To: support@shopgadgetsandgizmos.com

My order was placed two full business days ago.
This is the first time I’ve purchased something from you.
You are not exactly a major Internet retailer.
I’ve received no shipping notification.
Your order tracking page (http://www.shopgadgetsandgizmos.com/track.php) can’t find my order.
Your order tracking page has a typo in the header (“Tack” instead of “Track”), a pretty reliable sign of a fly-by-night operation.
I’m beginning to be a little nervous about you.
What’s the scoop?

Thank you,
Jonathan Kamens

From: support@shopgadgetsandgizmos.com

Sorry to disappoint you. Our Fly By Night Operation does quite well Thank you. We have 4 Stores in Major Mall in the Long Island Area as well as 2 internet sites that do quite well. Thanks for your concern. Anyway your order was placed on 3/27/12 at 7:00am and shipped to you on 3/27/12 at 12:20pm via www.usps.com with delivery confirmation # [elided] . You were notified of this by email. Maybe it went into your spam folder?

Sincerely
Sam

To: support@shopgadgetsandgizmos.com

Sorry to disappoint you. Our Fly By Night Operation does quite well Thank you. We have 4 Stores in Major Mall in the Long Island Area as well as 2 internet sites that do quite well. Thanks for your concern.

In case you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of crooks and liars running sham businesses on the internet. It is reasonable for a customer to be suspicious when there are red flags. It is not reasonable for a merchant to be rude in response.

I’m glad to hear that you “do quite well.” Now you’ll be doing it with one less potential future customer because of the rude way you’ve treated me.

Anyway your order was placed on 3/27/12 at 7:00am and shipped to you on 3/27/12 at 12:20pm via www.usps.com with delivery confirmation # [elided] .

Thank you for the information.

You were notified of this by email. Maybe it went into your spam folder?

Or maybe you never sent that email.

The difference between me and most of the customers you choose to treat flippantly is that I run my own mail server, which means I have full visibility into the mail server logs which show exactly which messages came into my server, regardless of whether they ended up in my spam folder. I checked my spam folder, and there’s no shipping notification from you or the USPS there. I checked the mail server logs, and there’s also no evidence there that one was ever sent.

So either you’re simply not telling me the truth about sending a shipment notification, or you entered my email address by hand at www.usps.com and typed it wrong.

Which you could have just acknowledged and apologized for, even if it was I who was actually wrong, and kept me as a customer, instead of pissing me off and driving me elsewhere in the future.

Just some food for thought.

Jonathan Kamens

From: support@shopgadgetsandgizmos.com

Thanks for you imput [sic]. It is so much appreciated. Hope you Thoroughly [sic] enjoy your [purchase]

Sincerely
Sam

Many people are doing that because they want to complaint to US Airways themselves but don’t know how to do it. A reader of my blog suggested that I post the details to make it easier for others to send complaints to the airline. That seems like a good idea, so here you go…

The specific steps needed to find out this information vary slightly from corporation to corporation, but overall they are the same. The basic idea is to use the company’s own web site to find out who is senior officers are, and then to use its SEC filings to find out the address to which you should send letters to those officers.

For example, for US Airways, which is fairly typical, here is what you would do:

