Blame Canada? No, Blame Bedroom Furniture Direct and CSN Stores

Over a month ago I ordered this “Maple Sonoma Platform Captain’s Bed” from Bedroom Furniture Direct, a front company for CSN Stores, a low-end online “niche” retailer run by Niraj Shah. BFD was cheaper than the competition – now I know why.

Today I finally cancelled the order. BFD seems unable to accomplish the apparently simple task of shipping a flat pack bed from a manufacturer to a buyer.

The page advertises “Usually ships in 2 to 4 days”. What they don’t tell you is the package ships from British Columbia in Canada, which is about as far away from most places as you can get without going to Nunavut. So, for example, if I ordered today (August 10th), a semi-hidden popup gives me the following information:

Shipping estimate: August 10, 2006 – August 15, 2006*
Delivery estimate: August 15, 2006 – August 25, 2006*

Okay, so I could be waiting up to 15 days for delivery at the longest…

The estimated delivery date passed and my package had not arrived. I had been tracking it and could see that there were two packages and that while one was making its way to my address, the other appeared to have stuck at the Canadian border and showed no tracking scans after that. Despite this obvious error, every time I called UPS I was told that nothing could be done until the final drop dead date for delivery had passed. That date came, and went, and finally UPS was ready to admit that the package “seemed to be lost”.

Much technical babble ensued as an “international agent” kept explaining to me the idea of a “trace”. I really don’t care to know too much about UPS’s internal procedures, but the key thing I took from the conversation was that it would take “10 business days” for the “trace” to complete. That would be another two weeks!

I called BFD to request a replacement package. The CSR was quite hostile. Having looked up the FTC’s “Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule” (which also governs online sales), I was quite confident in my knowledge that, having missed its delivery windows, BFD was now enjoined to immediately provide me with a “First Delay Option Notice”. This would specify the new projected delivery date and enable me to decide whether or not to accept the revised delivery dates.

Needless to say the CSR (“Eric”) was completely ignorant of the regulations governing his industry. He was adamant that I would have to wait two weeks for UPS to complete its “trace”, and then BFD might ship out a replacement. He completely dismissed my request that he immediately arrange for a replacement package to be shipped (given that it took two weeks to arrive from Canada) and my suggestion that if the missing package was to be found, re-route it back to the manufacturer. Apparently, he seemed to think that his company’s relationship with UPS was my business, and not a matter between CSN Stores and UPS, and Prepac Manufacturing, the manufacturer of the bed kit. He said that BFD would be “out a great deal of money” were it to ship two packages instead of one. MY suggestion that were the order not to complete, BFD would have to arrange to pick up their package from my address at their expense apparently did not make economic sense to him. He repeatedly assured me that there was no way to cancel my order, and that I would have to wait up to a month for a replacement. He suggested that perhaps the UPS label had fallen off the package en route.

The next day I emailed the customer service email and CCd Niraj Shah. I explained that I was invoking my rights to demand a revised delivery estimate, and failure to accommodate this within 24 hours would lead to my statutory cancellation of the entire order. As usual when you email a CEO directly, you get a response. On July 27th I got a voicemail message and, within a few minutes, an email message from Mark Manley, the manager of Bedroom Furniture Direct. Mr Manley assured me that I would not have to wait for UPS to complete its trace, that he would see to it that a replacement package would immediately be sent. I called him and we confirmed the details over the phone. I immediately sent him a transcript of our conversation and requested him to confirm the details were accurate – to which he agreed.

The wheels of furniture shipping move incredibly slowly, however, and it was not until August 1st that a “shipping scan” for my replacement package appeared on the UPS system. However, I watched day after day as no further scans appear. It appeared that this package had never been tendered to UPS for collection. I emailed BFD and Mr Manley on August 7th, reminding them of the tracking number and requesting that they check it because it appeared to show no progress.

I heard back Tuesday from Mr Manley that “Either the label fell off or the item was not scanned when it was imported”. I was assured that he would sort it out “ASAP”. According to CSN Stores and Bedroom Furniture Direct, UPS tracking labels are detaching from their packages at every possible opportunity. Who knew?

Wednesday came and went and today is Thursday, the 10th of August, and exactly one month after my order was placed. I called BFD and spoke to one of the supervisors there, a woman named “Lauren“, who had also sent me some emails in the past about the snafus. She had no explanation for where the missing package was and suggested that she arrange for another to be sent. I informed her that this was the second time BFD had singularly failed to manage to send me shipment and that I was not willing to wait another two weeks with little guarantee at the end of this period that I would indeed receive anything.

I requested to cancel the order. Lauren offered me a discount. I think I laughed at this and told her I had lost confidence in the ability of Bedroom Furniture Direct to actually ship me a bed at any price. I requested that she arrange for UPS or similar to send someone to pick up the 46 Kg box that has been sitting in my hallway for three weeks. She said that BFD might send for it, but that I would more likely have to “dispose” of it myself. It appears that we now have kindling for the winter!

I asked her to reverse the charge on my credit card. She said it would be done within 7 days. I’ve informed her that if I do not see the charge reversed within 7 days, I will instigate a chargeback for this amount, as specified in 12 Code of Federal Regulations 226.12(c) and 226.13, for “goods that were not timely delivered”.

We shall see if BFD can actually manage to bring itself to refund within a timely fashion. Given its general performance so far, I have my doubts. I strongly suggest that anyone thinking of ordering through Bedroom Furniture Direct, or any other CSN Stores* be prepared for slow, spotty service and unexplained delays.

CSN gets a high Better Business Bureau rating. With the BBB, you have try really hard to get a negative rating. Bizrate for Bedroom Furniture Direct shows a few people with the same sort of issue: missing packages, misplaced or duplicated pieces, and so on.

* CSN seems to create stores willy nilly, probably as a way to game Google and other semantic content and PageRank-based search engines. This list of CSN Stores is by no means complete: