Laid Back Bombay Furniture Does Right

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Bombay Furniture might be a bit laid-back in their customer service department. It might be a bit hard to get them to do something. But it's sweet that they'll take responsibility for other companies' fuck-ups to guarantee your satisfaction.

Bombay Furniture might be a bit laid-back in their customer service department. It might be a bit hard to get them to do something. But it’s sweet that they’ll take responsibility for other companies’ fuck-ups to guarantee your satisfaction.

Dustin B. ordered a sweet new bed for his new house, only to realize after being spit out of the 1 Click Ordering process that they still had his old address on file. He had a bit of a time correcting it with Bombay, but the bed arrived on time at his new house.

As usual, the freight deliverers required a bribe to move it upstairs, to the tune of $20. But after examining the packing slip, Dustin discovered they were obliged to do this for free. So he called Bombay Furniture and even though it wasn’t really their problem, they were happy to give him $40 back for his trouble.

Dustin’s email praising laid-back Bombay, after the jump.

My wife and I ordered a bed from Bombay Furniture for our new house. The deal was great – a $1400 bed that matches some drawers we got from a Bombay store a while back, for $799 with free shipping. Bombay uses Amazon for order processing so I didn’t notice that the order contained my old house address until I received my order confirmation. I kept clicking through the ordering process waiting for the part where I enter my address and it never happened. One-click Ordering has drawbacks. I emailed Bombay (their phone number said they were closed) with my new address and asked for a return email for confirmation. There is no one at our old house to accept delivery.

The next morning I did not see a confirmation from Bombay, so I called them. The woman said she would change the order and call me back to confirm. By that night, no one had called, so I called again and spoke with a different woman. She said she didn’t see any notes on the order with my new address and that she would have to contact the freight company directly. Everyone I spoke with was very helpful but didn’t actually do anything, so I still was worried that my furniture was going to my old house.

Three days later we received a letter from the freight company wanting us to call them to arrange delivery. It looked more like an official notice that we have something in their warehouse that we will have to start paying rent on if they don’t deliver it by a certain date. Nothing said Bombay on it. Someone else might’ve thrown it out.. I was thrilled we were getting our furniture so fast that it didn’t bother me. My wife made an appointment for two days later.

Two guys showed up and my wife showed them where the bed goes upstairs. “We don’t go upstairs, they said.” I was prepared for this. I told my wife to offer them $20 if they wouldn’t take it all the way to our second floor bedroom. She did and they accepted. My wife signed the Bill of Lading and they left.

When I got home to check out the new bed, I also looked at the Bill of Lading. At the bottom, in special instructions, was this: “White Glove Delivery, inside delivery, upstairs, unpack and remove all packing material, offer to assemble for a fee paid to freight company,” We just paid $20 for something they were supposed to do for free.

I called Bombay. This rep was even more helpful than the one before. She put me on hold while she called the freight company. She came back and said the deliverymen didn’t see the special instructions and she apologizes. She could give me a $20 credit to Bombay or a refund of $39.50 (according to some formula they use when they make a mistake.) Hmmm, $20 that’s good only at Bombay stores or $40 that’s good everywhere. I opted for the $40 and thanked her. She said we got a great deal because according to her paperwork the delivery was $200 alone.

We are happy with the bed, and even though I had a hard time changing the shipping address (partially my fault) and the freight company tried to overcharge (not me, really, but Bombay) my final interaction with Bombay left a lasting impression. I’m happy with the deal I got and I would use the company again.

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