1. Go to www.usairways.com.
2. Click on “Company info” at the bottom of the page.
3. Click on “Investor relations”.
4. Click on “Corporate governance”.
5. Click on “Management”. This will bring you to a page which lists the following officers of the corporation (as of March 14, 2012; you may want to check to see if they have changed), from whom you can choose to whom to send your complaint:
   Doug Parker, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
   Scott Kirby, President
   Elise Eberwein, Executive Vice President, People, Communications and Public Affairs
   Robert Isom, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer
   Steve Johnson, Executive Vice President, Corporate and Government Affairs
   Derek Kerr, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
   Suzanne Boda, Senior Vice President, Airport Customer Service, International and Cargo
   Ed Bular, Senior Vice President, Flight Operations/Inflight
   Keith Bush, Senior Vice President – Finance
   Kerry Hester, Senior Vice President, Operations Planning and Support
   Brad Jensen, Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer
   Andrew Nocella, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Planning
   David Seymour, Senior Vice President, Technical Operations
   Hector Adler, Vice President, InFlight Services
   Kevin Brickner, Vice President, Technical Services
   Mike Carreon, Vice President, Controller
   Tom Chapman, Vice President, Government Affairs
   Todd Christy, Vice President, Business Technology
   Robert Ciminelli, Vice President, Philadelphia Operations
   David Endicott, Vice President, IT Infrastructure
   Dion Flannery, Vice President/President, Express Operations
   Paul Galleberg, Vice President, Legal Affairs
   Madeleine Gray, Vice President, Business Technology Delivery
   Al Hemenway, Vice President, Labor Relations
   Lyle Hogg, Vice President – Flight Operations
   Paul Jones, Vice President, Legal Affairs
   Howard Kass, Vice President, Legal Affairs
   Tim Lindeman, Vice President, Reservations
   Bob Maloney, Vice President, Operations Control Center and Air Traffic Control
   John McDonald, Vice President, Corporate Communications
   Mike Minerva, Vice President, Corporate Real Estate
   Paul Morell, Vice President, Safety and Regulatory Compliance
   Donna Paladini, Vice President, Customer Service and Operations Support
   Terri Pope, Vice President, Charlotte Operations
   Ryan Price, Vice President, Human Resources
   Tom Trenga, Vice President, Revenue Management
   Tom Weir, Vice President, Treasurer
   Stephen R. Farrow, President and CEO, Piedmont Airlines, Inc.
   Keith D. Houk, President and CEO, PSA Airlines, Inc.
   Caroline Ray, Corporate Secretary
6. Go back to the “Investor relations” page and click on “SEC filings”.
7. View the most recent “10-K” form.
8. You will find the corporation’s current “official” address on the first page of the form. As of March 14, 2012, it’s “1111 West Rio Salado Parkway, Tempe, Arizona 85281“. You can write to all of the corporate officers at that address; your letter will be forwarded if they don’t actually work in that office.

Doug Parker Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
	Scott  Kirby President
	Elise Eberwein Executive Vice President, People, Communications and Public Affairs
	Robert Isom Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer
	Steve Johnson Executive Vice President, Corporate and Government Affairs
	Derek  Kerr Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
	Suzanne Boda Senior Vice President, Airport Customer Service, International and Cargo
	Ed  Bular Senior Vice President, Flight Operations/Inflight
	Keith Bush Senior Vice President – Finance
	Kerry Hester Senior Vice President, Operations Planning and Support
	Brad Jensen Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer
	Andrew  Nocella Senior Vice President, Marketing and Planning
	David  Seymour Senior Vice President, Technical Operations
	Hector Adler Vice President, InFlight Services
	Kevin Brickner Vice President, Technical Services
	Mike  Carreon Vice President, Controller
	Tom  Chapman Vice President, Government Affairs
	Todd Christy Vice President, Business Technology
	Robert Ciminelli Vice President, Philadelphia Operations
	David Endicott Vice President, IT Infrastructure
	Dion  Flannery Vice President/President, Express Operations
	Paul Galleberg Vice President, Legal Affairs
	Madeleine Gray Vice President, Business Technology Delivery
	Al  Hemenway Vice President, Labor Relations
	Lyle Hogg Vice President – Flight Operations
	Paul Jones Vice President, Legal Affairs
	Howard Kass Vice President, Legal Affairs
	Tim Lindeman Vice President, Reservations
	Bob Maloney Vice President, Operations Control Center and Air Traffic Control
	John  McDonald Vice President, Corporate Communications
	Mike Minerva Vice President, Corporate Real Estate
	Paul  Morell Vice President, Safety and Regulatory Compliance
	Donna  Paladini Vice President, Customer Service and Operations Support
	Terri Pope Vice President, Charlotte Operations
	Ryan Price Vice President, Human Resources
	Tom Trenga Vice President, Revenue Management
	Tom  Weir Vice President, Treasurer
	Stephen R.  Farrow President and CEO, Piedmont Airlines, Inc.
	Keith D. Houk President and CEO, PSA Airlines, Inc.
	Caroline Ray Corporate Secretary

