Back in January, I purchased some furniture from a store, and when it was delivered, the delivery people and I noted that the back of one of the chairs was out of alignment. They reported it to the store, and after a wait of 3 weeks a repair man called, but said he couldn’t repair it, and sent in a recommendation that it be replaced.
After a few more weeks, the store called and said that they “had the part” and would send the repair man again to fix it. Again we had to wait for the repair man to call, and when he did he still couldn’t fix it, so again recommended we get a replacement.
This time the store said that they would replace it – they had to get one from another store, but would do so and get it delivered.
Another two months elapsed, and every time I called the store I was told that It was on its way, and that it would be with us soon.
On Tuesday of this week, I was looking at Facebook and noticed that the Page for this furniture chain had put up a piece about an upcoming “exciting event”, so I commented that I hoped it was the delivery of my chair that I was still waiting for after several months, and I told a brief version of what you’re just read. There was a reply from their Social Media person, with a suggestion that I write to them direct.
On Wednesday, I received two calls within about 5 minutes – I was busy and didn’t take them, but listened to the messages later.
The first was a call from the corporate office of the Furniture chain, wanting to talk about my Facebook comments.
The second was a call from the manager of my local store, saying that, totally by coincidence, the replacement chair had just appeared on their system on Tuesday, so when could they deliver it.
As yet I’ve not spoken to the corporate office, but I did talk to the branch manager, and he at first said he would deliver the chair today. Later he called back to say that he’d looked at the chair, and it too was damaged, but he’d get me one from another store, and call me today with an updated delivery time.
Interesting.
Being the “nice guy” and playing by the rules got me nothing. Playing the Social Media card at least got the store to call me, something that I’d never been able to do by leaving messages with them direct. And maybe will get me my chair, which is all I’m interested in.
More will be revealed – mainly on Social Media.