Aspace Children's furniture - all talk, no delivery

Alltalknodelivery_aspace

If you're thinking of buying Children's furniture from Aspace - read this first.

I decorated our spare room over the summer for my girls (9 and 7) and we spent time choosing new bedroom furniture for them.

I did quite a bit of online searches for this, but Aspace opened a new store in Tunbridge Wells in mid-September and had an opening weekend offer (19% off, which is 4% more than what they offer online). We chose 2 single beds, 2 mattresses and 2 wardrobes. The shop assistant told me they that it was a popular range which was always in stock, so we agreed a delivery at the end of September and I paid in full - nearly £1200.

My wife took a call the next week from them saying the wardrobes were out of stock and they couldn't deliver separately, so they agreed today (25 Oct) as new delivery date. I took time off work today and arranged for the carpets and curtains to be cleaned, so I could assemble the furniture and my girls can move into their new room.

Last night at 5.30pm Aspace phoned to say we'd only be getting the beds today because the wardrobes were not yet in stock. 3 phone calls later I'm still no clearer on when I'll get them - mid-November at the earliest. They are very polite on the phone and keen to explain the details of the stock management system, but the best they can do in terms of compensation is that they'll assemble the wardrobes and waive delivery charges. They seem to have very little understanding of needing to put right a really rubbish customer experience.

Aspace website and catalogues suggest you are paying premium for premium products and premium services - my experience would say that's not the case. You're getting a lot of talk for not a lot of furniture. (Also worth noting that the beds didn't have instructions with them - so I had to download from internet to assemble!).

Interested if others have had similar experiences with them. GG

Alltalknodelivery_aspace

Guess what ? Aspace have put my order back by another month. I asked to speak to the CEO, but instead their Head of Customer Experience wrote to me and suggested we talk at 1pm on Friday. Of course she didn't call and instead I got the most amazing e-mail mid afternoon telling me that :

"...the biggest problem at Aspace at the moment is supply. We are not managing our growth the way we would want it and to some levels have been victims of our own successes (even though clearly this is harming the customers). We are very aware of this situation and are even considering taking some of our best ranges off sales until we manage to secure more reliable supplies. We also understand that we cannot sustain these issues for much longer… After all, as a mail order company, Word of Mouth is of prime importance."

Her e-mail has a logo saying "Children's Retailer of the Year 2010"!

You can't fault them for honesty, but you can definitely fault them for dreadful service. They've had my money for 2 months, my wardrobes sound like they're still in a forest and Aspace don't really look like a company who know what they're doing.

pete07985

It seems that nothing has changed. Ordered from Aspace in June. Order arrived in August, one part was wrong. I have now been told I will have to wait until the end of November before they can deliver the spare part to me. In the mean time I guess we'll keep my daughter in her cot until it can be sorted! Asked what they would do as regards compensation but nothing forthcoming yet.

As the previous person said they are very polite on the phone but 4 months to receive one replacement part does seem a little extreme.

Since my previous posting all now resolved, and gift and as way of an apology. I am now impressed what they can do, however took a little wrangling. Bypassed the sales team and emailed senior management - Internet search.

clivejohnson

I used to work for Aspace manufacturing from september 2009 to may 2012, So i was working for them at the time of your p[ost.

During this time, they had serious quality issues, which they just blamed on the majority of the staff (they get theirs, they ensure we get our fair share of the flak). I think that lies at the root cause of your problem.

To top it all, they are the most horrible, vile comapny I have ever worked for! The so-called "supervisor"will stand behind you and time you to see how long you take to make for example, a bed end. if you dont fall inside that time limit, its disciplinary!

So, so glad i got made redundant!

pete07985

Since my previous posting all now resolved, and gift and as way of an apology. I am now impressed what they can do, however took a little wrangling. Bypassed the sales team and emailed senior management - Internet search.