Galaxy Furniture, Manassas Park, Virginia

Galaxy Furniture, Manassas Park, Virginia

September 5, 2005 - Consumer Follow-up Message - From: Email User

Galaxy Furniture, Manassas Park, Virginia - Update on Previous Complaint.

I want to report that I was offered a store credit of $522 towards the purchase of more furniture from Galaxy. This offer came as a result of American Express working directly with the merchant, and they actually negotiated that during March of 2005. I went to the Galaxy Furniture Store in Manassas Park Virginia yesterday and was able to use the store credit towards another purchase. The store representative reminded me to make sure that I posted resolution of this complaint on this website, and I assured them that I would post this update.

RE: Galaxy Home Furnishings This is in response to your request that I provide you with a response concerning the company's reply to my complaint. R The company has answered but has provided an offer or an explanation with which I am dissatisfied. Additional support for my claim is provided below: The tone of Mr. Altoft's letter to the Better Business Bureau is of course typical of the type of response one finds when dealing with any customer inquiry related to their merchandise and business practices in general. I do not recall having signed the statement, which was attached to the Galaxy Home Furnishings March 10, 2005, letter. If I did in fact sign such a statement, then I was certainly not provided with a copy of that statement. Furthermore, it would seem that someone at the store would have gone over the terms of such a statement with me to ensure that I understood the seriousness of making a purchase from this store. This is NOT a standard of the industry and therefore the store personnel should have made specific reference to the 20% restocking terms, which they invoke on the customer. It would be interesting to have a class action suit filed against this company and one of the key items of discovery would be to find out just how much money Galaxy Furniture makes off customers who make the mistake of signing this statement unbecomingly. This practice truly represents an unfair penalty and distribution of profits to a company, which chooses to steal and deceive their customers rather than to be fair, honest, and up front about their non-standard policy. Mr. Altoft is not correct about the 2nd attempt to deliver the furniture. It was at the store's request - not mine - that a 2nd delivery attempt was arranged and carried out. Specifically, the current store manager of the Manassas store, Pete, asked me to consider having a 2nd attempt of delivery at no additional cost to me. I agreed after much discussion, including measuring the furniture and the area in my home that was determined to be too small to accept the huge headboard. In fact Pete stood behind the headboard and said that if a person could walk up the steps then the headboard should be able to be moved up those same steps. I tried to explain that it was the angle of the staircase and Pete said that it was probably because of the box, which was bulky and that he would arrange to have the delivery made and instruct the delivery personnel to remove the box before attempting to deliver. So it was not my request that caused the 2nd delivery attempt. Furthermore, Mr. Altoft is wrong about the "different crew" statement.

The same gentleman who attempted the original delivery also showed up for the 2nd delivery. In fact, he and I discussed that the probability of it fitting up the staircase was ZERO to NONE - - but that the store had insisted on this attempt and they were obliged to carry out the store's request. The deliveryman on both occasions assured me that it would not fit - he delivers furniture all the time and knows his business quite well. But they did make an honest effort to fit the HUGE HEADBOARD, unboxed in all its glory, up the staircase. The staircase had also been stripped of obstructions (rails). The headboard was around 6" too high to fit under the ceiling area at an angle going up the stairs. The headboard is huge - and in looking at over 25 headboards of this type on various websites I found that only one of the 25 that was equal in height to the one that we were attempting to deliver. Perhaps Galaxy Furniture should have a standard policy that warns customers about this particular headboard. As far as Mr. Altoft's comments about the size of my home - it is not an unusually small home. It is a 3-bedroom town home with over 1800 square feet of living space. I know that it is probably not as large as his home might be - - but then again I don't go around stealing money from customers by charging them 20% restocking fees. I do not understand Mr. Altoft's comments regarding the 20% restocking fee. If he is offering to apply the 20% restocking fee as a store credit toward reselecting other merchandise, then I would be more than happy to select an item from the store which would be at least worth the value of the 20% restocking fee, and have the remaining balance returned to me. To clarify what I believe is acceptable: 1) I select another item of furniture, which is at least $522 or more in value, or to speed settlement I will accept a store credit of this amount. 2) I will arrange to pick up the item I select - rather than have it delivered to my home.

