Personally, I would not buy any furniture made in China. We ordered our new sofa from Wesley Hall, which is located here in NC. There used to be a Thomasville store somewhere here, probably Thomasville!! I would check if they still have the store & see if I could buy it direct. Maybe they don't make any of it here in NC anymore, I don't know. We did that w/ our Thomasville bedroom suite we bought almost 30 yrs. ago. Could not ask for better furniture.

We purchased some Thomasville furniture years ago (about 6 years ago). Leather sofa, leather chair, upholstered chair and two dressers. We had never purchased nice furniture before so we splurged figuring we would have this furniture for the rest of our lives and hand the pieces down to our children as they were good quality pieces.

When it arrived, the two side chairs had different color finishes on the wood that didn't match, the sofa had a small "slice" in the leather up on top of the back and one dresser was damaged coming up the staircase. They sent a guy out to the house thinking he was going to refinish the wood on the one chair right there in my family room. Uh, what? Go right over the finish that was wrong? In my family room? With kids in there? So they took it away and weeks later I got it back. Not perfect but acceptable. I felt so grateful to have nice furniture I didn't want to seem spoiled and felt almost guilty for having spent so much. I didn't want to be that whiney woman that had a problem with everything.

The other dresser the first time I opened a drawer, a piece of the veneer chipped right off because there was a nail or something sticking out the bottom of the drawer. They said to use a furniture marker to cover it up. And they never did get back to us about the slice in the leather sofa.

The leather chair and ottoman we have is that tooled leather with a paisley print. Quite gorgeous but the leather piping around the ottoman has worn right through to almost nothing. No pattern, no color.

I am disgusted with Thomasville quality and also with their customer service. I was an exhausted young mother at the time and just didn't have the fight in me. Today I would have demanded they do something, and I do regret it when I see even more chips in the veneer in both dressers now.

I would recommend another furniture company.

Cust Service counts big time in my book, ranks really high. Recap below is quite long, but worth reading if your gut has doubts:

I had a nightmare experience with a T'ville leather sofa + love seat a few years ago. Fancy stuck up dealer/store in town my mom lives in. (She's not stuck up, tho. ;) Anyway, they price matched a dealer that was further away but cheaper. Set was a Quick Ship, meaning a stock item that should have come in within 3 weeks. Took 3 months and several calls to get it ordered. (Discovered later on seeing invoice that store didn't even send order in till 6 weeks after I put down my deposit. All along they were blaming T'ville for delay when they were still sitting on the freaking order.)

So anyway, it finally comes in. Like an idiot (but trying to keep as much off a credit card as possible) I paid half down in cash, balance on CC on arrival in store, then they would deliver. Delivery guys showed up with the sofa wrapped like a giant cellophane burrito. They did not take the legs off nor unwrap it. Mind you, this sofa was the exact dimensions and almost exact style of one that had been on our lower level. A sofa that DH and his nephew moved upstairs in 10 minutes with no trouble. Just has to have legs removed & be tilted the right way to get it through the angled bend of stairway at front foyer. (We have a bilevel.)

I'm standing at top of stairs watching these morons struggle. I'm trying to explain that if they unwrap it, take legs off, tilt it such and such, it will go right down the stairs. 3 guys and not one of them could figure that out. So there was this giant burrito stuck in my entry. (BTW, DH had just finished DIY work, putting in oak stairs, oak stair rail, oak flooring at foyer, I had just painted all walls, etc.) I got on the phone w/store mgr and was trying to convey the problem, he asked to talk to one of the guys. It was to go back on the truck. Still wrapped in all that padding w/legs on, they gave it one more push/pull to get it unstuck. Right as I said "Stop!" I heard a crunch, a crack & one guy said "Oh, s**t. They punched a softball size hole in drywall with sofa. So they get it back outside and I see they have also ground gouges in new oak entry flooring, gouged 3 stairs, knocked two balusters loose up on the stair rail and jacked up our storm door.

