Woodcraft

Please READ BEFORE BUYING. My wife and I went and looked in Woodcraft Mississauga showroom sales store and liked what we saw so we made a large $10k plus order of custom furniture for our new house. We ordered an entertainment unit stained in driftwood & a New Yorker style bedroom set stained in grey consisting of a bed, a large dresser and two bedside tables. We were anxiously awaiting our new furniture to arrive when we were informed by the sales store that our furniture would be ready within the upcoming week. A few days later we received an email from their warehouse service representative, Bill, saying they had stained the entire bedroom set the wrong colour and proceeded to ask if we would be fine with it and included pictures to see if it was to our liking. After responding “no we would not be fine with it.” We were told it would take some additional time to re-stain the set to the original grey stain we had chosen. We had gone over with the store clerk repeatedly to ensure accuracy of what items of furniture we wanted what colour stain, so we were confused as to how this kind of large scale error could occur. My wife told them we weren’t happy, as our furniture would be further delayed than expected and we were awaiting the arrival of our son very soon. She had asked Bill if they would waive the delivery fee because we had been told the furniture would be ready by the sales office, then we were confused and upset that we had to deal with the stain issue and a further delay while it was being corrected. Originally Bill had immediately agreed to this and my wife and I were very happy. However the next day an email sent to my wife informed her that Bill said he did not realize we lived in Collingwood and not closer by so he could not honour what he had said about free delivery. My wife spoke to him and told him he should have been fully aware of our order and situation regarding where the order was going before he told us we could have free delivery. He told my wife he would speak to the head of the company for approval and get back to us, which he did not. My wife called and Bill was off that day so another representative told my wife to call back on a specific day when the head of the company was going to be back in office. When my wife finally got a hold of someone she explained the situation and the person on the phone who did not identify themselves but engaged in an argument regarding the whole situation. In the end it was the logistics lady (who scheduled the deliveries) and not the head of the company which my wife understood it to be, because why would a logistics person be dealing with a customer service issue, especially after my wife had explained she was looking to speak to the head of the company as she was informed to do so.
Eventually my wife was able to speak with the head of the company who also argued with her for 30 minutes on the phone. My wife and I simply felt that there was no communication between the sales centre and the warehouse, we were confused as to how an entire bedroom set could be stained the wrong colour (so simple to triple check a colour before application), and we were upset that we were then promised something and had it taken away because a representative could not take the time to look at our file and info before making a decision. Overall my wife informed them it was the worst customer service she had ever received and now that they were arguing (multiple times) with her about it, it showed her the kind of company they are, for profit with no concern for customer happiness. The head of the company was admanet he could not grant us free delivery to Collingwood ($400), so she asked what the regular delivery cost was which Bill had assumed it would be. The head of the company said $250, so my wife had to ask if we could at least have what we were originally promised then? The head of the company finally agreed. Personally my wife and I would not even be writing this review if he had said that from the beginning; a normal thing good companies do that have good customer service, but my wife had to suggest it.

On to the next issue, upon Woodcraft delivering & setting up the furniture one side of the bed was all out of whack and not flush with the footboard like the other side was. When I noticed this that very day we called and complained. We were instructed to take pictures and send them. They responded by asking if we could just loosen the hardware and push it in and tighten it again ourselves. I had already tried that repeatedly. The hardware installed in the board was not installed in the correct location and it was preventing the board from sitting straight and flush with the baseboard. Finally they agreed to send a tech to deal with it, who had to drill new holes for it to line up and work..This was supposed to be already assembled in their warehouse and inspected. After all of this I still would not have written this review but there is more. A short while later I happened to notice there is a big chunk out of the wood on the bottom of one of the drawers of the large dresser. I took pictures and emailed Bill the warehouse contact we had & asked if they would fix it. No response. Two more emails, two more times I received no response. I figured oh well it’s not noticeable unless you look under the drawer when its pulled out and I just won’t buy anything else from woodcraft again. BUT THEN one day all of a sudden there is a quarter inch line of unfinished wood right across both panels of our New Yorker style bed It is incredibly visible and unsightly and ruins the bed, as the portion showing has no stain. We complained right away to their main office and dealt with a lady who stated this was normal as wood shrinks in the winter and will usually go back to normal when it is more humid in the house. She stated they will send us a “stain pen” to make it the same colour. She said this is what they do to fix it. My wife, knowing that they had stained the bedroom set the wrong colour the first time around, confirmed with her it was grey and at first the lady seemed confused, but then confirmed she would send the grey stain. My wife cannot confirm but she firmly believes if she did not speak up, they would have sent us a “stain pen” in the wrong colour. A week later the stain pen arrived. It was a plain silver pen with tape on it that had the word “grey” written in permanent marker.

We waited about a month to use the stain pen as we were nervous, and rightfully so.
We applied the stain pen to the bare line across the panels and when it dried we had a 1/4 line of a completely different grey then the bed is. It was much lighter and had a grainy almost paint-like texture. We could not believe it so we contacted woodcraft again, this time speaking with someone named Navita. She requested that we send pictures and would look into any possible solutions the company could come up with but as far as she knew the stain pen was all they used. She also explained that the stain is an exact match but because it does not contain lacquer (as the finished wood product does), it will appear to be a slightly different colour. This was not explained to us when we spoke with the previous lady regarding the stain pen, otherwise we probably would have not used it. She explain a reason why lacquer cannot be in the stain pen itself. Here is the reply
“The wood panel shrinkage is normal and industry standard for solid wood beds where there are panels. The stain pen we sent is the exact same colour as the bed, however, as I mentioned before, it will not look the same because there is no lacquer in the pen versus the finish on the rest of the bed. Unfortunately lacquer is a material that has a short expiry window when it is wet and it cannot be added to the pens” She went on to suggest we pay $400 for a tech to now come fix the problem:
“The service call will cost $400.00 because of the distance. Our service technician is usually available Monday to Friday. If you would like to set up a service call, please let me know and I will follow up to see when the technician is available.”

So essentially our bed looks terrible and that is all we see when we look at it. We regret spending a dollar at woodcraft and never will again. We hope our experience convinces you to shop elsewhere where they will produce a quality product and back up any mistakes without trying to charge you!! Even if we accepted their answer then Woodcraft admits they know that the panel will shrink and instead of prestaining the entire panel prior to assembly as actually is industry standard with quality builders. We confirmed with loyds menonite furniture and a local carpenter. Woodcraft stains the panels after assembling the bed knowing it will shrink and show alot of bare wood and look terrible. They say nothing to the customer warning them this will happen then when it does send a stain pen out as a fix that when used causes the bed to now have a completely different colour gray line across the top of the panels.. Then to fix that tell the customer they have to pay $400 for a tech to come fix the problem. STAY AWAY!