National Office Liquidators

Review: National Office Liquidator's marketing slogan: "Liquidating top quality from America's finest companies." NOL's marketing position: "We offer high quality used office furniture from top companies that you will be proud to use in your business. Satisfaction guaranteed." Their selection is good and boy the photos of their furniture inventory look great!

I even went out of my way to drive to Chicago to see the furniture I was interested in! Get a feel for the quality of the items I might be buying before delivery occurs. Not all of the items I needed were stocked in Chicago unfortunately, so I could not actually pick out my items and buy. Everything else there looked like good quality furniture, so I relied on faith and was forced to trust them to deliver similar quality furniture when my items shipped from Phoenix to Chicago for local delivery to me.

Boy did things quickly fall apart after they had my money and I headed back home...

I ordered one large wooden desk set, two Steelcase metal desk sets, three office chairs, and a couple Steelcase dividers. Other than the chairs, there was a problem with everything else delivered. CLASSIC BAIT AND SWITCH where what you see on their website is not what you might actually receive.

Beyond a fair amount of wear and tear, the wooden desk set was actually missing many pieces of hardware to assemble it. It was also missing one very important large wood panel. It also looked to me like some new damage occurred during the shipping from Phoenix to here, which did not have to be and is a shame.

The two Steelcase metal desk sets were in horrible shape. And were not what was pictured on their website. They were so unacceptable I had to ask for their return, and now wait longer for a second pair to get redelivered from Phoenix. The second pair was actually worse than the first pair. One desk had a broken and unusable drawer. Both were filthy (with the Chicago office saying they were sorry, they normally clean them up and prepare them before delivering). There were no instructions for assembling the pieces back together. The hardware sent along looked like they grabbed a random bunch from an old screw jar. None of it was consistent. And the brackets did not look like the original hardware either. Both problems made the assembly process very unpleasant. Both metal desk sets had more than their fair share of dents and scratches, making them not close to the "top quality" promise. They even had junk still in the drawers and old stickers, gum, and junk stuck on the outsides apparently from the last company that owned them. And again, it looked like additional damage was done during the shipping based on clues found during unwrapping from the pallets.

And the dividers were not in very good shape either. One of them was even missing its bottom cover plate. Phoenix apparently tied to grab some extra cover plates to make up for the missing one, wrapped them, and sent them along. What, for me to put on myself? I tried, and they had grabbed the wrong size and would not even fit. So, between all of those problems, I would say PRODUCT PURCHASED WAS DEFECTIVE.

Do you know what was worse than all of this though? Calling the Chicago branch and originally receiving an acceptance of my dissatisfaction with a promise of sending the missing panel, missing hardware, and missing cover plate, etc., only to see them never follow through after many many many phone calls and emails. I had to hound these guys every month for about six months. Every time was a promise to send the items, followed by waiting a while, and then never seeing anything show up. A clear FAILURE TO PROVIDE CUSTOMER SERVICE. And a FAILURE TO RESPOND TO PHONE CALLS AND WRITTEN REQUESTS FOR SUPPORT. More requests than a person should have had to do. I still have a copy of every email sent and received.

Because they never provided the promised quality in the first place and then never remedied that after more than a year, I would say they also FAILED TO HONOR THEIR AGREEMENT WITH ME. And satisfaction guaranteed promise.

I am very unhappy with my experience with NOL. I regret purchasing from them. And I would not recommend them to anyone!Desired Settlement: I would really simply love for them to provide the product originally promised. But I can't go through any more empty promises. So I would be willing to settle for a partial refund of $500 in order to finally be able to move on.

Business

Response:

Hello,

The gentleman placed this order back in November 2011 ( See attached order ) . The desks he received had a different drawer configuration as shown online ( See picture from our website and his 2 pictures of what he received attached ) We offered to bring the desks back for a refund but the customer refused. This order was a drop ship and he was responsible for unloading the furniture himself. The customer was not able to put the desks together so we sent installers to put them together at no cost to him. Additional parts that were missing were sent.

The customer purchased USED furniture besides 1 chair that was brand new.

We don't understand why the customer is complaining after all this time when these issue were resolved and worked out with the customer over a year ago.

( Email from the customer regarding the pictures attached )

[redacted],

Attached is a picture of what is on the NOL website for the L-shaped metal

desk I wanted.

And two views of one of the L-shaped desks delivered.

The second L-shaped desk delivered is the same as the first one delivered, so I didn't take a picture

of it. I see no way the pieces they sent can be put together to work like

what was intended.

I would like to get two L-shaped metal desks identical to the picture on the

website for [redacted]

--

Sincerely,

Manager

Rocket Air Labs

P: ###-###-####

F: ###-###-####

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Regards,

The person from National Office Liquidators responding here is completely misinformed. None of the missing parts we listed were ever sent after waiting all this time. Which is why we remain unhappy with this company and filed this complaint in the first place.

They delivered bad product. I let them know about the missing items and other problems. And I gave them a lot of time to correct everything. We agreed to their promise of providing all the missing items and an exchange of the two metal desks. It was unpleasant. And the two metal replacement desks ended up being worse than the first ones. Their

delivery service unloaded the furniture both times, we unwrapped the furniture, and both times it was evident that extra damage occurred due to careless shipping. Their delivery service guys did try to assemble one set of metal desks, but gave up and left. And we were never sent any of the missing items as promised, even after months and months of emails and calls. Case closed.

If you want USED office furniture that looks great on a website but shows up looking like it belongs in a junkyard, use National Office Liquidators. If you want USED office furniture in nice condition, use another company. We do not understand why this company acts like it does. In our opinion they may be operating a bait and switch scam and based on our experience we do not recommend them. Even their response to this complaint is defensive, evasive, unhelpful, and making an attempt to blame the customer.