Executive summary: Work on my jacket, which I was told would be finished in two weeks, was not done over three months later, and in fact was never fully done. I was never called about the status of the work. I was lied to several times about when the work would be finished. I demanded the return of my jacket twice in person and was refused each time. In the end, I was able to get my jacket back only by threatening to sue for triple damages, at which point Gregory finally returned my jacket; to his credit, he refunded my deposit in full and actually did some of the requested work, albeit with mediocre quality.

On October 24, 2011, I brought my leather jacket, which needed some repairs, to Gregory’s, after he was recommended to me for leather work by another downtown Boston tailor. Gregory recommended also cleaning and dying it and treating it with water repellant, for which he would use an outside service. He said the total cost would be about $250 (not unreasonable for a nice leather jacket) and it would be done in a couple of weeks. He also said he’d call me when my jacket was ready to be picked up.

The timing of the work was important, because I wanted to wear the jacket this winter.

I paid a $100 deposit and left the jacket with Gregory. Here’s my claim check (with my phone number distorted to protect my privacy):

(click on image for larger version)

Over a month later, he hadn’t called, so I called him to find out what was going on. He claimed that the service he had tried to use to clean, dye and treat my jacket had “gone bankrupt,” but that he had found another service and my jacket would be finished in another couple of weeks.

Another month later, Gregory once again hadn’t called, so I visited his shop in person on January 4, 2012 to get back my jacket, finished or not, and my deposit. He said he could not return my jacket because it was supposedly out of his shop being cleaned, dyed and treated. He swore to me that the work would be finished “without fail” by Friday, January 6, and took down my phone number again so he could call to let me know when it was finished. To be clear, I informed Gregory clearly and explicitly during this visit that if the jacket was not going to be ready on January 6, I wanted it and my deposit back immediately, and he emphatically insisted that it would be finished on that date.

Once again, he never called. I visited his store again in person on January 20 and demanded the return of my jacket. He once again refused to return it. The same day, I sent the shop the following letter via certified mail:

According to the postal service, Gregory received my letter on January 24. I received the following response on February 11. I have obscured Gregory’s name in this letter because he does not choose to associate it directly with his business in any way I’ve seen, and I see no need to “out” him.

Letter from Gregory's Lawyer

(click for larger image)

(click for larger image)

I have to admire Mr. Kenney for his impressive “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit” posture. His claim that it was unclear from my letter exactly what Chapter 93a violations I was alleging was particularly amusing. Oh, I don’t know, how about lying repeatedly to a customer and refusing to return the customer’s property when asked to do so?

Gregory insisted emphatically on January 4 that my jacket would be finished on January 6. He did, in fact, guarantee that completion date. If this ever went to trial, he would have to perjure himself on the stand to claim otherwise, and let me tell you, if it’s my word against his, there’s nothing here that makes him look particularly trustworthy and much that does the opposite.

Aside from that, Gregory told me on two different occasions that he could not return my jacket to me because it was out being cleaned, dyed and treated, and yet when the jacket was finally returned to me, none of those things had been done to it. What explanation would Gregory offer in court for why he did not return my jacket to me when I demanded it?

In short, there is little doubt that I would have prevailed had the case gone to court. Having said that, I had no desire to waste my time and energy dealing with a small-claims lawsuit, so I sent Mr. Kenney the following response via email:

Negotiation of the details ensued, and my jacket was delivered to me at my work address today, February 15, almost four months after I handed it to Gregory. It has not been cleaned, dyed or treated, and the work that Gregory did on it was of mediocre quality and not what we had discussed. In particular, although I specifically asked him to replace the worn-out elastic loops, he instead re-stitched the worn-out loops in place.

