Ashley HomeStore review: worst leather sectional sofa ever!! ( 1 comment)

On Wednesday, August 12, I contacted their Phoenix, Arizona customer care center by telephone. I left a message after listening to a message that said my call would be returned in 24 hours. I left my home phone for looking up my prior purchases; but carefully explained that they needed to call my cell phone, which I then left. When I didn’t get a return call, I called again early Friday, August 14, 2009.
At 5:01 PM on Friday, August 14, 2009, a call came into my cell phone from [protected]. At the time, I was at the gym, but elected to answer it in the hopes that Ashley might be returning my call. I explained the problem I was having with the leather sofa I had purchased from you with the extended warranty. The woman explained that she couldn’t help me; it wasn’t covered under the warranty. At one point, she sat and read the warranty to me while I was trying to talk. She explained she was corporate customer service and she was the final decision. When I requested a supervisor, she said she was the final authority. Having dealt with Ashley in the past, this reaction surprised me. In the past, I would call up and they would send out a tech. She never offered to do this; just kept explaining it wasn’t covered. Finally, after some time of me continuely asking for a supervisor, she sent me to Ralena. I don’t know the spelling of this name. She gave me the same run around. The frustrating part of talking to her was that she actually lied to me! When she gave me the same run around, I asked for a supervisor, she said she and another manager were the only supervisors in this facility and the other manager had gone home. She said she was the final authority. I said she was not; that there had to be an owner or a board of directors. She did finally agree to send out a technician, but told me I had no recourse if the technician decided not to fix the problems with my sofa. She asked me multiple times what I wanted. I told her multiple times I wanted Ashley to stand behind their product and fix it.
At that point, I was so frustrated; I got in my car and drove to the store I bought my sofas from. As I reached the front of the store, this rep finally asked to put me on hold. During the time I was on hold, I asked the woman sitting at the desk in the front of the store if they had a phone number or an email address for the owner of the company. I had asked for this during the phone call of all the reps I talked to; none of them would provide it. She called a sales rep up and they told me you were the owner and gave me this email address.
During the time the store rep was giving me this information; another woman came on the line. I asked for her name; it was Insil. She identified herself as the last rep’s supervisor. I explained that the last rep had lied to me and told me she did not have a supervisor at one point and then told me she wasn’t there. Insil tried to say it was because she could have been in a meeting or elsewhere in the building. I told her this was not the case; she said her supervisor was not there. Insil continued to provide me the same run around. She was offering to send out a tech, but not deal with the problem. Finally, after a full 34 minutes of conversation on my cell phone, being lied to and jerked around, my cell phone died. When I explained my situation to store reps, they told me to contact thowner and they provided an email address. They were far more helpful than any of your phone reps. All three phone reps refused to give me your name, address, phone number, or email. I had to get this from the store.
The next day, after my phone re-charged, I checked my voice message and found one from Insil. She says to call her back and she will send out a rep or she would intercept this email and address it then. Since I have NO level of confidence in these reps, I will not deal with her again. I want to deal with the ownership of this company. Also, since the behavior of their representatives suggests to me that the owner may never see this correspondence, I have filed with the Better Business Bureau in hopes that when enough complaints are filed, they will address the problem. I am also post on online websites so they rest of you don't suffer.
Here is a definition of the problem:
The leather color is absolutely disappearing on the seat cushions. This sofa is in our game room, where only my sons sit on it to play video games and watch sporting events. The majority of the people in our home use the downstairs sofa in front of the big screen TV. This sofa was purchased from you as well, it is leather too, has seen far more wear and is in substantially better condition. I have a number of pictures.
Also, we have never been able to keep this sectional together. The portion of the sectional with the sleeper seems to sit lower. The pictures show this as well. The other night, my 6’ tall husband sat on it, and his knees came up to his chest. He thinks the structure has failed.
It is my expectation that Ashley will make this right. That used to be the kind of firm they were. We actually bought the second sofa from them, because we liked the first so well and because every time I called, you really took care of us. After one visit, I actually got a letter in the mail from the owner of Ashley apologizing for the trouble and giving me a $100 discount that I used on the second sofa. I used to recommend Ashley, I don’t anymore. We won’t be purchasing any additional furniture from you and we will certainly explain the extremely poor service we have received. It completely baffles me why in these economic times, their service reps wouldn’t treat customers right in the hopes they might be back.
Obviously, Ashley doesn’t care anymore! If I hear something positive from them, maybe I will begin to believe that Ashley does. I tried to upload photos, but they were too large.