Levin Furniture

Okay, they really need to screen the employee’s a little better than they do. That’s all I have to say.

I went to Levin’s because I just bought a new house and needed a new sectional for my living room. The salesman, Joe, was awesome and the transaction went smoothly. He set me up with Saturday delivery, handed me my receipt and off I went. I received a call the day before my delivery to confirm my time window. I thought I heard the automated voice recite the incorrect address, so I opted to speak with a representative. The woman verified my information and told me my delivery would be on the early side of my time window as I would be the second delivery.
Saturday rolled around and the delivery guys showed up right on time. I thought, «This couldn’t go any more smoothly.» Boy I was wrong. The delivery guys were rough, to put it nicely. They had two pieces of furniture to bring in, and opted for the smaller piece first. I stood out of their way and as soon as they got in the doorway with the furniture, they started arguing. They were, however, able to get the piece into my living room with minimal issues. Then they went back for the second, larger piece. I heard one of them mumble about it being too big. I walked outside to make sure I was out of the way just in time to watch one of the guys drop the section of furniture off the truck and onto the ground. Unprofessional, but it was wrapped in plastic and cardboard, so whatever. He then picks the furniture up by the plastic and to me, it seemed like he wasn’t really trying to get the furniture in… Who knows. After 30 seconds or so, he backs the furniture out into the driveway and tells me it won’t fit. I would’ve thought maybe they’d try taking off the plastic and cushions, but I’m not a professional furniture delivery specialist, what do I know?
They load it back into the truck and tell me, «at least you have one piece to sit on». I reminded them that it was a sectional and if one piece wasn’t going to fit, they would need to take the other piece with them. This guy tells me to call my salesman and that he «probably has something smaller with that set.» I told him to take it with him. He let out an audible sigh and they took it back out, loaded it up, and left.
I went to grab a cup of coffee and returned to the entrance way only to discover they had left a bunch of cardboard and plastic from the furniture in my house as well as two deep scratches in my floor! I emailed the salesman with pictures of the garbage and gouges. He called back and left a voicemail several hours later apologizing and telling me that he was refunding my money and forwarding the email to his supervisors, who would be in touch on Monday. Yesterday, after not hearing from anyone at Levin’s, I checked my bank account to find I received my refund, except it was in two installments and they shorted me $ 16.04. I sent another email to the salesman asking for an explanation of the discrepancy between the sale price and the refund as well as letting him know that I still had not been contacted. I’ve not heard back from anyone since.
If the furniture just hadn’t fit, it wouldn’t be a huge deal. If they had handled this quickly… or at all, I might’ve considered buying something else there. Unfortunately, they haven’t. They shorted my refund with no explanation, ceased communication, and most importantly, they did damage to my house.
You’d be wise to shop elsewhere.

«Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.»
Obviously my husband and I are insane.
Our first trip to the Robinson Levin Furniture was instigated by a need for a new couch and then fueled by their credit card. Credit leading us to bad choices again…
We purchased a couch and a recliner during this trip, as well as the warranty that «covers everything including cat scratches!». Great! We have cats with claws! Yay for warranties!
Fast-​forward 1 year and we have a couch with a spring sticking out the bottom as one of the seats decided to fall through. We call up Levin and get told that our warranty doesn’t cover any furniture craftsmanship issues. Lies, I think! I was told that it covers «everything!». So we go to the store and straight to the customer service desk. We explain that we were told this warranty covers «everything!». The customer service person says «oh, sorry (not sorry). the warranty only covers fabric. but here’s some third-​party repair guy I’ll scribble on a piece of paper that you can pay to fix it.» Uhm, no.
My husband fixes the spring. Couch is fixed but not really fixed up to the standards I would think a furniture store with a warranty would have.
Remember we have cats with claws? So the «leather» recliner we purchased had a broken frame about 14 months in. Well, as we learned earlier, we’re screwed on that because «it only covers fabric!». A cat decided to use the chair as a scratching post. Man, now we have gouged out fabric on the back of the chair. Maybe we can use that expensive warranty now? Let’s call and see! «Warranty does not cover pets EXCEPT if it’s vomit.» Oh my God stop changing the rules during the game, Levin! Why do your salespeople say one thing and your warranty another?
Second trip time. We learned our lesson — do not purchase warranty. Ok, let’s go see if we can get a deal on a bedroom set during the Memorial Day sale (hopefully better than last weeks sale or the sale the week before that… how many sales can one company have before it’s just their normal price?).
As usual, a salesperson flies in from no where upon us entering the building. Must smell the plastic from the card or something. We say «we’re looking for now but will call you over if we see anything». Looking around, we find something we both like. A bit pricey and out of our range but let’s just see, right? No harm, no foul. The salesperson is more than happy to take us to customer service to see how much credit we can get and if there’s any options for more credit! And then says there’s free cookies! My husband is all for the cookies. I’m questioning everything. No such thing as free in Levin…
So the salesperson works with the credit person to see what we can afford. We have a good chunk of credit but not enough to buy today. Solution! Eat up our credit and then also have us do their «no credit» financing for the remainder! It’s only like $ 300 down! Monthly payments of around $ 100! Pay it off early and no interest! Hahaha. These guys are hilarious. I say «let me think about it. that’s a lot of money to put down as well as credit to eat up on something I haven’t thought about». Salesperson states that she will «lock in the price» and we can let her know our thoughts. She also «throws in» a cleaning kit on the paper order so we’re set when we decide. We leave the store.
We think it over for the next few weeks. We don’t want it any more. Much better furniture out there for way less. Finally, I get our monthly Levin bill (still paying on that first purchase). What? $ 32.08 charge from Levin? No available credit? What’s going on? Oh… dear…must not have called that salesperson to say we don’t want the furniture. Maybe they put a charge on it as part of the hold.
Call up Robinson Levin’s. «That $ 32.08 is from the furniture cleaner that you took home.» We didn’t take home any furniture cleaner. «Well, you must have.» Can I talk to the salesperson? «She’s busy. She’ll call you later». Fast-​forward 2 WEEKS later to a voicemail from her. «You called about the furniture I have on hold for you. You took home the furniture cleaner so we charged you.» I immediately call back to inform her that we took nothing home and don’t want the order. «Oh, well, I thought you did take it that day. Ok, I’ll credit your account and release the hold.» Finally got somewhere!
Next month’s statement = no available credit and no return credit. Time to take matters into my own hands. I write a letter to Synchrony (Levin Furniture CC) stating what happened, that I’m being charged for something I don’t have, and that there is a mythical hold on my account that is being reported as 99% filled when it should only be reporting as 32%. After a week, credit is on the account for the cleaner! Amazing! But still CREDIT HOLD. Dear God I’m in the Twilight Zone.
And then I get an invite to your «private sale». I have crappy furniture, a credit hold, and you think I’ll buy more? Pssh.

The only reason why I even bothered to come into this store was that I had a $ 130.00 coupon as a result of my not utilizing the furniture protection plan that came with my sofa and love seat.
The purpose of my visit was to find a simple living room chair. The salesman was pleasant and somewhat knowledgeable about the chairs. He told me that they were having a sale during this visit and I wouldn’t be charged tax. He told me that price I saw on the chair would be discounted by about $ 35.00.
I chose one and he rung it up again offering if I wanted to purchase the protection plan. I declined since it is a waste of money.
He asked me if I wanted to pick it up or have it delivered. I said delivered and that would run me an additional $ 79.99. Since I had this coupon I decided to go ahead with the purchase.
I asked for delivery. He said I could pick a day but they can’t guarantee the time. Big pain having to hang around the house however, that was the only part that worked out well.
When I got home I noticed on my receipt that I was charged over $ 30.00 in tax. I called him back and he explained that delivery has tax on it. I told him not that high on $ 79.99!!! He then told me the reason why they discount the furniture is to bring it back to the price I saw on the floor!!! Again a misconstrue.
Later on that same week I got my statement and noticed I had a credit for $ 10.70. There was no receipt nor explanation. Again I called the store. Since I had chosen a weekday delivery then the cost is only $ 69.99 so they were refunding me the difference. The $ 79.99 applies to Sat deliveries only. Then I was told delivery charges increase if you buy more than one item! Sorry I should have been given that information up front. Thank goodness I chose a weekday and only bought one thing!
They connected me to my sales rep and I asked him about this matter. He said he is relatively new there and they just put that matter into place a couple of weeks ago. No excuse. Sorry!
I did get an automated call two days prior with my «window» of delivery. I hung around the house and they were here within a half hour of my window. The delivery went smoothly and and the chair is in good shape.
That’s the only reason why I’m giving this place a second star. They will not see me again and I guarantee you I will check elsewhere when I am in need of furniture. They need to get their act together!

I will never shop at this place again. They had a power recliner on their website for $ 749.00. They were advertising a «50 percent off all furniture» sale this past Memorial Day weekend. When I went into the store to look at this recliner, it was «on sale» for $ 649.00. When I questioned the sales person about it, she said no, it was 50 percent off $ 1399, the «compare at» price. ??? So, basically, they made up the $ 1399 price? So they then avoid taking 50 percent off the LISTED price of $ 749? I felt like I was in a used car lot. I will never, ever go to this store again. They have lost my trust and my business. I went to Lazy Boy and bought a chair for $ 399.00, no bait and switch price, no arbitraray «compare at» price, just the actual price of the chair.