DH & I go talk to Mgr. He says we must take sofa, we can pick it up anytime. They won't return to T'ville. He denied damage to our house, his guys are "too good". We leave, decide to come back another day. With photos. Next meeting we look over sofa and find crack in frame, wood poking against leather. Mrg says sofa is repairable. DH and I don't want it. It would never be right again. Then Mgr denied it was cracked. (By this time we're sure he's off his rocker.) Mgr, and two repair guys start huddling & whispering. We go back into office, show Mgr pics, tell him we want refund on sofa + house damage remedied. First he tried to negotiate repair of sofa and materials only on house with DH doing repairs. We said no, then he reverted back to denying they did it. Then he said come back the next evening, he'd see what he could do. We did. At that next meeting he is scowling & Store CS Mgr is scowling (we don't even know her, she just sat there taking notes & scowling). Store Mgr said the "store attorneys" (yes indeedy, he went that far) had prepared an agreement. In order to get our $ back we would not speak of this incident publicly with mention of store name to BBB, news outlets, consumer agencies and there would be no restitution for damage to our house. DH & I said we would not sign that. By this time I'm furious and DH is ready to punch the Mgr's lights out. Mgr said "You WILL go to our lawyer's office and you WILL sign it." With that he abruptly left, leaving Ms Scowling CS Mgr with her notebook repeating sme words to us about how we WILL sign. (Again, she didn't know us from Adam.) Didn't respond to her, gathered our pictures, left the store fuming.

Called my CC company, disputed balance portion no problem. I called our atty next day. He said we could fight it, but it would cost more in legal fees that furniture + house damage combined. (Can't recall exact figures, it was over $3500). But store still had my $1200 cash deposit. I contacted T'ville HQ and rep 'investigated' and emailed me back it was a "store matter", once it leaves their facility, it's up to each franchise how they handle CS matters. We had no choice but to sign if we wanted that cash deposit back. (We had to repair damage to our house ourselves.) Nothing in that stupid agreement said we couldn't speak about it to friends/family, our attorney said they can't control who we speak to in a private arena. We used that to full advantage, word of mouth does wonders.

After that, I was petrified to shop again, but had to have furniture. Went to a little local family store that carries good brands, has a good rep (our atty suggested them). I got a nicer leather set, better quality, and bigger for much less $. The owner dealt with me (I told him what I had been through, he could not have been kinder.) He knocked an extra 20% off sale price. His delivery guys treated my house like they would their own. Courteous, polite, total pros. Not so much as a fingerprint on the walls. Called store #2 owner, thanked him, praised his guys, and promised to return and share my good experience. He was quite appreciative. To this day I am loyal to that store, know I'll be treated like my business matters to them. And I hope Karma gets the T'ville dealer. (Suspect is has, parking lot is always empty now, that place has been in business as far back as I can remember so crazy Mgr has probably driven it into the ground.)

So moral of my saga: If you have doubts, heed them. Go with whomever you know is going to give you service and wants to keep your business.

I don't know about their upholstered pieces. We bought our bedroom furniture from Thomasville and were very disappointed. The Thomasville furniture was the only one DH and I could agree on, so we bought it even though it was more than we had intended to spend. The thought was that we would never buy bedroom furniture again, so we might as well spend more and get something that would last. Once the furniture arrived, we were extremely disappointed with the quality of the finish. Thomasville did send out a tech to do touch-ups (I think he worked an hour on my husband's bureau alone) and what he worked on looks better, but the longer we live with it, the more we find spots that we hadn't noticed that could have used a touch-up. All I can say is it's a good thing the furniture is supposed to look sort of old and antiquish, because it certainly doesn't look new. I would definitely think twice before purchasing Thomasville again.

Totally Confused

Jamaraz, I think customer service is important, but I also think that those with problems tend to be much more vocal than those who order Thomasville, or any other item, and have a smooth transaction.

