How not to treat customers

Most of my posts have a lot of pictures and few words. This will be the opposite. Six months ago I got some money from my mother’s inheritance. It was time to really treat myself well. I wanted to upgrade my sewing room from a hodgepodge of cheap furniture to nice quality tables. Before I had much of a chance to do research, a friend mentioned that a local store was having a sale on Koala Tables at a 20% discount. (the sale was from Koala itself). Of course I had heard great things about Koala tables, so I went in to place an order. First disappointment – the most popular table, the one that held two sewing machines is no longer being made. Since I could treat myself nicely, I ordered two sewing machine tables, as well as a cutting table from Horn, a different company.

Originally I was going to get the cutting table in white, well, Horn decided no more white, so it took a little longer to arrive. I never looked at their tables, because of the Koala deal and the fact that Koala has a very good reputation. Their tables do, little did I realize that their service is awful. Right now the table is only open half way, I have to figure out if there is any way I can open it further, who knows, that may only happen when I have a very large project on hand.

I was told that the Koala tables would take between two and three months to arrive. Fine, I can wait. At about six weeks I got a call confirming what was on my order. They only had an order for one table. Btw, that was the last I heard from them. Since I hadn’t purchased this on my own, I went back to the store and sure enough, they said they’d handle it. They couldn’t understand why I got the phone call, since the order came from them. So yeah, they hadn’t noticed that there were two orders….

This is the Cub, a smaller table that holds one machine. One thing about these tables is the electronic lift. I can choose the height of the machine, or, I can lower the machine, and use an insert for the table to be completely flat.

Months go by, an acrylic insert shows up at my house, along with a letter saying that my cabinets/tables have been ordered. At this point I’m thinking, it won’t be long. Boy was I wrong.

With the flick of a button or with a remote, the machine goes up and down.

So there were more calls to Koala, what is going on? They gave excuses like backorder and production running late. This was the moment I realized two things. Capitalism is wonderful – if you have a lot of competition – you are going to work very hard to deliver on time. Since the home sewing industry really isn’t all that big – Koala doesn’t have a lot of competition. So they really have no incentive to treat the customer right. Oh and did I mention, I had to pay upfront for all of this. There was no, pay half now, pay the rest on delivery. So once again, they already have my money, there is zero incentive for them to do anything at this point.

Then I was told, the tables will ship in mid May. Also, because of the aggravation, they will pay for the final delivery instead of me. Well, that was a small comfort. Btw, they didn’t offer that, the store forced it on them.

Then I’m told that they will ship after Memorial Day, hmm, what is going on??? So during that week I get a notice from JB Hunt – the company that will deliver to my home. I need to set up a date for delivery, but when I look at the invoice, all they are delivering is this table, the smaller one. I only bought this because I couldn’t fit two machines on one large table. I was apoplectic! I told the store to cancel the order for the big table and to refund the money – this was way beyond the pale. A call from the store to Koala and oh, we shipped the tables separately, the larger one will arrive a few days later. It takes weeks to consolidate and ship to the west coast, and now there are two shipments back to back?

The second table, much larger, with a back leaf that will make quilting easier, which is why I wanted a larger table.

JB Hunt couldn’t consolidate the two deliveries, well, they could if I canceled the first date. No way, be my guest, come on both Wednesday and Friday if that is all you can do. I will not cancel the Wednesday delivery to accommodate them. Part of the deal is they assemble the tables, which they should, for all the money I spent. This isn’t Ikea. The guys who came on Wednesday were great. Sure they assembled the smaller table, but were very professional. Oh, instead of an acrylic insert, I am supposed to get a wooden one for the smaller table, guess what didn’t arrive? You got, the insert.

Yes, there was much more work to be done on the larger table. They told me they couldn’t find the thread holder insert. Turns out, it was in one of the boxes after all. With these tables, one gets double the amount of hardware as well as a really nice screwdriver that can switch from regular to Philips. I had already used the machines on the smaller table and make a big mistake, I left the screwdriver out. Towards the end of the installation, one of the guys was working on the new table and he pulled the second screwdriver out of his pocket. Then he pocketed it again. They were in a rush to leave, only after they had gone and I was looking for a screw driver to remove the door behind the thread pull, did I notice that I couldn’t find either of them. I had his phone number, cuz he called to let me know when he was arriving. I told him he took the screwdriver by mistake, it was probably in his pocket. Nope, he doesn’t have it. Liar. I will be calling JB Hunt to report the theft, the first one had also disappeared.

The store always throws in a chair, so here we have the table and chair, and now, that screwdriver is not the one that came with the table. Oh, I was also supposed to get a Slimline lamp, that of course didn’t show up either.

At this point I sat down and found out that Koala is owned by Tacony. So I found the names and addresses of the CEOs of both companies, I wrote them scathing letters. I find the only way to get anything done is to go straight to the top. Yes, after my phone call to JB Hunt I’m sure I’ll be writing another letter to a CEO. I sent the letters snail mail as well as sending them via email. On Saturday I got a response from Koala, they are so sorry (meanwhile, I’m hearing from others that mine is not the only story like this, they clearly don’t know how to run a business, or they simply don’t care). The lamp is on it’s way and they are refunding the full cost. The wood insert will be shipped in two weeks. They are backordered, but they happen to have one that fits my machine in the warehouse. Each one had to be cut for the specific machine, of course that info was in the order, the store rechecked, so clearly, no one really checked the order before packing. I told them I’ll be away on vacation, wait another week, I don’t want a large package sitting outside my house. What do you know! Both items will ship either together or the same day in separate packages. So I should receive them this week. Oh and while I was at it, I asked for another screwdriver.

So here I am, finally enjoying my mother’s inheritance. Am I happy with the tables? Yes, they really are very nice, but I can’t use the remotes, because they work on both tables at the same time and I don’t want that. So I’ll use the lifts with the button on each separate table.

I’ve probably lost some of you a while ago. I don’t care, customer service is extremely important. I wasn’t only paying for the tables, I was paying for good service and I didn’t get that at all. Friends on IG told me that had great experiences with Koala, good for them, I didn’t and I intend to let other people know. My biggest advice is, if you are having a problem, don’t wait for the end of the process, send a letter to the CEO of the company immediately, that seems to be the only way to get good service these days.

Leah

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