This is the part where I eat crow. You know that house my husband and I were building? The one everyone said would be a nightmare? We scrapped it. The contractor we adored at first turned out to be so awful that I even heard my unflappable husband spouting R-rated words by the end—and this was before we even broke ground. So, rather than continuing the process and one of us likely going to jail for assault, we decided to purchase a new home instead of building it.
Good decision. We love our new house—it’s got an adjacent golf course for my husband; a red, blue, and orange bedroom for our sports fanatic son; and lots of cabinet space for my Julia Child fantasies. The best part is that with the money we saved by not building, we decided to treat ourselves to some new things.
Really, though, we’re just lazy. We didn’t want to move all of our stuff to the new house, so we bought new stuff and had the stores deliver it. Crazy? Yes. But it worked.
Eventually.
Through the whole purchasing process, my husband and I dealt with “service” industries quite a bit, and we were under-whelmed at nearly every turn. With our appliance purchases, for instance, we got pricing from three stores so we could compare apples to apples. The employees at the first store, I’m guessing, didn’t work on commission. It showed. The second store, a national chain, had sent all of its appliance department employees to an out-of-town seminar on customer service, leaving a car stereo installer and a cashier to work the appliance section on a Sunday afternoon. Now that’s irony.
The third store is where we decided to buy our appliances. While we were there, one appliance burst into flames on the showroom floor, and we still thought they were the best option.
But what really fired us up was our furniture purchase—or rather its delivery. We bought all of our dining and living room furniture from a local store, which later messed up very, very badly.
And they simply didn’t care.
Unfortunately for them, this occurred while I was mourning my beloved grandmother, and I have to admit that I became completely unglued.
My husband is the most diplomatic man I’ve ever met. Jeff can negotiate and drive a hard bargain and still make sure each party comes out feeling good about the end result. I’ve never seen anything like it.
I have a different skill set. A good friend and former colleague calls me by a nickname I won’t repeat here, but her good-natured ribbing has an element of truth to it: when diplomacy fails, send Tori in.
So, in went Tori—to another store in Peoria, where I told them my story and asked if they wanted to sell me some furniture instead. Miraculously, they did—even though I was irrational and annoying. Both the salesman and store manager somehow looked past my tirade and bent over backwards to help me. The manager worked some kind of magic, and my new furniture was delivered on the day it originally was supposed to be. Halleluja.
So, if you have a move coming up—and a lazy streak—remember that you have options when it comes to whether you move your furniture. Admittedly few options, based on my experience, but options nonetheless. Good luck. TPW