If it sounds too good to be true it probably is and that goes for the deals at Ashley Furniture. The best part of the experience was the delivery and that's not saying much.
First of all, like many of the reviewers, I went to the store without the view that I would really purchase. I was lured in with what seemed like a great, too good to be true 6 piece bedroom set. The sales person walked us through and showed us the pieces which included a dresser, mirror, night stand, bed frame and headboard, and drawer chest. Six pieces right? Wrong... after the pieces were delivered I was rudely made aware that the drawer chest was not the six piece but instead the slats to the bed were the sixth piece (who would have thought that you would even think to suggest a part of a bed was the piece in a bedroom set). Not only that but the furniture itself was not much better than something you would find in Jysk, except without the (much) of the assembly. It's no wonder why the show room has the lighting of a basement (you can't see the poor quality of the furniture without the light of day).
Buyer's remorse, you bet. Not only that but you can't return the stuff without being charged a 25% restocking fee (plus the $100 in delivery cost). Talk about a bait and switch... what sounds like a good deal turns out to lock you in to a horrible deal (with veneered furniture).
Feeling like I was locked into a suckers bet I gave them one more chance to remedy the experience and called back to find out how to get the other missing piece to the set. The sales defence kicked off right away with the sales man quoting back the incredibly high marked up price as the basis for saying I got a deal - I'm not sure that they have ever even tried to compare their sales prices with any other furniture store but if they had they would clearly realize that they are, at best, the middle of the pack. (On my soured and rotting deal, they were priced out.) Not surprisingly, the sales man came down with a marked down of $100 of their inflated price and the promise of free delivery. Given that he was trying to fix the problem and I was stuck with few options to get a matched piece, I gave in and thought I'd let bygone be bygones and work things out. I was told to come back and process the sale.
When I arrived at the store, I was hit up with another ugly surprise to a string of unpleasant surprises. The store manager re-dictated the terms and removed the free delivery. In essence, he did not like the fact that he was marking down by the $100 so took it back by trying to force the cost back on me. What is very disappointing about the tactic is a deal is deal and as an organization you can't commit to something one minute and change that when you feel like it doesn't suit you later. If that wasn't what Ashley Furniture felt was unfair, they wouldn't put a 25% restocking fee on their sales contracts. Though I might not have been please, just following through on what was promised would have at least let me continue to let bygones be bygones but the unreasonably short sighted consideration of the sales manager has made me a truly disgruntled customer.
To all those that will read this... there are better companies out there with the same quality of product at better prices. There are ugly terms to their contracts and don't be surprised if you don't have much luck getting things worked out. I can definitely see how getting a good sales person might convince you that this company might be okay to deal with but be warned that you may find yourself with a customer service issue that you have to resolve with a very unpleasant organization.
Crappy company.. lack lustre product... terrible management.