Canalli Furniture Buyers Beware!!!!!!

[mijo]

Well 14.5 weeks ago my husband & I ordered a complete nursery (crib,nitestand,dresser,& tall dresser), & of course at the time of delivery the crib was incorrect & nitestand not on truck. This was last week, 1 week later we are being told that our crib will not be shipped from Italy until mid-Oct. My baby is due anyday now. So my advice to those going to Crib & Teen City stores in NJ & NY (I ordered from their Hartsdale,NY store) BEWARE!!!! THEY STINK, their customer service dept. at the NJ home office is horrible, no one calls you back, & when they finally do, they tell you sorry it won't arrive for another 4 weeks!!!!!! UGH all that planning ahead did me no good.

[cathyny]

Well I hope we have better luck. We ordered our furniture I think about 3 months ago & it is being delivered tomorrow. (also ordered from the Hartsdale store). My experience so far has been good. They actually called me back &let me change the deliver date twice. I guess the true test will be what the furniture looks like tomorrow.

Cathy

[cathyny]

Well.... good news/bad news... Good news is the quality is great & the funiture looks beautiful. Bad news is we bought a crib & a dresser in Pecan but since the dresser is made somewhere else (not Italy) the coloring does not exactly match. The crib is darker. At first I was upset but now I see it is not that noticable. The other really annoying thing the delivery guys did was leave the huge box the dresser came in downstairs in front of our condo! I was shocked when I went out before & saw this huge box. Also, I did call them earlier to complain about the color (before I knew about the box) & no phone call back.

Cathy

[mijo]

Hi Cathy,
As for me, 3 weeks later & guess what my crib is still not in....just learned that it will not be in until end of October!!!!! Ugh they are the worst, I have even had the VP of Crib & teen city call me finally (after threathing) with no answers!!!!! I'm glad you had a better experiance good luck.

[2027]

I have had a similarly frustrating experience, however, I think the outcome will be positive. I live in Virginia, but on the advice of Baby Bargains, I visited Crib and Teen City (Paramus, NJ) while visiting relatives to purchase a crib. I only wanted a crib in stock (so I could pick it up myself during my stay) and was assured that the crib I wanted (and paid for in full) was available for pick up at the warehouse immediately. After a frustrating string of phonecalls to the warehouse, apparently my crib was not available and/or it was damaged, depending upon who answered the phone. That was in August. It is October and I still do not have a crib, and the estimated date of delivery is in November.

Nevertheless, I called the Crib and Teen City Paramus store to cancel my order, and they offered me my choice of any crib currently in stock, even those much more expensive that the one I originally bought. They have arranged for immediate delivery. THerefore, I really can't complain about the service (that is, IF I recieve my crib!)

[cathyny]

I had posted in Sept that I was disappointed in the color of the furniture. Well there is some good news!!! I have been willing to deal with a few issues with the furniture -all having to do with the stain & coloring but one thing which was drivng me crazy was that on the high/low dresser one side was MUCH darker than the other. Whenever I showed pics to anyone of our nursery they always commented on it. For $500 I don't think you should have to live with something like this for years to come so I called Crib & Teen City & complained that first of all they never called us back & then we were out of the country for a while since we are adopting from Russia well they called me back & they are delivering a brand new dresser!! We are so happy! To me this is what customer service is about & if this dresser looks good I will be recommending them to all my friends.

BTW - we met our son-to-be & will be going back to Russia in a few weeks to bring him home! We can't wait!
Cathy

[NYmom2be]

We also had an awful experience at crib city. At the recommendation of the Baby Bargain Book, we purchased furniture at Crib City and after waiting for 4 months, we received a damaged crib and a Cannelli combo dresser that was falling apart. During our ordering period, which went way beyond the quoted ETA, and after the damaged furniture was delivered, we rarely received a return call from their customer service department. In fact, all our conversations were initiated by us. We are still waiting for the dresser to be replaced. After reading this board, I think their rating should be reconsidered by the fields for the next edition. Hope all of you have better luck. Julie

[NYmom2be]

Here is an update to our saga with Crib City. The replacement pieces were delivered and they were not in much better shape than the original damaged dressers. We are going to call Crib City and find out what their refund policy is as we think its time to go elsewhere to find baby furniture.
Best of luck.

[cathyny]

Hi!
Also have an update. We received our replacement dresser & it looks much better. The color overall is a little lighter than I like but otherwise looks good.

Cathy

[omorphimama]

I just received my furniture from Crib and teen city and am for the most part satisfied with their service. I ordered my furniture and crib at the end of October and was told that there was a possibility that I could get it by the end of November, which although did not happen diddn't matter as for I am due in March. I was told that I could have the case pieces delivered with a temporary crib or that I could choose a different crib and get it in two days. I did not take them up on the offer though because I really wanted the crib I chose and was in no rush. The next shipment was promised for 2nd week of January and I was called promptly and delivery was scheduled to occur within days. The only thing that annoyed my husband was that you can not make final payment over the phone with a credit card. This annoyed my husband because his parents wanted to buy the furniture for us and could not make it into a store to make the payment being that they did not live near one. So in the end we had to pay the bill ourselves and wait for his parents to pay us back. Not a big deal to me but my husband is livid about it. The store does warn you about this when placing the order though. When the furniture was delivered the two men were very nice and did a good job assembling the crib. The only mishap is that the mattress had slash marks on it from a box cutter when the packaging was opened. I noticed this after the delivery people left, but called the store and was able to bring it back for a prompt replacement to which I upgraded the quality. The thing is the next day I noticed the changing pad was also slashed. They took that back as well no problem but I was inconvenienced having to make the 2 trips back to the store. The furniture quality is great and all my pieces match nicely. There are no major wood color variations visible like what I have heard other people complain about.

