The Brick/St. James St, Winnipeg

This is a copy of the email I sent to The Brick's regional vice-president in

Edmonton. I sent it on March 2, 2007 and never received a reply via phone or

email.

"I'm very upset with the service I've received at The Brick. I went in on

Jan 9/07 to buy a leather sectional and bought the Zennah 2 piece

sectional. When we went to make the

initial deposit, I felt like I was buying a car. I did not want the five

year warranty but it was pushed on me to the point where I felt like I

wasn't going to be allowed to buy the

couch without it. Also with the warranty we were told that his boss couldn't

let him sell the couch for so cheap unless he sold the warranty with it.

Everytime I said no the

salesman went to his boss and would try and get me to say yes with a lower

price. In the end we were given the warranty for nothing but I still didn't

want it and getting the

warranty for free was not my goal at all. It made me wonder about the

product I was buying and if the leather was going to split or crack in the

near future. We had agreed upon

the price of $2000 inc. delivery. On the invoice they put the price of the

couch less and put on there that I did indeed purchase a warranty and paid

for delivery because "head office needs to see that". I don't know if this

is normal practice or not but I left there with a bad vibe.

I was told the couch would take 4-6 weeks to arrive in Winnipeg. Near the

end of February I called the store and was told it was tentatively scheduled

to be here Feb 28. On Feb 28 I called again and was told it was tentatively

scheduled for March 6. Obviously by this point I'm not very happy with the

length of time I've had to wait.

Today when I looked at The Brick flyer, there is the Zennah couch listed as

"BICAST". At the time I purchased the couch I was told after questioning two

salesman that the couch was 100% leather. Your website indciates the couch

is "genuine leather". I knew going in the store that I wanted 100% leather.

If I knew the couch was bicast at the start, I would have looked at other

options, possibly in the same store.

I also wondered if the arrival date of my couch kept changing because the

sale was coming up and they would ship a larger

amount at one time? If that's the case, and based on the date I was given

of March 6 and the flyer going out March 2, I believe this could be true.

After I saw the flyer I went

immediately to the store to cancel my order.

The customer service staff didn't seem to care that I was cancelling this

order and when my credit card was refunded she didn't

apologize on behalf of the store or ask if we wanted to look at any other

couches. I will say that after this experience I will never shop at The

Brick again and have already informed my friends and family, many of which

live in other provinces, of this experience. I'm extremely disappointed

with the way this whole situation was handled and regret not walking out the

day I felt I was being pressured to buying an additional product which I did

not want or need."

Thanks,

Tania

Comment On This

WOW! I could have written this! Only I ended up with the stupid couch and the stupid warranty (same sales pitch, same price, same forced warranty, same invoice) The peice of junk is being replaced for the 3rd time in 2yrs. Of course they have just realised that the "5 yr blanket warranty" becomes null and void after replacement. If it could be repaired I would still have coverage but their guy says it has to be replaced, shocking. Guess I'll be buying a new couch in about 6 months, NOT AT THE BRICK!!

Comment On This

I purchased what was represented by The Brick (Canada) as a leather sectional set (ZENNAH2PK) in June 2007. I was looking for good quality leather sofa set. The sofa set was on The Brick's website with the following description, "The genuine leather upholstery is soft and supple, easy to clean and specially treated to resist splitting and staining". This could not be further from the truth. After getting two rips within a week so I called Leather Genie to come to my home to repair the set. I was informed that the set was "BICAST" leather and the service technician explained that the bicast is a leather by-product and does not have the same wear and durability of real leather. The leather was very easy to rip as demonstrated by the technician. The technician was able to rip it like it was plastic. I called The Brick after the repair to hopefully get a refund or store credit to buy an alternate sofa set. The store manager, "Ms Grant", told me that the sales person was suppose to inform me that the sofa set was bicast since they were trained to do so. Since the sales person was no longer with the store the Manager concluded that the sales person did her job and I was aware that the set was bicast so she refused to help me. I was never informed that the set was bicast since I would not have purchased the set. The new description for this set now excludes the "genuine leather" text and it clearly is advertised as �bicast�. Since my plea to Ms Grant my sofa now has another rip. So the original ad for the sofa now has two faults 1) genuine leather and 2) resist splitting. After paying $150 to repair the first rip, I don't see that it is reasonable to have the set repaired again. I am going to investigate taking The Brick to small claims court to settle the matter since my sofa set is now pretty much trash and embarrassing to have in my living room.

This is also posted on:

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/the-brick-c145198.html?sort=datea

Comment On This

I have had nothing but bad experiences with the Brick. From "forgetting" to be put on for delivery, TWICE! with two separate deliveries. The worst however was that on my account I owed NOTHING and their creditors kept calling me and I kept telling them I don't have a balance. I kept going to customer service at the Brick and they kept telling me I owe nothing. They couldn't do a thing about the creditors calling! I went THREE times after being barraged by phone calls. Then customer service gave me a phone number in Alberta. I got one of those push this number or that number, eventually getting to an answering service. I left my NEW work number and the reason why I was calling, which was that I didn't owe anything and to have the creditors stop calling! Well the next morning I got a call from the CREDITORS! Those ******** gave them my new work number! I was FURIOUS. I believe this was the third time I went back to the Brick after being told two previous times that the Brick couldn't do anything about it! What do they mean they can't do anything about it?!?! I told them I was ready to call the police for harrassment! and after MONTHS of calls they finally stopped. Horribe just horrible.

Comment On This

We had a similar experience. We ordered a couch and after waiting 4 months we were told that the couch had been discontinued. When I asked why we weren't notified right away, no one had an answer. As a result, we have never shopped at the brick again. A friend of mine had the same experience we did with a different couch. Very bad customer service.

Comment On This

Don't feel bad, we had one bad experience. I contacted the President via email & telephone after I went into the store and ripped into them. YES, they do not care about their customers it's all about COMMISSION...We will NEVER shop there again amongst lots of other ppl. You think they would learn by now....

Keri

Comment On This

Off this topic. I will NEVER shop at the brick again. ever go in for the red tag sale.....where everything is suppsed to be big time reduced. We walked around the store once and looked at those red tags. Someone in the store was not smart enough to take the old price tags away from behind the red tags because the red tag prices were not at all 50% off, they were in fact higher, on many of the items. We questioned several of the staff about this and none seemed to have any good response. We had a good time wandering around teh store letting as many people as we could know about that. Brick=THICK in the head.

If you enjoy getting jumped by every sales person in the store 30 seconds from the time you get there, being asked every 30 seconds if you need something, and then when you do, they don't know anything about the product, they are overpaid, overpriced, high pressure, CRAP....don't waste your time, go elsewhere.

Comment On This

A little off topic, however I recently purchased a notebook from them which arrived with different specifications then stated on their site! I am now dealing with their customer service to see if I can get a replacement or a partial refund as I can't use the upgrades I purchased with the notebook. We'll see how that goes, I expect a fair resolution since I am a long time Brick customer.

Comment On This

The brick has misrepresented itself to us on 2 difficult transactions. They have poor customer service and uneducated sales staff on their products. They are extremely pushy and use high pressure sales tactics that often leave you with a bad vibe after leaving. After 2 negitive experices we will NEVER shop there again! Cheap products and overpriced. The difference between bycast and leather is merged to make you think they are the same. They are not. After researching this we where very surprised at the differences and only genuine leather will last for years. By cast will not and only recommended for light use unlike 100%leather.

Comment On This

The same thing just happened to my friend in Halifax. The salesman totally misrepresented the product.