A chronicle of my attempts to live a classy life as a single girl in the Nation's Capital

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Kafka and Arhaus

"Kafkaesque" is really the only way to describe the ordeal I'm being put through with ordering this comforter from Arhaus:
Pretty isn't it?  I wouldn't really know since I still don't have it

A close up--it's burn-out velvet.  It really is beautiful.
Now Arhaus is a "nice" store.  I really like their stuff and the employees have been very nice, but let me describe what I've been put through with this cursed quilt.

1. Went to store on Dec. 26 and have a post-Christmas, totally greedy "OMG I have to have it" moment.  Bought quilt with X-mas cash.
2. Now, the entire problem could have been resolved if they just kept the quilt in the store.  I understand why they don't have furniture there, but how much space would it really take to store a few quilts?  I doubt that many people are flooding the furniture store for $300 quilts.  But John happily takes his commission for doing nothing and laughs "Oh, we don't have a back room."  Like I'm supposed to swoon at how exclusive they are.  I just want the damn quilt.
3. Since they don't have something as pedestrian as a backroom or "storage"  I am forced to pay $24 for shipping and handling.  They better make my bed for me when it gets here.
This is how John sees storage.

4. It's on back order.  Of course--So I am told it will be in by February 2nd.  I patiently wait.  Later I figure out the quilt was on sale and I didn't get my sale price.  I call about that...
5. Mid-February rolls around and I am wondering where my quilt is.  After all, they already charged me for it.  Most companies wait until they actually send it.  I call the store and meet Robin, who is a very nice lady who seems sympathetic of my situation.  It was back ordered again.  Until March 2
6. March rolls around and guess what?!  No quilt!  I call Robin again, she says she'll look into it for me because it was back ordered again... and this is "not usual."  I sure hope not.
7. Robin leaves a message on my answering machine and I just have to laugh.  Turns out my quilt is made in Egypt and a certain revolution there has held it up.  However, there is ONE in the U.S. and since I've been waiting longer, they are going to remove it from one person's order and send it to me.
8. 2 weeks pass.  I call Robin again.  At this point when she answers the phone I find myself wanting to say "Hey Robin! What's up?  It's me Laura"  I actually do say "It's Laura" and she knows who I am--Quilt girl.  She's shocked that I still haven't received said quilt and is going to look into it again.
9. A weekend passes and then Robin calls me again.  Turns out there was some sort of shipping fiasco and UPS ruined my quilt THE ONLY ONE IN THE CONTINENTAL US!  UPS.. WTF??  And you wonder why you're going out of business. 
Too bad this guy wasn't around to sew it back up for me.  Seriously, what is going on in this picture?
So now I'm back to playing the backorder game--I'm told Mid-April.  I should just cancel the order at this point, but I feel like I've waited so long that I can't just give up now.  Will the quilt ever arrive?  Or will I be 80 and hanging out with my best bud Robin still waiting for the backorder that would not end?

2 comments:

Deborah said...

OMG! You must really l-o-v-e that quilt! I'd want my money back plus intrest$$ You should forward your blog post to Arhaus twitter or fbook -check it out...

Unknown said...

First off sorry for the late comment I forgot what my gmail account was for a long time cause I never really use it. love the quilt cant wait for you to get it. I cant believe UPS wtf are the doing out there... oh running into ditches I see. I've been having issues with the regular mail, tired to mail something back and they totally destroyed it in the mail and was a huge hassle with the company.