[jmd]

I also had a rough time with Canalli. On the first scheduled delivery date, they failed to arrive during the agreed upon hours (between 8-5) and did not call. When I finally called at 5pm, they said they could be there by 8pm. I was not going to be home so I had to reschedule for a different date. On the second delivery date, the wrong crib arrived and two of the dresser drawers were scratched. After numerous phone calls to the delivery center and the store, we were told that the right crib could not be delivered for about 4 more weeks (which was after my due date) and that we could pick up replacement drawers for the dresser at the Springfield, NJ store. When we arrived to pick them up, the only ones that they had available were also damaged. It is not a short trip to the store and we were not amused. The crib and drawers were ultimately replaced, but not before many unreturned phone calls; the customer service at the delivery center is totally unacceptable. Our delivery charge was refunded and we got a few free changing pad covers for our trouble. The furniture looks nice and seems to be pretty good quality but I expected higher quality and better service for the price. As previously mentioned, their payment policies and the fact that they leave the shipping boxes were also annoyances. When the correct crib was finally delivered, my husband told them that they had to remove the box this time and they did.

[sheebathecat]

just in the store-crib & teen city- got and handout from the manager with 'a' all over it, then got home and looked and they got a 'b' rating.

the manager says on the phone it was an error that i got that paper...that was the paper that was all over the store. also there website canallifurniture.com opens with the same information.

very deceptive. if your rating has slipped then don't lie about it. be truthful. i would have rather really known the reason the rating dropped then have people lie to me.

'mommy of baby s'

There reply:
What release of the Baby Bargains are you reading?

Steve Klein
Customer Service


My Reply:
version 5.1 copyright 2004 of course!!!! i have been told by your marlton manager there are 2 versions out...however a 2004 copyright is current as far as i am concerned and at the bottom of your flyer it states Rated #1. Nowever, in the book are you number 1. Your web page states it is from version 5, so mine is newer. Also, your blurb you copy from the book, is not complete and is abbrieviated right at the point where the negative begins. hmmm. now that takes the cake!

not that your care - obviously you don't - i have a bachelors degree in advertising and was appauled when i saw this. i would never let something like that get copied, printed or published without all the details.

you have a nice product, and got the 'b' for your service and delivery. i could have overlooked it. however, now i am more convinced than ever that i would not buy from you or recommend you.

[emilye]

After reading all the postings I guess I got lucky with crib and teen city. At least I got my crib!
They had the crib we wanted in stock and it was delivered early.
I did have one problem with customer service. Since it was delivered early, I really did not pay too much attention to it other than to ooh and ahh over how beautiful it was. When I was setting up the baby's room this month it seemed loose. I called to say I felt it was not assembled correctly and I wanted them to come back out and look at it to be sure it was OK. The customer servcie woman said "Can't your husband just tighten it up?" I explained how the whole reason we had it assembled is becuase of the lecture the sales person gave that if we assembled it wrong our warranty would be void. Therefore, I did not want to start messing it because if there was somthing wrong with the crib, it was clear you would not take resposibility. She said "Oh we would never do that." Then she went on to say that they pay there delivery men a lot of money to come out and tighten screws. I said that I paid a lot of money for this crib and delivered and set up and they should have done it correctly the first time. She put me on hold to speak with her mangager. Then came back on and said her manager agreed with her. I flipped. Needless to say the following Monday they were back tightening everthing and the assembly men reassured me everything was fine.

They lack customer service and just decent kindness. I think my crib is breath taking, but I would not rush to buy anthing else from them in the future.

[VAmomof2]

We also bought from Crib City when we were in NJ visiting our in-laws. We had an overall awful experience. The salespeople were obviously on commission as they were very hard sell and obnoxious.
My in-laws picked up the crib when it arrived overdue by 4 weeks and noted to the warehouse personnel that there was damage to the box. They assured my in-laws that the crib was fine. Upon arrival to Virginia, we found the crib was heavily damaged and was not sound to use. We had a very difficult time with their "customer service" personnel. They were combative and accused us of dropping the crib in transit. We explained that my in-laws told the warehouseman about the potential crib damage when they picked it up. Crib City again implied we were lying as she said they would always note any problems. After going around in circles with the for almost a month,we finally were honored with a replacement crib. We made the 4 hour trip back to NJ to pick it up. Never would I recommend Crib City or their house branded Cannelli. This crib buying experience was textbook example of why not to buy Cannelli or to buy from Crib City. Baby Bargains should note the many unhappy consumers on this site alone and reconsider even mentioning this store or its furniture line in future editions of our favorite book.

[sarnacle]

I have been looking into buying a Canalli crib because it was recommended to me. I read in the BB book that one of their major dealers is Crib and Teen City, so I went to the nearest store (Hartsdale, NY) to look at the cribs in person. I had read online some Consumer Affairs reports about bad, even horrible service, so decided that I would only go to C&T City to LOOK at the furniture, not to buy. As it happened, the saleswoman there was much more concerned with her broken register than helping me, so I was glad I was not planning on purchasing from them. Now that I have an idea about what the cribs look like and which models I prefer, I'm going to price shop at other stores that have been recommended (mostly in Brooklyn). It's important to remember that just because the dealer (Crib and Teen City) is bad, does not mean that the brand is bad.