I ordered furniture...and the store still hasn't delivered it - what are my options?

[sarahbrown29]

This isn't the first time I've heard of problems with MCR!!

If you paid for your furniture with a credit card, you can call the CC company and explain what is going on and ask for a refund.

We ordered our crib from Furniture Kidz in Algonquin, IL. They were fantastic! If you live in the area, they are worth checking out (and much cheaper than Lazar's!)

Sarah

[kusiakje]

So today, DH FINALLY reached his breaking point. Probably the fact that I'm due in only like 5 days now had something to do with it.

Anyway, here's the latest. (Warning: It's long and a bit confusing...)

DH called MCR around 4:00 and asked if the shipment with our crib had been received yet. The sales clerk he'd been dealing with told him that 1) someone from corporate was supposed to be calling and informing us of the sitution, but apparently she was slacking in her duties (strangely, the name of the woman was different than that of the woman he'd been directed to last Friday), and 2) he'd spoken with Pali's mid-West rep and that our crib was in production and would be here at the end of the month.

What the %#@!??????

Totally confused, DH noted that he had been assured previously that a packing slip had been located showing that our crib was on a truck somewhere. How is it possible now that we've backtracked to production at this stage of the game? Of course, there was no answer to that one, so the sales clerk said he'd have to call corporate and get back to DH. (DH was dealing with the clerks again because he tried to call corporate first and got only voice mail. He left a msg and then decided to call the store.)

DH noted that it sounded like things were horribly screwed up now, and that delivery was going to be at least a month late. DH said that something needed to be done to compensate us for this additional delay. So, he demanded that: 1) whatever furniture that we have waiting for us be delivered immediately, 2) a loaner crib of comparable quality be delivered with our other furniture, as he had been promised last week by the woman at corporate and 3) the cost of our mattress be waived. The clerk took down the list of demands, but, of course, had no authority to authorize them, so said he'd talk to someone about getting the permission for those things...as well as get to the bottom of the conflicting information.

A short time later, the return call came and the clerk said he'd made a mistake before. It wasn't the crib that was currently in production. It was our changer and hutch. Now at this point, DH's blood was starting to boil because, as those of you who have read the first entry know, we were told that our changer and hutch had arrived already. So DH pointed this fact out to the clerk who acknowledged the further confusion and said he'd check on it.

Also during this conversation, DH was told that the woman from corporate who was supposed to be handling our case was no longer dealing with it. There had been a new guy designated who would hopefully handle things better. The clerk said he would call the new guy and make him walk down to the storage area and see with his own eyes what, if anything, had arrived for us. Clerk also said that he'd talked to the woman that DH had spoken with Friday, and she had no recollection of speaking with DH at all. How convenient...

Nevertheless, DH was told that all of his demands would be met. This made DH fairly happy. Because we chose the super-duper Moonlight Slumber mattress, that's another $200 that we're now going to save (with tax 9% more...). I actually had suggested that demand to DH because I read somewhere (BB?) that there's a HUGE markup on mattresses. Little loss to them...decent savings for us...win/win.

Anyway...a short time later, DH got the call from the clerk regarding what furniture had actually arrived. Turns out, it was just the changer...not the hutch. The do have a hutch in stock...but it's for a double dresser...not a combo...thus the confusion. Yeah...sure... Somehow I think they're just making up this story as they go along...and every time they get caught in a lie...because DH keeps detailed notes of every call he's made...they go back to the drawing board and try to come up with a new game plan.

Regardless, delivery turned out to be a bit of a hassle. It's not going to be exactly "immediate." After some back and forth, the earliest date they would give DH for now is Thursday (first they tried Saturday...DH said no). The clerk said he'd try and see if he could get it any sooner. I'm betting no. So, until Thursday, we're going to keep our fingers crossed and how that we finally get to see our changer and the Pali Carmen crib they said they'd bring as a loaner.

BTW, thanks for the billing heads up, Tamar. Because of your hassle with that, DH remembered to confirm that we wouldn't be asked to pay for anything on Thursday....since we've already paid for more than the mere 1/3 of furniture they're going to deliver.

I'll update again later in the week to let anyone who's reading this saga know what happens...

