Complaint Review: Ashleys Furniture - Newington Connecticut

My fiancé and I were furniture shopping a couple of weeks ago and stopped by Ashleys Furniture in Newington.  The entire experience was horrible from the salesperson to the finance woman at the desk to the store manager.  After we had chosen a couch, we were given two options, purchase the couch outright or finance.  The salesman told us that if we paid the couch off in 3 months, there would be no interest on the loan. We chose to finance and the company that they use is Progressive. 

Upon receiving the contract from Progressive, we had several questions regarding the wording of what we would be signing.  The way we understood the contract, was that you can in fact pay off the loan in 3 months but it will cost you.  Not only do you have to pay about $50 more than what you actually owe, in addition to the $50 application fee for a service that "everyone is qualified for" and a early payout fee of roughly $700.  Totaling more than what financing it over the period of time would have cost, and more than double the actual cost of the furniture.  We questioned the woman at the desk about this and she stared blankly at the paper and said "I'm not really sure what that means but I'm pretty sure you don't have to pay a buyout fee." 

I asked for someone else who knew more about this finance company and loan and her response was "No one here knows anything about it."  At this point my fiancé and I were enraged.  We asked multiple times to speak with someone who could reassure us and answer our questions and she just kept saying things like "I would assume this would mean..." or "I'm not really sure but I think..." 

After about 5 minutes of this, the manager walked over to the desk for something unrelated and one of the other members who overheard this moron talking to us asked the manager about the loan.  He reassured us that we were in fact misunderstanding the contract and yes the 3 month buy out cost was $50 more than what we owed and yes it didn't include the bogus $50 application fee (because how else would Progressive make money, which I completely understood). 

At this point I was beyond frustrated and inquired as to why no one knew anything about this loan and couldn't confidently answer our questions and also told that there was NO ONE there that could help us.  At that point, the manager gathered the employees and had a fake staff meeting to explain to them about wording of the loan which they all looked dazed and confused.  At this point we had enough of this place and chose to cancel the entire order.  We were then informed that it would take 10 days for the significant down payment we put down on the debit card would be refunded.  My fiancé and I sat down for minute, called Progressive and ended up purchasing the couch, which we were told was in stock. 

We scheduled a delivery date, I took vacation time and the day off from work for this only to find out that it in fact wasn't in stock and we had to reschedule for another day.  Now to the furniture arrival.  The men got the couches in the house, in packages, but couldn't get it down the stairs to the basement.  They told me I could call the warehouse to see what my options were and before I even got off the phone with the warehouse, they have reloaded it onto the van.  They made no attempt to remove it from its packaging to see if it would fit that way.  Now I am told that if I want to try again that I would have to reschedule the delivery because it was already back on the van that I never agreed to in the first place.  So now my fiancé and I go back to Ashleys in an attempt to find another couch, as now we are informed that we have to pay a $200 restocking fee for them to put the unpackaged couch back in the Warehouse or we could pick out another couch and pay $70 for shipping.  So do we throw away $200 and have no couch or select another one that fits. 

We really didn't have a choice at that time.  So we selected another couch for the house and went to the finance table to set up payments.  This time, we deal with another woman, as the clueless one before her, who was a new employee for about 2 weeks was promoted to some sort of management position.  This woman was extremely helpful.   While discussing the finance options again, she mentioned layaway.  Which we were never offered in the first place.  We asked why we weren't offered this, and the salesman who sold us the couch initially chimes in with "people don't like waiting for their furniture while doing layaway so we don't mention it.  Mind you, we had already had furniture in the basement, we were just looking to upgrade and were not really in any rush to get new furniture in there.  We would have gladly taken a layaway option and saved some money doing so.  Also, while I was there dealing with this last furniture purchase, two other customers stormed out upset over issues with this place. 

I work in customer service and as a manager myself, I would never allow a customer who has experienced this many issues with my company, walk away with nothing.  We aren't looking for a handout or free furniture.  We would've been happy to have the delivery of the new couch at no cost.  But nothing.  We were offered nothing but an insultingly fake apology.   I would stay far away from this place unless you enjoy dealing with incompetent, rude people who have no idea what's going on but are more than happy to take all your money.  I would never purchase from this place again and recommend you don't either.