Not to negate the issues that have been raised here but there is nothing intrinsically wrong with Thomasville furniture. And despite inept deliveries (and moonshadow, I remember your nightmare!) the purpose of business is *not* to treat people badly, damage their property or mislead them. I've bought several pieces from Thomasville including a leather couch. All were good quality and delivered with no issues or problems.

I suggest you decide based on your own information and feedback-ask around to see if people you know have used this store, how their experience was and if they recommend it. Thomasville is a decent line of furniture and the company has been in existence a long time. They wouldn't be if they uniformly allowed their franchisees/direct stores to treat customers badly.

Good luck,
Ann

To me, you are talking about TWO different things.

Customer service and quality of the furniture.

As important as good customer service is, quality is more important to me. And Chinese furniture doesn't make my cut....

I think customer service is very important.

Moonshadow - Holy cow! I can't imagine. My jaw was in my lap reading. Sorry you guys had to go through that.

I've owned my Bernhardt cherry server for about 10 years now. LOVE it! Quality of furniture is important, customer service is important and the price is important.....in that order. :0) I don't buy furniture thinking I'm going to keep it for the rest of my life, but "I" have to enjoy owning it and it has to be a good buying experience for me to enjoy it.

Thomasville and Drexel Heritage are the same company. We got a sectional from Thomasville. One of the covers didn't fit, so I called up and they sent out a replacement cover. I had to take off the old cover and put on the new one.
Subsequently, we purchased a loveseat from Drexel. Drexel quality is better, although the Thomasville sectional is certainly more than adequate for our purpose. We got a questionnaire mailed to us from Drexel after our delivery. I filled it out and noted that the delivery people had tracked dirt over our carpet when they delivered the loveseat. Shortly afterward, I got a call from Drexel, apologizing for the mess made by the delivery men, and they arranged to have the carpet cleaned at their expense. The carpet cleaners did a great job, too.

You need to listen to your instinct. You've pointed out a few reasons you don't trust this store. At this point, you really don't have a reason to doubt the furniture itself. Is there another Thomasville franchise within 50 miles? Go visit it--and tell them that you're there because the store near you has inept employees. (You're going to pay delivery fees wherever you go, I'd think...)

jamaraz. I think you answered your own question and are just concerned you are over reacting. You're not. Don't buy from them.

Soon after we purchased our Thomasville bedroom suite one of the drawer pulls broke into two pieces. I tried to get a replacement from them but never got any satisfaction. I will never buy from them again. Customer service means everything to me.

Yeah, Anne, that was one long saga of a thread back then. Reading OPs question just opened that floodgate again and the rant just came spilling out. :/

I have no issue with T'ville furniture, never got the chance to evaluate it! ;D . I was responding to this in OPs remarks: The manufacturer does not seem to take responsibility and leaves it up to the franchised stores. My local Thomasville is owned by a pretty shaky group.... That's when that big red flag went up for me. Because my story fits that scenario. The nightmare store has a good standing with BBB. But hey, no wonder! If they pull the same stunts with others, and force them to not report it before giving back $, then that's a darn good way of retaining BBB standing, isn't it? So I won't rely on BBB anymore. (I have since run into a couple sales people that used to work at crazy Mgr's franchise, they left because of treatment customers got, it bothered them quite a bit to get friendly with people, help them, only to have it go so far south when delivered. So we weren't the only ones.) Had I opted to go with one of the other dealers a bit further drive away, I could have had an entirely different outcome, excellent results. But I was too gun shy at that point.

Back then I was disappointed with T'ville HQs response. But that had everything to do with nightmare we were going thru and my stressed out/po'd frame of mind. (On top of furniture fiasco my mother had just had 8 hour open heart surgery, so we were prepping our house for her recuperation with us.) Looking back now, tho I had hoped for some help with the sofa, it was unrealistic to ask HQ to replace what they didn't break. They can't control every delivery person out there or franchise Mgr.