Jessica

[tamar948]

Here is what I hope will be our last update regarding MCR:

The delivery folks came on Monday within the designated window. I had to be at work, so my DH was there to let them in and ensure all was well with the pieces and that everything was set up. Although I have yet to see everything in daylight, the furniture appears to be set up properly and in good condition.

As I noted in my previous post, the balance was not updated. My DH contacted the store and this appears to have been resolved (but, I won't count my chickens till I see my CC statement ;) ).

Given the struggle, it may be a while before I can be pleased with our choice (Baby's Dream Infinity crib and 3 drawer dresser in chestnut) and enjoy its looks in the room. I'm still so worried about something being wrong. On the bright side so far, the Colgate Classica I mattress (babycatalog.com) fits perfectly.

For those of you who are still working to get your order from MCR, I would recommmend seeing if you can work with Jose at the Niles store. Although there was some confusion and a couple of mixed messages, he was very professional, returned calls, and really tried to stay up to speed on our order.

Best of luck,
Tamar

[knaidel]

Ugh, I'm reading the posts and thinking about what a hassle it must be for all of you new (and almost) mamas to deal with this %$#!

Just an FYI, when we (meaning me and my mom!- DH couldn't care less!) were crib shopping last year, we saw a "low end" Pali crib for $375 with a drawer at Lazar's, and was told that this was kept in stock (pending on delivery, meaning it doesn't need to be special ordered). If anyone is in a jam, it might be worth a look.

Also, OT, only good things about service at Lazar's for everything. I bought my Dutailer from them (it was only a drop more $$ than at BRU, and I (gasp) got actual customer service there. I also bought a stroller from them, and have found the salespeople to be GREAT.

[tiapam]

Lazar's also has a little clearance room that usually has a crib or two in it, plus some other pieces. They don't necessarily match each other, but they might match a piece you already have.

-Pam

Charlotte born October 2004

[jlk]

Tamar,

Sorry I didn't respond earlier -- was in labor when the dresser was eventually delivered!

So -- I did end up receiving my dresser after several more heated conversations with sales reps at the store. After the manufacturer confirmed to me over the phone that a dresser of the type we ordered was on its way to the store, the store told me that it was NOT my dresser, and that I would have to wait another month or so until another one was delivered. The manufacturer, however, had told me that only two orders for this dresser had been placed -- one in May (when I placed my order) and the other in late August. I assumed the store just failed to place my order with the manufacturer (though they denied this).

At this point I was ready to give up and asked my husband to make one last call (I couldn't take dealing with them any more). He spoke to someone at the corporate office in charge of inventory management who said first that the dresser in the current shipment was not ours, then, in the SAME conversation, contradicted himself and said that he "just received some new information" and that the dresser was, in fact, ours. Not sure what triggered this, though my husband asked several pointed questions and mentioned that I worked at a law firm. Sadly, I think this guy (Nico, who an earlier poster -- a woman -- said was quite rude) just responded better to a man.

So we did receive our dresser. We're not sure whether (1) they failed to order our dresser on time but, because we made such a big fuss, gave us someone else's order to get us off their backs or (2) they actually did timely place the order but are so incompetent that they couldn't track the order or contact the manufacturer to find out when the dresser was arriving until we did so on our own.

Bottom line -- the customer service was terrible and we will never shop there again.

In October, the Chicago Tribune printed a complaint (in one of the consumer columns) about My Child's Room from a woman who had an experience similar to mine.

Jennifer

[Jennifer L]

I also had the same issues with that company and cancelled my order and purchased all the furniture at Small World in Rockford, Illinois.They are about 60 miles West of Chicago.They had all but one item in stock and received that item in about to weeks to have everything delivered and set up in my home by Thankgiving.When my family came to town , my nursury was set up. It was a wonderful feeling.I would recommend giving them a call @ (815)397-1500
they also have a website :
www.smallworldkids.com
Best of luck to all who are having problems.

[kusiakje]

So here's the dramatic conclusion to our saga...for anyone who cares...

