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I am very, very pleased with my Bob's purchase. My wife and I were looking for a new bedroom set. So in mid August, we went to Bob's, in Woodbridge NJ, to see what they're all about. We actually went to Bob's because of terrible experiences with every other furniture store. $2,400 rug from Macy's damaged, required several returns, they accused us of damaging it. $15,000+ furniture order from Macy's, they sent a damaged leather sofa, they would not let me refuse delivery. But noted everything and set up a new delivery/exchange. They never came, I called in and they tried to accuse me of damaging it--then later admitted it was delivered damaged. After months, we finally got the exchange. We had similar experiences with Seamans, Levitz and Fortunoff when they were open. We have never made a multi-piece furniture order that did not require at least one broken piece to go back. Not from any store for any price. So we figured, let's check out Bob's.

The salespeople were about as nice and unimposing as we have ever seen in any furniture store. We didn't know that they had the free cookies, coffee and candy. Which was the best gimmick I've ever seen. We ate cookies and had coffee. Our two and a half year old loved the candy bins.

After pigging out on cookies and candy and stuff, we headed back and ordered the Providence bedroom set 8 piece package. We actually saw this exact set made by the exact manufacturer (Lifestyle Solutions), in Raymour and Flanigan about two years earlier when we made that big order from Macy's. The claim that it is 8 pieces is FALSE. It is only 4 pieces (1 Bed, 1 Tall Dresser, 1 Nightstand, 1 Wide Dresser w/Mirror). Even so, it looked to be nice quality wood and wasn't too big and tacky like most furniture. So we make the order. Since we knew that the set was made by a quality manufacturer, we figured it's worth a shot.

Delivery comes a few days later, no problem. The guys unload everything and go. As soon as they leave, I see that the top of the nightstand is warped and chipped on one corner. The bottom drawer is off the track and doesn't close once opened. So I call it in, customer service is nice, no problem we'll exchange it in a few days. Get off the phone and realize that the wide dresser top left corner is DAMAGED. It is crushed in and a little rounded off and separated. It is obviously PROFESSIONALLY REPAIRED, but still damaged and not something that should have been passed off as new. So I call in again. Again, customer service is no problem. They'll make the exchange. Since we liked the set so much, we decided to call in, yet again, and order an additional nightstand. They take the order and send it without any additional shipping fees. It is set to come a couple days after the first delivery. The day before when we get the confirmation call to give us the delivery time frame, but they say that they cannot deliver the new dresser because the one they were going to send is damaged and that dresser is now on back order until September. OK, September, we just want nondamaged pieces.

Nightstands come, both perfect. No problem. We don't hear from bobs again. I call in a little after the end of the first week of September. Customer service, again very nice, tells me that the piece is in they can deliver it in the next few days. Great! Piece comes as promised, EXCEPT it is again damaged the same as the piece I have, but not repaired. SO IT'S WORSE! We refuse delivery. The delivery men call it in. The customer service lady tries to tell me that since this will be the fourth time, "We will have to consider other options if there's a problem with the next one." I said, "this is actually only the second time for this piece." And she was like "oh, ok, this is the second time." So we set up the delivery for about a week later, which was actually today.

The delivery men show up. I go out and ask them to let me see the piece before they bring it in. They try not to let me see it, claiming if they take it out of the box it could get damaged bringing it in. But I insisted they let me see it. The opened it up, I looked at it the top was fine. No crushed in corners. The guys were a little defensive and did everything they could to not take the whole package off outside. I said OK, but "if it's damaged you're going to have to take it back out." They said, "don't worry, we're careful with anything that goes in our truck." I, of course, didn't believe them.

They bring it in unbox it in the bedroom and all looks good. When they bring the packaging out I give it a thorough inspection. IT'S GOOD!!! So after all of the deliveries and after reading all the complaints on the internet Bob's came through with a great value on a great bedroom set.

HERE'S WHAT YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BOBS:

I am not a furniture expert, but it's very, very obvious what they are doing. They are intentionally sending out damaged pieces in the hopes that you either don't notice or don't complain. I tend to think from thoroughly inspecting the pieces that we received"โ€that they probably bought up sets that contained damaged pieces or some sort of factory seconds that were sold in other "more reputable stores" and then they probably repaired the most damaged pieces and tried to pass off the slightly damaged ones as not damaged. For example, both of the damaged pieces we received had pressboard tops. The undamaged replacement pieces are WOOD! So when you see a set in the showroom that is obviously solid wood, but is not advertised as "Solid Wood" or there is no information on what it is made of on the tags in the store, I think it means that the lot of sets that Bob's bought was originally manufactured in Solid Wood, but the lot was damaged somewhere along the way and depending on which piece was damaged, they may replace it with press board or MDF. I'm sure this will all come out when someone finally files a class action lawsuit against Bob's. The top piece of a dresser is the most expensive, since it is the longest, widest, thickest continuous piece of wood. When they repair tops, they replace them with MDF. When a smaller piece of wood breaks, they can splice on a new piece--these splices are visible if you very closely examine the pieces and they are not all splices of the same kind of wood. That's no problem, though, since it's all wood and the splices are as perfect as they can be. The finish matches up perfectly, too. The bottom line is that Bob's is most likely engaging in FRAUD, by selling damaged furniture and passing it off as "new." That is how they are able to sell, what is mostly quality furniture so cheap.

I have a feeling that the dresser they took from my house today and put in the packaging from the one they delivered here is probably going to be delivered to the next unsuspecting customer. If my house happened to be full of filth, slobs and bedbugs (its not, but if it was) that next unsuspecting customer could have serious problems.

Skip the sofa's there. Just look at the Bob's website this is a quote from the FAQ section of the site:

My fabric is pilling. Is this normal? What can I do?

Some pilling may occur on certain fabrics. This is easily maintained by using a fabric shaver. This controls the pilling until the fabric stops shedding. Fabric shavers can be purchased at most department stores.

If they have that on the website, that means the sofa's are ***!!! The sofa is the highest traffic piece of furniture, so spend the extra $$$ somewhere else!

I would consider buying again from Bob's. But I will expect to go through a lot to get what I ordered, again. It wound up being a great deal for us on the same all wood bedroom set that we saw two and a half years ago after spending way too much $$$ on other furniture when we bought our house. There is always someone home for things like deliveries in our house, so that wasn't a problem. If you're going to be missing work for deliveries, budget 4 or 5 days over one or two months for deliveries if you go with Bob's.

It's a shame, it's an overall nice store with a lot of nice stuff. Either they're going to fix they way they do things or they are going to get hit with massive class action lawsuits and probably wind up out of business like Fortunoff, Seamans and Levitz did.

Monetary Loss: $1391.

Location: New York, New York

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