the furniture can pick up new marks going back and then returning to you. Obviously you don't accept major damage, but I have had customers refuse pieces when they detect a flaw the size of a ballpoint pen tip and that's a mistake to do that. There is no hard and fast set of criteria one what to accept and what to refuse, all I can say is perfection is a difficult goal to achieve and at the same time no one expects you to live with damages on new pieces.
All my order forms will have "Order times are estimates only and not guaranteed as they are outside our control". That is 100% true! No dealer can tell you how long your order will take to build because we don't control the production (obviously). The best we can do is call during the weekday to see if the cover is in stock and if it is, then the normal time frame to build is usually 6 weeks. We don't know if there is a problem with the frame plant, or the springs did not' arrive from the supplier, or the cushion vendor had a fire and can't deliver the cores for three more weeks or if they pull the cover (leather or fabric) and find they don't have what they thought they did. And the makers do not notify us! I wish they would - but we can only call on the phone to get status checks. I don't know of any store that goes through their orders and does that automatically - but its done upon request. I have some customers that call weekly, and thats fine - and others don't call at all. I will always get that status for you but if you send me an email at 4 p.m. on a Friday afternoon then you won't get an answer until Tuesday!
I try to balance the terms of the order on my form that I send out to keep it all on one page. I cannot make the print too small because Mastercard/Visa/Discover/American Express demand the font be a certain size and some of it in bold type. Do you really want a 5 page contract of the terms of order that requires you to initial each paragraph? That's what it would require to go over everything that might come up in the course of the deal, to cover all the bases. Most my customers wont' even read the whole one page, much less five. As to delays, I have no better idea than you as the customer and that's the truth. For customers that want things delivered in a specific time frame, then its best to go over several cover choices and take the one that will be more timely to make. Ask questions! I have no hidden agenda nor am I a mind-reader. If there is an element of the purchase that is important to you them make me aware of it and I will do my best to see how we can accommodate it in conjunction with the supplier. I don't feel I write disclaimers but it can be construed as that, I'm sure. What I do is try to spell out the terms and procedures as is best possible to do without making it seem like you're buying a house.
The weak spot in the whole distance buying experience is the Delivery Services, and I have written countless posts here on the forum regarding that. They are not companies I can control, and they operate according to their own terms and conditions. I don't have any 'pull' or influence with them and will always side with my customers on issues. No dealer can control how your order is handled, but the guys on the truck are paid only on successful deliveries. If they damage your pieces then they don't get paid for that stop, so they have a powerful incentive to get it to you pure. They don't want marks on pieces any more than you or I do and the overall damage rate requiring returns for repair is less than 3%. But if you are in that 3% then you're not happy.
There is only so much I (or any other store) can do as a distance seller, that's important to realize. This is not for everyone to do - some folks should buy locally and pay the higher price prices because there is more control over a local delivery than a distance one and the chance of marks on pieces are lower buying locally as well. You have to decide what is important to you and make a wise decision. If you expect the lowest price and the highest level of service all-in-one you will most likely be disappointed, and that's true for most every industry, not just furniture. It's not all doom and gloom however. Just today I got a phone call from a customer in Pennsylvania who is very happy with her outcome on an issue. She was not happy with her (2) Sundance sofas that arrived and said the cushion cores were too small and voids too much in the leather casings. We worked together to fix this by having her remove all her cores and sending the casings to H&M via UPS. I worked with H&M to have custom cores made (12 cushions total) so that there was no void in the fill and they were all shipped UPS back to her. She called to say they were now PERFECT. This took some time to do and she was without her cushions for three weeks - so there was an inconvenience factor involved and she had to bundle up the casings and UPS them to H&M at her expense. However there was no charge to do this and return shipping (nine boxes) was also at no charge. This is how distance problems can be solved but its not entirely a 'painless' process.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.