3) I will agree to pay the original delivery charge of $132.

4) Galaxy Furniture will return the remainder of the money to me, which would be as follows - - Original Amount Paid $2,904.01 Less delivery Charges of $ 132.00 Less Store Credit of $ 522.00 REFUND DUE: $2,250.01 I would love to settle this matter, and I have been very patient. Regardless of the outcome, I believe that the merchant needs to take steps to immediately process the minimum refund due me in the amount of $2,250.01, or in the absence of an immediate refund (which can be credited back to my Sears Master Card and American Express Card), that Galaxy Furniture pay interest in that amount at the rates charged by the aforementioned credit card companies. Sincerely,

Cheryl F. H

Manassas Park, VA 20111

To save steps I have incorporated previous statement regarding this matter below: RE: Dispute with Merchant - Galaxy Furniture, Manassas, Virginia CUSTOMER'S BEWARE - GALAXY FURNITURE CHARGES 20% RESTOCKING FEE FOR CANCELLED ORDERS AND COST OF DELVERY IF FOR SOME REASON THE FURNITURE CAN NOT BE DELIVERED BECAUSE IT IS TOO BIG TO FIT INTO STANDARD SIZE HOMES On November 20, 2004, I purchased bedroom furniture from the Manassas Virginia Furniture Galaxy store. The total order was $2,904.01, which represented merchandise in the amount of $2,640.01, Sales Tax of $132, and Delivery Charges of $132. I provided the store with a deposit of $1,500 from my Sears Master Card. On Saturday, February 12th I stopped by the Manassas store to check the status of my order. They informed me that the furniture had arrived. Also, they said that they could make delivery on Wednesday, February 16th, 2005. I arranged to take off from work to receive the furniture that day and the delivery personnel informed me that the furniture was too large to make it up the stairs.

They took out the box in which the headboard was packed to prove that it was undeliverable. I went to the Manassas store to cancel the order because it could not be delivered. The salesperson, Pete, assured me that the furniture could be delivered and gave me measurements to see if it might work. We measured the stairwell and the height appeared to be sufficient - but I was not sure. Pete arranged to attempt delivery again on Saturday - since I did not want to have to take another day off from work and lose another $300 in wages. On Saturday, February 19th, the same delivery company showed up and took the headboard out of the box and attempted to deliver the furniture. The headboard would not fit through the area in the stairwell so they took it with them as non-deliverable. I called the store and Pete said to come by and select another set. I went by and they had one set that I might have been interested in - - but he informed me that since it was lower than the price of the set that they could not deliver that I would have to accept a store credit for the difference. I told him that a store credit was unacceptable, since I have no need for additional furniture at this time. Pete explained that he would see what he could work out and had me wait around 10 minutes while he went in the back to confer with other store personnel. When Pete returned he said he had worked out a good deal for me - - that if I purchase the new furniture he would be able to refund the balance of my money, except for the delivery charge of $132.

