Is this negligence in furniture building?

[Alex Franke]

Well, I sent off my letter late last night through their website. It was pretty stern, and it was also pretty clear that I was angry about the situation. I can post a copy of it if anyone is interested. I don't think I came across as a nutcase, though -- just rightfully concerned and upset.

In any case, I got a call first thing this morning. The first think they asked, "Did you need to go to the hospital or get stitches?" From there she went on to express how horrified they were that something like this had gotten out their doors. She told me that she had already conferred with management (a VP, I think), and that that person wanted to fix the issue "even if it means coming out to your house." They asked for a copy of the barcode information from the back of the dresser so they could track it.

About 20 minutes later, I got another call from the guy that heads up their customer service group. They had already tracked down the factory that made it (even though I hadn't sent the barcode yet), alerted the plant manager, and started inspecting their inventory. He seemed horrified, too, and extremely apologetic. He offered to bring me a new one right away, personally inspected by the plant manager.

They think the screws were meant to hold skids that protect the legs during shipment, so I don't think any pieces are missing. I told him that I cut the screws off with a Dremel tool last night, so unless it's actually missing something, replacing it would probably just be a waste of time. So they offered to reimburse me for the cost of the dresser instead. (Now I just need to find the sales slip!)

It sounds like their pulling out all the stops to fix this -- they not letting any more out the door until they're sure they're still safe. It sounds like they're very eager to get the barcode because it will help enable them to identify the scope of the problem -- if it was a one-time issue or a bigger problem. It sounds like an honest mistake -- it's the first they've ever heard of this particular problem.

So far I'm quite impressed with the way they're handing this. They really do seem honestly shocked that it even happened. And they're very grateful that I brought it to their attention.

I'll post an update when I know more...

[Stytooner]

Yep. I'd say they were shocked and certainly want to track down anymore of these with the same issue. It's much easier to do a recall or repair when the items aren't sold yet and may still be sitting in the furniture stores warehouse.
I was delivery manager for awhile with a furniture company. I have seldom seen screws poking out of furniture. I saw many many staples. Part of the job of delivery drivers were to insure that all of the packing hardware was removed once set in place. Sleeper sofa's were the worst. The guys would have to leave the retaining strap in place for moving them and not remove the strap until it was in place. They had to make certain that all the staples for the strap were removed.

LOML and I cleaned a lot of beach properties for awhile. I saw many pieces of furniture in some of those that guys had made no attempt to remove any of the packing hardware and staples. I would have fired them. Sure, they are careful enough not to get hurt by them, but anyone moving them later could very well be injured.

Good luck with it.

[Mrs. Wallnut]

That is great news Alex. I am happy to hear that there is still a company out there that cares about their products and what their customers think of the product and if there is a problem.

Sounds like they are on the ball and WANT to make it right for you.

[downtheroad]

If the screws don't seem to be doing anything structural, then the shipping skid explanation makes the most sense.

A typical scenario might be something like this .... a warehouse person, in a hurry to unpack several pieces from a large delivery, stands on the skid and lifts the piece of furniture pulling the skid off, leaving the screws/nails protruding from the furniture.

Our shop does a lot of touchup/repair service work for furniture manufacturers and showrooms and the furniture delivery/warehousing services. Have serviced problems from manufacturing, packing, shipping, unpacking, warehousing, delivery, and customer negligence, too. We often ask ourselves when sent out to the client's home and seeing a problem that is so obvious, "How the heck did this piece get all the way to the client like this...where's the quality control? "

[JR]

... I sent off my letter late last night through their website. ... I got a call first thing this morning. ...

Ya gotta like the responsiveness, if not the QC.

[LCHIEN]

Ya gotta like the responsiveness, if not the QC.

HF is living proof that good customer serrvice can to a certain extent replace good QC. Would be interesting to see an economic tradeoff study.
I guess it would depend partly upon customer expectations and what level of quality your suppliers gave you.

[Alex Franke]

... a warehouse person, in a hurry to unpack several pieces from a large delivery, stands on the skid and lifts the piece of furniture pulling the skid off, leaving the screws/nails protruding from the furniture.

So where would skids typically get removed? To remove them, you'd need to take out the bottom drawer and remove six screws. Is this something that's done when it's delivered to the retailer?

It looked like maybe they either used the wrong length of screw, or there was something that was supposed to be attached that was never attached. The screws were pretty clean, so if they were screwed into somthing I'd expect them to look like tear-outs. Actually with three of these on either side, I imagine it would be pretty diffucult to pull the skids off at all...

[Ed62]

The good thing is that they're willing to make things right. And that's good for both you and the company. They benefit because they will get word of mouth advertising, and it will be positive. Glad things are working out for you.

Ed

[downtheroad]

[QUOTE=Alex Franke;271968]So where would skids typically get removed? To remove them, you'd need to take out the bottom drawer and remove six screws. Is this something that's done when it's delivered to the retailer?


Most of the showrooms we currently do work for are in a high end "design center" that an interior designer (ID) would bring their clients to. They don't usually have the space/facility to do their own receiving. This is contracted out to a storage/delivery service. It is here where shipments are unpacked (skids removed), inspected, and sometimes assembled. If everything is O.K., it is put in storage until delivered to the showroom or client. If not, then we get called to see if we can fix it or if it needs to be sent back.

We've seen some pretty stupid unpacking damage over the years, maybe an inexperienced unpacker removed the skids and put the screws back in the dresser. That wouldn't surprise me.

[ejs1097]

Glad you got it worked out, and suppose you got a good deal since you were able to correct the problem and get re-imbursed. Also glad it happened to you and not one of your kids.

I don't think I buy the skid theory. If Alex had to cut off the screws, that would mean he couldn't access the heads so neither could someone at the showroom, etc. I'm more likely to beleive the factory lost/ran out of the correct screws or used the wrong screws.