Back in early August, I blogged a bit about how I was remodeling my master bedroom. I painted the walls, bought a mattress and foundation set, purchased curtains, found and assembled wall-hangings, and so on. Things were going swimmingly until I hit a massive roadblock—the bed. For those who don’t possess the patience to plod through my ponderous posting, the punchline is that I still have not purchased a bloody bed.
Early on, I made the decision that I wanted a California king, rather than an eastern king; four extra inches in length may not seem like much, but every inch counts when one’s legs are dangling off the edge of the mattress. The problem is that you cannot find that size of bedding in east coast brick and mortar stores. Thanks to Google, though, I found a California-based online store who was selling the perfect wooden California king sleigh bed. I loved the finish (walnut) and the design; it was in my price range; and they offered free shipping.
I placed my order on July 29 and received a phone call from a sales representative the next day. Had I clicked through the large “Free Delivery” graphic on their online store’s main page, I would have realized that said offer only applied to locations within a fifty-mile radius. So “Sue” informed me that shipping would be extra, and they had never shipped before all the way to New Jersey, so she would have to get back to me with the shipping charges. Fair enough.
A week went by, then another few days. I tried calling (no toll-free line, grrr), but only got Sue’s machine. Sue finally got back to me with the bad news. They refused to drop-ship the bed because a previous customer’s order had been damaged this way. In-home freight delivery was the only option, at a cost of over $300. She said that she would try a calling a couple of other shippers, but the extra week of waiting that took up proved fruitless. I, of course, balked at the shipping price, and said that I would call her back with my decision.
I decided that I really wanted that bed, so I tried to get in touch with Sue, and I again only spoke with her answering machine—same thing the next day, and the next, and the next. When she finally got back to me in September, she apologized, saying that she was away from her desk, conducting inventory, because they had just fired one person, and another quit, so they were short-staffed. Sue still felt guilty about the high shipping cost, and actually talked me out of buying the bed from them. She gave me the direct number of the manufacturer, Royal Patina, who is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
When I called Royal Patina, their rep asked me where I got that number, as they normally do not deal with individual customers. He agreed, nonetheless, to call me back in a few days with a list of resellers in the New Jersey area. Out of the seven numbers he provided me, only 2 still sold Royal Patina furniture. One wanted $400 more than the California furniture store (plus state sales tax) and the other wanted over $700. I did not realize the extent of the markup with some furniture resellers. This was all moot, of course, because they would have to special order a California king from the manufacturer, and this particular model was back-ordered until late November.
I decided, once again, to call Sue. After all of this, I was more than willing to pay a $300 shipping charge; I just wanted the damn bed already. I got her answering machine, again. This one-sided game of phone tag continued for another couple of weeks. I started to feel almost like a stalker. All I wanted to do was buy a bed from her employer, but Sue had given me the runaround for months now, and at this point, it was a matter of principle.
When Sue finally got back to me in early October (by now I was leaving two to three increasingly desperate and irate voice mails per day), she had more bad news. Rising gas prices meant higher freight costs, and the cheapest shipper she could find wanted $675. Sue said she would try a couple more places, but a week later she left a message on my machine. The cheapest shipping charge she could find was $630.
I had declared to myself that I wanted this bed at any cost. However, my patience (though immense) and my finances (not so immense) do have limits after all. Needless to say, I did not call Sue back.
Yesterday, I think I finally found an alternative bed that I like, and the freight really is free. The wood is mahogany; I did not want mahogany or cherry, but sometimes you have to lower your expectations. I am usually not willing to compromise on such things (I do have a tendency to fixate, though); however, my remodeling project has been on hold all of this time, and it is time to move on.
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