They delivered our changer, hutch and loaner crib on September 15th...which was just in time because that afternoon I was admitted to the hospital to have labor induced. They forgot to deliver our mattress though. Thankfully, they made a special trip out on Saturday the 17th so we had it just hours before the baby and I were discharged from the hospital. But, the really screwed up thing is that they also UPSed us another mattress that we received the following Monday. My husband said that had been an option they had considered, but clearly it wouldn't have met our time constraints. I'm telling y'all the right hand doesn't know what the left's doing over there. So we had 2 mattresses.

As if that wasn't messed up enough, my husband got a phone call about a week later telling him that our changer and hutch had arrived and asking about scheduling delivery. A real head scratcher since we thought that we had "our" case pieces already. But, here's the thing about that. We thought that the wood stain looked darker than what we had ordered. The loner crib seemed to be the shade we wanted...but that's not the same color as the changer. The crib's lighter. So we had someone come out from the store to show us the stain samples of the pieces received...to determine whether it was the same as what we had or the color we had actually ordered. Apparently, the problem there is that Pali's cognac used to be a lighter shade, but now what was once cognac is known as cinnamon or something. So I was extremely worried that the stains weren't going to match. I'm telling you...it was just one headache after another...

Anyway, my husband got fed up about the crib at this point and spoke with someone at Lazar's to ask about transferring our order to their store. At least we know that they're responsible and that if the order were transferred, they'd pay for it and things would be shipped shortly. Lazar's gave my husband the number for the midwest rep for Pali, so my husband called him as well. The rep comfirmed the rumors reluctantly...MCR has a large debt with Pali and the delays are the result of delayed payment.

DH asked about transferring our order, but the rep said he saw 3 cribs matching the description of the one we ordered that were scheduled for delivery in the next couple of weeks so he thought we should probably just wait and see if our order would be fulfilled. He thought it would cause a further delay if we were to change now...when it seemed like we were so close. We weren't.

Part of the problem, we heard, is that the procedure for deliveries from Pali involves someone from their plant in Canada calling MCR to confirm that they will be able to accept delivery on the scheduled date. The manager or whoever's in charge of that, apparently hasn't been accepting or returning those calls, so the trucks weren't leaving Canada as soon as they could have. They were delayed until the manager got off his/her duff and decided to say "yeah, we'll be here then."

DH submitted a complaint to the State Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division. We encourage anyone else who has/had problems to do the same thing. There is power in numbers...the AG is much more likely to do something if it will impact a lot of people.

BTW, at one point back in September, DH asked someone at MCR about our crib again, and we got the most creative excuse: Pali ran out of wood for their cribs. OoooooooK....

Anyway, DH kept checking with the Pali rep for the next few weeks. He, of course, no longer trusted anything they told him at MCR. A month ago we were told our crib was on a boat from Italy. We were hopeful, but skeptical that we would finally get our crib. Then a couple weeks ago, we were told it was on a truck from Canada. Yep...we'd heard that before. We'll see... Then, a week ago the call came. I so wanted to be excited...but this just irritated me:

"This is MCR. I'm calling to see if you've received your crib yet."

"No."

"OK. Good, I'm glad I checked. I saw a notation in your file about a crib and thought you may have received it. But I thought I'd check before I gave yours away to someone else."

"Oh" *but thinking about how there was way too much information there for me*

"well, your crib is in."

"Finally, thank God."

See? Not exactly the moment I'd hoped it would be.

Anyway, they delivered the crib on Wednesday. And, just to show how they truly have no idea what's what...they brought us a 3rd mattress. The delivery people saw our mattress and realized we didn't need it though. At least someone in the organization had a bit of brains. Too bad he's not working higher up in the company.

In the end, I have to say that I'm not totally upset. If I had it all to do over, would I order from MCR? Hell no. But, I have to say that they compensated us for our irritation fairly well. So, while we didn't have our pretty new crib for DD when she arrived, we at least had A crib for her, thanks to the loaner (which was a very nice Pali Forever Carmen. Little dinged up here and there, but nothing very noticeable).

The only thing that truly irritated these many months was not having the under-crib storage drawer that we'd wanted. At first, it wasn't a big deal. DD didn't have a lot of clothes, so having her bedding taking up a drawer and a half of her dresser wasn't a big deal. But then the gifts came...and suddenly I NEEDED that drawer space.

