Well, it’s been a month now. My Wolly Bully sofa is performing pretty well and there seems to be no more surprises. But, what an ordeal it was.
There is an egregious problem with the management and logistics at Black Sea Gallery. For a furniture retailer, their performance rates abysmal. But the problem doesn’t lie in the salespeople. It doesn’t lie with the delivery and warehousemen. It’s deeper than that. And, while it’s easy to blame all the people on the train to screwed-over-ville, it’s important to recognize who built the tracks. My experience was a bad one; it was partly my fault for not researching, but these events were certainly out of the normal range of bad I’ve witnessed in the past.
I ordered a Wolly Bully Sofa in November, 2007. It was during one of the many “liquidation sales” put on by the San Jose Black Sea Gallery store. The sofa, tagged $1699 on the show floor, I special ordered for $999 with a 10-14 week delivery. I figured it was a good deal. Sitting on the model, it was comfortable, fit my 5′6″ dimensions, and was far superior to my then utilized $300 Target Loveseat. The delivery date was soon after my return from my December 2007 Taiwan trip. So I didn’t mind the wait time. Everything seemed straight forward. Here’s my working theory of how it’s supposed to go:
- I select, order, and pay for sofa.
- Black Sea Gallery salespeople place special order with manufacturer.
- Sofa is built and shipped from Manufacturer to Black Sea Gallery warehouse.
- Black Sea Gallery warehouse receives sofa, calls me, and schedules delivery.
- Sofa is delivered to my residence within a prescribed delivery window.
Step one worked like I thought it would. Everything after this is still up for debate. While I was assured that I would receive status updates on my order prior to delivery, I never once received any notification or definitive status. Ever. John, the sales person who drafted my order has since disappeared from the San Jose show floor; I don’t know or care if he was fired, quit, or just doesn’t show up to work but it’s moot. I have my doubts that my sofa was ever ordered from the manufacturer at all.
After reading horror stories in reviews of Black Sea Gallery, I began to worry as my estimated delivery date approached. I called at 9 weeks; no status. I called at 11 weeks; no status. I called at 13 weeks; “Probably next week. I’ll let you know.” I called at 14 weeks… After which the salesman was no longer reachable. Not getting any answers, I escalated my complaints to the other sales people on the show floor in San Jose personally. Rebecca, it seems, was the only person now working at the Black Sea Gallery in San Jose. During all other regular open business hours when she was not working, the showroom was closed. Now it was a week passed the latest promised delivery date. Rebecca took it upon herself to oversee my order and attempt to placate me. The computer system showed no sofa (the one I ordered) available. She would have to re-request the order from the manufacturer; this time estimating just 3 weeks for delivery of the special order. At this point, I had already lost my characteristic enduring patience. So, rather than put up with another 3 weeks, I asked that I receive the showfloor piece with an additional 20% discount. Delivery was scheduled and I left the show room.
Black Sea Gallery management is not enabling their sales people. At proper retail businesses, salespeople have the resources to get customers goods. Be it special order or a piece from the warehouse, salespeople can promise delivery regardless of the deals they’ve weaved. If John couldn’t promise a delivery date, if he couldn’t get a sofa from the manufacturer, it’s because management did not enable him to do so. The logistics train between manufacturer to customer is the responsibility of management. In the case of Black Sea Gallery, this logistics train is broken. The underpaid sales people at Black Sea Gallery certainly have no power to fix it and I find it hard to blame them when things go catastrophically wrong.
Delivery day arrived Valentine’s Day 2008. I work at home so I can wait for the 10am-2pm delivery. At 1pm the warehouseman calls me. He says that one (of their two) trucks has broken down and it is impossible to complete delivery on that day. So he reschedules for the following day, same hours. The next day I work at home again. 12pm, nothing. 1pm nothing. 2pm nothing. I call their warehouse (caller id is handy) and San Jose store every 30 minutes starting at 1pm. No answers. No returned calls. At 6pm I call my credit card company and file the dispute. Saturday, nothing.
Sunday morning I get a call from Rebecca in the San Jose showroom. She apologizes profusely, but I can hear the twang in her voice indicative of resigned powerlessness. Black Sea Gallery is a chain of 6 retail fronts 4 retail fronts. Now with 1 truck. Even with two trucks, it still doesn’t add up. You don’t can’t service the entire Bay Area with 1 truck. And the warehousemen who man the trucks do not have access to the show rooms. Rebecca explains how the truck came to the San Jose showroom (during regular open business hours) and could not pick up the sofa for delivery. I explain the credit card dispute process to Rebecca. She says she wants to fix everything (believably), so I get in my car and drive down to the show room in the next hour. At this point I’m pretty sure that Rebecca is powerless to change any of the details of the money transaction. The only thing she can do is offer to give me a free piece. I accept on the condition that my delivery be completed no later than Wednesday.
The salespeople certainly can’t influence whoever it is at Black Sea that keeps the books. To this day, I still haven’t received my 20% discount. Any money spent at Black Sea Gallery certainly doesn’t go to paying the sales people or warehousemen; those high margins don’t pay for proper logistics either. My best guess is only that it goes to the pockets of some racketeer who uses it to enslave non-english speaking immigrants.
Wednesday February 20, 2008 finally rolls around, a full 16 weeks after I ordered my sofa. Three warehousemen arrive with my sofa and a table I picked from the show floor. They inform me that they’re soon to be laid off and that I should go check out the Oakland show room which is apparently going out of business.
>> Saturday, nothing.
To be more detailed, we actually went down to store in downtown San Jose that Saturday. I thought they were just blowing off phone calls, but no, there was nobody in the store at all. It was during their store hours they had posted. They even had the “Open” sign up! The store was pitch black, and the doors were locked. If we hadn’t gotten lunch at our favorite pho place, the trip would have been a total waste.