We went in knowing what we wanted to buy - a specific glider (that also swivels and reclines). We'd been there previously, so we even knew where in the store it was located and the rough price, etc.
The entire thing took 2 hours. Partially our fault, because we opted to finance the purchase - it made more fiscal sense, since their financing offered 90 days, same as cash. But it took an absurdly long time and for most of it, we were sitting around waiting on the sales rep to return and assist us. That was frustrating. And then there was a hold-up with our credit check, which infuriated me. We have an excellent credit rating. It's never taken so long before, not even when I bought my last car and had no credit and co-signers and everything.
In the end, DH was seriously frustrated and I said, "I know we didn't plan this and we'll be a bit stretched thin, but we are NOT coming back here ever again. We're getting the second glider today and we can get it in the brown furry fabric you wanted." Fast and done. We wanted one downstairs for the living room and one upstairs for feeding the baby, but in our room. It took a long time to agree on one chair, and USA Baby was the only place to order it. Might as well get the other at the same time so we would be finished.
They did give us a discount for that, which was nice. But the two things that bothered me about the experience (apart from the wait - though they were busy, so we could have been patient if it were explained to us that they were busy or short-staffed or something): One, there was no apology whatsoever. No 'sorry for making you wait', no 'i'm sorry, I need to help these folks and I'll be right back with you' - nothing. That annoyed me a lot. Two, the sales rep looked at us askance when we inquired about financing. We could easily have purchased the chair in cash or on our card, but the fiscally sound thing was to open the credit line and pay it off on time. It annoyed me that she looked surprised when she saw our application and it listed our monthly net income. I would assume lots of people do financing for such large purchases, so why look down your nose at them?
Other than that, we enjoyed a nice lunch and after that experience, we went shopping so I could redeem some coupons with Lane Bryant. I cleaned up in there. $400 worth of merchandise for $200. Wooo!
And for all the hassle, I'm excited about our chairs. They are exceptionally comfortable, well made chairs. The one for the living room is microsuede, the color is paprika. It looks like, well, paprika. The one for the upstairs in our bedroom is a furry chocolate brown fabric. It's . . . interesting. Not my first (or fifth choice) but DH loved it and the color fits in, and it's upstairs anyway, so big deal. They should be here in 6 weeks.
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