Havertys

When selecting and purchasing a Grand Cayman coffee table, 2 end tables and a sofa/​console table, and paying over $ 1800, I was told there would be an additional $ 99.99 delivery charge. Since I live on the river, just five minutes from the store, I opted to pick-​up the tables myself, assuming it would take all of 30 minutes at the most, and so the $ 100 savings would be worth my little bit of trouble.
When my husband and I completed the sale on Sunday, 9/​20, with Diane, I SPECIFICALLY ASKED if ‘someone would load the items’ for me if I were to pick them up by myself, as I’m a 50-​year old woman who had a spinal laminectomy, so I don’t have the upper outer portion of my spine, which creates an issue if lifting heavy objects. Diane’s very clear reply was, «Yes, absolutely, someone will load your tables.» (No gray area, no iffy answer, no failure to communicate. It was black & white and was an affirmative.)
PROBLEM #1) Diane told me someone would phone me on Wed., 9/​23, when my tables came into their Cocoa location. NO CALL CAME, so I phoned THEM after 6pm (because I’m 5 minutes away and figured I still had an hour to get there and pick-​up my tables). No one answered Extension #4, which Diane had told me to call with questions, so I left a message.
The next day, I got a return call mid-​morning and was told that since Diane wasn’t in on Wednesday, someone had dropped the ball and so no one called me. (Guess the world stops turning if a salesperson isn’t at work?)
After making sure I had a $ 20 bill to ‘tip’ the warehouse guys for their ‘loading help,’ which I’d assumed was ‘their job,’ I drove up to the store at about 3:30pm to pick-​up the tables. I’d expected ‘someone to load them’ for me, as Diane had assured me would happen. (The woman who over the phone had confirmed the tables were in was very nice, and especially helpful, with directions of how to get to the loading dock where ‘someone would load the tables.’ She was also very nice in person when I met her later in the day.)
PROBLEM #2) What actually happened when I went to get the tables is that ONE guy with a lazy, lackluster attitude scratched his head for a few minutes as he looked from the BOXES to my TRUCK BED again & again. (Not sure WHAT he expected to happen, as they weren’t going to ‘load themselves.’) I WAS told, earlier in the day, that my tables were ‘in boxes,’ but no one mentioned they were UNASSEMBLED, so THIS tidbit of information was a shocking and unwelcome surprise! (I felt like I was buying some crap from IKEA that needed to be put together — but that’s the trade-​off with IKEA: cheap prices in exchange for the fact that the buyer has to provide the assembly labor. WHO expects to assemble their furniture when they buy it from a furniture showroom — especially when they pay nearly $ 2000 for it???)
Since I had someone meeting me at my home at 4pm to get the tables OFF my truck, I had no time to waste, so «I» jumped in and began to slide and shimmy the 5×4-foot HEAVY box until it was just hanging over the lip of the loading dock. Then «I» went down the steps and to the truck, and began to slide the awkward box, inch by inch, into the truck bed. The warehouse guy had walked away and out of sight (somewhere to the south end of the warehouse) when he saw that I was doing his job; and when he came back into sight, I was beside the tailgate and trying to shimmy the box forward, so he very graciously squatted down and pushed the remaining third of the box from the dock into the truck bed, with an odd comment that my custom-​made soft bed cover was useless and that it really ‘makes my $ 45,000 Tundra «not really» a truck,’ whatever the Hell THAT meant… Frankly, the only ‘useless’ thing I saw was HIM, so I was puzzled by his unwanted comment. I shut the tailgate and said I’d be back for the other tables.
By the time I got home and got the box off the truck, I was filthy, with black hands and dirty spots (from the box) on my clothes, and I was pouring with sweat, so I was MORE THAN a little bit ticked off by this time! I phoned the store manager and told him that had someone TOLD me I’d be receiving ‘assembly required’ furniture, I’d have never purchased from Haverty’s — EVER. I told him that if there was a charge to assemble, someone could’ve told me that and let me at least DECIDE IF I did or did not want to have it done! He said Haverty’s ‘does NOT charge for assembly!!!’ So I was really fuming by now! The manager said, «Yeah, I saw those boxes back there and wondered why you’d want them unassembled.» REALLY??? Perhaps then, a call to the customer might be warranted? Or how about checking with the salesperson, since this seemed odd!
(And when I GOT to the store there was NOT A SINGLE CUSTOMER IN THE STORE, yet there were at least a half-​dozen employees chit-​chatting, eating and sitting around… Hmmmm…perhaps someone could have called the customer to ask about the assembly, or maybe someone could have even assemble

After our latest re-​model, we went to Havertys for all our furniture. This is the third house over the years where Havertys supplied the furniture, and we’ve never had a problem. They have a cool online room planner where you can draw your room outline and pick furniture from their line and drop them into your plan. It worked perfect for planning a complex family room. The service is friendly and they never have a problem when I try to negotiate a better price.