Karen's Furniture

Karen's Furniture

Dec. 28, 2004 To Whom It May Concern, My husband and I purchased a King Hickory sofa, chair and loveseat from your Colmar store on Oct. 16, 2004. The store was having a big sale, and we had just been to Gamberg’s, in Hatboro, where they had the same furniture, in a different color. They were having a big sale too. We were going to head back to the other store as their price was better, even though we liked Karen’s color better. Our sales lady told us of your price match and talked to her manager who agreed to give us the same price on the sofa and chair, but not the loveseat. They were even going to give us the one on the floor (which had NOTHING wrong with it) and a chair that was in another store in NJ, so that we would have them for the holidays. They were to be delivered on 10-27-04, with the loveseat being delivered when received around 12/29/04. When delivery came, my husband noticed under the left hand side of the pillow, that there was a huge stain. I ran outside stopped the deliver guys and told them to come in and showed it to them. After many phone calls, it was agreed that we would keep the sofa try to remove the stain ourselves and they would send us a check for $150.00 off the price. The manager of the Colmar store remembered this sofa well, as she had been interested in it too, and knew that nothing was wrong with it. To this day, no one has ever been able to say what the stain was or how it got there. As soon as they left, my husband did a real close look at the furniture and found a small tear at the right side leg area. We immediately called the store back and told them what we found; a service date was set up for Nov. 15th, as we were going away on vacation before that. We had wanted them to come back and get it at first and we were told by the service dept. in Quakertown that IF the area of the tear couldn’t be fixed, it would be exchanged for a new sofa. When we came back from vacation, we waited all morning but no service man came and NO phone call. My husband called the service dept. and was told that the service call was cancelled because of the $150.00 dollars. (The check came while we were on vacation, but was never cashed and we told them this) The service dept. tried to say that I contacted the stores manager AFTER making the service call to fix the tear for the $150.00 to be taken off for the stain. The store manager had records that I did call them BEFORE we even knew about the tear. We were always treated as if we were lying or trying to pull something on them, when the opposite was true. After much arguing and phone calls back and forth from the store and the service dept., it was agreed that we were to have a service call due to the tear, that the $150.00 had NOTHING to do with the tear but was taken off for the stain. When the service man finally came out, he started to work on the area of the tear, and found what had happened. Some time in the moving of the couch, (either between the Colmar store to the Quakertown warehouse or from the warehouse to our home) the leg had to be hit pretty hard, as it damaged the whole area of the leg frame, causing the small tear. Well to say the least, we were NOT happy. We have been made to look like we lied, that we were trying to pull something off on the service dept. Yet here was a service/delivery dept. that had to know how the damage was done and tried to pass it off as new. Never did the store manager treat us this way, she was always the one that straightened the mess out; it was always the service dept. It was agreed to that they would replace the sofa, we could keep the damaged one till the new one came, ONLY after we signed that we would wave all personal injury liability to Karen’s. The full exact wording is “Costumer does not want to keep this damaged sofa. Wishes to have a new sofa (exchange) Customer waves all personal injury liability to Karen’s in order to maintain sofa until new one arrives.” Again making us feel like some sort of criminal instead of the injured party in this mess, of their own making!! On Dec. 27th, I called Karen’s to find out if the loveseat had arrived, it did and they were going to have someone call me to have a delivery date set up. We thought the worst was finally behind us. How wrong we were, whenever we deal with the Quakertown service and delivery depts., we are treated as dirt!! I got the call to set up the appointment for our loveseat and the man that called said he would HAVE to pick up the sofa when he delivered the loveseat. I told him about all we had been through with this dept., how the damage was their fault and they tried to pass off a damaged sofa as NEW. I told him what had been agreed to and that we would NOT give back the sofa per the agreement. I had to call Karen’s in Colmar again to straighten it out. But NOT without the threat to call channel 6 news, the Reporter and the Inquirer!!! My husband and I are sick of being treated like dirt, like we are the one’s that have been trying to pull something over on Karen’s, when it has been their service dept that delivered severely damaged furniture and tried to pass it off. The communication has been a major problem too, as they tell me when they speak to me that they hadn’t said things or promised things. Even when proof is in our hands with paperwork or the hands of the store’s manager. I don’t believe this is the way you want customers treated, or a dept. to be run. I have worked in a warhouse office before and we were always to treat our customers with respect. We still haven’t decided who we will speak to and show our paperwork and the damaged sofa, but we felt you should have first say in this. I would like something resolved so that NO other customer is treated in the same dreadful way!! We have now (again) been promised that our loveseat will be delivered (but no phone call back yet to set it up) and that the damaged sofa will stay (per written agreement) until, our new one is delivered at the end of Jan. We had been willing to let this whole mess rest until today, and the bad treatment of us began again. I am not sure who will be reading this, or if it will even be read, but pray that someone does something about this. As of now, we will NEVER buy from Karen’s again, or will we recommended you to anyone, in fact just the opposite, we will warn everyone we know to stay away. I have copies of all paperwork, if you would like to see it for proof. All we have ever wanted was a nice undamaged living room set, to which we had paid for!! Sandy & Eric S Harleysville, Pa. 19438 We were going to send this to the Board of Directors, till today, when we got a call saying the Board met and they have to pick up the couch now or the manufacture's won't deliver the new couch. I asked them what would have happened IF I didn't call the other day to ask about our love seat and was told that they were waiting to call us to deliver the love seat till the new couch came in. I said that didn't make any sense, and then they back tracked and said they were to call us about picking up the other couch first. We are so disgusted with the treatment we have gotten, and we will never deal with Karens again. We just want others to know how they treat customers.

Sandy S

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