If jamaraz has her heart set on T'ville, I'd go to trouble of finding another T'ville franchise w/good reputation. Even if it means a bit of travel and extra delivery fees. Get what you want/like, and possibly save a TON of grief from a "shaky group"!

What a nightmare, moonshadow. One suggestion I have for anyone else who goes through something like that-your attorney can often just write a letter that will intimidate the store (which is trying to intimidate you and thinks it can because most people do back down) and which will get you results (money back) without going through litigation. MUCH less expensive. Bullies often back down when you stand up to them and that manager was a bully, for sure.

If the product is poor, no amount of customer service will make up for it (except for a full refund of the cost)

In order of priority - Quality, price, brand, customer service.

The thing is I absolutely love this sectional. I like the way it looks, the color and the way it feels when we sit on it. I think the problem is I've become to good a consumer in the internet age. Instead of buying what I love, I research it to death and I have found out all the potential pitfalls. I now know it's not the highest quality sectional and that there are customer service issues with Thomasville. Unfortunately, on the the internet you usually only hear about the nightmare scenarios versus the hundreds of customers that were happy with the product.

The sectional I am looking at is a very popular model with Thomasville. I've been looking at it for years so I have to assume that if it was a total piece of junk they would have removed it from their product line years ago. My main concern is that it is a 3 piece sectional and if one of the cusions needs to be replaced it won't match the dye lot of the rest of the sectional.

Should I take a leap of faith and hope for the best or buy something that I am more confident will arrive correctly but I probably won't love as much?

After all the stories you are hearing here, I'm not sure what would make you want to purchase furniture from a store that has terrible customer service.

I have not had good experience with Thomasville on a minor purchase with them. My bedroom night tables are Nocturne. There is an option for the knobs, nickel or brushed gold. I paid to have both since I was not sure what metals I would be using in our room. First they sent me the wrong ones twice, then I went to the store and spoke with my salesperson 3 times, spoke to the manager once, and finally called Thomasville directly. It took over a year for us to get the correct knobs.

I could not even imagine buying a larger purchase from them. At this point, I could not imagine buying a small purchase from them.

Thomasville is not what it used to be. Many manufacturers go through this during their lifetime. I come from a furniture family. Early in our marriage, I purchased a Tville maple split pedestal DR table, Windsor chairs and a china cabinet. It's in my parents lower level now. Could not be made better, but that was 26 years ago. Excellent customer service from store purchased (no longer in business). I helped my sister pick out a couple of Tvill pieces a few years ago for her new house. Tville store opened in our area, so purchased there. Customer service was okay. No problem with furniture. DD2 recently bought a new home and we went to Tville looking for new sofa/chair. Left empty handed. I wasn't impressed w/quality or customer service. Not saying everything was/is bad, just that what was in her price range was not what she was looking for in either looks or quality.

imo, it's not the high quality furniture it used to be, and customer service is not either. Tville stores are owned by individuals, not the company, and you no longer have the backing of the manufacturer. When we my family had stores (up until 1980), you had the backing of both, imo. The manufacturers stood behind their products and store owners.

I purchased a Henredon sofa from a local store not 2 years ago. One of our cats bled on the sofa recently (long story, he's okay. Sofa was not.) I called the store that afternoon. Closed. So I went down next morning to order enough fabric to cover 3 sofa cushion bottoms. After all, the sofa was not inexpensive and is well made so I intend to keep for 20+ years. (Last LR sofa was by Sherrill and I had it 20 years. Would have recovered, but the new house swallowed it.) I also want to be able to flip the cushions. The Henredon rep was in the store and told me I needed to order fabric within the next few days, that my fabric had been discontinued and they were selling all discontinued fabrics in 2 weeks. Once gone, it's gone.