In summary, Gregory of Gregory’s Fine Tailoring does mediocre work (at least some of the time), has no compunctions about lying to customers when it suits him, and can’t be relied upon to complete promised work in anything like a reasonable amount of time.

This confused me because our health insurance, Tufts HMO, usually provides 100% coverage after copayments.

I looked up the claim on the Tufts web site and found the following:

1. Simon billed Tufts $285.00.
2. Tufts “allowed” $278.26.
3. Tufts paid 70% of the allowed amount, i.e., $194.78 (a representative of Tufts subsequently explained to me that our policy provides only 70% coverage for “durable medical equipment”).
4. We were liable for the remaining 30%, i.e., $83.48, of the allowed amount.

Insurance companies such as Tufts negotiate agreements with service providers like Simon. These agreements dictate how much the providers are allowed to charge for various services. When a service is discounted because of the agreement between the insurance company and provider, the provider is required to write off the discount; they are most certainly not allowed to ask the patient to pay it.

Nevertheless, that is exactly what Simon did. Tufts told them they were allowed to charge a total of only $278.26 for my wife’s leg brace, but instead of billing my wife for $278.26 – $194.78 as they should have, they billed her for $285.00 – $194.78.

The amount we’re dealing with in this particular incident is small. However, consider that:

• An error like this is never an isolated occurrence. If Simon over-billed my wife, then you can be 100% certain they have over-billed other patients as well and will continue to do so unless something is done to put a stop to it.
• Most people who receive medical bills in the mail pay them without checking whether they’re correct or not.
• Because over-billing is lucrative for the provider and rarely detected by patients, there is a strong disincentive for providers to prevent it from occurring.

When I contacted Tufts about this, they confirmed that we were over-billed. They said they had contacted Simon about the error, and Simon reduced our balance due to the correct amount. Tufts also said “the provider communicated an apology for the mistake.”

I appreciate the apology. However, I think it’s unlikely that Simon has taken any steps in response to our complaint to find out what other patients have been over-billed, apologize (and refund) to them as well, and put measures in place to prevent it from happening in the future.

I have asked Tufts what steps, if any, then plan to take to review Simon’s billing of other Tufts patients so that past over-billing errors can be corrected and future ones prevented. When/if I hear back from them, I will post their response here.

I also intend to send a link to this blog posting to Simon and offer them an opportunity to respond.

There is an important moral to this story: carefully check every bill you receive from a medical service provider. Doing so will both protect you from being overcharged, and enable you to put pressure on the providers doing the overcharging to amend their ways. Preventing over-billing doesn’t just keep more money in your pocket; it helps to keep healthcare costs down for everyone.

Subject:     Re: Lawsuit
Date:     Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:41:49 -0500
From:     Bill Groome <bgroome1012@gmail.com>
To:     <elliottlawgrp@bellsouth.net>
CC:     <jik@kamens.us>

Hi Tom,
It has been a while. Hope this email finds you well.
There is a blog about myself and my business that categorizes me as a “crook and a liar”. This blog is designed and tagged in such a manner as to follow my business on search engines. The blog is intended to smear myself and damage my business. The blog contains inaccurate information of which I have evidence to the contrary.
Here is the blog: http://blog.kamens.us/2010/03/08/bill-groome-owner-of-madhatter-magic-shop-lies-to-me-about-a-product-and-then-refuses-to-refund-my-money/

I have copied Mr. Kamens on this email so that he is fully aware of my intent. I wish to file a lawsuit against Mr. Kamens for damages.
I will call you this afternoon to discuss this matter, or feel free to call me at your convenience.

Best Regards,
Bill Groome
1-866-333-9450

Mr. Groome, since I know you read my blog, I will offer you my response here.

Executive summary: Snort my taint. (h/t Ken @ PopeHat)

I hope that by now Mr. Elliott has explained to you that you have no grounds whatsoever for any sort of legal action against me, and that such action would be so obviously frivolous that you would most likely end up not only losing, but paying my legal fees and expenses as well.

