« Athinine | Main | Will Arnett Takes Things Up a Notch »
March 06, 2008
Text of my E-mail to Consumerist.com
Hey Ben,
I'm a big fan of Consumerist and just wanted to let you know of an experience I've been having for the past NINE months with Unica Home (an online, high-end furniture and accessories store based out of Las Vegas).
On June 26, 2007 - I ordered four chairs for a total cost of $1,500. The contract I signed stated this:
Delivery time for the items is approximately 12-16 weeks not including August as all factories in Europe are closed during the month of August. Unicahome will use its best efforts to adhere to the delivery schedule but cannot be responsible for delays due to customs, manufacturing or transportation services.
The tail-end of that estimate was December, 2007. It is now March (NINE MONTHS LATER) and I have still to receive the chairs. I have paid a deposit of +/-$750 that - according to the contract - is apparently not refundable. After several emails and phone calls to this godawful company (most of which were unreturned...at one point, they even told me that because they were moving offices the people I needed to speak to didn't have phones!) I found out the following today (after yet another email from me):
We have received news just yesterday afternoon that the container which has your chair is on the water and is on its way to us. We are in the process of contacting all the customer's whose products are on that container to let them know that their items are on the water and are on their way here to the US. The products will take 4 weeks to get here from overseas, and once they hit land US Customs will be contacting us once they allow the container to ship via truck to us. It usually only takes about a day or so for our items to get cleared through customs.
I don't know if this is really up to Consumerist standards - and I know I'm not doing the most eloquent job of explaining it - but I just can't believe that they can so clearly not live up to their end of the contract in a timely manner (bear in mind they give customers a whole 48 HOURS to cancel an order). Unbelievable.
Also, if you google them, you find quite a few disgruntled customers with similar stories:
http://www.shopping.com/xMR-Unicahome~MRD-420879
http://www.yelp.com/biz/unica-home-las-vegas#hrid:r4Z0ImhH52JuSb6m-Rv1fw/query:unica (that's my review on the top, there)
http://www.dyslexicchicken.com/?p=191
http://www.epinions.com/content_286140173956
Check out the comments here: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/onlinecatalog-only/unica-home-big-modern-fun-001062
Again, I don't know if my particular experience is quite so bad as to merit a posting on Consumerist but I wanted to alert you to this company. That they continue to operate in this manner is truly an abomination.
Posted by Bree at March 6, 2008 07:00 PM