I would love to hear your thoughts on how they or I could have handled the situation better.
I don’t feel they owe me anything at this point.
Where should we go to buy a couch? Are any furniture stores better than the others?
My requirements are:
It must be delivered, I don’t want to pick it up or assemble anything.
I want to see it & sit in it first. (Our current couch was bought online, sight-unseen, and is a dud.)
The store has to be able to actually hit promised delivery dates.
I’m stuck on a nice HIGH back after seeing a few.
🪑
Here’s the latest from Levin:
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Eric,
I completely understand where you are coming from. I apologize that we failed to get your correct chair delivered to you during this time. I am the person that called your wife about the Facebook post. I wanted to reach out to you to apologize and see what I could do to help the situation. When we fail to meet our customers’ expectations, we want to make it right.
I know you said you weren’t sure what we could do at this point, but I feel we need to take ownership of our mistake and acknowledge your feelings. On behave of Levin Furniture I apologize for the mistake and the inconvenience this caused you during your recovery. That is a true heart felt apology, I treat customers the way I would want to be treated. I think sometimes we get desensitized and need to be reminded that people have other things going on in their lives and just owning our mistakes and saying I am sorry can make a difference.
I know you said you do not want to shop with a us. But if you would like to give us another chance in the future, please let me know and I will see we take care of you. If there is anything I can assist you with, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
Best Regards,
Kelly Matyas
Customer Experience Manager
🪑
Should I write/call back?
Actual footage from a staff meeting about my recliner.
Well, I was done with Levin. Then they emailed a customer satisfaction survey. That triggered me again. Here’s what I sent back. Then I dug up as many corporate names as I could, and their email syntax. I know some landed, because about three minutes after I hit send they were calling my wife.
Here’s what I said:
💻
Hello Friends,
I recently had what we’ll call a horrendous experience with Levin Furniture. I had vented about it online, and moved on. Until my wife forwarded me the customer satisfaction survey. That took some immense lack of self-awareness on your part, so I am hoping with this missive to make you a bit more aware. The following is what I typed up & sent along with the 3 1-star answers to the survey. I thought I would look up some email addresses and get it in front of as many eyes as I could. I will also copy the salesman that my wife dealt with who never replied to her email inquiring about delivery.
Already sent was the following:
On Saturday September 9th, my wife & son went to Levin and a few other furniture stores to purchase a powered recliner for me, to help with post colo-rectal surgery recovery.
Looking online at our options and various price ranges, I knew I wanted a chair that had a cup holder, phone charger, and storage pockets… as I was not sure how mobile I would be post-op, and was quite frankly uncomfortable going into surgery.
I would have gone to view them myself, but that happened to be in-between my second and third ER trips & hospital admissions in 4 weeks stemming from a burst pocket of diverticulitis and a nasty ensuing abscess and infection. I was in poor health, and in no mood to deal with furniture sales tactics. I can even provide photos of the CT scans and the drain sticking out of my right but cheek if you like to be grossed out.
My wife ordered an Ashley Model Next-Gen DuraPella Power Recliner SKU # 2200413, mainly because Levin promised to deliver before La-Z-Boy & Value City could on very similarly optioned & priced items. Remember that “before” qualifier as you digest (pun intended) the following paragraphs.
In hindsight, it was a largely false promise on the part of Levin, one that if I were a pessimist would assume is a regular practice on the part of your sales team.
The chair was promised to be delivered by Sept. 19th. That Tuesday came & my wife logged in to the website to see the delivery was now scheduled for Thursday Sept. 21st, and we had no communication on that change from Levin.
On Thursday, my wife called the delivery number, then the store to ask about the chair’s whereabouts. She talked to an Anna who said the original salesperson, Jared Chambers, was “new” and “didn’t know he had to schedule the delivery.”
My wife also emailed jchambers@levinfurniture.com on Sept. 21st to inquire about the delivery, but as of yet has not received a reply. We can forward that unanswered email if needed.
Despite this excuse smelling of total and absolute bovine feces, Anna told my wife that they could “squeeze us in” that Saturday the 23rd for delivery. Were we the first order where this was discovered? If not, why wasn’t it rectified sooner? Does Levin train all new employees this poorly? You don’t really have to answer that last one. It was rhetorical.
Saturday the 23rd came and two nice men delivered a recliner to us. Once they brought it in & put it together, I noticed that it does not have the cup holder, phone charger, or storage pockets. It happened to be an Ashley Model 5930213 Power Recliner @ $1349.99, completely not what we ordered. It was not the same model, SKU #, or price.
The guys sent photos to their boss, their boss contacted Levins, & Anna called my wife.
We tipped the guys $20 and they took the nice new recliner away.
