Just Because...: Sometimes It Pays to Look at The Receipt...

Monday, April 02, 2007

Sometimes It Pays to Look at The Receipt...

So, today I did one of my first real "adult" purchases. (No - not that type of purchase... what are you thinking?)... I bought my first real couch. On. My. Own.

When I lived with the ex-fiance, I didn't pick out my couch - he did. It was a sectional. It was the color of mud. It was ugly. I didn't bring it down with me when I moved to Florida.

When I lived with the roomies, I didn't pick out the couch - they did. It was a sectional colored various shades of blue, peach, cream, green, pink - a virtual color cornucopia. We didn't keep it and I didn't want it for the new place.

Finally, I met a couch I can quite possibly love this week. However, it wasn't at Ashley Furniture. I went to meet with my guy over at Ashley to see if they had anything like I found and James, my salesman, tried to get me a matching deal that Kanes Furniture offered me (10% off) but his assistant managers weren't letting him. I'm still keeping James in mind for my armoire that I'm scheduling for the fall but that's for another day. Like I always said, I don't like to settle and if I bought something I didn't absolutely love, then I wouldn't feel right.

So, back to Kanes I went and I bought my couch but they did not have a comfy chair in that particular pattern. What they had was not my colors and just "not me". (Meowmix - yes I had a Toronto-esque outburst....) However, they had a matching loveseat and I got sucked in. $70.00 over budget and then I hear they are charging me $79.99 for shipping. Ummm.. Ashley charges me $35.00. Then I got the sell for the warranty crap. I've seen too many of these so-called "warranties" get blown apart in the fine print - most benefiting the company - not the consumer. So - they wanted $140 for that. I told them "no go". They went for the hard sell but I almost walked. However, we came to an agreement. We did the deal and I walked out of there happy that my first major furniture purchase was done and I negotiated the deal all on my own.

Then, while driving to Crate & Barrel at the Millenia, something told me to look at my contract - I looked at the numbers and realized - I didn't get the 10% discount. Oh hell to the naw! I dialed Kanes right quick and talked to their finance manager who informed me that my couch was considered "budget" and that qualified for the 5% discount. Granted it was about $40.00 that was missing off my bill but hell - every dollar counts. So, I told her that I was going to cancel the deal since I was promised the 10% not only earlier in the week but also earlier that afternoon. She was fabulous - she cut the shipping in half by $40.00 which saved the sale and I was happy since now my shipping was almost the same as Ashley Furniture. So Saturday is d-day (delivery day). Let's see what is on that truck. What will be funny is my dad will be in town for Easter - they think I'm cranky - they haven't dealt with him. He'll be inspecting everything before I sign off on it.

All in all - I learned a very valuable lesson - it pays to review the receipt with a clear head. That $40.00 can be used for something important - like Nine West with a coupon!

Labels: Apt., Shopping

Posted by Lys :: 12:23 AM :: 1 comments

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Just Because...

Monday, April 02, 2007