NEW YORK, 7:33 AM, WED JUL 9 | 20 POSTS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS | tips@consumerist.com | RSS
Posts Tagged “

Furniture

”
Value City Furniture

This Furniture Store Uses Creative Math

Wow, look at this nice five-piece bedroom set. Only $599! Not bad, especially when the description says it's normally $1800. Five different pieces—that would fill a bedroom with a lot of cheap class! Now let's put the fine print filter on it:

Five-piece set includes headboard, footboard, wood rails/slats, dresser and mirror.

That's right, the bed is actually three pieces. That nightstand and other dresser must have wandered onto the set accidentally.

More »

5:06 PM on Tue Jul 1 2008
By Chris Walters
9,516 views, 54 comments

ask the consumerists

How Can I Convince Crate & Barrel To Finally Give Me My Furniture?

Reader Brittney is tired of waiting for Crate & Barrel to deliver her couch, but she thinks it may be her fault that she's got nothing to sit on because she was too nice. Now she's wondering what she should do: More »

12:47 PM on Thu Jun 5 2008
By Meg Marco
9,397 views, 38 comments

happy endings

UPDATE: IKEA Apologizes For Charging You A $60 Restocking Fee On A Defective Bookcase

The mighty EECB (executive email carpet bomb) has brought justice to West Chester, Ohio, says reader Drew. Drew was mistakenly charged a $60 restocking fee on a defective bookcase. He wrote to us and launched an EECB on IKEA. The results? A very nice apology letter, a full refund and a $25 gift card. Looks like it's Swedish meatballs for dinner tonight. More »

11:58 AM on Tue May 20 2008
By Meg Marco
2,909 views, 13 comments

restocking

IKEA Charges $60 Restocking Fee On Defective Bookcase

If IKEA has a 30% restocking fee on defective items that you tried in vain to assemble (twice) only to decide that you just didn't want the stupid thing anymore, we couldn't find any evidence of it on their website. Nevertheless, reader Drew says buying and returning (rather than exchanging) a defective bookcase cost him $60 and a sore back. More »

1:29 PM on Tue Apr 29 2008
By Meg Marco
5,444 views, 79 comments

complaints

Why Does It Take IKEA Four Months To Replace A Defective Couch Cover?

Joyce has been waiting since December for IKEA to send her a replacement couch cover. IKEA admitted that the cover had a known defect, but since they were out replacements at the time, they promised to call Joyce a month later when new covers arrived. Joyce gave her information and asked for a reference number, but was told that one wouldn't be necessary. Wouldn't that have been nice? More »

3:41 PM on Sat Apr 26 2008
By Carey
4,047 views, 23 comments

shopping

Shopping Strategy Of Millionaires: Buy Used Or High Quality

Ordinarily I find "money tricks of millionaires" lists to be sort of annoying and unhelpful, but this one, found on the Dumb Little Man productivity blog, and based on a book called 'The Millionaire Mind' by Dr. Thomas J. Stanley, is an exception. It offers one bit of practical advice that I think everyone should at least consider. More »

12:59 PM on Wed Apr 2 2008
By Meg Marco
15,326 views, 96 comments

furniture

"We Do Not State That The Wood For This Chair Is Black"

One problem with ordering furniture online: you may not get what you saw on the website. Then, when you contact the store to explain that the light wood sitting in your living room is nothing remotely like what you ordered, you might get this response: "I would like to inform you though that we do not state that the wood for this chair is black, although the photo we do have shows that the wood is dark we do not state that it is black." More »

11:20 PM on Tue Jan 15 2008
By Chris Walters
7,851 views, 34 comments

Latest by kbarrett: If you would just poke your eyes out, all furniture would be black. more »

venison

3 Deer Attack Pittsburgh-Area Furniture Store

A group of three deer attacked a Pittsburgh-area furniture rental store, breaking windows and leaving a trail of hair and blood as they rampaged through the sales floor, says WPXI. More »

11:55 AM on Tue Jan 15 2008
By Meg Marco
3,028 views, 29 comments

above and beyond

Pottery Barn Saved Christmas With Good Customer Service

Pottery Barn rescued Reginald's Christmas gift from the clutches of incompetent delivery people who forgot to hand over all the pieces to his Lawyer's Bar & Hutch. Reginald was fuming, ready to tell Pottery Barn that he would never shop with them again—but then he spoke to Jim. More »

8:30 PM on Sun Jan 13 2008
By Carey
5,555 views, 23 comments

Levitz Furniture will close all 76 stores. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

6 comments

Due to bankruptcy and sale to a liquidation company, tomorrow is the last day to redeem any gift cards at Bombay and Bombay Kids furniture stores. After that you will have to make a claim through bankruptcy court to get anything from the gift cards.