In that conversation with my wife, Anna then blamed an incorrect tag or sku # being on the display model in the showroom. She also used the phrasing that it was “no one’s fault.” This incensed me, as it obviously was the fault of Levin employees on multiple levels. Who tagged the chair with the wrong tag? Who double-checks their work? The salesman did not confirm that what he was ordering matched the floor model? This is not “no one’s fault,” this is a tragic comedy of careless errors.
My wife asked Anna at that time if we could purchase the floor model, as time was of the essence. Anna said she would call back.
We went to Big Lots! in Washington PA that evening to look at couches. Yes, we need a couch, and Levin is off the table for what I believe to be quite obvious reasons.
Anna had still not called my wife as of around 6:00 PM, so my wife called her. Anna said we could have the floor model if we came and got it. Now, I am in poor health with restrictions on lifting, my kids are young, we have a vehicle classed as a station wagon, and my wife is a strong woman, but I would not ask her to move a recliner herself.
You would think the salesman and or store manager eager to make good on a sale, would have delivered the damn thing in a pickup or something.
Customer service is dead.
No concessions on price were offered from Anna. My wife asked for some form of compensation for our aggravation, and at first the only offer was to refund the original delivery fee… for the WRONG CHAIR. Crazy us to assume it would be a given to not pay for that. I believe we got half off of the 2nd delivery, and were refunded the difference between the original incorrect, more expensive chair, and the correct less expensive one.
If your profit margins are so small that you cannot automatically offer a few hundred dollars off on this purchase or even on a future purchase, you perhaps need to rethink your entire business model.
The correct recliner was finally delivered on Tuesday Oct. 3rd. This was a full two weeks after it was promised, after the dates when we could have received a recliner from your esteemed competitors, and 3 days after I was released from the hospital.after surgery.
Did I mention that we set our old chair out for the trash the Thursday night prior to the initial incorrect Saturday delivery?
I would like to ask you to imagine having a foot-long section of your colon and rectum removed, your remaining section of colon & rectum stapled together, a wound vac hanging on your side connected to a tube from an incision above your belly button, and a bulbous drain hanging out of your side right at your waistline.
That makes sitting anywhere uncomfortable. Imagine, if you would, a nice stressless recliner to ease the situation… because I can’t.
Some other person did leave a voicemail for my wife after I left a frustration-venting rant & a comment or two on Facebook, but that was the night of my colon-cleanse. If you’ll forgive the mental image, we already had enough crap to put up with.
Honestly though, for that attention-grabbing shenanigans to be the ONLY thing that triggered some sort of response, you were well past the too little/too late threshold.
Your people skills are abhorrent at the sales and service levels, and your corporate level customer service is merely reactionary to online “bad press” only to save face, not serve actual customer satisfaction & retention.
I actually applaud your testicular fortitude in reaching out with a customer satisfaction survey. It either takes massive ignorance or massive swagger. And you already know where I believe you fall on the scale.
I now intend to send this to every level of your corporation that has eyes. May the best of them find work elsewhere, and may the worst of them stay to drive you further into the ground than the last time you were there.
Thank you for your time, and may whatever deity you ascribe to have mercy on your soul,
I neglected to note we tipped the 2nd set of delivery guys $20 too. But, if they don’t even pretend to care about the customers, they certainly don’t care about the employees, right? While we’re on the subject… was that appropriate, or cheap? I try to check in on these things occasionally.
After Kelly Maytas at Levin left my wife a Voicemail, I got this email…
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Eric,
Thank you for reaching out to us and letting us know about your experience. We aim to deliver a great experience and are disheartened when we don’t. We will use your feedback to make us better.
I apologize for the inconvenience and the stress this has caused you. I personally would like to speak to you about your experience and respectfully apologize and take ownership of our failure to deliver a great experience. I know you need to rest, but at your convenience can you please give me a call at 330-###-####.
Best Regards,
Kelly Matyas
Customer Experience Manage
💻
I took the time to send this back…
💻
Thank You Ms. Maytas,
Not sure if you got just the survey response, or the email that I tried to send to a handful of people after researching names and email syntax online.
I am really not sure what you can do at this point for us.
I suggest you get your Robinson store in order… from tagging furniture properly, to sales reps understanding the product, your procedures, or setting up deliveries in a timely manner, and customer service reps that understand what apologizing really is. Only then can you maybe knock it out of the park for future customers.
We are in desperate need of a new couch, but not that desperate. I feel like your team has not only burned but nuked the proverbial bridge, and I concede that I worked on that from my side of things also. I am not a fan of phone calls, I prefer the written word. I also prefer retailers that automatically offer discounts on current or future sales without having to be asked. Again, we’re past that.
