Sweet dreams are not made of this. (Hall of shame w/o)
Written: Jul 30 '06 (Updated Aug 02 '06)
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The glass is half full.
I’m not ready for Crate and Barrel material yet, but I do occasionally like a new piece of furniture. My trick for finding things at cheaper prices is to note the model name at some of the big retailer sites and then search for the model online. More than once I have found the same piece of furniture for much cheaper- and often including free shipping- at places like Overstock.com.
I obviously found AllBeds.com because I was in the market for a new bed. I’ve owned my old bed bed since I was sixteen. I am going to spare you the gory details, but know that it has been through a lot. Beyond just being worn down, it is also the same bed that half the country has. You’ve seen it- that black metal canopy bed with the half circle motif head and footboard. You will usually spot it in a cheap furniture warehouse ad for around 200 bucks. Anyhow, I was as tired of sleeping on it as you are already of reading about it, so I went searching for a new bed.
I found a model at Target.com that I really liked, but shipping was nearly $80.00 and they didn’t include the frame. I did a basic search for the model and was lead to Allbeds.com. Not only did they say they had the same style, with bed frame, but it was also free shipping! I ordered the bed in the last days of June, and anxiously awaited the day I could disassemble my old bed and sacrifice it to the demon living in our apartment’s dumpster.
The glass is made of this:
Allbeds.com comes up fairly high in a Google search when you are looking for bed frames. Their site resembles most of the other bed sites, with easy navigation to the left and at the top. The front page declares Allbeds.com as the source for designer bed frames, headboards, platform beds and futons. They also have a small selection of mattresses and accessories, such as nightstands and benches, but their main stock is in bed frames. I’m a metal bed frame kind of girl, but they have a wide variety of wood, daybeds, bunk beds, and platform beds. You can peruse the categories and view thumbnail photographs of their selection.
When you select the bed you want, you are taken to a larger picture of the bed, with pricing information listed to the right. There is a section for more information, where you can view the spec sheet. This feature really helped me while looking for a bed, because I was able to get measurements and see the style of bed frame that came with the head and footboard. On some beds you have the choice to only purchase the head and footboards, and many of the beds come with free shipping in the 48 contiguous United States.
Once you select your size and decide to order the bed, you are taken to the obligatory confirmation page, where you can double check your order before continuing on to the secured purchase area. Once you have entered your billing and shipping information and completed the purchase, you are sent an email detailing your purchase and stating that you will soon receive another email giving you a tracking number as soon as your order is shipped.
The glass is half empty.
AllBeds.com has a little Frequently Asked Questions (or FAQ) area on the site to answer those all important questions, such as, “How long will it take my order to arrive?” and “What is your return policy?” All of these pressing issues are answered plainly, and the average consumer should have no problem understanding the 30 day return policy, or that orders take about 3-5 days to process and 2-6 days to ship. While not in the main navigation areas, you will find the FAQ along the bottom of the page, and I suggest reading it thoroughly before making a purchase with AllBeds.com. I am pretty sure I have most of it memorized.
As I mentioned, I ordered my bed near the end of June. It is now the end of July and I just received my bed. “But Hapless,” you say, “I thought the site states that it should take no more than two weeks to receive a bed, why did it take you a whole month?”
Why indeed.
I waited for a few weeks with no tracking email arriving in my box. I checked the page again to look for any fine print stating that my bed was out of stock, and found nothing. I also noticed that unlike some online sites that don’t actually charge your credit card until the purchase ships, AllBeds.com had already extracted the purchase price from my account. They were paid, and at the end of the second week I was still bedless.
I am taking the glass, breaking it, and stabbing someone.
The third week came, and I referred to their FAQ. They say that email is the most direct way to go and most emails are answered in 24 hours. So I send a cheery little, “Hi! I haven’t heard from you, here is my order number, and where is my bed?” email. I waited three days and heard nothing. I sent another one, thinking maybe the email goblins had hijacked the first one. Three more days and nothing.
I decided to call. I followed the contact us link at the bottom of the page, and had to call a long distance number that puts you in touch with a really friendly computer voice who tells you to leave a message. I left a fairly detailed message and a way to contact me. I didn’t exactly sit by the phone, but I never received a call from anyone.
A few days went by and I was thinking that I was going to be one of those people on the news who was scammed by yet another internet company. I searched the site for any other fine print about deliveries secretly taking forever, but I couldn’t find anything. I went back to the FAQ again, and decided to email them one last time with a nice little mention of me calling the Better Business Bureau if they did not respond to me soon. I was also ready to dispute the charges with my credit card and go buy the stupid bed elsewhere. Apparently the BBB is the magic words here, because I suddenly got a very cheery note apologizing for the delay (but curiously not providing a reason- like maybe the warehouse had burnt down, or whatever) and telling me that within a few days I would have my fabled tracking number.
About three more days later, it finally arrived.
They send your bed via a trucking company that has nothing to do with AllBeds.com. Fortunately, this company actually had an area where I could just punch in my tracking number and get a little display of where my bed was. The bed shipped out on Friday from California, and it arrived at my house on the following Friday. Why it took them five business days to get to Portland is beyond me, but I was so happy to have the bed that I didn’t ask.
Switch to plastic cups.
Allbeds.com is located in Texas. At least, that is where their PO box is. Yet they say they ship out of California. In my imagination, the entire thing is one big unconnected paperwork nightmare, and there is one lonely secretary drowning in orders and having to process everything on an Apple II E while angry little elves stick sharpened paper clips in her elbows. I have no proof, only my experience of the slowest customer service I have ever received from an online store. What I also know is that it is almost impossible to track your order, and once you order you are at the mercy of their response to know exactly what is going on with your purchase.
While my bed did get to me unharmed, easy to assemble, and free of shipping charge, I just cannot recommend AllBeds.com. There are multiple places that offer discount bed frames and in the end the one I purchased was only about $20.00 cheaper at AllBeds.com than a few other places that also had free shipping. For the hassle I endured just to get them to send my bed, I would have gladly forked over the $20.00 to another company who could deliver a bed in under a month.
I sleeping well now on my new bed, but I should have been sleeping well two weeks ago.
This review is now part of the Hall of Shame w/o.
Check out the other entries and learn how you can be a part of it: http://www1.epinions.com/content_4805075076.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
HaplessChild
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Member: Natalie
Location: Portland, OR
Reviews written: 87
Trusted by: 72 members
About Me:
Sleep well, weep well, go to the deep well.
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