GH Johnson has been on our radar for awhile now as we continue to shop for items for our home. Their location is relatively poor for us as we dont live in the Annex but we still made the trek as we found a four poster canopy bed on their online store. First, we emailed them to check on the price & availability of the bed and eventually received a response that gave us the pricing and announced that the bed was not only in the showroom, but in stock for "Quick-Ship" YEE HAW. We rushed down to the store the next day and looked at the bed. If you have never been to the store, it is essentially a converted warehouse that looks like a bomb went off. When we were there during the week, there were lots of people scurrying about but no one interested in helping us. I have actually been to the store before and had the exact same experience - everyone walking around, on the phone, moving stuff, just generally busy and not interested in making a sale. Finally a random person approached us and identified herself as working at the store (nobody there wears anything that tells you they work there so you have to guess). Despite the salesperson not knowing much about the bed and having to go online to verify some features about the bed that we explained to her - we bought the bed. Negotitating price is similar to when you buy a car - they take your offer to "The Manager" and then the sales person comes back with a counter offer - fine, we did all that. There is a sign on the wall advising of the next delivery date which we chose and the sales rep said - "Oh choose after 5 PM delivery so you dont have to wait around all day" We did this and left satisfied.
One thing to note, most furniture store sells similar stuff nowadays - whether it is The Brick, Leons, DeBoers, Idomo, or those fly-by-night places on Kennedy Rd. - essentially everything is made from "Veneer solids" or "laminates" etc. and come from China. There is solid wood furniture available and stores that sell them, but just because you are going to a 'higher end store' don't automatically assume the quality is better - one store that does sell solid wood is Amish Furniture Outlets.
Well delivery day arrives and I leave work early to make sure I am there before 5 PM to take apart the old bed and make room for the new one. I dont do anything more than 10 feet from the door or make any noise so as not to miss the delivery. By 9 PM I think that we must be the last delivery on the route. At 9:40 PM I call the store to see whats going on. Strangely, a security guard answeres the phone and doesnt know anything except "all the delivery trucks are back in for the night"
GREAT! NO BED TO SLEEP ON WITH A WIFE WHO IS OVER 8 MONTHS PREGNANT! NO CALL OR ANYTHING FROM THE STORE - LOVELY.
I am expecting to call tomorrow (of course I will have to call them) and get a "our delivery truck came by and you weren't home" excuse (which is absolutely not true) or something else lame - point is, you never called me to tell me anything and I have wasted the whole night sitting around waiting. As it stands now, I am telling people to stay away from GH JOHNSON and shop elsewhere. I noticed other negative reviews and a response to one of them from Pat Johnson with his cell phone number - great, but I am not going to call the guy and 10:30 PM at night when he cannot do anything for me right now and why do I need to escalate a very simple delivery to one of the owners???
- Approximate cost of services:
- $2,100.00