Heilig Meyers Company aka The RoomStore .. Sloppy, lousy customer service
This is a recount of my experience at Heilig Meyers aka The RoomStore: On 13th, May, 2000, I bought bedroom and living-room furniture at Heilig Meyers, 4507, W. Market Street, Greensboro. The delivery date was set for May 26th. On request, the sales person, Steve (dont recall the last name), doublechecked and assured me that ALL the items, comprising the order, were in inventory.
When the order arrived on the 26th, the bed-rails, sofa and three tables were missing. In addition to this, the people who delivered it were clueless when it came to fixing the dining chairs and dressing table together. To top it all, one of the dining chair cushions was dirty and stained. The store did not bother to call up and follow up on the missing items.
After three days of persistent calling, I was informed on May 29th that I would receive the remaining items on Friday (June, 2). Two days later, May 31st, I was informed that most items were on backorder and werent expected until August. When I threatened to return the goods, the store replied back in 15 minutes, the fastest turnaround time i have seen in this entire episode, and informed me that i would receive it as decided on Friday. Unfortunately, the store missed out on the cushion that i had asked to be replaced.
Initially, when I called up I was told that I could only get it in August. They offered to replace it with an item on display but had no clue regarding switching it with the backordered item, after my move to Austin. When I threatened, the store called back in 20 minutes mentioning that the chair would be delivered from the Heilig Meyer close to where I live.
It took me a couple of weeks and a lot of calls to get it delivered. This has been the sloppiest service, bordering on nightmarish, that I have ever received. Everything went hunky-dory until the sale was effected, but the store has a "not-you-again" attitude when it comes to delivering the goods.
The dirty cushion raises doubts about the quality of the furniture that I have received, though I shall, for the time being, grant you the benefit of doubt. The store employee, Amber, and store manager, that I have been interfacing with, are inept, supine and unsuitable candidates for customer service. Heck, they havent even apologized once for this colossal waste of time and the mental harassment. I have been inconvenienced greatly at a time when I had a (demanding) client deadline and a scheduled move to Austin on June 30th. Furthermore, I reported this on the companys website, in the first week of June 2000, but have yet to receive any kind of reply. As a result of this experience I definitely will not use Heilig Meyers Company again. Rajesh
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Stephanie
Missoula,Montana,
Know before you buy ..Be a pain in the butt!
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, October 26, 2002
I worked for Heilig-Meyers for over 4 years before our store got closed due to bankruptcy. I was the Credit Manager plus many other hats I had to fill including ordering merchandise.
That is the way Heilig-Meyers does business. For the customer service part is unexcusable, the delay in furniture is normal. You see Heilig would put up large promotions that they would not purchase enough merchandise to fill their main warehouses. Due to the computer that is updated approx once daily, you did not have an accurate count of furniture that was acutally at the main warehouse that had to be ordered then shipped to its destination.
Even though a salesperson might think that there is plenty for the sale he/she is trying to close, they might be lying & not know it. For being rude & unprofessional, that would be unexcusable & should be addressed. For buying merchandise from Heilig-Meyers my suggestion is if there is furniture that you would like to purchase, make sure you ask the salesperson the quantity at the distribution center. If there seems to be over 500 pieces then you should be okay. Anything less then that, make sure you ask when the order is going to be placed(some stores only confirm their orders weekly.
They are still on hold for person, but will not come on the truck unless confirmed)Get a firm day & then call back. Be a pain in the butt!
Sometimes the procurement Cordinator(person who orders) gets busy gets sidetracked from his or her job.
If they tell you yes it was confirmed ask them to again look in their system to see how many pieces are now there.
If still a high amount, you should be okay.
If not make sure you are calling the day the truck is to arrive. Once the truck arrives there will be a manifest of merchandise on the truck.
If your merchandise is not on the truck there will also be a back order sheet stating when items should be arriving.
My sugestion is if it ends up being backordered, it can be a long time for it to come in & I would sugest to select something else or be ready to wait until the piece comes in.
This is very normal for this furniture store & one reason that it is doing so poorly in the industry.
They need to have more communication with their stores & for the customers that the employees have to make happy. Because if the company doesnt tell their stores what is going on. The employees can not help their customers to the fullest.