Buying Furniture

We started our adventure shopping at Ashley Home Furnishings around 3 pm and were introduced to Chuck, our dedicated salesman. We fell in love with a massive dining room table and china cabinet at the front of the store, however, we continued to walk around to check everything out. Chuck would periodically walk by and over-enthusiastically ask how we were doing. Okay, nothing too out of the ordinary...yet!

After looking around the entire store, Josh and I decided to take a break to buy lunch and talk. We went to Ajo Al's (a tad expensive but huge portions in a great environment). We decided we should buy a tape measure and measure the dimensions of our house before buying furniture (good idea). After visiting Safeway, which does not sell tape measures, we went to the 99 cent shop and found one. Back to the house to measure everything out. And the realization hits that our favorite table and china cabinet will not fit in our formal dining room.

We drive back to Ashley's and tell them that we were working with Chuck earlier...maybe we shouldn't have done that. We continue to look at the too big table. Of course, I'm sure we look like freaks, now with a measuring tape, looking at these pieces of furniture that are JUST TOO BIG for the house...but we like them! Ok, not possible. Find our second favorite piece.

We see a traditional set of brown dining furniture that will fit in the dining room and it has a really cool matching living room set that goes with it. However, we don't like the entertainment center...too small. Then, since Chuck is nowhere to be found when we need him, another sales guy comes over and starts explaining about a contemporary, sleek, Asian-y dining room set to us. Then, Chuck does a walk by, very quickly, and pats the guy on the back as in "Don't take my sale, buddy."

It's between these two sets: traditional or modern. We locate Chuck and ask him to run the numbers for us. We'll see which is the better deal and go with it. It's now about 7 pm and they close at 8 pm. We sit at the traditional dining table with Chuck. I don't think he's ever come across people like us who would try to milk this sale for all it was worth. As in, "If it's buy one, get one for $1, why not get two couches instead of a couch/love seat because that is a greater buy for us." So, we start adding it all up: dining table for china cabinet, end table for end table, coffee table for decorative chest, etc. I think Chuck's head is going to explode although it's not highly complicated and we're only on the first set of furniture.

Then, Chuck's phone rings. He answers it and as he's walking away we hear. "Oh baby, don't leave. Stay in the parking lot. I'm finishing a sale." Alrighty. When Chuck's back, we're onto the modern furniture. Same scenario to price it out except that this group of furniture includes the most MASSIVE entertainment center ever! Over 9 feet long and an area to hang your flat screen on it (if you have a flat screen, that is). Our living room is 12x12. Josh really likes it.

All the while, Chuck is getting phone calls...which he takes. Professionalism much? He is incapable of "walking" away, too. Rather, when he leaves (aren't we trying to make a purchase here?!?) it's more like a Red Bull laced with cocaine stomp inclusive of arm swinging so violent it puts mall-walkers to shame.

Then, I have another realization. The reason why people don't buy two couches even though it's a better deal is because two couches won't fit in the living room even if you arrange them in an "L" shape. Crap. I don't even think a love seat would fit in the space. We'll need a chair instead. It's 7:45ish. More number running for Chuck.

It gets worse. I tell Josh that the entertainment center is just too big for the living room and that it will overwhelm the space. Even though this is the best sale ever, we should just buy the modern dining table and china cabinet. Chuck's gone from making commission on $4,000 to $1,400 in the span of 5-7 minutes. Man, I hate toying with people's emotions...especially someone who seems as emotionally unstable as Chuck because now he has our cell phone number and street address.

We're we jerks? Maybe. But I didn't change my mind to be intentionally spiteful or to waste Chuck's time. I just think we got wrapped up in the great deal of it all ($1 !!!) and at least logic clicked in during the last minute or we would have a house full of too big furniture.

By the time we paid for the furniture it was about 8:30 pm and I'm sure Chuck was going to go postal like you hear about sometimes on the news. Or maybe his wife and friends were going to go postal on Chuck. Either way, the guy should work on his customer service skills and if he really had to go somewhere, he should have passed the sale off to the other guy we had to talked to.

Note to self: Josh and I can never purchase furniture from that store again.