Rooms To Go Delivery = Steaming Pile

It's not that I don't like the Rooms To Go concept. I think it's a fine concept. I like their stores a great deal, with all the natural light and so forth; so much better than the standard enclosed big box warehouse. And I rather like a lot of their furniture, particularly a sleeper sofa I purchased from them this past weekend. It's a very nice piece, olive upholstery (matches my walls) and very attractive wood trim. I'm almost positive it would fit in my condo's rather small elevators.

I scheduled delivery for Wednesday, knowing that I had a flight on Friday, about four hours or so of briefings on Thursday, and that I had company coming in on Saturday. The company would be sleeping on the sleeper sofa, since my two-room condo (well, five if you count bathrooms and kitchen) has only the one bedroom; I need a sleeper sofa so I can have a second bed.

We wrote on the delivery ticket that my condo would not allow deliveries after six p.m., and would the delivery crew please call my cell phone an hour before delivery--this would give me time to get home from work. Seemed like all would go well.

Tuesday I got a computerized message from the company saying that my delivery window for Wednesday was 3 pm to 7 pm. Well, 3/4 of that window was okay, and since I had no way to respond to this computerized message, I just figured I'd hope they could get to my place before 6--and maybe I could barter a solution even if they couldn't (who the hell would know if I had a couch delivered at 6:30? Nobody).

Wednesday I left work at three and went to the gym, figuring I'd just leave as soon as the call came. I left the gym around four having received no call. Fine, fine, there's still time.
Nothing happens.
Around 6:30 I get a phone call, but don't reach the phone in time; I call the number and get an answering machine for some guy I don't know.

I had dinner, and by that time it didn't matter anyway when they came because they'd be unable to actually deliver the piece. I was stewing.
Around 8:15 or so I'm outside, sitting on the porch reading Mark Tushnet's A Court Divided and enjoying a glass of Barefoot chardonnay, and a big unmarked truck pulls up out front. I watch with interest as the driver and passenger both get out of the truck and talk with the gate guard, then smoke cigarettes. Then they get back in the truck and drive away.

Curious, I figured I'd better go downstairs and see whether that was the couch. Sure enough, it was.

Irate, I called the local Rooms To Go from which I'd purchased the couch. I spoke with a nice person who was apologetic but couldn't explain what had happened--why no call before the delivery, why the delivery over an hour outside the given window. She checked with the dispatcher, and then came back on the line.
"Let me make sure... you said the couch hadn't been delivered, right?"
"That's right."
"Huh. The dispatcher said he showed a successful delivery. That's not right."
"Yeah, there's no couch here I can assure you of that."

So, the delivery team, first they give me a delivery window which is partially outside the acceptable time frame. Then, they don't bother to call before delivery as they'd been asked to do. Then, they deliver the thing over an hour outside their own estimate without calling ahead to tell me about it. Then, the dispatcher goes ahead and claims the thing has been successfully delivered though it quite clearly hasn't been.

I told the girl that they could deliver the thing the next day (that is, today), or they could keep their damned couch and give me back my money. She said she'd note that and have the manager call me in the morning.

Today? No call from the manager in the morning. No calls at all until I got out of my meetings and called the store myself. The manager says, well, it says here there's a delivery notice for next Thursday. Something about it had to be delivered on Thursday.

Good thing I wasn't standing there in person or I'd have hit him. I told him what had happened, said clearly Thursday meant today and not a week hence--where the hell would he get that idea from?--and anyway rescheduling the delivery without calling to tell me about it? You get the couch to my house this afternoon before six or you give me the money back.

At least the guy was honest. He didn't think there was any way they could get the couch delivered today. No shit.

If the money's not back in my credit card balance by the time I land tomorrow, I'm going to take advantage of Rooms To Go's big windows and throw a molotov cocktail through one of them.