Have you ever heard of the “Streisand effect“? If not, I suggest you read up on it. Your annoyance now about the fact that my blog posting about you shows up right below your web site in search results pales in comparison to how bad you’ll be made to look all over the Internet if you sue me.

Don’t waste your money paying your lawyer to send me a threatening letter. It didn’t work for the last guy to try that, and it won’t work for you.

Please be advised that since you have threatened legal action against me, I will treat all past and future correspondence from you or anyone representing you as public records and publish them as I see fit.

Let me offer you some advice, which I’m sure you won’t take:

Admit that you gave me inaccurate information about a product. Admit that you should have fully refunded my money because of your error. Admit that you treated me rudely. Admit that you should not have threatened to sue me. Apologize. Promise to try to do better in the future.

If you do these things, then I will post your apology at the top of my blog postings about you, and that will undo some of the damage that you have done to your own reputation by treating me the way you have.

That is the best outcome you can hope for at this point. If your lawyer is any good, he’ll give you the same advice.

UPDATE [February 6, 2012]: As it turns out, I’m not the only documented case of Bill Groome being rude to a dissatisfied customer, nor of Groome responding to a negative review by threatening to sue. See also:

http://mad-hatter-magic-shop.pissedconsumer.com/mad-hatter-magic-shop-defective-products-poor-customer-service-20081024140886.html

• They fixed the duct opening which their subcontractor made too small, and replaced the screw in the duct cover that was damaged when I had to unscrew the cover from its frame because the frame was wedged to tightly into the too-small opening.
• They fixed the air leaking from the furnace manifold.
• At their expense, they replaced the whole-house humidifier that was wasting a huge amount of water, with a Humid-a-Mist humidifier that doesn’t.

The fact that they addressed these issues, as well as the manner in which they went about doing so, suggests to me that they really are trying to do right by their customers, or at least what they perceive as doing right by their customers. Having said that, there are some caveats deserving of mention with the repairs listed above:

• The frame of the aforementioned duct cover is still irreparably bent from having been jammed into the too-small opening, but I didn’t really expect them to fix that and didn’t press the issue.
• Surely a huge air leak in the furnace manifold is something they should have noticed and addressed when they were installing the system.
• They programmed the thermostat for the new humidifier incorrectly when they installed it, such that it was humidifying the house in the summer when the furnace wasn’t running (bad both because of the wasted water and because who wants their house humidified in the summer?). They did come back and fix this when I complained, but this is a rookie mistake that shouldn’t have happened.

Furthermore, some of the issues I mentioned in my previous postings still remain, e.g., their inability to process a simple credit-card change for many months, and their offer to replace a toilet handle, a 15-minute job involving a $5 part, for the absurdly high price of $238.

Given all I’ve experienced with them, here’s my take on Winters Plumbing:

1. They try to do quality work, but they don’t always succeed.
2. Their rates are high.
3. If you are an educated consumer and you know how to stand up for yourself, then they will address any issues with their work that you bring to their attention. If, on the other hand, you just leave everything to them and don’t pay attention to what they’re doing, the odds are pretty good that they’ll screw something up.

In a nutshell, Honda Village lied to us when we bought our car, lied to us after the fact, ignored our complaints, sent us (and others) intentionally misleading junk mail and refused to stop when asked, sent us lots of spam and refused to stop when asked, and did mediocre auto-body work for us which took multiple attempts to get right (this last point was Village Collision, another business within the Village Automotive Group umbrella of which Honda Village is a part).

Nevertheless, Honda Village is where we bought our Honda Odyssey minivan, and they are the closest Honda dealership to our house, so when we need service done that is warranty- or recall-related and/or inexpensive and hard enough for them to screw up, we take our van there. Or so I thought.

A number of months ago, I brought our van to Honda Village for some simple service or recall or something; I forget the details. After looking up our van in the computer, the associate informed me that I had to speak to the service department manager about something. I went into the manager’s office, where he informed me that Honda Village would not service my vehicle.

