That Smith

has finally been resolved! It isn’t exactly what we expected, but at least we’re satisfied.

In short, the seventh top arrived damaged as well and I was ready to keep it because I was sick of the hassle. Laura made me call them though because she didn’t like the idea of paying $600 for a table with chipped glass. CSN offered to ship an 8th glass top, or to credit us $200 if we would go away. We took the money because we are tired of dealing with them, and since it is probably cheaper to buy one locally anyway.

Waiting for them to ship the order was still a royal pain. Continue reading if you want to know about all the trouble.

So, after the last table arrived damaged on January 14th, I called for another replacement top. The customer service rep never followed up like she said she would and I was never given confirmation of the replacement order.

After a few days of waiting I called and was told there was another delay. Then shortly after, someone finally sent the confirmation e-mail along with the expected ship date.

That shipping day passed with no notification, so I called again and was told it was probably out of stock. A few hours after that, I received another e-mail, this time from “Bedroom Furniture Direct” that said the glass top shipped a few days before. (CSN isn’t very good with the whole communication thing.) This time it was actually sent GFE too.

We received notification from Land/Air about the delivery the day before it arrived (they were the local crew again), then the day of the delivery, Laura talked with them a few more times since they missed the 2-4pm window.

Around 6pm last night a poor old man finally pulled up in the delivery truck and I got to unload the glass myself, since I was home from work by then. I made him wait around while I checked for damage before signing anything, even though he insisted otherwise. (CSN Stores has a strict policy about that.) After making him stand in my cold garage for what seemed like an eternity I decided to sign it anyway and let him leave, since the glass was not shattered.

Once I finished opening the box, Laura and I carefully carried the glass inside, where she noticed that this one was in fact chipped. The chip is probably no more than 1/4th of an inch off the edge, but is still sharp enough to hurt someone that rubs up against it. It is pretty noticeable too if you sit on that side of the table. Like I said, I didn’t care either way since I was tired of dealing with them, but Laura told me to call them otherwise she would and wouldn’t be so nice.

I called during work and sat on hold for about 10 minutes before the rep gave me their offer. And now we finally have our entire table (with chipped glass), three other broken tops in the garage that we will probably recycle, and a credit coming back for all the trouble.

Overall, we are satisfied with their offer, but are very unlikely to recommend or do business with them again.

Update: My site analytics tell me there are a few others out there who also have an issue with CSN Stores and/or Dining Rooms Direct. I suggest you exhaust all the other levels of customer service before contacting the company founders/executives. If that fails, their e-mail addresses are:

Steven Conine, Co-Founder CSN Stores
sconine@csnstores.com

Niraj Shah, Co-Founder CSN Stores
nshah@csnstores.com

You may want to skim through the complaint letter and executive email carpet bomb how-to’s at The Consumerist as well.