Business

Response:

Mr. [redacted],

This order was complete over a year ago.

I'm not sure what to believe from you as of now.

You keep mentioning how bad the USED Steelcase desks were that you received the 2nd time. Looking at the photos from what you sent us ( which are attached in the Revdex.com complaint thread ) Do not look like what you describe. You said they were - Dented, Scratched, Worse than the first ones you received. Also stating they belong in a junk yard.... They look like they are in excellent condition in the photos!

And again in case you forgot: You had sent us these photos to us showing that you had the hardware and you were unable to put them together, so we hired a install company for you at our cost to have them put together for you.

Please Advise

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Regards,

With respect to the Steelcase desk pictures, you cannot see the back area of that desk, inside the drawers, or the second desk at all. That was also the first set of desks delivered. The second set of desks sent are not in any pictures.

The biggest reason we accepted NOL's offer of a metal desk exchange was because the first set delivered did not look like the same desk we ordered off their website. We could not believe the overall condition of what they sent. So we wanted to see what they would send as replacements.

NOL did not hire an install company, at their cost, to put together anything. For the second time now, the delivery company they paid to deliver the second set of metal desks was two guys and a truck. They delivered the second set of metal desks to our building. I asked them to show us how one Steelcase desk set went together, since NOL does not provide any information about it. One of the guys agreed to try. He gave up after struggling a while, and then they both left.

We are not looking to rehash all of this again a second time. NOL had over a year to respond to our original emails and phone calls appealing for resolution to this matter. That is when they should have taken this seriously. Instead, they left us with the impression they are a BAIT AND SWITCH COMPANY WHO TRIES TO WEAR DOWN ANY CUSTOMER WITH A COMPLAINT UNTIL THE CUSTOMER GOES AWAY. We would not recommend this place to anyone. We are no longer willing to accept delivery of the missing pieces. We unfortunately have to accept the POOR QUALITY OF THE FURNITURE DELIVERED, swallow the loss, and repurchase better furniture elsewhere. What we consider to be acceptable resolution to close this matter is listed in our original complaint letter to the Revdex.com

National Office Liquidators provides excellent service and products at exceptional prices. They were the most responsive and transparent of all of the vendors we initially spoke with. [redacted] with their organization went above and beyond to make sure we were satisfied throughout our order process. I would recommend to anyone shopping in the office furniture market.

Always great to work with. If there are errors, as errors will occur, we are human, they are happy to fix it and usually I get more than I asked for.

Ordered used office furniture for myself & also for daughter attending college in another state. Easy and helpful sales staff. Good communication throughout the ordering process. Items were packaged securely when I arrived for pick-up. Items were listed as used, but appeared near-new.

Review: I live in an upscale neighborhood and the business has moved in across the street from our loft condominium. What was once, under the previous business, a clean facility with neatly trimmed grass, has been left by the current business to become overgrown with tall weeds that have caught garbage and are home to one or more rats. Multiple posters have been passed up and partially torn down. This [redacted] location is becoming an eyesore; dirty and detracting from the neighborhood.Desired Settlement: We would like the business to step up and act like a neighbour by cleaning up the property.

Business

Response:

We have successfully trimmed all the landscaping around our [redacted] facility, please see attached photos. We have also asked the local store manager to hire a landscaping company to maintain the area.

Review: I am still waiting for delivery of two desks that I ordered from National Office Liquidators from their Chicago office. The order was place on March 20th 2013Desired Settlement: I want to know if the desks will be delivered in a reasonable amount of time if not I want a full refund

Business

Response:

We called the customer. We recently got her corrected order in June 12th. The customer has been using loaner desks ( Same style but different color ) until we got the correct color re-stocked. We have set up Delivery for the correct color ordered on Monday June 17th.

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.

Regards,

The business delivered the correct desks yesterday. I am satisfied with the result and consider this situation closed. [redacted]

This company had great prices and their staff was very helpful. The shipping was reasonable and it was delivered in a timely manner. Our office ordered 90 chairs and they arrived in great shape. I am very satisfied with their product and service.

Review: We ordered numerous items. All completely wrapped up when we took them. When we unwrapped one desk at our office it had a huge chunk out of it. I spent 6 weeks corresponding with our salesperson [redacted] to get help. No one from the organization ever reached back out to me. I finally stopped down at the office this week and spoke to them about the problem. The person from the back warehouse refused to do anything other than give us a touchup pen. I explained I had multiple witnesses, camera footage of our unloading and unwrapping at the office, that the product was received damaged and they still refused to return or replace the damaged item they gave us. Extremely disappointing.Desired Settlement: I would prefer a refund or replacement

National Office Liquidators is not a company I will do business with again. While the product eventually got to me in one piece, significant time was wasted with the delivery company that they outsource delivery to. Despite only delivering 14 chairs, it took two days and over 6 hours of wasted time guiding a driver that didn't speak very good english and didn't have a GPS despite driving cross country.

The response from the company was not helpful. They seemed to represent that they have never had problems before despite that clearly not being the case on Revdex.com as other customers have complained about delivery problems.

The money saved on product does not make up for the lack of professionalism and waste of time and energy that was endured.

The lack of communication from NOL is frankly outrageous. After ordering, they were prompt in charging us but because I needed to know when the laterals I ordered would be arriving, I had the WORST time trying to communicate with my contact there in scheduling the delivery. Every time I attempted to email him I would get a 3 word response and he never answered his phone. When he gave me another contact's phone number to call while he was out of the office, that person would not respond to my calls either. When I threatened to rescind payment, I STILL could not get someone to talk to. Though the laterals have magically appeared for delivery, I don't think it was worth all the doubt in delivery from them and I will never work with them again.