SimplyBunkBeds.com Misled Us (And I’m Not Happy)

Wow, it feels like this site is rapidly devolving into a consumer bitch fest. But here we go again… We recently ordered two sets of ash bunkbeds from SimplyBunkBeds.com (a subsidiary of NetShops, Inc.) and when they showed up, they were made out of pine. And when we checked with the manufacturer, we learned that this model really is supposed to be made of pine, as opposed to ash. In other words, we were misled by the information provided by SimplyBunkBeds.com. Not only this, but they totally screwed up the order…

Instead of receiving two sets of bunk beds (i.e., two sets of headboards, footboards, and side rails), we received the two sets of the head and footboards that we ordered (except they were made of pine), as well as two more sets of head and footboards from an entirely different set of bunks. We also got four bunky boards — these came via UPS, whereas the balance of our order came on a freight truck.

Needless to say, we weren’t happy with having been misled, and the fact that they butchered the order just added insult to injury. The first thing that we did was to hop online and print out the misleading product description page. We then called SimplyBunkBeds.com customer service and explained the situation. Given the problems, they agreed to take the items back. However, it’s been two weeks since the wayward bunks arrived, and they’re still sitting in our garage. This has caused some minor inonveniences, such as us not being able to get our car into the garage, and some slightly bigger issues such as having a sizable (but now disputed) charge on our card and no beds for our kids to sleep in (they’ve been on mattresses on the floor ever since we moved).

While SimplyBunkBeds.com has promised to take our order back, little has happened. UPS has (finally) picked up the bunky boards, although this took multiple calls to SimplyBunkBeds.com, as well as two different trips by UPS (SimplyBunkBeds.com didn’t issue enough call tags to get all four bunky boards picked up). We’re still waiting on them to get the freight company back out here to pick up the balance of the order, still waiting to be credited back, and still waiting go out and buy bunk beds for our kids.

Yesterday my wife moved up the chain of command and spoke to the shipping manager. He promised to follow up on this personally, and to make sure that it gets taken care of. Her response was “Well, I sure hope so. Because these things are going to find their way onto my front porch sometime soon. And then they’re going to find their way off my porch.”

The other maddening thing is that two weeks after notifying them of the problem, their web site still contains an inaccurate description of these bunk beds (i.e., it still says they’re made of ash instead of pine). When my wife called them on this, their response was simply that “We’re working on it. These things take time.”

So… If you’re in the market for bunk beds, I just thought you might want to know about our bad experience with SimplyBunkBeds.com.

Oh, and from what I can tell, KidsFurnitureMart.com and BedroomFurnitureMart.com are also operated by NetShops, Inc. and their websites are displaying the exact same misleading information.

You might also be interested in reading about fixing customer service problems in general.