Another Great Out of State Buying Experience

[crunchysue]

I've had my new Hancock & Moore furniture for a week now, so it's about time I post here about my buying experience! In a nutshell, it was fantastic.

Like many here, I shopped locally first, at the only high-end furniture store in the Portland, OR area. I prefer to shop locally, and will even pay a little more to do it. When I got there, I felt like I was at a car dealership. The saleslady followed us around as we sat on all the sofas and chairs. She shoved catalogs at us and whenever we mentioned liking the looks of something, she'd say, "Great! Let's get your order written up!" Ugh. I'm a researcher at heart, and visiting the local store was just the beginning of my process. The only good thing I can say about that woman is that she told me (after several visits and emails, when I was finally able to get a word in edgewise and tell her what my actual needs were) that Hancock & Moore would suit my needs best, and she turned out to be right. I found her quite off-putting, but I didn't know where else to turn. Obviously I didn't want to give $5-10K to some Internet shyster!

Then my research led me to this place here. The more I read, the more I started to believe that Duane Collie was a genuine good guy who just happens to sell furniture to people who find him online. Now, before you get the wrong idea, I'm no Internetphobe. I buy stuff online all the time, and I've been a web developer almost as long as websites have existed. But furniture? It seems like a huge risk to buy something so big and so expensive from so far away! And the shipping cost - what will that be like when I can't use my Amazon Prime?

So I read just about every post on this forum from the last couple years, and made up my mind to trust Duane. I mean, the guy seems to know everything there is to know about furniture, and all the reviews here seemed legit to me. I spent a few weeks learning about different leathers, poring over pictures of sofas, compiling measurement statistics, chatting with forum members, and then asked Duane for a price quote on a few sofas. Holy cow! His prices were WAY lower than my local store's "sale" prices. I'm talking about a thousand dollars less for a couch even with shipping. Well, that sealed the deal for me right there. So long, ***** Furniture, hello Keeping Room. And with that kind of savings ... maybe I should go ahead and get a chair while I'm at it.

A few more weeks of agonizing what to get and in which leathers, and I ordered three pieces: a 5438 Lynne Sofa in Tiburon Butternut (http://www.myfurnitureforum.com/show...ron-Butternut), a 5736-1 Martini Chair in Weston Moss (http://www.myfurnitureforum.com/show...n-Weston-Moss), and a 016 Ashmore Boot Stool in Tuscany Saddle (http://www.myfurnitureforum.com/show...uscany-Saddle).

Sun Delivery delivered them about three months later. Only one small glitch - they were scheduled to come on Saturday between 4pm and 8pm, but they called Saturday at 1:00 to tell me that the driver had had a medical emergency and they weren't sure when exactly they would be arriving, but the very nice lady assured me they would do there best to get to my house ASAP. She seemed surprised when I expressed concern for the driver and told her that the driver's health was a higher priority than me getting new furniture. Seriously? Are there really people who would think otherwise? Anyway, she called back a couple hours later to tell me that they would be there between 8am and noon Sunday. They work on Sunday? Wow. Then she called at 6:30am on Sunday (I'm glad I woke up enough to hear my phone, which was on buzzer) to say they were about an hour away. So I got up, worked up a good sweat moving the old couch to the driveway (I had it listed for free on Craigslist), and cleaned the Living Room. The first thing I wanted to know was how the driver was doing, and he said he was fine now. I never found out what the problem had been, but I'm glad it worked out. And I'm telling you this whole story to illustrate how professionally they handled the incident - I have absolutely nothing to complain about.

The furniture was wrapped in blankets and then industrial Saran wrap (a better name for that is escaping me). They unwrapped it, Jill and I oohed and ahhed over it, I showed them that I had the money order for the delivery fee, I took their picture and told them it was furniture porn, they thought that was hysterical, they carried it all inside, I paid and tipped them, and they took off. And there was lots of chatting and joking and dog petting. They were super nice guys and expert furniture carriers.

Bottom line: If you want some heirloom quality furniture with great service at a great price, get it from Duane. No matter where you live.

Any questions? Post them here or PM me.

PS Those two boxes in the last picture that say, "Made in China," are not mine - they just took them out of the truck to make room.

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