May 13, 1997

Recently my family purchased a very large, expensive futon sofa for our family room. The previous couch, a green plaid hide-a-bed, not only looked bad, it smelled bad. This puppy had reached its prime and passed it running.

The store from which we purchased the futon was one of those large specialty chains with the product line in its name and a bit of nationalism thrown in for good luck. The sales clerk was a friendly, helpful young man who made it easy to shop. We bought a top-of-the-line frame and futon. Our bill was close to $750, and we paid an additional $39.95 (plus tax) for the set-up fee.

As the delivery man assembled our futon a few days later, I noticed some bothersome imperfections in the finish of the frame. I called the store and was reassured that this was definitely not normal and that they would happily send a new frame out and set it up at my convenience. The more I thought about this, the more I felt it would be a waste of my time and their money. I talked with the salesman and told him I'd be happy to repair the problems myself if the store would simply reimburse the set-up fee. I even offered to take the $39.95 plus tax in store credit rather than a cash reimbursement. After all, I fully intended to buy more furniture there, and the credit would quickly be used.

Three days later the salesman called to say that his manager was "only willing to give us $30 in store credit" - apparently the "wholesale" cost of the delivery!

For the paltry sum of $9.95, that manager lost our business for good. He cheated his salesman out of future commissions and cheapened the name of the company. Of course, perhaps the company deserves that reputation, if in fact its policy is to put short-sighted, incompetent boobs in charge of business. I only hope the young salesman learned a lesson in customer relations so that if he is ever promoted to store manager he will make judgments based on common sense.