By Christopher Elliott
Guest Columnist

What’s wrong with Britt Lane’s bed? And why won’t Ashley Furniture fix it for her? She’s been sleeping on the floor since she ordered the furniture from the retailer.

Christopher Elliott

I recently bought a new bed from Ashley Furniture. The company delivered the bed I purchased with incomplete parts.

Ashley Furniture has not provided the correct missing parts to make the bed functional.

When I call customer service, the reps hang up or put me on hold indefinitely. I visited the store near me in Joplin, Mo., and asked for a copy of my contract a month after I placed my order because I believe they are in breach of the contract. The store refused to give me a signed copy of the contract.

I would like a partial refund on the price of the bed as well as the parts needed to make the bed work. Ashley Furniture has already refunded the delivery charge and setup fee, but it will not adjust the price of the bed. I’ve been sleeping on the floor for more than a month. Can you help me? — Britt Lane, Kansas City, Mo.

Ashley Furniture should have delivered your bed to you when it said it would — all of it. But of course, you already know that.

I’m really troubled the store would not give you a signed contract when you asked for it. Ashley should have given you the contract when you bought the bed, so I’m surprised you didn’t already have it.

There’s a lesson here for all of us: When you buy furniture, or any other big-ticket item like an appliance, make sure you know the terms.

Fortunately, some of those terms are already on the Ashley Furniture website. It looks like you ordered Ashley’s “No-Hassle Delivery + Assembly” option, which promises “your items will be delivered, set in your room of choice and, if necessary, assembled.”

I reviewed the correspondence between you and Ashley Furniture. It appears you were missing all the parts that hold the bed together, including screws and bolts. So, of course, the driver could not assemble your bed because there was nothing to hold it together.

It makes sense that Ashley Furniture would refund your delivery and assembly fees. It had delivered an incomplete — and unassemblable — bed.

Ashley Furniture draws more than its fair share of consumer complaints, who gripe about the quality of its furniture and lack of customer service. Perhaps our biggest Ashley case to date involved a 92-year-old customer who also had to deal with a contract problem. I also publish the names, numbers and email addresses of Ashley Furniture’s customer service executives on my site.

You might have reminded the unhelpful Ashley Furniture employee of the company’s mission statement, which is to “delight our guests, turn houses into homes and change lives for the better … together.” A half-assembled bed is no way to turn a house into a home.

An appeal to one of the executives might have helped move your case along. But also, a request for a partial refund might have been too much. Ashley had already refunded the delivery and assembly fee. It just needed to get you those bolts.

I contacted Ashley Furniture on your behalf. A representative called you and set up a time to finish assembling your bed. Two months after your delivery, you emailed me with good news: “I now have the fully assembled and functioning bed that I paid for.”

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at [email protected] or get help by contacting him.