gitapet
08-30-2004, 07:12 PM
I thought everyone might appreciate an update on a recent Forever Mine crib experience. I apoligize in advance for the longish post.
My husband and I bought a Forever Mine crib for our first child and have been happy enough with it that we decided to get a second one for our new child coming in early October. Despite the fact that they had shipped exactly when they said they would for the first crib, I decided it would be better to get the crib early rather than late and ordered the crib in May. Here is a timeline of my experiences this time around.
1) Ordered crib in May. Was told to expect shipment in mid July. Because my credit card was going to expire before the anticipated ship date, I was asked to call back when I got the new one to provide the new information to make sure it would go through.
2) In mid July I realized that a) I hadn't called them back and b) I hadn't heard anything about the crib being shipped. I was concerned that my not calling them with the CC info might delay shipment. Called them, had a hard time getting through. I was told that the reason for not getting through was that the department I was trying to call was in the middle of moving and their phone system was taking longer to set up than anticipated. While talking with the rep, I asked for confirmation of when crib would be shipped. They said it was currently scheduled for 1st or 2nd week of August. They blamed the delay on the fire. When I questioned this, pointing out that the fire was in March and I didn't order until May, so why wasn't this taken into consideration with my original order date, I was told that the repairs had taken longer to finish than originally anticipated. (As a veteran of home improvement projects that actually sounded very reasonable to me).
3) In early August I noticed that our credit card had been charged for the crib. Since I hadn't heard anything from them telling me the crib had been shipped (like I had the first time I ordered from them) I called them to get the shipping date so we would know when to anticipate delivery. I was told that the crib hadn't been shipped yet! I was told that cards are charged when shipping is anticipated and that all of a sudden the spindle cribs had had a delay and wouldn't be shipped until early September. They immediately offered to reverse the charges since the crib hadn't been shipped as anticipated. I said thank you and please do. I then questioned them about how firm the early September shipping date was. The rep I was talking to said she thought it was firm but that they had also thought that the last set of shipping dates was firm. She then offered to look into shipping times on other styles if we would prefer not to wait. I asked her to and she called me back within reasonable time and gave me a two week shipping date on the all american. I said thank you very much, I'll keep that in mind, but since I did order what I thought was very early, I'll try to hold out. I'll call again if it doesn't get shipped in early September.
4) A couple days later when we got home from work, the crib was sitting on our front porch! The corners of the box were in bad shape so I made my husband open it while it was still downstairs and only the box was damaged, not the actual crib. I discovered the reason why we hadn't gotten a call from the shipping company to arrange drop off like last time, this time it was shipped UPS and UPS just doesn't do things like that. Out of curiosity I wrote down the tracking number and ran it through UPS.com. Surprise Surprise - it had been shipped July 29th! So - our crib had been shipped before they had more delays with the spindle crib. Too bad their customer service computer hadn't been updated with that info before I called them.
5) Finally assembled the crib this past weekend. It looks great. No problems in finish quality. Finish is smooth. Some variations in coloration (we did the cherry color this time) but all within reason.
The hex bolt wrench refered to in the instructions wasn't in the kit but my husband was able to use regular screwdriver. When I called them about it today I was told that they have changed the bolts so you can use a screwdriver, they are no longer including the hex bolt wrench, but that the instruction manual hasn't been updated with that info yet. Oh - and I noticed while we were assembling the crib that the problem in the instructions that I'd noticed putting together our first crib had been corrected.
So in general - The customer service at Forever Mine is not as high quality as it was 2 years ago but at least the people were still friendly and tried to be helpful. The crib itself is just as high quality as the first one we ordered from them 2 years ago. Now that we have it and it's assembled, I am happy that we made the decision to purchase from them again, even if all didn't go as smoothly as first time around.
An additional note - as part of getting ready for the new baby, we moved my son down the hall to his new "big boy" room and converted his old Forever Mine All American into the toddler bed. I think that given all the changes at once, it really helped him that, except for having one side missing, it was still his own bed that he knew and loved. He even got to see my husband moving it down the hall and doing the conversion (he tried to help!) so there was no doubt in his mind that this was HIS bed. In a time of many changes, anything that can be kept constant really really helps (especially when you aren't quite 2!)
