I think it’s high time I write about an appalling experience I recently had with ordering a couch from Restoration Hardware. I placed an order for one of their in stocks that was on sale and was advised that an estimated delivery time of 2-3 weeks was to be expected. After one month I received no news from them, so I decided to call and see what the hold up was.
Their customer service department, after putting me on hold for over 45 minutes, advised me that the couch was on back order due to high demand and has been placed on back order. I asked what the expected date of arrival for the shipment of couches was. They said 4-6 weeks. Fine, it happens, what can you do?
In the meantime, the couch I ordered is on sale again for a better price than the one I had purchased it for. I contacted customer service again and they assured me that I would get the new sale price when my couch was delivered to me and it would be charged to my credit card at that time.
Two months go by and still no couch. I decide to call customer service again to get an update. Again, over 45 minutes holding on the phone only to tell me that the order number that I gave them does not show up on their system and I would have to call back and try again tomorrow.
I did the next day and then was informed that they were in the process of switching over to a new system and the order number has now changed. Someone would contact me again to give me the new order number and an expected date for delivery. They never did.
Called again two weeks later, again they had difficulty finding my order number. After I gave them the old and the new order number, they finally told me that it was out for delivery and I should be hearing from the delivery company within the next 2 weeks. Yippy! Right? Wrong!!
Two weeks go by, no couch, call again, waiting, order number confusion and no it never went out for delivery because….they couldn’t tell me just then because they couldn’t read/understand their notes in their file!
By this point I am ready to loose it on them, I demand I speak to one of their managers; they place me on hold but after over an hour on hold, I hung up.
I tried…yet again 2 weeks later. Now customer service tells me that the reason the couch has not been ordered AT ALL is because they no longer have my credit card information on file due to the switching over of their computer system. I gave them my credit card info again and assured them that I still wanted the couch. Two weeks they tell me…
Of course it didn’t arrive! I call again (silly me), this time they advise me that they attempted to call me but they had the incorrect number and by the way it’s on back order and will take another 8 weeks to come in.
No thanks! I finally filed a formal complaint with their head office (no one should have to go through this ever again!), someone eventually called me back and wanted me to tell them exactly what had happened, not for documenting in their files oh no, they just wanted me to know that I was being ‘heard’.
They had no excuse to give me, they did not bother to ‘investigate the file’ as they promised me they would, and they were apologetic and hoped that this would not discourage me from placing an order with them again… You think?!!!
Well I can tell you one thing, this was the worst ordering experience I have ever had and it seems that Restoration Hardware has a history of many, many complaints with their customer service department. Just research it on the web and you will see for yourself.
It’s plain stupidity and corporate management should take notice because eventually if they don’t clean up their act, people will get fed up and go somewhere else. Just like I have.
