Why I will not order from Gumps

We recently received a dresser from Gumps, a furniture store in San Francisco. Here is what went wrong with the shipment:

1. It arrived broken. It was not a surprise because a 50lb dresser was packaged in a box and wrapped with 1/8 of an inch foam wrapping. The limited protection did not prevent any damage.

2. I called the customer service department on 3 occasions to have the shipment returned. All 3 calls failed due to a variety of reasons: the pickup was never scheduled, the information was entered incorrectly & the manager did not get around to approving the order.

3. After 2 weeks of frustrations I sent the president of Gumps, Jed Pogran (jpogran@gumps.com), an email. I never received an reply from Jed but the box was picked up the next day.

4. A replacement arrived yesterday, 1 month after the 1st delivery. The replacement was slightly broken, but it appears that 1 small screw will fix the problem. The package was again wrapped with 1/8 of an inch foam wrapping paper. How can anyone expect this flimsy packaging material to prevent damage from a 2,000lb forklift?

On another furniture note, my friend Hayden is ramping-up her website for Festive Living. Festive Living will have an online wedding registry and sell gifts and household goods to the world! Stay tuned for more details.