My wife purchased 2 paintings at the 4U Furniture store at Centerpoint Mall in January of this year. We wanted to see the paintings in our living room to be sure that they worked with our colour scheme - our salesperson Marley assured us, before we purchased the paintings, that we could bring them back for a full refund ("No questions asked" in Marley's own words) if they didn't match our room.
Unfortunately the paintings didn't work in our room so we brought them back for refund 3 days after the original purchase, and still in their original condition. We spoke to the same salesperson Marley who now told us that they were not returnable. We reminded her that she had told us the paintings were fully refundable before we purchased them. She then backed off her original refusal, and told us she would refund our money but she needed some sort of card in order to be able to process the refund in the store and she did not have it with her that day - we would get our refund the next business day, Marley told us. We returned the paintings to the store and got Marley's promise in writing on our receipt before we left.
Over the course of the next 5 weeks(!) we called and visited the store several times seeking our refund and were met with a laundry list of excuses and dishonesty - but no refund.
"We can't do refunds on Saturdays".
"I can't do a refund right now because the store is too busy".
"Our computer is in the shop for repairs right now so we can't process the refund".
"I've already processed the refund - you should see it on your credit card account any day now".
None of this was true. No attempt to refund our money was ever made until we threatened legal action. My wife, after consulting with our credit card company, refused to leave the store without either an official refund or a signed letter indicating that the store would refund our credit card (this allows our credit card company to involve their legal team in the dispute).
There is a staggering list of reviewers on homestars, ibegin, etc who have been misled and deceived by Marley. This is not a mistake or an oversight on her part - it is a pattern of intentional deceitful behaviour. If the evidence on homestars isn't enough, when my wife entered the store for this final time another customer was already there arguing with Marley about... a refund - this woman had also been waiting over a month for a refund and had also been repeatedly given false excuses.
My wife and this other woman were both finally given the refunds that they were owed by Marley. Marley processed the refunds herself without anyone else's approval and it took about 2 minutes - not nearly the ordeal she has tried to make us and many other customers believe it is.
This store has deplorable business practices that border on the illegal. My family will never shop there again and we urge others to avoid it as well.