I said that I thought it was not fair - that I had already lost a day of wages and now he wanted me to also pay the cost of delivery for an item that I did not receive. He said that it was not the store's fault that my house was too small to hold the selected furniture and I said that they should caution people about the size of the selections so that they do not make purchases without first measuring their home and the selection. I asked him what alternatives I had if I chose not to make a purchase, since I was not sure that the new selection would fit through the stairwell. Pete said that if I decided not to make the purchase I would be liable for a 20% restocking fee in addition to the $132 for delivery. He went on further to inform me that this was all contingent upon their receiving the furniture at their warehouse and they could not process another transaction until that took place and the computer had been updated. It would therefore take until possibly Wednesday of the following week before he could do anything because until the furniture was restocked at the warehouse and the information was loaded into the computer everything was up in the air and he could not do a thing until then. In other words I was left with two options: Option 1: Purchase another set of lesser value, which I really did not want, and pay $1700, plus taxes, delivery fee of $75, and the original delivery fee of $132 and receive a refund of approximately $1,000. Of course there was no guarantee that delivery could be made for this set and I could end up having to pay restocking fee, plus the delivery fees of $207 (total from first and 2nd delivery charges); or Option 2: Cancel the order and pay a 20% restocking fee, which would amount to 20% of $2640 or $522, plus $132 for attempted delivery, for a total of roughly $654. I was upset and told Pete that I felt as if they were really giving me a bad deal. First of all they want me to pay twice for delivery - - without any assurances that this would not happen again, and my alternative was to pay them $654 (roughly) just for having the pleasure of stopped by their store to pick out furniture for my home that ultimately could not be delivered. As I was leaving the store Pete followed me and I spoke to a customer as I was about to leave the store - - saying "you better be careful of what you purchase in here". He immediately said "alright Mrs. Hamilton that will be enough" and then went on to explain to the customers, as I continued to depart from the store, that I was an unhappy customer because my house was too small for a delivery they attempted to make. As soon as I got home I read the provisions on the back of the purchase order which states that "If Galaxy Home Furnishings fails to provide to you, the buyer, with an estimated delivery date or fails to deliver the ordered merchandise within two weeks of the estimated date, you may (1) Cancel the contract and receive a full refund or credit equal to your deposit, (2) modify the contract by selecting other merchandise, or (3) schedule a new delivery date with Galaxy Home Furnishings." I contacted Sears Master Card and American Express to dispute this transaction in total and explained that I was having a problem with the merchant. The charges will be suspended until such time as resolution can be reached. I also contacted customer service at Galaxy Furniture (1-866-234-4252 x10) and left a message about my dissatisfaction with what had taken place. I received a call back from customer service at 5:18 p.m. and she informed me that I would be responsible for the restocking fee of 20% and $132 for delivery. I told her that this policy is not acceptable - and that their order contained the above referenced language. She went on further to say that it is not their fault when people live in a box rather than a mansion. She said that store policy has the customer sign a document agreeing to these terms.

I told her that I was not informed of the 20% restocking fee at the time of the purchase nor of delivery problems and she said that was not her problem. She said that did not matter - that they had my signature on the document and that it is their policy to charge the 20% restocking fee and the delivery charges. She said that it is not their responsibility to read the documents that they have the customer sign - that she reads everything that she has to sign - and that this is why Galaxy make sure that the customer signs the agreement. So here we have customer signing agreements which contain terms that they don't even know exist. They think they are agreeing to a purchase - not realizing the underlying reason for their signature is to make sure that the customer bears all costs associated with a deal gone sour. I contacted Customer Service and the Manassas Store Manager on Monday, February 28. Customer Service told me that I would have to speak with the store manager at Manassas or accounting to find out the status of my refund. I left 3 messages with the Manassas store manager asking for him to return my call. Since I had not received any response from the Manassas store I stopped by on the afternoon of March 3, 2005, and was informed that they had not received my message - - and that the store manager had been replaced by the "new" store manager - Pete. The same person I had spoken with previously about this matter.

Pete informed me that there was nothing he could do - - that it was up to the corporate office to provide me with a credit. He did say that he would be willing to allow me to make another furniture selection, but he could not guarantee that it would be deliverable. He told me to think about it for a few days and then let him know what I wanted to do. In any event he could not do anything because it was being handled by the corporate office. I left the store and called the corporate office and spoke to the accounting department. They said that they would have to look into it and call me back.

There were notes in the file, but they had to call the Manassas store. The accounting department called me back and left a message to return their call and I returned the call and left another message. As of now I am still waiting to hear something from Galaxy Furniture and I have expended $2,904.01 and have to continue to try and get my refund and it appears that nobody knows what is going on. Everyone is pointing me in another direction. Accounting refers me to the store manager, the new store manager is referring me to the accounting department or perhaps another purchase to replace the one which could not be delivered, and customer service says they can only refer me to the store manager or accounting and read me the store policy on charging a 20% restocking fee. I would caution anyone who wants to purchase furniture to be aware of policies such as those adopted by Galaxy Furniture, which leave the customer having to accept excessive restocking fees and delivery charges for any cancelled order - whether it is because of the customer changing their mind or as in this case the inability of the furniture store to make delivery of the item to my home because it is too large to go up the staircase. Sincerely, Cheryl F. H

Manassas Park, VA 20111 Click this link to e-mail the above consumer: Email User Consumer