American Freight Furniture - Columbus North

Back in July my husband and I purchased a dining set from American Freight. At first I went to the store on Main Street looking for a specific set, and when they didn't have it they called up to the store on Morse Road to see if they did. They told me that the Morse Road store did have it and to ask for Kevin. I got to the Morse Road store and told them I was advised to ask for Kevin. Dylan, the salesman, told me that Kevin had been fired two months prior. I told him the set I was looking for and he informed me that they did not have it but that I was free to look at other sets, so I did. He showed me one with a table, six chairs, and a bench. I told him I was not interested in any set with a bench. He then tried to convince me that I did in fact want the bench. When I told him I really didn't and that the only way I would purchase that set was if there were two chairs in place of the bench (totaling 8 chairs), he said he would go talk to the manager to see if he could do that for me. The list price was $998. He came back 2-3 minutes later and said it would be no problem. I put it on layaway so my husband could come look at it. He did, and we decided to purchase it. A couple days later we paid it off ($1073 all together). We went to go pick it up Wednesday, August 13th. My husband rented a U-Haul truck to get it since we only have two small sedans. Wednesday night we assembled the chairs without a problem, and then we opened up the box with the table to find that none of the hardware, the instructions, and a large storage piece under the table were included. The next day at exactly noon (opening time) I called American Freight. Dylan said he would look into it. Over an hour later I called back because I had not heard from anybody. Maria, the manager, told me that Dylan had set the box with the missing pieces up front for me to come pick up. No one called to tell me this. I informed her that I could not come to pick it up since I could not fit the box in my car with the car seats I needed in there for my young children, who were home napping. I then told her I did not feel it was appropriate to ask the customer to correct a mistake that they had made. They failed to give us all the pieces when my husband picked it up, so they should bring the missing pieces to us, not force us to come get them. Maria told me that "usually in these cases the customers come to pick the items up." I guess American Freight finds themselves in this situation often. I informed her I needed those pieces so I could set up my table as I was having a big family gathering that night. I didn't hear from anyone. I called back and spoke to Dylan again who told me I could have the pieces delivered, but only if I paid the delivery fee. I informed him that was unacceptable as I should not have to pay to fix their mistake. He said he would call me back and never did. So I called again and he told me that the delivery personnel would be out "sometime after 4:00" to deliver the pieces. I was out of my house from 4-6 and told him I needed to know when. He could not specify. The gentlemen called me around 6:00 and told me they were there to deliver, and I convinced them to leave the box behind the fence in our backyard. When we got home and tried to put it together, the screws were too short and did not fit, and the caps to cover the large pilot holes did not fit. I now had to cancel my event as I had no dining table at which to feed my guests. I called corporate the next day and left a voicemail for a woman named Susan (I believe) to call me back as soon as possible. I made it clear I was very upset. She called back and asked me what was wrong with the table. I began to tell her the entire story and she constantly interrupted me, telling me she needed to know what was wrong with the table. I told her exactly what was wrong with it, but that I also wanted to tell her about my terrible customer service experience. She proceeded to yell at me and tell me that I had received a $300 discount, so I got fine customer service, and that the personnel at the store told her I was aggressive and nasty. I told her I did not care about the discount since I never asked for it, and that shouldn't mean that I don't get the same quality of product or service as everyone else. She then told me that they did not forget to give us the other pieces since they delivered them to us. Yes, they did, only because they FORGOT them to begin with, and they made me BEG to have them delivered without a charge. She then told me it was my husband's fault because he should have opened up every single box (there were 5 large boxes) and gone through all of them to make sure every little piece was present before leaving the store. She was SCREAMING at me at this point, telling me she would not be disrespected. I hung up and called back, telling the receptionist I wanted to speak to someone else besides Susan. She sent me back to Susan. I told Susan I wanted to talk to someone else. "NO. YOU WILL TALK TO ME AND YOU WILL LISTEN TO ME," she screamed. She promised me that the pieces would be delivered (meaning the screws and caps). I asked when. "YOU WILL GET THEM WHEN YOU GET THEM," she screamed. I wrote a review on the BBB page and someone (I can only presume Susan) wrote this: "This customer complains of poor customer service when she received a $300 dollars discount on her merchandise. Any missing pieces they believe were not in the box have been delivered, although all was intact when our warehouse crew pulled out this table nonetheless the screws and pieces bag will be delivered again, today 8/15/14. This customer was extremely verbally abusive and so foul! This customer began to bully people demanding service immediately. This customer disrespect was freightening! We will not do business with customers of this nature. The screws and piece bags will be delivered today and all business will be done with this customer!" So now the story has changed. Now apparently they are saying all the pieces were present when we picked up the boxes and we "believed" they weren't there. I never verbally abused anyone. I was assertive in expressing that I was extremely disappointed with the service and that I had paid a lot of money for something defunct to be sitting in the middle of my home for two days. I never bullied anyone, never demanded anything, and if anyone was treating anyone with disrespect, it was the employees to the customer. It should be noted that nothing was ever delivered to my home on August 15th or 16th. I will NEVER do business with American Freight again and I would strongly caution anyone who is thinking of doing so.