ComplaintsforAffordable Furniture To Go

• Initial Complaint

  11/01/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 10/7/2022 I went into Affordable Furniture to Go to look at an Ashley ******* table. The sales associate, ****, said he could order it and have it delivered to the store. I told him I prefer not to purchase furniture sight unseen. He said in the presence of me and my husband that if it arrives and we are not satisfied we did not need to take it. We did pay in full for the piece while in the store. On or about 10/17/22 I contacted the store and said that I no longer want the item as it has not only taken too long to come in but I am no longer interested. They told me I could not cancel the sale. I contacted my credit card company and put a dispute on the charge for the fact that I paid for it and I have not received the merchandise. My bank told me it would take 90 days to determine the claim and I decided that too much time had past and I was not willing to go through with the claim. The original hold on the credit card was reapplied on 10/27/22. I contacted the store to make arrangements to pick up the item on 10/29/22. Two days after my bank stated that the charge was processed. Affordable Furniture to Go said they do not have receipt of the payment and they would not release the furniture. I have proof from my bank that the charge was processed. We decided to wait and my husband called the store today, 11/1/2022 and the store claims they still have not received the payment. This is now 4 business days after **** of America processed the transaction. Affordable Furniture to Go is not being honest and either sold the piece or returned it and are now scrambling to figure out what to do. They clearly are involved in deceptive business practices and should be fined.

  Business response

  11/03/2022

  Customer came into store on 10/7/2022 with item showing on her phone from our website. Sales associate proceeded pulled the item up on our electronic kiosk to confirm that is was the correct item as it was a special order TV stand and show the customer a better image of it. She was explained by the sales associate that she had 3 days to cancel the special order TV stand and there were no refunds or exchanges, unless defective. This is clearly stated on the back side of her receipt and clearly showed that it was a "Special Order" item on the front of her receipt in the description. This has been the store policy for over 28 years. She then proceeded to order the item. On 10/18/2022 the customer emailed the store, eleven days after the order was placed, that she would like to cancel her order, then she called the store and we told her that it was already scheduled on a truck, but we would still make an effort to call the factory and attempt to cancel it. Unfortunately, xit was already loaded on a truck on the way to us to arrive on 10/20/2022. We then called her back and gave her the information that we could not cancel it. Customer then told us that she was going to file a dispute with her credit card company which she did on 10/22/2022 and we replied to immediately explaining the situation. The money came out of our account on 10/25/2022. ******** then called us that she reversed the dispute and the money was taken back out of her account on 10/27/2022 and that she wanted to pick up the item on 10/29/2022. We told he that it could take up to five banking days for us to see the money back in our account and we couldn't release the item until the money showed backed up in our account, but she did not like that answer because on her end it showed the money was back out. We have been totally honest with the customer during this entire process. We are not being deceptive and we are not scrambling to figure out what to do. Today, 11/3/2022 the money showed up in our account. We called the customer and left a message to inform her of that and that she could now pick up the item. Affordable Furniture, **** did absolutely nothing wrong and was totally up front and honest from the time customer ordered the item till now.
  

  
  

  Customer response

  11/06/2022

  Better Business Bureau:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ********. Please add your rejection comments below; if you do not provide any details, your complaint will be closed as Answered. 

  This merchant continues to provide false statements regarding the purchase of the furniture.  At no time on 10/7/22 did the associate tell us that this item was a special order nor that we could not cancel or were required to do so within three days.  If this has been the store policy, as stated in the response, it should come very natural to the associates that this is the case.  Not once did the associate, ****, tell me and my husband this information. 
  
  I did contact the store via email as they did not answer the telephone initially and requested that the item be cancelled. 
  
  It was not until I did this that I received a return telephone call from the merchant stating I could not cancel.
  
  The manager, ***** called and not once said, as he describes in his response, say that he tried to make an effort and call the factory to cancel.  I have this as a recorded message on my cell phone. 
  
  I did contact my credit card company to dispute the sale as I felt that Affordable Furniture to Go misrepresented themselves and was dishonest throughout the entire process.
  
  According to my financial instition,Bank of America, Affordable Furniture to Go did not respond to the claim.  They had 90 days to respond and as of 10/26/22, they did not.
  
  I did have several conversations with **** of Affordable Furniture to Go and recorded him.  I have them and may go to the authorities for file a police report.  Once I cancelled the dispute and the transaction was approved, **** refused to release my furniture for over 7 days. **** used profanities, raised his voice to an unsafe level and threatened me.  All of this is recorded on my telephone.  Finally, **** agreed to release our furniture to us, according to a call he had with my husband.  We had to pay an additional $100 cash for ***** inconvenience.  This is a form of extortion, in my opinion.   It was not until 11/6/22 when we were allowed to pick up the item.  The item does have several scratches on it but I knew I had no recourse with this deceptive and dishonest furniture store so I accepted it in the condition it is in.
  
  I will tell everyone I know about the dishonest and illegal methods that are the practice of Affordable Furniture to Go.  They will never have my business again and hopefully their doors will close as a result of the action of law enforcement and claims that I will take with the courts.
  Businesses and Customers should be civil, courteous and polite in their responses to complaints. It is important to remain professional and productive when participating in the BBB complaint process.
  