The saga continues. As you’ll read from my previous post, we’ve had some pretty bad customer service from Levin since January. So bad that I felt compelled to write Mr. Levin himself (snail mail) and email Laurie (PA Director of Sales), the boss of Matthew (who we had a bad experience with at the Robinson store).
I also left a voicemail with Laurie on Saturday when everything went down with Matthew at the Robinson store. I hadn’t heard from her on Monday yet, and then we got put in yet ANOTHER confusing situation with a call from a customer service rep asking when I wanted my furniture picked up. We hadn’t even discussed having the furniture picked up and returned! Bad communication again.
I was surprised to get through to Laurie, as she answered right away. I was finally able to hear the apology I had been wanting from Matthew about the miscommunication. She told me she understood my frustration and wanted to fix the situation.
I made sure to stress that all I wanted was an apology, a promise to take action against the bad customer service I received from Matthew, and to replace the table. I felt better about the situation after I talked with her, as she offered me either store credit to buy a new dining room set, or a full refund, even though it had been over a year since we purchased the set (extenuating circumstances obviously). Very nice of her to offer a full refund in my opinion.
But the thing that still to this day is bothering me is something Laurie told me. She said that they had discontinued the table and whole line because people had similar situations with it cracking and/​or breaking like I had. She said they usually don’t divulge that information to customers. I almost bought the same table to replace the cracked one. So they’re selling tables that they know are defective still! Why would they let anyone purchase the last two faulty tables they had in stock? Just to make money?
That’s when I realized that they had lied to me when I had asked Lauren (our original saleswoman at the store) if I was making a mistake by purchasing the same table again (because I liked it so much), in case it would crack again. She said you could never say whether a table will crack or not crack. So pretty much, you take a chance purchasing any wood table with Levin because they’ll possibly sell you faulty merchandise? I don’t blame Lauren, per say, because she was so nice throughout the whole process (it was Matthew who was not nice). I assume that’s what they tell her to say.
So what would have happened if they would have let me purchase that table and it would have cracked yet again? In my opinion. why would you lie to your customers, rather than just plain tell the truth? I’m sure it happens to the best company’s, where they invest in merchandise that’s faulty, and realize it later. But the difference is, do they take the time to fix the situation, or just gloss over it and hope no one complains like I did?
I have to be honest, I was pretty torn. I really truly love the merchandise they sell. Up until now I had had a good experience with them. But this was such a horrendous experience, it was a tough decision. I told her I’d get back to her.
Laurie called me for the second time a couple days after we had spoken, even though she had said she wouldn’t call again until I had made a decision about the furniture. She asked me if I had mailed Robert Levin a letter about the situation before or after we had spoken. I had mailed it before we talked, so there was no mention of me and Laurie speaking on Monday. She then told me, in her exact words: «Robert would have called you, but he’s on the road right now and he wanted to make sure that I called you.» Why wouldn’t he just call himself when he was able to? I honestly would have liked to have heard from him.
Her calling me this last time just seemed strange. But it actually helped make my decision, to return the complete dining set and get a full refund of my money. If Mr. Levin felt it was so important to call me, he could have done it himself. After that, a received a lightning fast call from customer service for them to pick up my merchandise and issue me a check when they come to my house. Looks like the communication is clear now.
While I do appreciate they have given me a full refund on a set that was one month out of warranty, I find it shady business practices that they continue to sell that very table that was giving them problems. Plus, the very fact that it took me three months of go-​rounds with the wrong people to get to the right person AND THEN be treated so rudely by the store manager, someone RUNNING an entire store, really just put me over the edge with them.
For that, I still have a sour taste in my mouth and do not plan on shopping at Levin again. It really is a shame. I know this might be a long shot, but I hope that they learn from this situation and become a better company. We’ll see, only time will tell.

The Gist —
If you’re lookin’ for something cheaper than Ethan Allen but better than Ikea and not intersted in putting it together yourself.
The Store —
* Lots & lots of options & styles to fill 2 levels; like how each little area/​furniture set gives you good ideas on interior design
* Choice of self pick-​up or $ 89 delivery charge
* Also has mattresses on 2^nd floor
* The Purchase —
BF was lookin’ for a dresser/​media center to put the TV on. So basically needs drawers and high enuf so could comfortably watch TV from. Got a good deal for media center w/​drawers & night stand.
Tip:
* Currently have a deal going on
* If you go to this location ask for Janice Cheovin she was real nice & if you know what you want, just tell her and she doesn’t try to sell you x-​tras you don’t need. Straight up & honest.