Complaint Review: Ashley Home Furniture - Laguna Hills California

Buyer Beware: I was a fan of Ashley until something went wrong. I purchased a large leather reclining sofa and chair set for about $5K from a very friendly and slick salesman, who did a great job and made us feel like we were getting a good deal. The purchasing experience was great and of course, like responsible adults, we were happy to add the $500 5/year protection plan. He had us out of there in no time. The furniture deliver was a bit rocky, a couple of weeks late, but no big deal.

We were thrilled when our new living room set finally arrived. 1.5 years later, the last support on the sofa recliner snaps (the part that supports your calf and ankles), causing that portion to sag and unable to support the adult weight of a leg. No problem, we were responsible and got that protection plan. Finally, not being cheap is going to pay off! I call up Ashley and they say, well WE only hold a warranty on your purchase for 1 year, after that we pass off your warranty to a third party, you need to call them (essentially, our business is done her). "Well who should I call?" I ask them, "I have all the paperwork but I have no agreements with this third party".

It takes them a while to look up the details of the particular company that now holds my warrant because apparently they use a couple of the and they have provided no documentation alluding to this 3rd party at the time of purchase, if they had, we would have it because my wife is ridiculously organized and files ever receipt and purchase document without fail. I call up the third party and everything is going fine, they are friendly and they ask me a bunch of questions about my purchase, billing information, etc. and about 5 minutes into the conversation he says "I'm so sorry to hear about the trouble, we'll get fixed for you; can you remind me of when this happened?" and I say, "well, this happened about 45 day ago" and you could almost here the "GOTCHA" when the line goes quite for a few moments and he says "well, according to your warranty, you need to tell us within 30 days of the incident or it's void, there is nothing we can do for you".

I asked him how I was supposed to know the terms of my warranty when I've never seen any paperwork and I have never heard of them until that day and he basically alludes to "I'm sorry for your trouble, I can't help". So I call up Ashley and say "WTF guys! Why did I buy this silly warranty from you if it wasn't held by the company that I am doing business with? I'm going to post a negative review if you don't help me with this!" So they say, "fine, please send us some photos and we will send out a complimentary Technician to help you with your sofa." A month goes by and I receive a text that the Technician is on his way, he shows up, snaps some photos and then leaves.

I never hear back from Ashley. I call them today for an update and they say that the snapped support falls under normal wear and tear and that if I need additional support I need to contact 3rd party again, because my sofa is out of warranty with Ashley (now with 3rd party). Frustrated, I ask them to escalate this conversation to somebody who actually cares about customer service, so they send me to the Escalation Team. I again tell them that if I cannot get some help her, they are going to see some nasty reviews and they politely said "do what you have to do".......so here it is my friends, my first Yelp review. No fluff, just the facts, I'm not mad at any individuals involved; I'm just disappointed in the way that they choose to do business. Any business can be good when the customer service experience goes as planned; it's the great ones that work hard when things go off-kilter. These folks could not have cared less.