Waterloo Guy

Last April we purchased a coffee table set, a chaise, an easy chair and an accent chair. Of the whole set, only the two end tables and accent chair were without defects. The legs of the chaise and easy chair had chips out of them and the Ashley coffee table had numerous defects. All of this was noted by the helpful delivery staff who phoned in the issues immediately. To be fair, Arrow has been friendly and has done a good job of appearing to be responsive. They called after about a month to cheerfully say that Ashley had approved a replacement for our coffee table. Unfortunately it has now been 7 months since we placed our original order and we are still with all our defective furniture. All we've received are several delivery dates which have all been cancelled by Arrow, generally blaming Ashley for not meeting delivery deadlines (except the last date which was due to 2 other orders being cancelled in our delivery area). They make is sound like they have the furniture now, but they still haven't called (as promised) to set up yet another delivery date. It really looks like they are still stalling for time. We've purchased a LOT of Ashley furniture over the last year from various vendors and have never had a problem with either product quality or delivery dates. We've also never had to wait more than a month for anything to be delivered. Arrow stuggled to deliver the original "special order" within a somewhat reasonable timeline (2.5 months), but is unable to deliver a replacement after another 4.5 months! Arrow also refuses to issue a refund as the furniture was "special order". We've tried to be patient, understanding and friendly, but this is looking really suspicious. I'm afraid that I just can't recommend this furniture dealer at this time. We've contacted Ashley and are waiting for their side of the story. If they confirm that they've had a problem, then I'll return here and update my opinion of Arrow. Update (next day): We haven't heard from Ashley yet, but lo and behold or replacement coffee table finally arrived today. It came fully assembled, so it looks like Arrow took no chances and assembled/inspected it before delivery. We were pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately the replacement leg set for our chaise was the wrong colour, so we're not out of the woods yet, but hopefully that will be resolved some time within the next several months. I've increased my rating of the company somewhat since, after all, they did come through without a hassle...it just took a VERY long time. I'm not sure if the problem was just with Ashley as even the delivery staff were flabberghasted as to how long the whole process has taken. We may never know. Would we shop at Arrow again? Probably, since we now know that we can at least trust them to get the product to us even if it is not in a timely fashion.