A tale of 5 seats

After 8 years in this house we decided it is time to finally get rid of the patio set inherited from the previous owners, and get something new. This is the story of how we went from an empty patio to finally having all 5 seats today.

Mid-February we were shopping around for patio furniture. It turns out that we wanted a fairly specific look, not metal, and we liked wicker chairs. A visit to Patio World revealed some very nice pieces, at prices that we were not willing to pay. So we took a trip through the local big box stores. Orchard Supply had nothing we liked, nor did Lowes. Home Depot had one patio furniture set on display that fit our criteria, but the standard cushion color was ... boring. They do offer other colors through special order on homedepot.com.

We liked the chairs in the store, so we ordered online on February 27. One Spring Haven Patio love seat, 3 lounge chairs, one coffee table. All in brown wicker, and cushion slip covers in "Dragonfruit". The order confirmation email showed that we would receive 3 separate shipments: The table, the chairs, and the slip covers. So far, so good. Just a standard online order.

The coffee table showed up within a couple days. No issues. A day later we checked shipping status on the remaining items, and found that the slip covers were delivered ... in Chula Vista. Where the heck is Chula Vista? It is in California, so UPS at least delivered them in the right state.
A call to homedepot.com, and 30 minutes later we knew that the warehouse had indeed sent our slip covers to an existing address in Chula Vista that shares a remote resemblance with our home address. UPS dutifully delivered the package as requested. A refund got processed, and a new set of covers ordered.

Another couple days later we found this at the door when we came home. The chairs had been delivered by the freight company on the advertised day, but much earlier than the indicated delivery window.

In the evening I started setting up a chair, then the love seat, and called it a night. As I set up the coffee table and the next chair the following evening, Franziska asks me, "Dad, why does this chair feel rough, and that one feel soft?" Hmmm, and the colors are different, too.

Yet on the boxes it clearly says "Spring Haven Patio Club Chair Brown". These chairs can be ordered in two colors, brown and grey. They must have been packed incorrectly at the factory in China.

The score so far:
Coffee table - brown. Good.
Love seat - brown. Good.
One lounge chair - brown. Good.
Two lounge chairs - grey. Bad.
Slip covers - still missing. Bad

Another call to homedepot.com gets me a very puzzled customer rep. They ultimately ask me to take the wrong chairs to the closest Home Depot store, have them take possession of the chairs, call homedepot.com to cancel the order, and then process a reorder. I do that, and after some back and forth at the store, we got that squared away.
Back home I order two chairs again and have them shipped to the store, since that order doesn't meet the minimum charge for free shipping. It turns out shipping to the store gets the items delivered faster, too.

On Saturday, UPS brings the re-ordered slip covers. Whoo-hoo. Looking good. The following Thursday I get the email that the shipment has arrived at the store. I drive down to the store and ...

Sigh. The wrong ones again.

(chat message to my lovely wife)

The right boxes. The wrong content. The super-helpful staff at the store orders the chairs for the second time.

A week goes by. Another week goes by. No email. I call homedepot.com to check on the status of the order. Turns out they received the shipment the week before, but because of how it was re-ordered, had no records at the store what to do with the shipment. They knew it was an online order, so they held it, and when the customer service rep from homedepot.com called, they connected the dots.

In the evening I picked up the boxes at the store.

"Hi, I'm here to pick up an online order."
"Sure, what's your order number?"
"Here it is. It's two patio chairs that had to be reordered, because the color was wrong."
"Oh, those chairs. ... Hey Mario, pull the two boxes in the back that have BOSS written all over them, will ya?"

Before I left the store we double-checked that the color was right this time. Thankfully, it was.

Overall, it took only 4 weeks and 3 re-orders to get our patio furniture set...