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mrbytez

Sand Castle In The Air (Part I)

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Quite pissed off today. Yesterday I saw a home furnishing company's Facebook page photo featuring a yellow sofa and it got my liking. I was looking around for a yellow sofa to add colour pop to my place so it doesn't look too boring. So I went on to browse the company's webpage but couldn't find the sofa that was featured. Social media is getting more popular nowadays for it's widespread media reach as an advertising platform, that's why more and more companies are hopping on to the bandwagon to promote their own business. Same thing as me, cos it allows direct responses with consumers too. I dropped a comment to enquire on the sofa and got a reply only today from their Facebook page. They provided the link to the sofa for me to purchase, I clicked on the page and saw that they were having a sale, it was priced at only S$125! I was thinking like, WOW! This is a steal of a price! However, being in my trade, I thought I should be extra cautious. Checked their website and saw that the original retail price was at $1,589 but then they had a 40% sale of some sort which brought to price down to $988 last week. So, this $125 might be a clearance sale or limited time special, I don't know. Anyway, I only got the link after their reply was posted on their Facebook. So, it seemed legit and all plus the company seemed to have quite a lot of followers. Without further ado, I whipped out my card and made the purchase which amounted to $205 after including shipping costs. I was then thinking if I should get 2 of the sofas to form an L shape for my living room, but decided that I don't even know how the quality will be and all, so I only made purchase for 1 set.

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Following which, I shared the promo sale with my business partner who had also just got his keys to his resale flat. His wife liked the mustard colour as well, and after knowing that I had already made my purchase and payment, he placed an order for 1 sofa as well.

However, after a few hours, I got a call from him saying that he received an email from the company saying that they will process a refund as the selling price is not $125 but $1,259 as there was a technical glitch in their system. I checked my email and sure enough, there it was. The email contents as follows:

Thank you for your interest in etch&bolts item! With regards to the recent purchase that you have make online, we apologies that there's a technical glitch in our system. Auguste Sofa is selling at $1259.00 and not $125.00. However, we are currently having a CNY Promotion for this Sofa, going at just $988.

Our account team has already processed the refund back to your paypal account. You can purchase Auguste Sofa ( http://www.etchandbolts.com/furniture/sofa/auguste ) online now, if you are still interested in this Sofa. Thanks and have a great week ahead!

I was taken aback by this reply as there was totally no communication before the refund was made to inform us that the pricing was a mistake that they blamed on a technical glitch, and that they do not want to honour their price stated. Even though payment went through and was debited from my account. The order status also shows as COMPLETE on their website. Now, is this the kind of service and image that they wish to convey to consumers? If I knew it was a technical glitch and that the price was way below what they were supposed to sell at, why wouldn't I have purchased more sofas to resell for profits of my own benefit and interest?

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After I received the email, I clicked on the link they provided in the email and there I saw, the price had been updated to $1,259. So what about the CNY promotion they mentioned? I do not know. All I knew was they gave me the link for the purchase, wouldn't they have seen the price and found out about the mistake before they published the reply on Facebook? And then after they sent the email, the price was updated to $1,259.

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Just before I was typing this post, I checked the link again and... yes the price had been updated again. This time to $988.

Their pricing goes up and down just like that?

Without a hint to show that they were sincerely feeling apologetic for the mistake that they made, they simply decided to cancel the order and make a refund just like that. Providing the link again, telling me I could now make a purchase for the sofa. At like what? $1,259. Only to drop the price again later to $988. If I had bought the sofa at $1,259, would I have the same rights as they do when I found out that the price had dropped? Would they honour the price drop?

Really disappointing and lousy customer service. To think that I was so excited at having found the right sofa, with the right colour.

Do you think that they should have honoured the price, or even at the very least to show they were sincere, offer a better discount off the set? But to brush off just like this... :curse:
Even the latest incident which involved SIA offering their Business Class tickets at Economy price, honoured their price in the end. They claim technical glitch as well :angry2:

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Edited by mrbytez
 

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Minor updates. Electrical works in progress and then comes to a halt for the CNY break. :dunno:

Living hall area. Wiring for downlights.

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Kitchen tiles. Current state don't do the tiles justice.

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Cement screed flooring. All dirty and unwashed.

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Hey bro, your hickory tiles look good. Surely it is much better than mine. Did the contractor order extra for selection? If possible, clean the flooring and check from the side of the tiles for warping.

Hee, got to wash them clean before I can get a good look. But the grouting space in between is slightly further apart as well. And laying of tiles in staggered and random manner helps too.

He didn't really order too much spares, I only have about a box or slightly more, worth of tiles left. Those that had more signs of warp were used as side tiling for the cabinet base.

 

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Went shopping for fans @ Phylux. Specifically looking at the Spin DC fans.. The wood grain-ed design looks good, has a low ceiling to fan blade depth of 27cm or so. $988.

However when I went back to my place to take a look at my living area and did a measurement of ceiling to floor, the available height was like only 240/+. Installing ceiling fan will further reduce available headroom.. Might cause feelings of suppression... Should I go for Dyson stand fans instead? At least I can move it to the dining area if needed.

 

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