Honda Village has never apologized for any of the things I complained to them about. They have never acknowledged doing anything wrong, unless you consider it an “apology” when they paid me the refund I demanded for the warranty which they convinced me to purchase by outright lying to me about its coverage (fraud!).

Their response to my legitimate complaints was not to acknowledge them and try to improve. No, their response has been to continue on with business as usual and refuse to serve me.

Judge for yourself whether this is a business which deserves your patronage.

P.S. I just realized that I never got around to posting what happened after my last letter to Honda Village’s lawyer. So, for those who are curious… Their lawyer sent back a response asserting that the precedents on which I was relying were out-of-date, and citing a newer precedent which he claimed precluded my filing a Chapter 93a claim against Honda Village. After reviewing that newer precedent, I thought he was probably right, and in any case didn’t have any more time to waste on it, so I dropped it.

My wife and I have used them numerous times for many different services, including routine maintenance (e.g., oil and filter), auto-body work, repairing a broken automatic minivan door, and tire repair and replacement.

In all cases they have been friendly, responsive, and affordable and have delivered high-quality work on time.

Here are two examples of how great they are:

1. We needed a couple of body panels repaired and repainted after someone borrowing our minivan ran it into the side of his garage door (d’oh!). Stadium Auto Body said that all of the damaged panels would have to be replaced and gave us an estimate of $2,400. A-Z repaired the existing panels — no replacement parts needed — for only $860. While they were at it, they detailed the interior of the minivan at no extra charge!

2. Herb Chambers Honda said it would cost $400 to fix one of our automatic minivan doors, which was repeatedly sticking when we tried to open or close it. A-Z did the repair for only $169.

In all of our dealings with A-Z, it has felt like they were being completely honest and up-front with us. Not once have we gotten that unpleasant feeling, so common with car-repair places, that they were trying to jack up the price of a repair or sell us something we didn’t need. In short, these guys are great, and we heartily recommend them!

Hey guys this is Sara Ellis here.

Hey we spoke on the phone last week [lie!] about possibly trying to lower your interest rates and reducing your monthly payments on your credit card.

So I wanted to let you know that I did find a solution.

Um we’ve got a program that can lower those interest rates to as low as 1.5% and possibly cut your monthly payments in half.

And since you were only making the minimum payments [lie!] this would be a great opportunity for you.

This will be my last courtesy call so please give me a ring today.

You can reach me here at 1-877-723-1419.

Again, my number is 1-877-723-1419.

If you Google 406-623-3644 or 877-723-1419 you will see that a bunch of people are getting this call. It looks like it may be a new scam that just started up.

I’ve filed complaints with the FCC, the FTC and the Massachusetts attorney general’s office.

Beware of unsolicited calls about consolidating credit card debt! At best, it’s a slimy debt consolidation service looking to charge you ridiculous fees for their service. At worst, it’s criminals looking to get their hands on your credit card numbers so they can then use them to make fraudulent purchases.

Here’s the whole story…

My wife and I recently ordered a Carolina Cottage Double Dresser, manufactured by Carolina Furniture Works, from Linens ‘n Things.

Carolina claims on their Web site that their furniture is “rigidly inspected” and they’ve been “manufacturing quality furniture since 1946″ (emphasis added). Their Web site also says, “The company is known for producing fine bedroom products,” and that they have “a dedication to a family of satisfied customers.”

Our dresser was shipped directly from Carolina to our house. When it arrived, it was visibly, obviously damaged. There were numerous dents and chips:

Dent in back right corner	Dent in back left corner
Dent in side of dresser top	Chip in drawer top
Paint scrape on top

Aside from the actual damage mentioned above, the workmanship was rather poor:

Top left drawer tilts right and exposes gap	Top right drawer tilts left and exposes gap
Gap in joinery	Bigger gap in joinery
Even bigger gap in joinery

But the real icing on the cake was the condition of the dresser back:

Not only was the back hanging off for more than half the width of the dresser, but there were several areas of splintered wood where someone at the factory clearly aimed badly when stapling. Note that I didn’t pry the back to take this picture; it was already hanging off like this, and I just bent it back a little bit to get the photo.

