Wayfair is all over the telly and web at the moment. Never mind the flood of emails. An online retail company for the pandemic era. There appears to be nothing you don’t need for your house and garden they do not sell. So I decided to take a dip and buy one of their goods for the first time, a TV stand. This article is about my experience as a customer purchasing my first product with Wayfair.
Wayfair are directly competing with established home decor companies like IKEA, Argos and Tesco. So their operations have to be of a high standard, products of a good quality and competitively priced. They are also competing with the “everything” online store Amazon (and its competitor EBay), so its delivery logistics has to equally robust. As customers we have choice.
Searching and buying online with Wayfair was simple which shows they are a multinational operation. I was looking for a TV stand – the wide range of options and the ability to filter made the site appealing to use. The occasional sales draws you in.
Why the product took four weeks to arrive was unclear. Where was it coming from? So, already behind Amazon on that point. Then four days before the declared arrival date, at 9.02am, I received a text message informing me my package would arrive from 9.02am. So, zero notice. As I was walking out of the door to work I had no choice but to walk back indoors. So, a second failure by Wayfair’s logistics company, XPD, which Wayfair has to take ultimate responsibility for. The standard today is to give at least a day’s notice.
Then XPD arrive and the driver, in a moment of divine inspiration, chooses to lean the two metre long heavy package sideways across my front door, so I could not open it. So I peaked through the gap in my door and watched him drive off.
Then the box opening. Firstly, the set of pins for the backboard were missing. Secondly, the rear legs were different from the instruction booklet. This is actually important as the base panel was pre-drilled for different legs.
Then, one of the parts at the beginning of the instruction guide is not included in the steps in the guide. And whilst all the panels are numbered the actual panels lacks stickers with the numbers. And what was the glue for? No clue is given. So, whilst the customer is left to figure this all out, rival companies like IKEA get all this done.
And one last gripe. Parts should fit. This stand comes with a shelf divided into three drawers with down-opening doors – two did not fit. With pre-engineered holes for the drawers making it impossible to correct, the customer is left with an inferior product.
Whilst this is a third party product ultimately Wayfair are responsible. Where is the quality control?
Wayfair are investing heavily through adverts and emails to attract customers from established companies. If this is our first experience they need to look at their logistics and quality control first.
