Bad Experience At Discount RV Furniture.com

[foxriverguy]

I apologize for the overly long topic. But I hope it will prevent others from making the same mistake.

Discount RV Furniture.com is not RV Customer Friendly. Here is why..

If you are thinking about buying replacement chairs for your motorhome or RV, before you consider purchasing from Discount RV Furniture on the west coast, you should read our experience.

In my first telephone contact in April of this year, I asked how long it would take to ship chairs that were custom built. A correct shipping date was important because we needed to ship the chairs to someone who could install them, and we did not want the RV tech or RV dealer to have to store two large cartons for any longer than necessary. We also didn't want to make a lot of arrangements, then drive to that location and then not have the chairs on hand.

I was told it would take four weeks to build the chairs. So I found someone to install them, a location to have them shipped and placed the order by sending a fax as well as photos of the existing seats. The photos are required to document that we had integrated seat belts in our existing chairs. I faxed all this information to them four weeks from the shipping date with a little time cushion built in.

Then it all went south.

Two weeks after we placed the order, the charge finally showed up on our credit card. Uh oh. Does that mean someone dragged their feet and did not place the order? Right!!! Another week went by and we did not receive a copy of the order showing what we would receive for our $3400. So I called Discount RV Furniture to inquire about getting a copy of the order. I was told I had given them an incorrect e-mail address. The order we faxed to them had our cell phone number and my correct e-mail address as well as the address of the location where we wanted the chairs shipped. When they did e-mail me a copy of our invoice, it showed an incorrect shipping address to N. Acogdoches, Texas instead of to North Street in Nacogdoches. I am glad we got that corrected.

We have been given six different shipping dates. The second date we were given was when I called June 8 and was told they were going out the same day of my phone call. So everyone re-arranged their schedule to install the chairs on Monday, June 14. On June 11 I called to ask for the tracking number and was told the chairs won't be shipped until June 14. I was told that they were waiting for the seat belts.

One June 16 we were told by their production manager that they were shipping the chairs in time to be in Nacogdoches on Friday, June 18 and that they would pay the extra shipping charges to compensate for all the previous delays. On the following Monday, June 21, the chairs had still not been delivered. We called the trucking company for an update and we were assured of a Tuesday delivery. By Tuesday afternoon the chairs had not been delivered so again we called the trucking company. Evidently, they didn't know anything about a rush order with a guarantee of a delivery the previous Friday. We were told the chairs would be delivered sometime on Wednesday. Next, I called the chair company to inform them of the situation. Linda Williams at Discount RV Furniture sounded aghast and put out, saying we paid extra for delivery on Friday. Then she put me on hold for five minutes; then got back on line to say that she had to make some phone calls and would get back to me. She never called me back. More lies. So I called her back two hours later. I sort of thought they might be able to get the trucking company to deliver in accordance with the level of service that Discount RV Furniture claims they paid for. She put me on hold for 15 minutes only to say that the chairs would be delivered Wednesday. At this point I don't believe anything they say. We've heard this all before.

Fortunately, the company that will do the chair installation, Xtreme Paint & Graphics in Nacogdoches, has been very understanding, and each time has assured us that they will get the old chairs out and the new chairs in as soon as they can after delivery is made.

The chairs finally were delivered on June 23, 15 days later than the second promised delivery date. Installation was the following day. We are less than pleased with the look of the new chairs. The build quality seems to be decent, but the skirting around the base of the material is four inches off the floor -- so the base and mechanism is now visible. Not at all attractive.

We also ordered a massaging feature for the driver set to help with tired butts and legs on long trips. That does not work.

I really can not recommend the product or the service from Discount RV Furniture.com, the service is a dismal 1 on a scale of 1 to 10 with a one being the lowest possible rating.

Footnotes:

Flexsteel does not make replacement seats with integrated seat belts. So we could not go that route.

Villa is the company that made our original seats and we really did not like them, so we could not see any reason to buy from them.

We could find no other manufacturer that carries replacement seats with integrated seat belts.

[jimkate]

I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with Discount Van and RV, because last year we also had a bad experience with them, and have been trying to get the word out to everyone not to deal with the people at Discount Van and RV.

Our experience began in July when I phoned Linda to ask how much lead time they needed to provide us with new furniture. She said they needed four weeks. I explained to her that we were traveling through the states in October, stopping at our son's in San Jose, CA for one week. Discount Van and RV are about 80 miles from my son's door. I made arrangements with her to ship the new furniture to our son's place by a specified date in October. This specified date was actually the date that we expected to arrive at our son's place.

When we began our trip, we phoned Discount Van and RV to confirm that the order was going to be delivered. They sounded very uncertain about things on the phone. My wife said she wondered if we were going to get our furniture on time.

When we arrived at our son's place, there was no furniture. The phone calls began to Discount Van and RV, and each time they responded as if it was the first call we had ever made to them regarding checking the status of the furniture. Finally, on the day before we had to leave our son's place, we informed Discount Van and RV that we were going to have the credit card reversed, and they could cancel the order. Immediately they informed us that if we wanted to drive an hour to a truck loading dock, we could pick up our furniture!

We picked it up. Installation was not smooth, because the base of one of the captain's chairs was wrong. The massage that we had special ordered worked for a short time, then burnt out, blew the fuse, never to work again. Can't be fixed without tearing the entire chair apart. The electric control switch for fore and aft positioning of the one captain's chair popped right out of the chair and flew apart. Turned out that switch had been broken on installation, and someone jiggled it back together and jammed it back into the chair.

The armrests on the captains chairs are mounted so ridiculously high that they are useless. The drawer underneath the sofa is installed incorrectly, and we have yet to tear the sofa apart and rebuild it with the drawer installed correctly. And the colors weren't anywhere near what they displayed on their website.

This is all so unfortunate, because I do believe that the materials used are very good. It's obvious that they have assembly issues, but more importantly, customer relations issues.

We will never, ever deal with Discount Van and RV ever again, under any circumstances. We're not so poor that we expect to be treated like that. We'll do business with reputable people next time.

Jim & Kate Sanderson

1995 Monaco Dynasty 36'

Canada, eh?

[foxriverguy]

Jim,

What a bunch of dishonest people at that company. We are going to protest the charge with American Express and see what happens.

The sad thing about this sorry mess is that it isn't that hard to make a good product and give good service They are the only company making repalcement RV seats that have seat belts built in. They could be doing much better if they were honest and competent.

[jimkate]

Our original furniture was manufactured by Villa. The upholstery was worn out.

In our situation, we could have had our furniture reupholstered, or bought replacements from Villa. Flexsteel also had product that would have been O.K. We were attracted by the professionalism of the website, and the prices. Believing that the difference in price was because of their direct marketing strategy, we gave our business to Discount Van and RV.

Next time, we will utilize one of the other options. I have since been informed that Villa will work with you to supply what you would like.

Jim Sanderson

[troyarussell@att.net]

Wow - I guess we dodged a bullet in our experience with Discount Van and RV (Discount RV Furniture.com). I was so put off by their seat builders attitude (Ivas) over the phone and in emails that we did not even get to the point of ordering furniture from them. I had a bad feeling that if during a sale they treated their customers so poorly that it could only get worse once they had my money.

We are still searching for a good source for our RV furniture as we begin to remodel; seems they are all either too far away for us 9-5 workin folks or are internet sales only - shoot

Troy R.

[openminds]

I am always leery of a company with the word "Discount" in their name.

Just my .02

I am now worried as I am about ready to start the adventure of replacing my two couches. I think I'll try to reupholster route first. Thanks for the Heads-Up!