Note, also, that the box that the dresser came in was almost completely intact when it arrived at our house:

Boxed dresser before unpacking

Furthermore, the dresser was packed very securely in the box. It is therefore exceedingly unlikely that any of the damage shown above happened in transit; rather, it seems clear that the dresser left the factory like this.

Do you think the dresser was “rigidly inspected” before it left the factory, and Carolina thinks it’s OK to ship obviously damaged furniture, or do you think “rigidly inspected” is a load of hooey?

I emailed Linens ‘n Things immediately after inspecting the dresser, including these photos, and asked what they were going to do about the problem. However, I thought it was so outrageous that Carolina shipped a dresser like this that I decided to contact them as well.

Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done. There’s no phone number on their web site, no fax number, and no email address. There is only a contact form which allows only 100 characters of text, doesn’t allow any attachments, and doesn’t offer feedback about products as one of the contact categories. It’s almost like Carolina doesn’t want to hear from the people who buy its furniture.

However, I am a stubborn man, and after digging around quite a bit on the web, I managed to find their fax number, which is +1-803-775-0251 (for those of you who have stumbled upon this blog entry because of your own problems with Carolina’s products and would like to let them know how you feel).

I took a copy of the email I’d sent to Linens ‘n Things and faxed a copy of it to Carolina. Almost before the fax was finished transmitting, I got a call back from a man at Carolina. He was arrogant, snotty, and unhelpful.

He said he wouldn’t talk to me about my problem; I had to go through the dealer from whom I bought the dresser.

He admitted to having looked at my fax (although he couldn’t have looked at it for very long) but refused to comment on whether the damage in the photos was typical or acceptable.

He said, “Some people like our furniture and some people don’t.” As if it’s a matter of personal taste whether the furniture was shipped with extensive damage! As if there’s anybody in the world who likes paying hundreds of dollars for a “rigidly inspected,” “quality” piece of furniture, only to find it extensively damaged upon arrival! Please, don’t be absurd. Nobody “likes” being sold damaged goods.

I am still in discussion with Linens ‘n Things about what is going to happen with the dresser. They offered to send a replacement at no cost to us, but given that the damage happened at the factory and the man at the factory with whom I spoke showed no inclination to make sure it wouldn’t happen a second time, the replacement could be as bad as or even worse than the original. When I mentioned that to them, they said they could send a second replacement if the first was also damaged, but how many days of work can I miss to stay home accepting deliveries of damaged dressers?

My wife and I were willing to attempt one replacement, as long as we could keep the original dresser until the replacement arrived, and then inspect the replacement and keep whichever dresser is less damaged. But Linens ‘n Things said they couldn’t do that — the original needed to be picked up before a replacement could be sent — and the possibility of ending up with a dresser even more damaged than the first one is not a gamble we’re willing to take.

If it were my choice alone, I would have told Linens ‘n Things to come take back their dresser and give us a refund. However, the dresser is my daughter’s, and although she’s unhappy with its condition, she would rather keep it than continue to do without a dresser while looking for an affordable one to replace it. So in the end, Linens ‘n Things and Carolina Furniture Works have made a profit selling us damaged furniture.

When I informed Linens ‘n Things that we were going to keep the dresser despite the damage and gave them a piece of my mind about it, they said they’d try to get a discount from Carolina to pass on to us. We’ll see how well that plays out; I don’t honestly expect anything to come of it. [UPDATE: I was wrong; see below.]

UPDATE: On October 11, Linens ‘n Things issued me a $99 partial refund, which is 25% of the total cost (including shipping) we paid for the dresser. That’s a very fair amount given how damaged the dresser was upon arrival. I want to give Linens ‘n Things credit here for trying to do the right thing. I think they did the best they could with a bad situation, a situation for which I primarily blame Carolina Furniture Works. I don’t know whether the refund was paid for by Carolina or Linens ‘n Things.