Furniture store in Falls Church is selling USED furniture as "New" - help!

[South Jersey Styx]

Originally Posted by JakilaTheHun

This is quite possibly the greatest post ever.

I don't think I've ever read such a detailed (and workable) account on how to demand satisfactory customer service.

Why, thank you! As the old saying goes: "It's better to catch flies with sugar not salt" (not saying the people at Value City are a bunch of flies but well, everyone knows what I mean )

If they don't budge after this strategy, then it's time for Plan B -- and time to get ugly with 'em.

[DCguy03]

Wow, just have to say thank you all so much! Here is how it played out:

1) Called the Falls Church store, spoke to manager, and he wouldn't budge. He still wanted

2) Took the collective advice from you and first contacted The Consumerist. They then e-mailed some "executive customer service contact" at Value City Furniture, and needless to say, I got a call from the store manager 30 minutes later and he had completely changed his tune!

So they're coming to pick up their used "fraud couch" next week at no charge.

Lessons Learned:

• avoid Value City Furniture in Falls Church at all costs! I don't want to speak to the chain as a whole, but this store at least has very sleazy practices. I can see why the prices are so low!
• if regular methods fail, use the power of "the internets" to solve it.
• also, interestingly, I did buy the couch w/ an AMEX card. If the consumerist hadn't come through so quickly, this would've been my next line of defense.

So now that this ordeal is over, can anyone recommend an honest mid-range furniture store in NoVA?

[bmwguydc]

Originally Posted by DCguy03

Wow, just have to say thank you all so much! Here is how it played out:

1) Called the Falls Church store, spoke to manager, and he wouldn't budge. He still wanted

2) Took the collective advice from you and first contacted The Consumerist. They then e-mailed some "executive customer service contact" at Value City Furniture, and needless to say, I got a call from the store manager 30 minutes later and he had completely changed his tune!

So they're coming to pick up their used "fraud couch" next week at no charge.

Lessons Learned:

• avoid Value City Furniture in Falls Church at all costs! I don't want to speak to the chain as a whole, but this store at least has very sleazy practices. I can see why the prices are so low!
• if regular methods fail, use the power of "the internets" to solve it.
• also, interestingly, I did buy the couch w/ an AMEX card. If the consumerist hadn't come through so quickly, this would've been my next line of defense.

So now that this ordeal is over, can anyone recommend an honest mid-range furniture store in NoVA?

Good deal that it's over. As for another store, have you considered Belfort? They're off Route 28 between the Toll Road and Route 7 and seem to have a large range of price points. Stanis is around, in another iteration, Stanis Today, I think, since they merged the two stores into another company when the original owners sold it, IIRC. They're out in Chantilly, off Route 28, on Willard Road, which is the old 2-Day location.

[mdcrim]

We've had good luck with Belfort and Havertys. Belfort has a clearance section that's awesome. Prices are very good.

On a side note, if you still want to nail Value City, contact an investigative news crew to do their own investigation. They love this stuff!

[Alanboy395]

Originally Posted by dlumpen

If you are technically in the city of Falls Church, then search the web for a government consumer protection agency. If you are in a Falls Church postal address, but in Fairfax County, contact Consumer Affairs at Consumer Central*- Fairfax County, Virginia

There is also the Better Business Bureau that is also supposed to provide arbritation. You did the right thing by contacting the company first. Make sure you keep any receipts (a computer bank statement may work if not) and contact them. I'd also keep the toys, etc that you found in the couch. What a bunch of cruds. I'll make sure not to shop there.

The actual store is in the Fairfax County (Leesburg Pike) mailing address of Falls Church (bought my bedroom furniture there) so she would file with Fairfax County.

OP, thanks for the warning. We are planning to purchase a living room set before we move to Kentucky and Value City was in the conversation.

[Alicia Bradley]

Lemme guess... there's a mattress store and a payday loans place in the same strip mall, right?

[twinmma]

we like Belfort as well.

[DCguy03]

Originally Posted by Alanboy395

OP, thanks for the warning. We are planning to purchase a living room set before we move to Kentucky and Value City was in the conversation.

No prob - I definitely learned that you get what you pay for.

Update: Thanks all for the recommendations. I went out couch shopping again today, and ended up having success @ Macys. Went to Haverty's and Belfort, and they seemed to have decent quality stuff...but just didn't have much that matched my taste. But as they say, YMMV!

Who thought that buying a couch would require so much work!