  FAQ
  
  Regards,

  ********

   

   

  Business response

  11/07/2022

  In all honesty, there have been no false statements made by any party at Affordable Furniture. As far as this argument by the customer, again it's hard to believe after being an employee for 20 years and never having this issue in the past, that the associate would have never mentioned the special order store policy. We do many special orders on a weekly basis. As you can see by the images attached that we are not trying to keep our policy a secret. It is posted clearly on the wall behind our customer service counter and on the reverse side on every receipt. I guess we could go back and forth with this argument and not sure where it will end. As far as not answering the phone, we have an answering machine that is checked daily and never received any messages from customer. I did call and left customer a message to call me, but I never received a call back. I didn't mention anything on my message other than to call me, it was regarding the status of the chargeback funds. I had replied to my credit card processor, ******************* Systems on 10/24/22 via their portal. Our Chargeback Rebuttal Letter shows that we have 20 days, not 90 days to reply from 10/22/22 as we did on 10/24/22. I am not sure what the 90 day time frame is as noted by customer. We don't reply to **** of America, we reply to our processor as noted here. I was standing by **** on a couple of occasions when customer called and their were never heard him use any profanities nor had he raised his voice to unsafe levels. He would never threaten a customer, that is just going too far as far as trying to make us look bad. As far as not releasing the item, we explained to the customer that it could take up to five banking days for us to see the money back in our account after the dispute reversal was initiated. She was explained to on a few occasions that it was a process started by her and now there will be a time period for us to see the money back(up to five banking days), which it was exactly five banking days from time of the initiation of the dispute reversal. Item was picked up on 11/5/22. I am unfamiliar with the additional $100 that she paid for ****'s inconvenience. We never charged the customer anything more, we actually assembled the ** Stand for her at NO CHARGE, (a $75 savings) to save them time when they picked it up. This is the first time that we are hearing about several scratches on the unit. It was checked over thoroughly after we assembled it and then it was wrapped it up with shrink wrap. Customer has recourse with the scratches to the extent that if it is a factory defect, parts may be able to be ordered. We are very sorry that this situation has escalated to this point. 

  Sincerely,

  ***********************

  Customer response

  11/08/2022

  Better Business Bureau:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ********. Please add your rejection comments below; if you do not provide any details, your complaint will be closed as Answered. 

  I am confident that the ***************************** at Better Business Bureau will find sufficient evidence to fine or document my claim against Affordable Furniture To Go.  

  I do not dismiss that the policy as stated by the merchant is valid.  I strongly disagree that the associate of the store misrepresented our sale and did not disclose to myself of my husband during our sale.  We did receive a copy of the policy with our transaction receipt stapled to the policy and were never told of the policy.  I can tell you that with complete certainty I would not have made the purchase.  I would not purchase anything, especially furniture for my home, sight unseen.

  The manager and associate are not being honest and did hold our furniture until we paid an additional amount.  Our receipt and the price listed on the website was paid in full on our credit card.  We should have not been made to feel threatened by the staff to pay an additional amount if we wanted to pick up our furniture.

  As you make a decision, I remind the merchant that I will share my experience with everyone I know and will encourage all to tell their family and friends that Affordable Furniture to Go is not a place that deserves to be in business.  I will make it my goal to spread my message and am confident that as a result of their actions, they will not be profitable.  You can not treat people who want to patronize their store this way and expect to be successful.  

  Businesses and Customers should be civil, courteous and polite in their responses to complaints. It is important to remain professional and productive when participating in the BBB complaint process.
  
  FAQ
  
  Regards,

  ********

   

   

• Initial Complaint

  06/30/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  August 15, 2021, I purchased a recliner sofa from Affordable Furniture tax free weekend for my mom.Soon after purchasing the sofa, my mom was in the hospital. So she never got to use it until late September. After she was discharged, I moved in to care for her for about a month or so. I slept on the sofa and at night, not knowing what it was, I was bitten up by bed bugs.My mom would be resting on the recliner and was bitten up as well. We didn't know it was bed bugs until we placed a white cotton sheet over the sofa because we initially thought we could be allergic to the sofa fabric. Then we saw the bugs on the sheet and maintenance confirmed it was bed bugs.My mom has been in this particular apartment for 28 years. Never having a problem with bed bugs until I had this sofa delivered.I would like the sofa removed and replaced with a new one for my mom. Because her apartment is still packed up, we are unable to provide an upload of the receipt. I did pay with my card and will retrieve the bank statement.Thank you

  Business response

  06/30/2022

  This is an unfortunate situation. Sofa was purchased on August 15, 2021 and delivered three days later on August 18, 2021. I first received first notice of this issue in March of 2022, nearly eight months after the sofa was delivered into the customer's home. Not ever having any problem with bed bugs in our 28 years in business I wasn't sure what to do, so I contacted the factory with the manufacturing  information from the sofa that the customer provided. They looked into the complaint nationally to see if there had been any type of issue of this type, but they came up with nothing. The issue is that the bed bugs could have been brought in by anyone that had visited the home in period of eight months to which the sofa had been there, most likely the mother brought the bed bugs into the home, as she came back from the hospital, a common place where there are always bed bug problems. See article attached. There are so many unknowns how the bedbugs arrived with the time that passed that it cannot be determined to who is to blame. A new sofa does not have bed bugs when delivered. Bed bugs don't come from furniture, they come from people, they are so-called hitchhikers. Also, after reviewing the complaint, I am not sure why if the bed bug issue began in late September of 2021 when sofa was first used, why was it not reported to us until mid March of 2022. I am also not sure why the sofa has not been treated or removed from the apartment at this point, if it has bed bugs since September of 2021, a period of almost ten months.Even though this is of no fault of ours, we are willing to sell the customer another sofa at 10% above our cost plus sales tax and delivery. We will not remove or handle the infested sofa for obvious reasons. Thank You!

  Customer response

  06/30/2022

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

  I do not see what the resolution is for this issue in this letter.  However, I will continue with the intent that Affordable Furniture will resolve this issue by removing the old sofa and replacing it with a new sofa.

  
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does satisfy my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint #********. I understand that by choosing to accept the business response that my complaint will be closed as resolved. 
  
  Regards,
  
  *************************************

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