Delivery

[bucksfan2]

This touched off a nerve with me yesterday. Yesterday the fiance and I went to La-Z-boy furniture and picked out a new couch and love seat. We dropped around $2000 for it and we are back getting ringed up when they inform us that it will be $80 per delivery. The couch we bought was in stock but the love seat wasn't. The agent asked if we wanted to wait and consolidate shipments because it would save us money. This irritated me because:
1) Put the price of the delivery into the price of the furniture. Nothing is worse than spending thousands of dollars to have 80 or so takced on for a delivery.
2) Don't tell me that I should wait because delivering two times would be twice as expensive because you don't have one item in stock.
3) Furniture isn't that difficult to handle. If it were electronics or appliances then I would pay for delivery. I want those handled and hooked up because I don't want them broken or hooked up incorrectly. Furniture is more about lifting and turning. Ive moved it quit a few times and it isn't difficult at all.

[SunDeck]

I agree that it's disingenuous of furniture stores to leave out the delivery cost until ringing up the customer, but I haven't seen it done any other way. It is not an unreasonable amount, when you consider the labor cost (two guys), the fuel and the time involved.

Then again, no price anywhere is non-negotiable and it is worth asking if they want to lose a sale over 4% of the sale price.

[Unassisted]

You could always rent a $15/hour pickup truck from Home Depot (or borrow one from a friend) and "deliver" it yourself.

[Ltlabner]

It's a good lesson to remember to ask about these things early on in the process. But when they drop the suprise on you like that, I'd simply cancel the order right then and tell them you've changed your mind and don't want to furniture. They will likely freak out, at which point you get the manager involved.

Now the leverage has changed. Now they want the $2000 and you have the ability to walk out and purchase elsehwere (of course, you've had it all along, but now it's really obvious who holds the power).

If they want to lose a $2000 sale over $160 then let them. Plenty of other furniture stores out there. Chances are, however, if you are firm and polite you can get them to both deliver them for free and knock a little off the purchase price.

Everything is negotable.

[Dom Heffner]

We dropped around $2000 for it and we are back getting ringed up when they inform us that it will be $80 per delivery.

It really should be standard business practice to not charge for the second delivery when an item is out of stock.

I'd tell them they can have $80, the second delivery is on them for displaying an item that is not available.

Don't like it? Too bad.

[OldRightHander]

I would expect delivery charges to be separate because it gives the consumer the option to not pay the delivery and pick it up himself. We never pay for delivery. We just wait until I'm home with the van and we pick up anything we buy ourselves.

[Nugget]

Hmm $80 sounds a tad expensive for a sofa and even a loveseat. That is more than they charge in manhattan for delivery and set up of furniture and we're told its because its so hard to find parking.

The other thing I was told by the salesman at the time is that depending on the seller some deliveries are subcontracted out which means that they are not as negotiable. The big guys usually have it as part of their costs so giving free delivery is no big deal. The worst delivery quoting I have seen is Ikea who charge per piece at a standard price no matter how big or small the piece is.

[Redlegs23]

You just hit a sensitive topic for me. A while back I ordered a couch from Macy's. I pay $75 to have the thing delivered. They call me the day before to confirm, I take a half day off work and wait, no delivery truck. I was informed that they had the wrong address, their mistake, not mine. I then had to wait another week, and take another half day off work for the delivery. I was told I would be compensated with a gift card for the trouble. I wait, I call, I call again, no gift card. Whatever, I'm over it.

About a year later I need a chair, I look all over, can't find anything I like or that matches, so I go back to Macy's to order the matching chair. I tell the guy I will pick it up since the last delivery was a disaster, and I have a truck. He informs me that the pick-up fee is $15. At this point steam is pouring out of my ears. I complained, but to no avail. They are going to charge me $15 to go to Macy's and load my chair into the back of my truck. Un-freaking-believable.

[Roy Tucker]

You just hit a sensitive topic for me. A while back I ordered a couch from Macy's. I pay $75 to have the thing delivered. They call me the day before to confirm, I take a half day off work and wait, no delivery truck. I was informed that they had the wrong address, their mistake, not mine. I then had to wait another week, and take another half day off work for the delivery. I was told I would be compensated with a gift card for the trouble. I wait, I call, I call again, no gift card. Whatever, I'm over it.

About a year later I need a chair, I look all over, can't find anything I like or that matches, so I go back to Macy's to order the matching chair. I tell the guy I will pick it up since the last delivery was a disaster, and I have a truck. He informs me that the pick-up fee is $15. At this point steam is pouring out of my ears. I complained, but to no avail. They are going to charge me $15 to go to Macy's and load my chair into the back of my truck. Un-freaking-believable.

When I'm dealing with a consumer-type issue and my patience has completely been exhausted, I gleefully turn into a dedicated and intractable unreasonable person. Finding out the company's HQ location, I'll call the CEO's office and make sure they understand the depths of unhappiness. They usually have a staff to deal with cranky people like me.