International Ideas

Review: Purchased an outdoor teak furniture set including table, chairs, and bench. The purchase amount was for $2,750.11 and would have delivery of the product in December end or early January. Casual Elements, only open contacting them after delivery didn't show up pushed deliver to February, and then to March, finally arriving on March 13th. Additionally the merchandise arrived damaged with cracks on almost every piece. Upon sending pictures of the cracks and a phone call with Casual Elements, we were informed that cracks were normal, despite the showroom pieces not having such cracks. Additionally the product had bolts where as we were told traditional manufacturing methods were used to make the product the same as in the showroom. Casual Elements threaten that they would only accept to return the merchandise if we allowed it to happen that same day ONLY, March 13th, despite "All claims must be made within 72 hours of receipt to ensure they meet your satisfaction" written on their invoice. Upon arriving to return the product the Casual Elements employee stated he clearly saw the cracks and said they were repairable, however this was at odds with the phone call. I was refunded an amount of $2,495.47, and Casual Elements insisted that I must pay $256.64 for credit card fees and restocking fees. However Casual Elements missed promised delivery day by 3 months and the product arrived damaged and not as promised at the showroom. Finally, finally invoice says Free delivery was offered on 1-31-14, when in fact free delivery was provided at the point of initial sale as shown in the initial sales slip. An no where does the sales slip say I am responsible for restocking fees and credit card feeds for damaged goods.Desired Settlement: Return of the remaining $256.64 as Casual Elements did not live up to their contract to deliver the product on time, nor the product purchased at the quality level promised and shown in the showroom.

Business

Response:

As you mention in your letter, there are two sides to every story and our side is very different than Mr. [redacted]’s. Firstly let me please clarify that our company specializes in custom orders. We do have random samples on our showroom floor but most of our work is custom and we build furniture according to our customers’ specifications. As such when a customer places an order and pays his/her deposit and we have started to make his/her items we cannot reverse the process. We make that clear to our customers and charge them 50% of the invoice amount as a deposit when the order is placed and the other 50% at order completion. This ensures their commitment to purchase the items just as it ensures our commitment to make them according to their specifications. Approximately two weeks after Mr. [redacted] placed his custom order we received a call from him wishing to cancel his order. When we told him that we had already purchased the wood for his items, cut it to his measurements and placed it in the kiln and would therefore not be able to cancel the order, he became very agitated and threatening, citing very strange and incoherent excuses about our construction methods, none of which made any sense. He continued his threats to take legal action against us, post bad online reviews about our company and file a complaint with your office. When we maintained our position that his 50% deposit constitutes a commitment from him to not cancel his order, he ended his call with promises of actions against us that I stated earlier. We did not hear from Mr. [redacted] after the threatening phone call until we notified him last month that his items arrived and we needed to collect the remaining balance payment and schedule a delivery. The balance was collected and our staff delivered the furniture to Mr. [redacted]’s residence. His wife stated to our staff how please she was with the beautiful merchandise and that it had arrived just in time for their son’s birthday taking place that coming Saturday. But just as our staff returned from their delivery, Mr. [redacted] who was not even at the house or seen the furniture was again frantic, yelling and threatening again, claiming that the furniture had cracks. He emailed us pictures that showed nothing but the grain and the pores of the Teakwood. Trying to explain that to him was a futile effort. In talking to him I was fully aware that this customer had buyer’s remorse from the beginning and was looking for any excuse to get out of his commitment. So in order to appease him, I agreed to refund all of his money except 10% re-stocking fee to at least cover some of our expenses and I would re-send our staff to his residence to pick up the merchandise. When he heard my offer he became more furious threatening to call the police if my staff show up before Monday and if he didn’t get his full refund. He had no logical explanation when I questioned him why we could not pick up the merchandise before Monday! Was it maybe something about a birthday party? Anyway, I did not give Mr. [redacted] the option for a Monday pick up if he wanted a refund. He called later and spoke to one of our staff and agreed for a pick up that day. We refunded him his money minus 10% re-stocking fee and he is obviously now beginning to carry out his threats to harm our company. In my view Mr. [redacted] is used to taking advantage of the larger stores’ generous return policies by buying ready merchandise, using it and returning it and getting his full refund. He does not realize the expenses associated with custom-ordering merchandise. In addition, he gives the impression that he is adept at bullying companies to get his way. To Mr. [redacted] this is a game; to us this is our livelihood. There is nothing wrong with the merchandise we sold him; it is beautiful and made with the highest quality Teak. We still have it available for inspection. I challenge anyone to find any flaws in it. We have already refunded Mr. [redacted] back more than we should have as we now have merchandise that we custom-made for him that might not fit the needs of someone else. To refund Mr. [redacted]’s $256.64 re-stocking fee would be rewarding his bully approach and we are not prepared to do that. If he follows thru with his promises to slander our company name, we intend to vigorously defend ourselves thru litigation against him. We have already spoken to our attorney and we feel that we have a strong case to prevail. Please feel free to contact me anytime for any additional information. Thank you.