Complaint Review: Ashley Furniture Company

I wanted to share my story so that potential Ashely Furniture buyers have a clear understanding on why it’s so important to shop around. This particular purchase was not an impulse buy, and I did indeed shop around, for several months in fact. I went to Ashley as well as other stores for three months looking at the living room furniture. Finally, after several months of deliberating, I decided on the Cosmo Marble L-shaped set from Ashley in Danville, VA. As mentioned previously, I spent an extensive amount of time trying this couch out, and every time I went into the store I sat on it for up to an hour. I purchased the couch/chaise/ottoman set in November 2014, and that’s when the nightmare began.

The day they delivered I sat on each piece before I would sign-off for the delivery. The couch had a scraping noise when I sat on one particular part of the couch, and also, on the same section of couch, it felt like I was sitting in a huge hole. I had the delivery man confirm my speculations, and afterwards, he called his manager and discussed the issue. The manager said he was going to send out the individual who handled customer complaints with delivered furniture. However, this individual was not set to arrive until three weeks from then, so, I had some time to try out the couch extensively. Words honestly cannot express how dissatisfied and disgusted I am by how cheaply the furniture is made. The arm of the couch, which you would think you could lean against, causes you to readjust after just fifteen minutes. You can actually feel the wood and cheap insulation crunching around in the arms of the couch. You also continually have to readjust while sitting on this couch - it feels as if you are sitting on the frame. All of these experiences happened within the first week of having the piece. Naturally, I called Ashley the second week of having this furniture to talk with the manager. I told him how dissatisfied I was, and his first response was, “Oh, well just so you know, there’s a 30% restocking fee.” Additionally, the throw pillows that came with the couch are completely different than the ones on display. The ones in-store are filled with down feather, and the ones I got were filled with the same filling found in cheap pillows. I commented on this and the manager noted that, quote, “Ashley reserved the right to change the filling inside the pillows without notice” (no joke).

Anyway, fast forward to when the guy came back to look at the furniture. He came in and inspected the furniture. The first thing he did was flip the couch over and remove the block cloth on the bottom. He said the scraping noise came from a bent nail that was scratching the wood (no problem, I guess). Next, I asked him why the furniture was sitting so low. He responded with, “Oh, I can fix that too!” So he put on his coat, and when I asked him where he was going, he said he was going to go to Lowe’s to buy a wooden board to put under the springs so they wouldn’t go down as much when someone sat in it. (Is this actually happening?) I told him, “Absolutely not, I paid $1,700 for the furniture, and I am not settling on a board under the springs.” So, he called the manager and told him that I deemed this unacceptable, so they agreed to send me a new couch. I was told this would take eight weeks. By the time it arrived, indeed, eight weeks later, the delivery men took a chunk out of my front door, tore a hole in the black cloth on the bottom of one section, and scraped my newly polyurethaned wood floors.

A month passes. I call Ashley again to tell them how cheap the furniture is and how there is no resting on this furniture. To give you in-depth descriptions: you feel the frame in every position you sit in, your body aches when you get up, the cushions go flat immediately, and the pillows are uncomfortable.

The manager, in the end, never called me back. So, I went to the store and this is what they offered me: I could restock (for 30%), or pick out a different living room suite for the same value. I did look at the other available furniture, and nothing was good at all.

I just wanted to let other prospective Ashley buyers to beware of the quality of the furniture and customer service. I would not recommend Ashley to absolutely anyone.