Today I got a phone call, just confirming once again how awful the Albee Baby store in NYC is...

If you don't want to read the whole story, here's the short version: Albee Baby sucks; didn't order a chair they were supposed to; they have my money; I won't be getting the glider until minimum 6 weeks after they said I would have it.

LONG VERSION:

It all started way back at the beginning if May. I'd been looking for a modern glider chair and saw a few I might like at Albee Baby, so DH and I made the trek to the NYC store. There was a chair there that DH loved, and I loved it too, but it was EXPENSIVE. Like, literally the most expensive chair I'd have bought in my entire life, and I'm 33.

There was another chair at Buy Buy Baby that I liked just as much(hubby didnt like it as much, but would have agreed if I'd pushed it) that was $500 cheaper, but when we went to order it, they said t we take 10-12 weeks to come in, which was probably too late for my July 19th edd. DH wanted to call Albee Baby and see how long his fave char took to ship---to our surprise, on the phone the told us only 6-8 weeks.

With the faster shipping, and because I really did like it more, we decided to go all out (we are going without a lot of other gear) on this chair and buy it, reasoning that its modern enough to use in the living room for years to come. We went into the store the next weekend around May 15th to pick of the fabric and order it...

But the woman helping us told us that our chair typical comes in closer to 6 weeks rather than 8 and they were going to have a big Memorial Day sale on that chair and we could save 15% of the purchase order if we waited until Memorial Day. So we decided to wait, knowing we were cutting it close to my due date but wanting to save the money.

Listening to her was our first mistake. We go back Memorial weekend, pick out the fabrics, order it, and PAY. THEN, the guy tells us it's going to be 10-12 weeks for it to be shipped. We argue back and forth that we confirmed 3 times with other sales associates (twice in person, once on the phone) and were told 6-8 weeks, but usually 6.

He said everyone else was mistaken, he's the one that does the furniture orders and he's the only one that knows. So my husband immediately says we'll take our money back then and just go order another cheaper chair.

But then the guy says....wait, let me see if ican get them to do a rush order. That sometimes the company makes an exception and will rush it. He asks us to give him until Monday to call. So we say okay. Taking him at his word was our second mistake.

He doesn't call Monday. He doesn't call Tuesday. Finally I call him and he says he hasn't had a chance to call, but will call them and call me back. I wait hours and call him again. He finally says, no they can't do a rush order, it will be halfway through August before we get the chair. That defeats the whole purpose of ordering a glider, if I'm not going to have it the first three weeks of my baby's life. So again. I ask for my money back.

He says, let me just see if they have any already made chairs that could be substituted. I don't want a substituted chair, I want the chair we picked out----but he calls back and says they have a very similar chair in the exact same fabric we wanted. But there are no pictures of said chair. I do my own googling, find a picture, decide I can live with it to just have a glider when the baby comes, so he orders it and says we'll have it the end of June.

On June 30th I call and as the status, since of course I haven't heard from them. He says he'll have to wait until Monday and call me back. But Monday he calls and says he'll have to let me know Tuesday because they are "investigating" and he will call and let me know ASAP when we can pick it up.

Today, Tuesday, July 2nd, he calls and says he mistakenly NEVER ACTUALLY ORDERED THE REPLACEMENT CHAIR AT ALL, he just thought he did. The chair company sold it to someone else, and now.....$1300 plus tax and 6 weeks after this whole mess began, he tells me that I will just have to get my original chair...wait for it..."sometime halfway through August". 25 days after my EDD.

I'm upset obviously. I paid so much money and have been totally screwed. I can get a refund, but can't get any other nice chairs any time soon. No cute nursery pictures, no comfy place to sit while nursing on those sleepless night (we have a crap bed mattress and an uncomfortable sofa, and only hard dining chairs in our seating repertoire in our small apartment). I was really looking forward to having this one nice chair.

When I told him this was all total,y unacceptable, he offered a "loaner chair". A traditional dutailier wooden glider that used to be in the showroom. No offense to those gliders, but I think they are hideous, and if I'd wanted one in my nursery, I would have gotten one off craigslist and saved myself $1100.

But those are my choices. Get a refund and have no chair. Or keep trusting this store, supposedly get a wooden recliner now and supposedly get my original order 25 days after I have my baby.

Great choices, right? And before anyone says that a nursery glider is a small thing, and the important thing is to have a healthy baby---I agree! But that doesn't mean that this terrible service is okay. I'm so frustrated!!