Modern Office

The customer requested In-Home Delivery. For In-Home Delivery, the furniture mover will deliver inside the home, but they will not deliver to locations within the home that are not accessible or where they cannot do so safely. The customer asked the mover to deliver upstairs to their loft. The furniture mover alerted us that what the customer wanted was not safe or possible due to the configuration of the stairway. The customer mentioned using four people for the delivery. Even with four people it would not be possible considering the lifting height, angle, and turning required to navigate the stairway. In addition, the mover pointed out that there would not be room for four people to maneuver. The mover has decades of experience and knows the hazards of a delivery like this. Four people plus the weight of the desk would be over 1,000 lbs. Would the customer's stairs and loft support such weight? What if the moving company employees were injured or damage was done to the desk or home? (We have experience with local deliveries such as this one. Customers sometimes have optimistic opinions of what can be done to lift large heavy furniture over railings and around tight turns. As an example, we delivered a similar desk here in Minneapolis where the customer insisted on entry via the stairs to their wood backyard deck. The wood deck collapsed under the weight of the desk and the two movers carrying it. Luckily only the desk was damaged as the movers fell through the deck to the ground below, but the desk was ruined.) It was in the moving company's interest to re-deliver the shipment. Re-delivery meant additional revenue for them. It was at our expense. But they declined because the customer would only accept re-delivery if the desk was carried up to their loft. The owner of the moving company said the risk for damage and injury was too great. We have a letter on file from the moving company's national office confirming this in writing. It was the customer's decision to return the order. The customer said we did nothing. The mover and Modern Office spent much time looking for a solution, but the only solution the customer would accept was delivery to the loft. The desk could have been re-delivered to the main level of the customer's home, and they could have made their own arrangements to move it to the loft. Or the desk could have been delivered to alternate movers, but none would take the job knowing that the initial mover said the request to deliver to the loft was not possible. The customer demanded that we order the moving company to do what they wanted. They also held us accountable for their employees. They said we have a contract with the mover. We do not. The moving company is a common carrier, just like the USPS, UPS, and FedEx. We are unable to order them to do anything or discipline their employees in the same way that we are unable to compel their mail carrier or their UPS driver to follow our orders. In addition, we would not order someone to do something that is not safe or possible and could result in injury or damage to the furniture or the customer's home. We knew that return of the desk would result in an unhappy customer and a severe loss for us, so we did what we could to avoid a return. The desk had to be returned to us without the original crate since it had been discarded. We had to discount the desk over $1000.00 below cost to sell it in the condition in which it was returned. We absorbed the bulk of the cost of this situation -- well over $1200.00 including outbound shipping. The order total was $3448.00 (Desk @ $2799.00 + Chair @ $399.00 + In-Home Delivery @ $250.00). We waived the 25% re-stock fee on the desk and chair, so they were refunded $3009.96 ($2799.00 + $399.00 - $188.04 return shipping). The mover performed In-Home Delivery, but the customer refused the shipment since they could not carry to their loft, so the mover would not refund the charges.