5 comments

La-Z-Boy Inc posted a loss this quarter and said it wouldn't meet its fiscal 2008 outlook, citing a depressed housing market and the fact that nobody is buying their chairs. [Reuters]

15 comments

confessions

The Furniture Industry Is A Secret Cabal

"Most people do not realize that home furniture has a 200% to 400% markup on it. Some has less, but that is where the majority falls. In fact my friend was a furniture industry insider and at the Highpoint show, a furniture company told him to mark up the price of a wall unit by 400%. One wall unit he came back home with for $1800 had a retail price of $6500. So when these big stores advertise in the local papers with 50% off MSRP sales, they could still be doubling their money. Not only that, many stores advertise their sale prices are 50% off MSRP, yet if you dig a little deeper, you might find that they never sold the pieces at MSRP to begin with, so they are really just dropping their price maybe 5 to 10%. Some stores don't drop their price at all, because they were already at MAP. This means that store really is not having a sale!" More »

2:11 PM on Wed Sep 26 2007
By Ben Popken
6,240 views, 38 comments

Latest by zanngo: @ SEXCPOTATOES : $1199 less 25%= $899.25, less the additional 10%= $809.33. Plus tax. Oh, and apparently the split box spring was an extra charge. Glad Shades_Of_Blue got such a killer low price compared to the friend's $800. more »

home improvement

5 Furniture Shopping Tips

Despite the crummy real estate market and generally listing economy, now is a good time to go furniture shopping, apparently. That's partly because consolidation and increased competition has squeezed out everyone except for discount-happy big box retailers in some cities, and partly because business is down overall this year so everyone is trying to attract more customers with markdowns. More »

2:40 PM on Mon Sep 17 2007
By Chris Walters
3,318 views, 5 comments

complaints

Man Fights IKEA Customer Service Over Defective LILLBERG Couch, Loses

A week after we moved and put the new covers on, our IKEA LILLBERG sofa broke. Right in half. The main support beam gave out right at the dovetail joint, and even split a board in the process. We were devastated, but figured that we'd be able to wrangle something out of it. Standard customer service would replace the couch, right?
More »

11:20 AM on Sat Sep 8 2007
By Ben Popken
12,845 views, 80 comments

Latest by n/a: @jesseraub: Hahaha. Oh lord. You're precisely the kind of customer that people don't mind losing and don't mind ranting on the internet, because as the comments clearly indicate, you're just not right in the head when it comes to what you more »

furniture

Reach IKEA Executive Customer Service

For some consumers, it seems IKEA wants them to also build their own customer service. But hex wrenches can't effect a warranty repair. If calling the general customer service number doesn't help you out, these methods may help you lob your issue into their laps.

Connect to IKEA US Customer Relations Manager Office and also pull up a company directory that goes off of the first three letters of the last name: 610-834-0180
Email addresses for US top management. The four letter system may work for other employees, or firstname.lastname@memo.ikea.com. Try both.

(Photo: jgodsey)

12:04 PM on Wed Sep 5 2007
By Ben Popken
1,502 views, 1 comment

Basic Editions-brand Girls' Clothing Sets (entrapment), Priddy "Trucks" Shaker Teether Books (choking), Sleepi Crib Foam Mattresses (entrapment), AC Adapters sold with Network Hard Disk Drives (burn), J.C. Penney Windsor Spindle-Back Side Chairs (fall), Los Angeles Salad Company Genuine Sweet Baby Carrots (bacterial infection)

2 comments

blogs

IKEA Furniture Hacks

Here are some of favorite ways to convert cheap Swedish furniture into other kinds of cheap furniture, via the IKEA hacker blog.

• AKURUM kitchen wall cabinets into a sideboard.
• Electroluminescent wire as stairway light.
• Sliding wardrobe doors into a small apartment room divider.
• BJ RNUM shelves as minimalist cat furniture.
• SNACK boxes into power cord/battery charger hider.
• SMYCKA dried plants into a garden gate.
• RAMBERG bedside table and a spare board into a coffee table.

7:05 AM on Mon Jul 16 2007
By Ben Popken
3,962 views, 6 comments

Latest by Trai_Dep: Pooping? CATS? Never. They're not (shudder) dogs! That said, shredding furniture is both their birthright and point of pride for the lil' beasts. Take that away and your shins begin to look *really* tempting... Your call, cat's perogative. more »

next »