I think we've been fairly well compensated for the inconvenience though. They gave us 10% off the total bill already, and DH is trying for a bit more. (The guy DH's been dealing with, Dave, could authorize 10% without approval from anyone. He said he'd have to talk to the store manager to get any more. DH asked that he do that.) Hopefully, we'll get another 10% yet.

Of course, once again, nothing's easy with that first 10%. DH calculated the 10% off at about $25 less than MCR...so there's still a bit of a fight there too. Now that the situation is drawing to a close, I find it pretty comical. This level of incompetence is truly funny. Maybe I'll have to write a book or something about all this. Of course, no one would believe the sheer stupidity...unless they'd dealt with these people. And then, it would probably hit too close to home to be funny.

Good luck to those of you still battling with MCR!

--Jessica

Mom to Katarina, born 9/16/05

[Anon]

Here is some information about My Child's Room that may interest you.

Robert (Bob) Geisheker is the President and CEO of My Child's Room. He previously spent 20 years working for Sears, Roebuck and Co., working his way up to the position of National Retail Marketing Manager for Infants and Children's Wear. He and some other investors formed a company called TBR, LLC, which bought the Baby's Room furniture chain in an out-of-court bankruptcy from USA Baby in 2004. He renamed the chain My Child's Room after disagreements with USA Baby. USA Baby and My Child's Room then sued each other in early 2005 over whether Geisheker had broken a franchise agreement with USA Baby.

My Child's Room currently has massive credit problems with its suppliers, so the furniture manufacturers, who cannot afford to be burned, are forced to halt any new deliveries until My Child's Room pays them in full for back orders and up front for any new orders. These credit problems, along with incompetent and unsympathetic employees at My Child's Room headquarters in Elmhurst, are the cause for the horrible customer service you are experiencing. My Child's Room was even spotlighted in a recent Chicago Tribune article about a mother who purchased furniture there and waited six months to receive it. (It was after the Chicago Tribune started poking around that delivery was finally made to that mother.)

Here are some pictures of Bob Geisheker golfing in Florida on your dime:
http://www.kidstodayonline.com/content/conference1.aspx

You might try to get your furniture by contacting the following:

TBR, LLC (My Child's Room headquarters)
817 North Industrial Drive
Elmhurst IL, 60126-1107
fax 630-832-2858
phone 800-890-0029 or 630-834-2866
ext 228 for President and CEO Bob Geisheker
ext 225 for manager Susan Paulsen
ext 223 for customer service rep Dave
ext 239 for customer service rep Nico

or

Bob Geisheker
4085 Bunker Lane
Wilmette, IL 60091-1001
phone 847-853-0273

But that might not get you any furniture. Instead, you might just cancel your order. Be sure to:
- get your down-payment back. The My Child's Room location you first visited will charge it back to your credit card with a quick phone call and even mail you a receipt. This is routine for them, but if they give you any trouble, just contact your credit card company and dispute any charges My Child's Room made.
- contact the furniture manufacturer and find another retailer in the Chicago area that can competently sell you the furniture you want. If you want Baby's Dream Furniture, they do not sell direct to the public, but that is no problem, just call:

Small World Children's Furnishing (ask for Bob)
1825 Perryville Road
Rockford, IL 61112-1021
phone 888-202-4451 or 815-397-1500
www.smallworldkids.com

They have much better customer service and, just as important, they are not on the verge of bankrupcy and can therefore get the manufacturer to deliver your furniture if it is not already in their stock. If you are not near Rockford, no problem, they can have it delivered to Chicago for $85. Depending on whether your items are already in stock, you will have your furniture within a week or two after a quick phone call.

Whatever you choose to do, please:
- contact the Illinois Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division at http://www.ag.state.il.us/about/email_consumers.jsp or 800-386-5438.
- contact the Better Business Bureau of Chicago & Northern Illinois at http://www.chicago.bbb.org or 312-832-0500.
- tell everyone you encounter about your experience trying to do business with My Child's Room!

- YOUR FELLOW CONSUMER & MY CHILD'S ROOM VICTIM