Victory!
To address (1) living in a teensy one-bedroom apartment, (2) having lots of ugly furniture, and (3) my crazy pregnancy nesting hormones, I spent quite a lot of time trying to find chic, modern and affordable baby furniture. The rationale was that we would have a fabulous, beautiful home in Indiana (which, whoops, we don't) with the space to have a nicely decorated nursery. Instead, we will have mostly ugly (or overly matchy-matchy) furniture in an ugly house, with a beautiful nursery. You win some, you lose some.
I fell in love with the Oeuf Sparrow crib but I couldn't justify spending $700-800 on a crib. So, we finally settled on the $500 Pali Milano crib, which I promptly ordered in December for a January 2nd delivery:
Well, January 2nd came and went. I received an email from the company saying it would be another three weeks. At this point, we were sick of co-sleeping with Saya, or having her sleep in the little Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper that attaches to our bed - and which she is way too big for. But we decided to wait. After all, it was just a few more weeks.
At the end of January, I received another email...the crib would not arrive for another three weeks because the manufacturer was out of stock. I was pissed but I had already invested too much in the wait, and didn't like anything else at Target. So I waited.
Mid-February, we received another email...again, we'd have to wait for three weeks. After a few snarky phone calls to customer service, we finally received the crib on March 5th. We excitedly opened the package...only to discover that the crib sides were not packed in any padding, and had been chipped during the move. Nothing major, but there was no way I was going to pay full price for that.
We were pissed. We could live with the chips but wanted a major discount. The company would only give us $100 off for keeping the damaged crib. We didn't think that was enough of a discount, so we asked them to replace the damaged parts. They assured us the parts would arrive within three weeks, because the manufacturer had re-stocked.
Three weeks came and went. I called the crib company yesterday and was told that the parts would be shipped "sometime in the following week" and that they would arrive "sometime in mid- to late-April." I snapped. I demanded to return the crib. They told me I would have to pay $110 in shipping to return it. I threatened to sprinkle the interwebs with terrible reviews. They offered me a refund of $125 which I attempted to negotiate up as much as possible. But now I was stuck: either take the refund and wait for the crib, or be charged $110 to return it. I angrily agreed to take a $125 discount but let them know - in no uncertain terms - that I thought it was too little for all the annoyance they'd caused. I even offered to keep the damaged crib and cancel the new part shipment - as long as I got at least a 40 percent discount - but they refused.
This morning I received another call: another delay, with the new parts arriving "sometime in mid-May." Steam started coming out of my ears.
Then, they said "Because it's taken so long, we're going to cancel your order and offer you a full refund. Just go ahead and dispose of the crib since it's damaged." I started getting really angry...but then I realized that I still had the original crib, with slightly chipped sides. And that I was getting a full refund...which meant that I now own a $500 crib...for free!
I hung up the phone and started celebrating. If they'd just given me the 40 percent discount I asked for yesterday, I would have kept the damaged crib and they would have received a $300 payment. What idiots. Now they receive nothing, while I do little victory dances around said teensy apartment (picture ungraceful pirouettes, ape-like fist-shaking and baring of teeth in a "Victory Scowl").
I fell in love with the Oeuf Sparrow crib but I couldn't justify spending $700-800 on a crib. So, we finally settled on the $500 Pali Milano crib, which I promptly ordered in December for a January 2nd delivery:
Well, January 2nd came and went. I received an email from the company saying it would be another three weeks. At this point, we were sick of co-sleeping with Saya, or having her sleep in the little Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper that attaches to our bed - and which she is way too big for. But we decided to wait. After all, it was just a few more weeks.
At the end of January, I received another email...the crib would not arrive for another three weeks because the manufacturer was out of stock. I was pissed but I had already invested too much in the wait, and didn't like anything else at Target. So I waited.
Mid-February, we received another email...again, we'd have to wait for three weeks. After a few snarky phone calls to customer service, we finally received the crib on March 5th. We excitedly opened the package...only to discover that the crib sides were not packed in any padding, and had been chipped during the move. Nothing major, but there was no way I was going to pay full price for that.
We were pissed. We could live with the chips but wanted a major discount. The company would only give us $100 off for keeping the damaged crib. We didn't think that was enough of a discount, so we asked them to replace the damaged parts. They assured us the parts would arrive within three weeks, because the manufacturer had re-stocked.
Three weeks came and went. I called the crib company yesterday and was told that the parts would be shipped "sometime in the following week" and that they would arrive "sometime in mid- to late-April." I snapped. I demanded to return the crib. They told me I would have to pay $110 in shipping to return it. I threatened to sprinkle the interwebs with terrible reviews. They offered me a refund of $125 which I attempted to negotiate up as much as possible. But now I was stuck: either take the refund and wait for the crib, or be charged $110 to return it. I angrily agreed to take a $125 discount but let them know - in no uncertain terms - that I thought it was too little for all the annoyance they'd caused. I even offered to keep the damaged crib and cancel the new part shipment - as long as I got at least a 40 percent discount - but they refused.
This morning I received another call: another delay, with the new parts arriving "sometime in mid-May." Steam started coming out of my ears.
Then, they said "Because it's taken so long, we're going to cancel your order and offer you a full refund. Just go ahead and dispose of the crib since it's damaged." I started getting really angry...but then I realized that I still had the original crib, with slightly chipped sides. And that I was getting a full refund...which meant that I now own a $500 crib...for free!
I hung up the phone and started celebrating. If they'd just given me the 40 percent discount I asked for yesterday, I would have kept the damaged crib and they would have received a $300 payment. What idiots. Now they receive nothing, while I do little victory dances around said teensy apartment (picture ungraceful pirouettes, ape-like fist-shaking and baring of teeth in a "Victory Scowl").
You go girl! I was horrified through much of your post - I would have been screaming at them. I had a similar episode with Pottery Barn Kids when I was doing Trajan's room. I ended up canceling the whole order, telling them to "fuck themselves and their generic products" and went to my standby guy up in Glendale.
No one knows how effing hard it is to do a nursery when you have a budget!!!!!
Posted by
Mishy |
March 31, 2009 at 2:31 PM
VICTORY!!!!
Posted by
Nicole |
March 31, 2009 at 7:06 PM