Gretchen
Mom to Ian, born 10/21/2002,
Expectant Mom to ??? due approx. 10/2/2004
My husband and I bought a Forever Mine crib for our first child and have been happy enough with it that we decided to get a second one for our new child coming in early October. Despite the fact that they had shipped exactly when they said they would for the first crib, I decided it would be better to get the crib early rather than late and ordered the crib in May. Here is a timeline of my experiences this time around.
1) Ordered crib in May. Was told to expect shipment in mid July. Because my credit card was going to expire before the anticipated ship date, I was asked to call back when I got the new one to provide the new information to make sure it would go through.
2) In mid July I realized that a) I hadn't called them back and b) I hadn't heard anything about the crib being shipped. I was concerned that my not calling them with the CC info might delay shipment. Called them, had a hard time getting through. I was told that the reason for not getting through was that the department I was trying to call was in the middle of moving and their phone system was taking longer to set up than anticipated. While talking with the rep, I asked for confirmation of when crib would be shipped. They said it was currently scheduled for 1st or 2nd week of August. They blamed the delay on the fire. When I questioned this, pointing out that the fire was in March and I didn't order until May, so why wasn't this taken into consideration with my original order date, I was told that the repairs had taken longer to finish than originally anticipated. (As a veteran of home improvement projects that actually sounded very reasonable to me).
3) In early August I noticed that our credit card had been charged for the crib. Since I hadn't heard anything from them telling me the crib had been shipped (like I had the first time I ordered from them) I called them to get the shipping date so we would know when to anticipate delivery. I was told that the crib hadn't been shipped yet! I was told that cards are charged when shipping is anticipated and that all of a sudden the spindle cribs had had a delay and wouldn't be shipped until early September. They immediately offered to reverse the charges since the crib hadn't been shipped as anticipated. I said thank you and please do. I then questioned them about how firm the early September shipping date was. The rep I was talking to said she thought it was firm but that they had also thought that the last set of shipping dates was firm. She then offered to look into shipping times on other styles if we would prefer not to wait. I asked her to and she called me back within reasonable time and gave me a two week shipping date on the all american. I said thank you very much, I'll keep that in mind, but since I did order what I thought was very early, I'll try to hold out. I'll call again if it doesn't get shipped in early September.
4) A couple days later when we got home from work, the crib was sitting on our front porch! The corners of the box were in bad shape so I made my husband open it while it was still downstairs and only the box was damaged, not the actual crib. I discovered the reason why we hadn't gotten a call from the shipping company to arrange drop off like last time, this time it was shipped UPS and UPS just doesn't do things like that. Out of curiosity I wrote down the tracking number and ran it through UPS.com. Surprise Surprise - it had been shipped July 29th! So - our crib had been shipped before they had more delays with the spindle crib. Too bad their customer service computer hadn't been updated with that info before I called them.
5) Finally assembled the crib this past weekend. It looks great. No problems in finish quality. Finish is smooth. Some variations in coloration (we did the cherry color this time) but all within reason.
The hex bolt wrench refered to in the instructions wasn't in the kit but my husband was able to use regular screwdriver. When I called them about it today I was told that they have changed the bolts so you can use a screwdriver, they are no longer including the hex bolt wrench, but that the instruction manual hasn't been updated with that info yet. Oh - and I noticed while we were assembling the crib that the problem in the instructions that I'd noticed putting together our first crib had been corrected.
So in general - The customer service at Forever Mine is not as high quality as it was 2 years ago but at least the people were still friendly and tried to be helpful. The crib itself is just as high quality as the first one we ordered from them 2 years ago. Now that we have it and it's assembled, I am happy that we made the decision to purchase from them again, even if all didn't go as smoothly as first time around.
An additional note - as part of getting ready for the new baby, we moved my son down the hall to his new "big boy" room and converted his old Forever Mine All American into the toddler bed. I think that given all the changes at once, it really helped him that, except for having one side missing, it was still his own bed that he knew and loved. He even got to see my husband moving it down the hall and doing the conversion (he tried to help!) so there was no doubt in his mind that this was HIS bed. In a time of many changes, anything that can be kept constant really really helps (especially when you aren't quite 2!)
Gretchen
Mom to Ian, born 10/21/2002,
Expectant Mom to ??? due approx. 10/2/2004