Unless you’d like to suggest a competitor that will actually deliver a quality product on time?
Good luck to you in righting the ship at Levins, as your tenacity in reaching out speaks to the fact that you will stay the course! I wish that we could have dealt with you on the store level instead of when it reached a wild level of ridiculousness (again, the online shenanigans are all on me – but it shouldn’t have taken that to garner attention).
I appreciate your time in reaching out! I like you, unlike your seemingly dimwitted and soul-crushed coworkers. Perhaps they need a pizza party or two for morale?
If I could give 0 stars, I would. If Levin’s had the last bucket of water on Earth, I was on fire, and it only cost 5¢, I would still not buy it. My wife ordered a reclinig chair about a moth before I had surgery, the delivery was pushed back twice, they blamed it on the salesman & made no apologies. The wrong chair was delivered. It was sorted out with absolutely no apologies or offered concessions. The correct chair arrived 3 days AFTER it was needed. There was no attempt to make any amends or apologies without my wife asking for them. The Levin employee even had the testicular fortutude to say the “error was no one’s fault” as the chair was tagged wrong. Yes, this is obviously Levin’s fault. On multiple levels, from inventory, to display, to double-checking, and scheduling orders. Any attempts to resolve the issue were made once I was busy & in the hospital getting major abdominal surgery. It was an absolute tragic comedy of errors. What a joke. In summation: [Fornicate] Levin’s, and the horse they rode on!
I may be missing some. Not sure? I have seen so many local shows, I don’t know if I ever actually played some oft-frequented venues. It’s amazing how many places I have played that are gone.
I know I am missing a bar in Kitanning, and the names of a few places. Maybe even a private show or two? If you know of some, help me out!
First off, I’d like to say that in the past I have repeatedly vocalized my approval for the Garmin brand, and GPS units in general. We have a StreetPilot® c340 and a nüvi® 2555LMT. I have told people for years to just get a Garmin. Trust the Garmin. It won’t get you lost. It’ll get you where you’re going. Don’t give me directions like “go down whatever street and make a left at the weird looking tree,” just give me an address. Don’t fight it. Turn where it wants you to. I’ve expressed to my Mom & my in-laws to not fight the Garmin. Let it take you the way it wants. Even if it’s different from how you would go.
I even bought the nüvi after I was royally screwed by the “lifetime updates” to my StreetPilot. (Sure, lifetime updates… with new maps that don’t fit on your StreetPilot. No, Garmin, I’m not settling for regional maps when I bought updates for the entire continent of North America.)
I’m wondering now how the Garmin calculates routes. The other day, I was driving on a major expressway, and my nüvi wanted me to exit & take a smaller highway riddled with red lights for most of my journey home. I knew that staying on the interstate meant less stops. I didn’t turn off. It recalculated (thankfully this model does it without telling you), and the route I had chosen was actually 3 minutes shorter than the other route. I had asked the Garmin to calculate the fastest route. Obviously, it didn’t. So, what gives? It wasn’t the shortest mileage route either (according to Google Maps). What did the Garmin calculate?
Also finding things “along my current route”… is there any way to give an acceptable deviation? I know that going through Pittsburgh from anywhere north of the city to our place in the south, I can take two routes. There’s a BBQ joint along one route, and a Wendy’s along the other. If I let the Garmin pick a route, and I ask for BBQ joints along the route… it won’t find it because it takes the Wendy’s route. But the BBQ place is still in between where I am & where I’m going. This is fine in town… but if I’m out of town, I’d like the Garmin to be able to learn acceptable derivations from my route. I’d go a different way if it meant finding something I’m looking for.
So, I’ve backed Garmin up. How are you going to back me up?
I’m sure you know I’m one of the Berts in Ernie and the Berts. I’m sure you know we play shows. I’m sure you’d have fun at one (or two or three or four). Come rock out with us some time…
✟ The Real McKenzies ✟ The Goddamn Gallows ✟ The Bloody Seamen ✟ Ernie and the Berts ✟
As you can see we have a bunch of stuff coming up. We generally try to be all kinds of fun. We’re playing with some exciting bands & artists. We’re playing some new venues & some old favorites. We’re playing with bands we love & bands we’ve never met. Each show is an adventure. Join us!
Hello faithful readers. I’d like to sell mad tickets for this. The Real McKenzies are right up my alley, these Goddamn Gallows cats look to be our kind of insane, & the Bloody Seamen remind of us our new bff‘s The Botched for some reason.
This is my personal plea to all of you to come out to this show & show us (Ernie and the Berts – the band, and the people) your support. We’re selling the tickets for $12 a pop in advance, and we hope to sell out quick… so get a hold of me, or get a hold of Erin at ernie@ernieandtheberts.com to score your tix.
