Quote:
Originally Posted by Cobh521
Went to City Furniture today as I had been looking to purchase a server for our dining room. Had researched on line and found a price of $449.99 at City Furniture and same server at Badcocks for $399.95. Went first to Badcocks as it was closer to our home. They did not have in stock but would order for us. Told them we would think about it and get back to them. City Furniture states that they had it in stock at Spanish Spring store and we're giving 10% discount for Memorial Day weekend on non-sale items. When to City Furniture. Sales man states there is no discount. Told him Badcocks had same thing for $399 instead of $449. He asked manager and would give discount. Told him we wanted it and would like to pick it up ourselves. He said you can't do that, it must be delivered for $59.99. They had the servers there. Would not sell it to us unless we had it delivered. Left store and went back to Badcock's. Ordered the server for $399.95 and was told they were giving us 10% for Memorial Day weekend sale. Total cost with tax $385! We can pick it up on Wednesday. City Furniture lost a $449 sale that they really did not care about.
|
For those of us fortunate enough to have used The Southern Lifestyles when it was owned by the Developer, we were spoiled by good quality furniture, superb service and fair prices.
When the build-out of The Villages was in sight, the Developer began to sell off businesses that no longer were needed to support a major home development business. The Southern Lifestyles was put up for sale. It was a reasonable business decision by the Morse family.
When it was announced that City Furniture would be the new owner-operator, I had serious doubts. Not too much research revealed that the owner of City Furniture was the owner of a large chain of "low end" waterbed stores in south Florida with a pretty sleazy reputation. Their main marketing pitch was the sale of waterbeds with multiple-year "no payment" financing. And they too had expensive delivery policies. More research showed that City Furniture here in The Villages would not carry any name-brand furniture, only furniture carrying their own brands which they have manufactured for them. At the time this was beginning to look bad.
Since then we've found the decidedly user-unfriendly and costly delivery policy and worse, the loss of all the old, reliable and knowledgeable sales staff from Southern Lifestyles. The new "City people" were for the most part the "book the sale" types, probably working for a commission.
We had one really bad experience with City Furniture shortly after they re-opened their stores and have never returned. There are several furniture retailers just outside "the campus" who continue to sell quality, name brand furniture and provide excellent sales and service--Babette's, White Furniture and several more in Ocala.
Experiences like yours, documented here on TOTV and among friends and acquaintances far, far outnumber any positive, complimentary reports. Draw your own conclusions. But
caveat emptor certainly seems to apply with regard to City Furniture.