Sales lady called Henredon, who had 15 yards. I only needed 4yds. I placed order and she faxed to Henredon. They said I should have it in a week. That was Dec 10th. The 23rd, I am in the area so I stop by. She calls. Should be cut after the 25th and go out before the 1st. Jan, still no fabric. She calls again. They say we are cutting this week. Still not fabric, so I go by again. They take my address and said they will cut that afternoon and ship directly to me.

Sales lady calls the next morning. But get this, Henredon gal tells sales lady "do you want to hear the truth about what happened?" Well, duh! They never pulled the fabric when the order was place on Dec 10th. They didn't even enter into their computer system until the 17th and the fabric had been pulled. Gone. Factory where fabric was made closed early 2009. So all that time they had been giving her the run around, simply because they did not want to say they had mucked it up!

I called Henredon directly. Was told it was not their problem, that I had to take it up with local store. Even though it was their screw up!

Local store manager said I could order any 4 yds of fabric and get it at cost. Well, that's not going to match my sofa so why would I do that?! I don't need any fabric for elsewhere.

If I ordered enough fabric to do entire sofa, 18yds (the original fabric was $60yd), and had it recovered locally, it would cost me as much or more than a new sofa. So that doesn't make sense either. She did not offer to give me cost on 18yds. They did not offer me a new sofa at cost. So the local store lost a long time customer (over 20 years), Henredon lost a customer too and I have a sofa with cushions I can never flip over.

Allison 0704,
Hi. My first time on this forum. A former customer emailed me to let me know my company was mentioned here. I just wanted to let you know that good customer service is not completely dead. I had a very similar situation to yours just this past week. A customer called to ask how to get a very stubborn stain out of the sofa he had bought a few weeks before. The stain had been left on a cushion by some workmen and he did not know what it was. After discussing various ways to treat the stain I told him that if he wasn't able to remove the stain I would be happy to send him a new cushion cover at no charge. The gratitude from the customer for that simple gesture is worth far more to my business than the cost of making and shipping a cushion cover. (By the way your $60 fabric probably cost the manufacturer less than $20/yd.)
I am not going to leave the name of my company as I am advised that is considered spam by this forum, but good customer service does still exist.

Jeff, I realize it does exist, but it seems too many companies aren't willing to do what is right. In my case, it was Henredon's screw up, but they aren't wiling to admit to me that it was their mistake or make amends somehow.

The title of this thread is "is good customer service important?" Yes, it very is important in my book and if I can't get good customer service from a store or company, I won't bother giving them any money in the future.

I'm glad to hear you treated your customer well. He'll refer you to his friends/family and will be a lifelong customer.

cyn said:
What a nightmare, moonshadow. One suggestion I have for anyone else who goes through something like that-your attorney can often just write a letter that will intimidate the store (which is trying to intimidate you and thinks it can because most people do back down) and which will get you results (money back) without going through litigation. MUCH less expensive. Bullies often back down when you stand up to them and that manager was a bully, for sure.

Very good advice, indeed.
Only in our situation above, my call to my attorney was in response to the Store Mgr lawyering up first. By all appearances he did this after our 2nd meeting when we showed him damage pics of our entry and discovered cracked sofa frame in their warehouse. He didn't waste any time. (The lawyer was the one who refunded the check, after we signed the paperwork. *rolleyes*) It was so crazy, who does that??? Our atty knew their atty personally, said he was a good guy, they spoke on the phone. Even their atty wasn't mean, he was actually nice, DH and I got the impression he felt silly with this drama.) DH and I are not obnoxious, we don't create scenes and have hissy fits. I worked with the public a lot in my college years, that behavior goes nowhere fast. But we're not pansies, either.

Lesson learned on that one: any large purchase, anything delivered, anything that has the potential to go south, always goes on my CC now. Have to hand it to Citibank, they were right there for me and wasted no time disputing portion I had put on my card, they filed it under 'charged for merchandise not in customer's possession' or something similar. Had I put the whole deal on the CC, I would have been the one with the upper hand AFA the merchandise. AFA house damage, figure he would have still fought it.