When am I going to learn? Read the reviews before shopping! I do this for services but still have not learned to do it for a retailer. Lesson learned (again). We purchased 8 dining room chairs at least 2 months ago. We were told delivery would be 3-4 weeks. After 2 weeks we were called to say that the chairs were 'back ordered'. We asked why we were not told this at the time of the order. Of course they blamed the mistake on the manufacturer. They were going to be delivered at the end of June. Well into July I had to call to find out what the 'f' was happening with the chairs. Of course they would be delivered in another few weeks.....as if I trusted their word at that point. I detest retailers who are anxious to sell and get your money but are not anxious to deliver. At this point I was dealing with Robert, the manager. He was belligerent, obnoxious and rude. I asked that the chairs be assembled and delivered to my home, free of charge as compensation for the inconvenience and frustration. We had been without any dining room chairs for more than a month (counting on their delivery when promised). Of course, Robert, who does not understand good customer service, refused! When will these people learn that satisfied customers will come back! So the order was cancelled, we received a refund and have now purchased nicer chairs, for a lower price and will have them delivered this week.
Thank you Robert. You did us a really big favour.
This is a letter that my husband sent to Robert, which I think was very civil...not Robert's response. Please read on.
Dear Bonnie,
Let me introduce myself - I am Dr Robert Kerbel, Diane's husband. Diane has her point of view, you have yours. Fair enough. But when disputes of this sort happen one of the things one can now do is try and get an idea of the general quality and honesty of the service of a business by looking up online reviews. Now I know, as a cancer research scientist, these reviews can be selective and biased on occasion - you do not simply go by a few reviews, but look at the broad landscape. After our experience that is what I did and clearly, in retrospect, I should have done it beforehand. if I had done so, we would not have decided to visit your showroom. In short, while there are some positive reviews, the majority are terribly negative as are your average ratings. Three out of ten? How humiliating. And your response to these reviews is to say the posters are all ignorant. How Donald Trump! Another thing you can do is look up the reviews of various competitor businesses that sell chairs. It is a small sample size, but here is what I have found so far:
ElteMarket, 4 stars out of 5;
Shelter, 10 out of 10;
Morba, 4.5/5 (BlogTO) and 5/5 (Facebook)
Calligaris, 5/5 (Blog,TO) 5/5 Facebook)
Stylegarage, 4 stars out of 5
If I keep searching I am sure I will eventually find a business that has a very low rating similar or worse than Chairsource. But I do not have the time.
I have no doubt, Bonnie, of the sincerity of your comment that the TEAM treats all customers with respect and dignity - when they first come in the store and represent a potential sale. It is when problems arise later, as happened in our case, and with many others, that the true test of how customers are treated becomes evident. And in this case the evidence is clear - the online reviews and ratings of Chairsource are likely depressingly truthful and accurate.
Yours sincerely,
Bob Kerbel
This is Robert's response. Just what you would expect.
Bob
Let’s cut the crap.
Our reason behind not taking on line reviews seriously stems from this. On line companies request monthly fees from us to “ handle our account” which in lament terms means that if I pay them a monthly fee they publish the dozens of positive reviews that I know were in fact submitted and not posted and as well will be more discriminating in the negative reviews published…I refuse to pay these extortion fees and as such receive a 3 out of ten from terrible on line sites. I really do not care what you think of our store as despite my best efforts to have a civil conversation with your wife on several occasions, she insisted on being belligerent, rude, yelling and finally slamming the phone down in my ear mid conversation ( not how civilized adults converse ). I wish there was a site where we could rate our clients as your wife would be a 2 out of 10 at best. Regardless, you are not the type of client we want and if on line reviews are so important feel free to write one…Our clientele does not frequent these sites so I stand by my comments. Maybe in the future instead of judging my business you can judge your wife’s deplorable behavior when all I was doing was giving her a status and offering free assembly on the least expensive chair we have in the entire showroom.
I will no longer respond nor will any staff as your emails will all go to junk where they belong.
By the way…I love Trump.
Judge for yourselves folks. Who do you think has more credibility?
