Lovely furniture for baby. Not cheap though. At those prices, I had hoped for a certain level of customer service. Well guess what? As soon as I handed over my money for the bulk of the stuff (crib, changing table, rocking chair), the trouble began:

Firstly, Zoya B needed to send someone to measure our window for curtains. The person rescheduled twice, before finally showing up.

Then we waited three weeks for an estimate. When the estimate came in, I almost gave birth there and then. For one window, the cost would be $4061.

Several days earlier, we had dressed all the other windows in our apartment (a total of five windows) for a grand total of $3414 for all five windows.

So when I called to whether that was really the cost, I was told, by an assistant, that Zoya B works only with one woman who charges high prices for making the curtains. But if I wanted I could buy the fabric at 10% discount and get someone else to make the curtains. Well thanks for nothing, I don’t fancy building my curtains piecemeal. So I went elsewhere to get a full curtain service at a much more reasonable price.

Secondly, we made the mistake of accepting that the delivery charges for all the purchased items would be quoted to us at a later date. Word to the wise, if someone refuses to give you delivery estimates at the time of purchase, there is a reason for that. They plan to bend you over and rob you. So, for a delivery of less than 3 miles from their warehouse to our home, we were charged $571. To add insult to injury, it was not sent in one invoice. After receiving two invoices totaling $463, I emailed to say, please, is this the last of the invoices? I was told, yes. Then two days later, another invoice for $108 dropped into my inbox, with a note saying Sorry, we forgot to include this invoice for delivery of the rocking chair.

When we protested this, we were told that we were welcome to collect the items ourselves. So we hired a van and went to their loading dock. The whole experience cost $50.

We have purchased beds, a couch and other large pieces of furniture from stores all over Manhattan and never have delivery charges been so high. Zoya B’s assistant banged on about how delivery men make their living out of delivering things and that someone has to pay them. Well guess what, I have never had this expense with any other shops. The amount we spent to make our nursery using Zoya B, had me thinking that delivery would be somewhat factored in the cost.

In conclusion, at no point during any of this, did Zoya B herself bother to communicate with us. We copied her into emails and told her assistants that we expected to hear from her. But she remained absent.

There is an element of greed here that is unacceptable. Zoya B’s furniture is pricey and takes 10-12 weeks to be delivered. She knows that by the time she sends those delivery invoices, I am 9 months pregnant with no time to go elsewhere. That’s when she swoops in and takes that last stab of extra cash.

The whole customer service experience has been disgusting. No word from Zoya B, very delayed responses from one of her assistants, and non-stop pathetic excuses from the other assistant. No attempt was made to make the customer happy. Every attempt was made to screw the customer.

My advice is stay away from Zoya B. Sure her stuff is nicer than most, but the baby won’t care either way. Remember that all baby products must meet all the relevant safety standards, and that is what counts more than anything else. Go to Buy Buy Baby for instance and you’ll get your stuff instantly and with minimal delivery charges. Less stress, more civilized.

AnnabelleRC

http://www.ocdridiculouslife.com/pregnancy-blog.html

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Comments (4)
  • bigpapadan on Dec 17, 2010

    Annabelle, I am sorry that you had to go through all of that. As someone who once worked for a large national chain of baby stores, I can tell you; that while you undoubtably paid far too much, you probably got about the same c/s as you would have from them. I hope the baby loves the new suite and you have a happy and healthy child.

  • AndAnotherThing on Dec 19, 2010

    My friend made her own curtains for a massive window. These are the most gorgeous curtains I’ve ever seen. She said they would be an “homage to the PreRaphaelite painters” and they are! Thing is, she bought the material from Birmingham Rag Market and the cost (not including her time for sewing and hanging) was less than £30. If anyone is thinking of paying $4000 + for their curtains it might be possible to fly my friend out to them with the most beautiful curtains ready made!

    Hey, it is a good job you have someone to hire a van and collect! Lone parents should definitely avoid this Zoya B.

  • LCM Linda on Dec 19, 2010

    Sorry to hear your bad experience. To me, it is always more economical to rent a van and put all the purchased stuffs in instead of asking the company to arrange delivery that is often unreasonably high.

  • Larry Fish on Dec 20, 2010

    You had a bad experience like many people do anymore. Places just want to sell products to you, get their money and hide. Customer service seems like a thing of the past.

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