The Adirondacks

 

                                                                                

Last spring we bought 4 black Adirondack chairs for our deck from Polywood.com. They’re made from HDPE which is rot, crack, fade proof. It’s essentially plastic wood. Too, the hardware is stainless steel, so at least in theory they should never fail. In fact, they market them as completely maintenance, worry-free, leave ‘em outdoors through all seasons. And after one year, and leaving them exposed to the elements through winter, I am happy to report that so far, they’re living up to the lofty billing.

No sooner had we assembled and put the 4 chairs into action did Mindy suggest we get two more, only this time two bar height, lifeguard-like chairs for the opposite end of the deck. I wasn’t too keen on the idea, but only because of their lofty price. In fact, anything made from this HDPE material is quite costly! Still, that didn’t prevent me from poking around, doing some comparative shopping. Turns out, the bar height Adirondack deck chairs are really expensive – about 150% of the typical Adirondack style.  Add a swivel feature and you’re easily looking at $600-700 per chair!!

Fast forward to this spring, I found myself shopping the bar-height Andirondacks on Amazon. As one might expect, lots of options and various price points. Most, however, from 3^rd party Amazon sellers, and at 1/3 to ½ the price of the American made Polywood.com chairs. I researched several brands thoroughly, comparing hardware, weight limits, construction, ratings, etc. I eventually placed a couple in my cart, a deal that offered a set of two with a connecting table for $399. Like I often do, I simply left it in my cart for a few days all the while continuing to shop other brands. In the end, I sought a deal with a reasonable price, but certainly not at the cost of quality or workmanship.

After a couple weeks of ruminating over my choices I finally decided that the deal in my cart was too good to pass up. After all, they had all 5-star reviews and came with a moneyback guarantee, though after careful digging I confirmed that the money-back guarantee was from the 3^rd party seller and not directly from Prime or Amazon.

Don’t you know when I pressed the “checkout” button Amazon threw up a 20% coupon for everything in my cart. What? Heck yea. Suddenly these chairs I had been looking at for a month or more were 2 for $320 and with free shipping, instead of $850 if I bought similar chairs from Polywood.com. I felt good about my purchase.

Happily, it took only four days for the large 100lb box to arrive via FedEx. Ordered on a Sunday. Arrived Wednesday evening. I spotted the FedEx driver pulled over at the foot of our driveway, so I rushed out and opened the overhead garage door and offered to take the box from him bottom of the drive. Big mistake. It was frickin’ heavy!

I man handled it into the garage then left it be for the evening, thinking we’d put ‘em together inside the next day. Later that same evening when Micah, Bella’s boyfriend came over, I asked for his help carrying the heavy box from the garage to the living room, which doubles as my office. That way we could assemble the chairs in the comfort of AC the following day.

Thursday evening after dinner, I suggested that we get busy putting ‘em together. Mindy didn’t seem as eager as me, thinking it better to wait for the weekend. Nope. I’ll get started. And get started, I did. I unboxed all the well-labeled parts across my office floor. Once I reached the bottom of the box, a major problem reared its ugly head, and I do mean major. No hardware!  None! I shared the unfortunate news with Mindy. She felt the need to look over my findings. Uhh … no hardware. 😊

Despite the obvious disappointment, I didn’t fret too much, figuring I’d reach out to the manufacturer as well as Amazon and share the need to send me hardware, and hopefully fast.

I went back to the product offering via Amazon and clicked on Customer Service link where I was prompted to complete an online issue form and send via an embedded email link. I did that. I also found an 800 number and called it as well. The first try of the 800 number went to dead air. Great! Really?

The next morning, I checked my inbox but there was nothing from Fruiteam, the Amazon 3^rd party seller, so I tried the 800 number again, but this time got through. And while Eunice was nice, I wouldn’t exactly say she left me feeling confident my issue would be resolved quickly. Worst case I figured I would cancel the purchase via my credit card if things got ugly. But what, you might ask, did she say that left me lacking confidence? Well, it was when she insisted I take a photo of the missing parts!!!! Really, Eunice? Think about what you’re asking. You want me to photograph the missing parts? She replied that she did. I overheard Mindy in the kitchen chuckling. OK, I photo’d all the pieces laid across my office floor along with the open now empty box.

It was Friday so I didn’t really expect any meaningful results until Monday at the earliest. My hunch was correct. In the meantime, however, I figured it made sense to do a product review via Amazon. Sure thing. I drafted and fired off a review sharing my dilemma along with my willingness to leave it open ended pending resolution. I was shocked on Sunday when Amazon rejected my review citing it not relevant to the product’s actual performance. You’ve got to be kidding me!!!

I searched further, found and book marked the Amazon process for failing 3^rd party vendors. That left me confident that I would have recourse up to and including a full refund if warranted.

 

It was Monday afternoon when I received a response from the 3^rd party seller sharing their sorrow for the missing parts. Shared that they would escalate the issue up and send as soon as confirmed. I could tell I was dealing with an org in the ASPAC region. I decided to be patient, allowing the process to play itself out. I think it was that Friday when I finally received another apologetic follow-up note asking me to confirm the model #, order # and mailing address. Uh, don’t you already have all of this, I thought. But being the good guy that I am, I opted to remain calm and complied, again eager to see the process play out.

The following Monday I got another poorly worded follow-up email, I think sharing that the missing hardware was being shipped. Yea! The next day I received a text from FedEx that shared that I had a package on the way. No more specifics. In fact, I wasn't even sure that it was related. Later that day I decided to click the accompanying link. Sure enough, it was from a company in China. Oh boy! My parts were on a slow boat from China – literally!!!

But much to my surprise, the parts arrived a few days later in a soft FedEx padded envelope. I knew it was my parts given the writing, print all over the package in Chinese. Cool! (see pic).

I promptly opened the package noting that it was vacuum sealed and labeled carefully. From the Amazon product page, I could tell immediately that all the parts were there. It looked exactly like the hardware photo included in the offering.

After dinner Mindy and I decided to put the chairs together. By then the 100lb box had been sitting in my office for two weeks. I started while Mindy tended briefly to something else. As one might expect, it was going slow, but everything fitting up as hoped. Once Mindy joined, we got both chairs put together in about an hour with only a couple hiccups, a couple brief squabbles notwithstanding.  She often says, talk to me in that tone a little more and you’re on your own. I generally shape up. 😊

As directed, after full assembly we tightened and snugged all the hardware twice. Done! We carried them into position on the deck. They look sweet! Only time will tell the true tale.