So we went in to Dufresne on Hunt Club in Ottawa to price out a new bed. We were interested in a tempurpedic and had already checked out several of Dufresne's competitors. Immediately, we were pounced on by the salesperson who reminded me of Gill from the Simpsons...but my desperate. The guy put on a lot of pressure making the experience extremely awkward and unpleasant. When we had the information we needed and were ready to move on, Gill brought in a "closer" a so-called manager who would help us get the best price.
The manager was even skeezier than the sales guy and literally prevented us from leaving by stepping in my way whenever I moved. So at the time, there was a "scratch and save" sale on mattresses with a guaranteed 10% off, but up to 80%. The manager offered us $100 off of the price of the frame and a guaranteed minimum of 15% off the mattress, but if we scratched more, we would get more.
I do the budget and decided that we needed to sit down and talk about it (because it is a large purchase to make on a whim). The man said the offer only stood for that day and tried everything he could to keep us from leaving- he even offered to pay for our dinner if we ate next door and came back to buy it. Ultimately the pressure made me extremely uncomfortable and we left. The man literally followed us to the door. Super skeezy.
So we discussed it over dinner and crunched the numbers and ultimately decided that we would purchase the bed. I sent my husband in to sign the paperwork (because the men made me so uncomfortable that I didn't want to go back into the store) and the manager now tells him that the deal he offered us was for a different bed and he isn't prepared to give us that deal anymore. Instead, he offers $200 off of the base and $50 off of the mattress. We were also considering buying some pillows which he was prepared to throw in for free (a $280 value) my husband came out to the car to explain the change in the offer and of course, we had to take a few minutes to crunch the numbers again.
When we went back in, the manager was gone and Gill was back dealing with us. Gill ended up giving us $50 off of the mattress and $100 off of the bed, made us pay for the pillows in full and refused to let us participate in the scratch and save promotion. This was obviously infuriating and these people wasted out entire night offering us deals they never intended to give us. We would've saved more with the minimum 10% scratch and save card they denied us.
So anyway, after all was said and done, we decided to buy the base and the mattress. We were told it would be delivered in two weeks as they have to order it from head office or some nonsense.
Two weeks came and I hadn't heard a peep. I called them around 6pm on the 14th day and was told the base was in but not the mattress. They tentatively scheduled the delivery for the next day. The next day they called the confirm that they would deliver between 5-9pm.
Around 2pm I got a call from the delivery guy who said they were ahead of schedule and would be by in 30 minutes or so if it was okay with me. He was very polite, respectful, and courteous. If he works for Dufresne he should be running that store cause he was literally the ONLY positive thing about this experience.
Anyway, of course they delivered the WRONG product. The mattress was a coil Sealy mattress which coincidentally, was identical to the 2 year old mattress I was already sleeping on and suffering from. My husband was furious and we went straight to the store. On the way, I explained that mistakes happened and it was probably just a matter of them typing the wrong number or something when they ordered it. I told hubby to give them a chance to fix it before he flipped out.
He went in pretty agitated and asked to talk to a manager. The man grabbed some guy who neither introduced himself or showed any interest in helping. He asked what was up and my hubby said "you delivered the WRONG bed to me" so whoever this guy was replied with "let me get the salesman (Desperate Gill). Great. Lol. So the manager gets Gill and then creeps away.
Gill goes to the mattress we were supposed to get, in the showroom, picks up the card with the details and spends like 3 minutes just looking at the card then looking at our receipt. He doesn't say a word to us for 3 minutes. Then he gets up, says, "I don't know what happened. I'm gonna go and see..."
And he leaves us standing there for 10 minutes while he chats with the girls at the desk. Finally, he calls us over and says "I have no idea what happened but we ordered your mattress and it will be 2 weeks."
This is where I lost it. No apologies, no accountability, explanation and absolutely no customer service. I said "so 4 weeks?! You got $3300 and we have to wait 4 weeks to get our
purchase. That's unacceptable." Gill then makes the biggest mistake of his life. He smirks,
shrugs and says "what do you want me to do? We don't have it here"
So I lost it. I yelled at him about their shady and deceptive sales tactics, the lack of customer service, the fact I had to call and
book my own delivery, and the unacceptable attitude he took about their screw up. I felt that I was going to become disrespectful, so I left the store and let hubby deal with it.
After about 5 more minutes of Gill saying "I don't get it, what do you want?" The actual manager came out and apologized to hubby, explained that they were going to try their best to rush the order, and gave us a $100 store
credit ( you know, did all those things they should've done as soon as we walked through the door). They promise we will have our new mattress in 10-14 days.
Fast-forward 15 days. Still haven't heard a word, so hubby decides to go back in to have a chat with them. Again, no apologies at all. Just a "Well it's not here yet, what do you want?" So I guess he ended up giving them some serious grief. Buddy kept saying "Well were within out timelines, what do you want?" Hubby reminded him that it has now been a month and we did not receive what we were promised would arrive within 2 weeks. So they look in to it and discover that the delivery had gone to another store and they had sold the product to someone else. Nice. They promise that it will be delivered to us within a day or two and swear up and down that they will call us. The manager days he is going to contact the district manager to arrange something for us "for our trouble". That never happened.
We did get our mattress on day 32. The delivery guys that brought it did not show up during the time period they were scheduled to come, nor did they call to let us know they were early. They stunk of smoke and left my house stinking of cigarettes, almost didn't take off their boots (hubby had to ask them to) and then left garbage on my front porch.
All in all, this was the absolute worst buying experience and the most horrible "customer service" (if you can even call it that because I believe customers are just walking dollar signs to these people ) I have ever had to endure. I will never give these people another cent and will tell everyone I know to avoid this place like the plague.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $3,000.00