I know it’s a Tuesday, and I know it’s not a $5 bar show… but shows like this really help us get our music/name/faces out there. Don’t you want more people to be aware of the nearly-controlled chaos that is Ernie and the Berts?
Drusky is getting warm to us, and it seems like the Altar Bar digs us… so we’d like to play more shows there more often. The best way to do that is for us to convince your collective ass to come out to the shows, support national touring acts, local venues & entertainment companies, and local music…. and most of all to have a good time!
I mean, we like to be extra goofy, you never know what Ernie’s up to next. The Seamen are just ridiculous and you have to see them live to believe it. Look at the Gallow’s dudes photo & tell me they don’t like to party. I hear that the Real McKenzies don’t wear anything under their kilts. You have something going on a Tuesday night that can compare to that awesomeness?
Yeah, you have to get up for work the next day. So do I. So do most of the guys in the local bands. You can deal with it. Drink an extra coffee in the morning and man (or woman) up.
So, how many tickets do you want?
The Real McKenzies
The Goddamn Gallows
The Bloody Seamen
Ernie and the Berts
Here are all the details so far, I hope to make a flyer as soon as possible…
Make sure you can get the whole way through an intersection before you actually go through it. I see these dingleberries every weekday morning. I use the word dignleberry because they cling to automobile in front of them. Please, study the illustration of the offending intersection by Bing Maps & mad paint.NET skills:
Don't be a dingleberry.
To drive the point home, what you’re seeing is my path (the green arrow) and the wrong path (the red arrow). The yellow outline is the zone where you should not be when my light turns green. Let’s call that zone the clean wipe zone. There are two lanes headed in my direction. The left lane is where I need to be, the right lane is where most of the red path dingleberries are going, so they can get up on the major highway close by.
One major dingleberry always ends up straddling the inside lane, clearly inside the clean wipe zone. Sometimes the dingleberry has a friend that sneaks behind, straddling the lanes coming towards me. That’s super dingleberryish. Don’t be a dingleberry!
(Dingleberries in the clean wipe zone cause incredible discomfort, and sometimes bring out horn-honking traffic trolls.)
If you end up in the clean wipe zone when my light is green, you are a dingleberry. There may be several reasons for the offending action…
You’re an idiot and you weren’t paying attention.
You think you can squeeze through.
You’ll do anything to get through your light, not caring if you’re blocking traffic going the other direction.
I have solutions for all of these problems…
Pay attention, idiot.
You obviously can’t, judge better next time. When it doubt, don’t.
You are not more important than the throngs of others on their way to work. Why block a whole bunch of them?
People consistently drive incorrectly, illegally, and dangerously at more than a few intersections that I travel through on a somewhat regular basis. I’d like to deal with them all eventually, but let’s just start with one at a time. I’ve talked about this kind of stuff before, and I’m not saying that I’m the perfect driver or never do anything wrong with my vehicles… but this kind of stuff is covered in the PA driver’s manual, isn’t it?
Can you find all of the STOP signs? ( Hint: There's just 1.)
Does this really need any explanation? Of course it does, or I wouldn’t be here ranting about it. The green arrows are the path I usually take. I chose green for my arrows, because I’m obviously always right.
Red arrow path people… I’m talkin’ to you. I’ve seen you all try to pull out in front of me, no matter which green-arrowed path I’m taking. You sit there, eking forward as if to tell me you’re interested in playing intersection chicken, or simply that you don’t quite comprehend that I don’t also have a stop sign. To channel Dr. Seuss;
I don’t have a stop sign going up the hill,
I don’t have a stop sign going down the hill.
I can spot stop signs with such skill,
It must make you very ill.
I don’t have a stop sign going around the bend,
I don’t have a stop sign like you, my friend.
In case it’s unclear, the stop on the sign indicates that you are to sit there until all others in the intersection (with the right-of way) have gone though. Which unfortunately for you, in this instance, is everyone except you.
...but YOU do.
Maybe they need an “opposing traffic does not stop” sign or something to the same effect there (if there isn’t one already). Maybe we need someone to stand there, and hand out printed copies of instructions on how to navigate the intersection successfully …or even just a copy of this blog post.
Please, stop crowding forward when the tiny section of road gets backed up at that light in the morning. Please, stop making faces at me and throwing your hands wildly into the air like I have wronged you in some way as I come up the hill around the bend to the left. Please don’t cut me off as I’m waiting in the backed-up traffic to get to the light. I don’t have a stop sign. You do. I didn’t cut you off. I’m driving correctly, you’re an anus.
World (and Lunar) Domination 