Jennifer
Buyer Beware
I loved Richard and Jimmy when I met them, and Jimmy did an amazing job helping to select furniture for our long/narrow center city home. I was excited to support a local business in our neighborhood. Unfortunately, their significant operational challenges (as communicated to me) prevented the fully-paid furniture from ever being ready for delivery – either within the 5-6 week lead time they repeatedly touted before I paid for my furniture, or for the 5 months that followed. Ultimately, they luckily did refund my purchases, but even that took over 2 months on top of the months that passed as I inquired about the status of my very late custom furniture orders. The detail that concerned me most is that despite multiple requests to see proof of my prepaid furniture ever having been ordered, instead I received a lengthy list of excuses for why they did not respond, how hard it is to get suppliers to fulfill custom furniture orders, and why my refund was not yet processed. I am not convinced the furniture I paid in full up front was ever actually in production (of course it could have been, but the only proof shared with me was their word).
Response from 1600 Spruce St. Interior Design & HomeJul 1, 2024
Hi Jennifer, It’s disappointing that you are the first person out of nearly 2,000 clients to leave us a one star review. As you are aware, we are limited on what we can discuss as this experience is the subject of litigation initiated by our firm. The narrative that you are sharing is disappointing. You have failed to mention the amazing job we did with your custom carpet and the fact we shared our trade contacts and did not charge you a mark up for that. We guess that didn’t fit your narrative of this experience? So bizarre that you would think a furniture business would not actually order furniture and that it would be beneficial for us to take your money to only refund it months later. It costs businesses to give you those reward points that credit card companies offer and we don’t get back those fees when issuing refunds. Our transaction with you cost us money, so logically, where was the benefit for us? We took the decision that you are not someone we wish to work with after many demands made by you that no business would ever entertain. You libeled our business after we went out of our way to make a problem right. You disparaged our integrity and the goodwill that we spent many hundreds of thousands of dollars to build and this speaks more about you than us. We welcome constructive feedback, however your review is nothing more than a malignant attack on our firm and let us be clear, we’re not about coddling entitled people. We work hundreds of hours to provide products and services, many of which you enjoyed without charge, and for no financial benefit to our firm, and we get to enjoy the complaints about every possible inconvenience or delay that is outside of our control. This review is a testament to the type of client we don’t want or need. We’re not hurting for business. We love clients who get that inanimate objects are the least important part of this obstacle course called life. We will try our best to make sure you get what you order and when it goes South, as we did in this case, we will step up and make it right. Incidentally, enough with the supporting “local small business”, that usually means clients hold us to a higher standard than McDonalds when we operate with a fraction of the resources. Working with big box stores is probably more your speed. If we can be of further help, or if you wish further clarification on our rebuttal to your privileged review, you know where to contact us.