A big ole let down!

I’ve debated over the last couple of days on should or shouldn’t I write this blog.  But, the moment I started this blog was to write about our journey from a devastating fire.  And, so with that this is an unfortunate event that has happened as a result of the fire & now has become a part of the journey.

With positives in life there sometimes come negatives.  I try hard not to dwell on them, let them occupy space in my mind, or blog about them. 

Ok…so now onto the dreadful part of the post.  I had written about us being chosen as July Farmhouse Family here - http://fernavenueblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/july-farmhouse-family.html

Needless to say we never became that family.  We have been trying since February just to get an idea of when our furniture would be delivered.  See not only have we been waiting on the table that Carolina Farmhouse was giving us, but we had paid for a custom island & a console table.  We had built our kitchen around the specs of the island.  We paid for our items back in October; I let them know in December & January that we would be moving in the 2^nd weekend in February. 

The business is a small business – Sam & Kelly Utt-Grubb (husband & wife owners), Dan Utt (Kelly’s brother).  Sam builds the furniture in their shop.  I believe they have a few others working to build furniture, but not sure of the production crew now.  Kelly was PR/Media and Dan was Operations Manager during the beginning of our communications (I am not sure of positions as of now).

My communication with Dan was several times a week up until we made our payment in full.  Then as I begin to ask about delivery many days, sometimes weeks would pass before getting some excuse of we were on vacation, a part broke & it will be a couple of weeks before it is in, we had a growth spurt creating a delay in production, we restructured business, Dan is no longer handling customer service Sam the owner is in the evenings after he is working in the shop during the day… We were told that Sam would get back to us on several different occasions…nothing.   Every excuse was given after I reached out to check on status.  Not one time did they call to let us know there’d be a delay.  I feel at some point as the customer I should’ve been given the option to cancel or to move forward with our order.  It is now over 5 months since we paid in full….and we are simply now stuck in limbo because Dan is no longer handling customer service, Sam doesn’t get back to us, and Kelly (Sam’s wife/co-owner) is now out of the office since Feb. 25 due to working on other projects outside of Carolina Farmhouse.  We’ve asked to have our order canceled & money refunded…  Guess what?  No communication back from any single one of them. 

I probably sound a little bitter.  Well honestly I kinda am.  I guess it is because we feel hopeless & stuck.  I mean we’ve contacted each of the 3 family members that are owner/co-owner and Operations Manager with no communication back.  We don’t know how to go about getting an answer when no one will respond to our inquiries.

We’ve gone through enough since last June.  Our request of them was simple – just give us a time frame/status update.  We don’t even know if our furniture had been started nor do we know what color of stain the dining table or console table is because they never asked us. 

Bitter… Sad & disappointed is more like it.  I wanted nothing more than to have them be a big part of our success story (because I think we came through this devastation stronger as a family).  I couldn’t wait to be showing off all of their design work in our house, and in fact was looking to purchasing a few more items in the future from them.  I believed in them & loved that they gave back in so many different ways. 

Scary as it may seem to us…I started looking up reviews online & I became even more concerned!  There are always 2 sides to the story (well actually 3 – your side, their side & the middle or real side).  I understand that one person can spread negative reviews like wildfire with social media these days. 

I am not one to say “don’t buy from them” because your experience could be different.  I know I’ve seen some great reviews of their products, and in all honesty I believe they make well-built beautiful furniture….I just can’t verify that with my own experience.  I don’t know where the breakdown happened, I only wish I knew.

I wish with all of my heart that this story I am writing about today was a positive, but it is not.  We simply want our money back so that we can move forward to purchase our island and our table to fit our family.

As of now we are working with a few places to get our money back.  It deeply saddens my heart that we have to pursue this avenue.  Anyone else out there order something custom & had to pay up front only to not receive your order or get something that was nothing like you ordered?  I’d love to hear experience because at this moment I feel pretty sick over this situation.