When we decided to move into the new house, we realized we were woefully short on furniture. We had sold off an old bed and centre table, and now required new pieces for both the living room and the kids’ bedroom. So off we went, hunting around furniture shops.
My husband was keen to buy branded designer furniture, and after much deliberation we settled for
Usha Lexus. For one it was a tried and tested brand. My husband had used their furniture at my in-laws’ place for many years without any complaints. And secondly, their designs - with its clean, uncluttered lines - caught our fancy. So we zeroed in on our requirements:
- For the kids’ bedroom I was very clear that I wanted to use two single beds that could be joined together to form a double bed. To achieve this it was important that the headboard design be such that it looked complete both as a single piece and as a joined double bed. We threw in a bedside table with drawers as well.
- Our main drawing room wall needed a visual break to separate out the living and dining areas. We decided to do that through a display cabinet - something that would fit in with both spaces, and yet provide the required demarcation between the two.
- Finally, we chose a new sofa set sans the mandatory centre table for the living room.
And thus began our misery. Usha Lexus promised to deliver the order in a month’s time. Not only did they slip on that, the first batch of delivered furniture took us by total shock.
The headboards of the beds were of differing heights, and did not match.
Horror of horrors - the cabinet they delivered was not even made of wood! They just stuck together some ply pieces and tried to pass it off as designer furniture.
With the stamps of the ply board clearly showing! Can you imagine this from a company of the stature of Usha Lexus??
This was shocking, and I began a tirade against them. Innumerable calls to the salesperson and the quality manager followed. My husband sent a bunch of complaint mails. Defective pieces kept going back and forth for two months.
After much stress and heartburn, finally they got us some decent pieces. But even those are not half as lasting as the polish on them has begun to crack already.
Moral of the story: Just because it is a brand doesn’t mean it has to be good. Sometimes they turn out to be worse than the local furniture makers! You can hope to have good pieces from them only if you can fight tooth and nail over an extended period, like we did.
The only saving grace: They are fairly good at customized orders, so you can get exactly what you want, as per your specific need.
Of course, I must mention here that the sales person was so relieved to get us off his back that he sent along a complimentary centre table to match the new sofa set. :) Not that I needed it (we already had a lovely coffee table from Fab India by then). But I am now using that extra centre table as a curio display. More on that in a future post…
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