Sunday, October 08, 2006

Home Decorators Frustration

When ordering something online I'm usually fairly careful to find out about the company I'm doing business with. When I can go into a store and talk with someone face to face it doesn't seem like there would be that much of an issue.

Doug and I ordered two items from Home Decorators store last Monday. Yeah, ordered, because the store doesn't really stock most items, they're pretty much just a front for the catalog business. One was a large area rug for our living room, and the other was a set of shelves for our foyer.

I was pretty surprised to have to give them my billing address when I was shopping at an actual store: I mean, it's not like I was shopping online or like they were actually going to deliver something to my house (we have to pick it up at the store, or get charged some pretty hefty shipping charges). Out of habit I gave them my PO Box address, but that didn't match and I realized I have that statement sent directly to the house (it's never been an issue before because I don't use this card online, it's for face-to-face purchases). So I gave them the correct address and the lady put it in the computer.

Evidently that didn't lift the hold, and even after my husband called them yesterday all they could do was take a message and later someone left a message on our machine that "there's an address problem." Ummm, duh! But they didn't bother to lift the hold and fix it.

I called again this morning and ended up speaking with a manager, who was (supposedly) able to lift the hold off the order. I cancelled the area rug part of the order and just kept the shelving (although I'm having second thoughts about that, too). I've just found too many nice-looking area rugs (some online even have free shipping) to spend that much money with a company that doesn't want my business.

The manager told me the in-store orders go through their same catalog system, and they have this problem a lot. (Hmmm... if even the store managers know it's a widespread problem, why doesn't anyone fix it?) Looking on a couple different consumer opinion sites I see that their ability to fulfill orders on-time is, at best, spotty. Must be nice to have a business where you don't have to care whether customers are happy or whether you even bother to take their order.

Would I do business with them again? Maybe in a pinch. They have a few items (like the shelves I ordered) that I haven't been able to find anywhere else, especially not for the price. I might order again if they are a) the only place that sells the item I'm looking for, b) the item is relatively inexpensive compared to substitutes I've found, and c) I'm not in a time crunch. But would I recommend this company to anyone else? Sure, if you like crappy service, you don't care whether your order is taken or fulfilled, and they were the last store on earth.

2 comments:

Jen said...

Wow, so often you see a brick-and-mortar not making the good transition to Web, and here's the reverse. It's pretty unfortunate. I know my mom has been very happy with them from catalogs (there is no store near her). Stacks and Stacks is pretty similar (but doesnt have that exact thing - which is very cool-looking, btw). And shouldn't you be getting rugs at Rugs Direct?! ;)

angie said...

LOL! I almost did! But I changed my mind on what I wanted (again!) and found a 5x8 floor sample on clearance for under $150!