I am firm
believer in taking care of the local economy. I rarely eat at chain
restaurants, I like to frequent local electronic stores such as Percy's and
Vin's TV and during the summer I like to buy vegetables from the local fruits
stands. So when it comes to furniture in Central Mass, Rotman's has
always been our selection. Unfortunately, their lack of communication and
customer service were not so great the past couple of days and it makes me
thinking about never purchasing there again.
Last weekend my wife and I brought our daughters down to
Rotman's to get my oldest (4 years old) a new bedroom set. We walked
around and she got to pick it out (sort of). We purchased the set and the
salesman set up Tuesday delivery for us (2/18). Now, Tuesday comes and we
are hit with a snowstorm. We have broken down my daughter's room and a
friend of mine needed the bed for his daughter, and he came and picked it up.
A risk we were willing to take. The time they were to come was
between 1-5 pm. At 3:30pm I was leaving to go coach a basketball game,
which was a different issue in and of itself, and my wife wasn't sure if the
delivery guys were still coming. I told her to call and see. She
got an answering service and the delivery office closed at 4:00. Now if that
doesn't sound foolish. The delivery office called back before closing and confirmed that the truck was
at the previous stop and they would soon be on their way. She was outside
with the kids in the snow and shoveling to clear a way for the deliverers. The
delivery driver called at 3:45pm and left a message on our voice mail saying he
would be there in 10 minutes. My wife, still outside, saw them come to
the end of our street, pause and then drive off. She went inside and saw
that they had left the message. She immediately called the driver's cell,
no answer. She called again, no answer. She politely left a message
and asked him to call her back and explain what is going on. Nothing.
Since the delivery department is now at this point closed
she calls the main customer service number and they tell her now it can't come
until next week. Unacceptable! The customer service rep puts my
wife on hold and calls the driver and he miraculously answers the phone.
The driver told the rep that he did not feel he could get down the street
and off with the snow because our street had not been plowed yet. So now,
my daughter who had been excited all day that her new bed was coming is
inconsolable and had to sleep with her mattress on the floor (not completely
Rotman's fault).
Yesterday morning I call up the delivery office the moment
they open and I get a lovely girl named Britney on the phone. She tells
me that the delivery will now not come until tomorrow (today 2/20) because that
was the first available date. I vented my frustration and said the first
available date was yesterday (2/18) and that they had dropped the ball and it's
not my problem when the first available date was and that I wanted delivery
today (2/19). She tells me she needs to talk to the delivery manager and
would get back to me. I responded with "Please have him call me
directly as I would like to get a quote for an article I am writing about this
on telegram.com's blog site". Within minutes, Britney calls back and
explains to me the exhaustive efforts that they did and that it would now be
delivered today (2/19) between 4-8pm. I politely thanked her and we hung
up.
Guess what did not happen between 4-8pm yesterday? At 7:35
pm last evening the "striker" (delivery man) called and had an
extremely nervous tone on his voice as he delivered the news that the truck was
stuck in Webster. He was extremely apologetic and I could tell he
legitimately felt bad because he told me that I was the call he had dreaded
most to make. Poor guy, I let him loose and thanked him for the call.
I went downstairs and broke the news to my 4 year old. This time
she took it in stride.
I must say that not delivering when they were supposed to
because they were afraid of getting stuck and then not coming the next day
because the truck got stuck makes absolutely NO sense to me. I get that
the weather the past couple of days has been nasty and I would like to give
these guys the benefit of the doubt. But you deliver furniture, in the
Northeast, during the winter, it's going to happen people. They need to be
better prepared, this isn't Atlanta (sorry, low blow).
I'm not upset that they couldn't deliver the bed because of
the weather, I'm truly not. I'm upset that we had to chase the
information. Not one person was forthcoming with what was going on and
the information was only available when I demanded it. It was as if Rotman’s
missing a delivery was not big deal and that it was OUR fault that they had
made this mistake. I don't care what business you are in, that is
unacceptable.
Unfortunately for Rotman's they don't get the hometown
loyalty any longer. They didn't lose my business this time but next time
we will be sure to shop around.
3D
Take it from me, because you don't want to ask the wife on
this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment