Arenson Furniture Outlet

I live in Queens and I needed a few wood chairs for my dining room. I was skeptical because of the 1 review but I'm nearby so I gave it a shot.

It's a tremendous warehouse with alot going on. Like two city blocks of furniture on racks and beeping forklifts. The customer area itself is smaller- still probably 15,000 sq ft or so.

Most of the selection is office furniture, but they had a ton of side chairs for my dining room. All high end stuff - the chairs I got are Bernhardt and they were about $200. The salesman was very friendly.

I plan to go back when I finally get around to doing our living room. There was an old table I liked and apparently refinishing is free.

I have never had a negative experience with a company like I did with Arenson. I picked out a large amount of used furniture for a new office I was opening in the NYC area...desks, conference table and leather highback chairs. The furniture wasn't in great condition, but I was assured by Al Hernandez at this location that all would be refinished and look like new.

My delivery came promptly, but when my delivery guys got to my door, they asked me to come on the truck and inspect the furniture. They then pointed out numerous scratches and scrapes on the furniture and told me if I was purchasing this furniture, they wouldn't accept the delivery if they were in my shoes. I refused the furniture, but decided to accept the chairs. Once I accepted the chairs, the delivery guys left. About an hour later one of my employees called me to let me know only 3 of the 10 chairs we accpeted were actually the style we ordered. The other 7 were a lesser quality chair and about half the price of the chairs I picked out. Al Hernandez was advised of this error as well as the furniture scratches.

I received a call from Al Hernandez stating he was looking at the furniture and didn't know what scratches I was talking about. He then requested that I come down to his shop and inspect the furniture.I took the time out of my day and drove all the way to his shop. Once I got in there the furniture was miraculously in the refinishing department already and none of the scratches were there. Their refinisher then admitted that the conference table was not in good condition and was in the refinishing room. I was told on my way out that the furniture would be delivered in 2 days. 2 days passed and I did not receive a call or a delivery. I called Al Hernandez and he "was just going to call me." My delivery came 2 days after that.

The new chairs were brought with the furniture. There were small nicks all over the furniture, but at this point I was not going to get into this. I then noticed neither desk was drilled for grommets that I had requested. I put a call into Al Hernandez AGAIN and he promised that he was going to get someone over to me to drill them. That was on 9/10/08. After repeated calls to Al, he claimed he was checking on the grommets, didn't know if he had grommets in stock (to which I told him to go to Home Depot and buy them) and then the eventual "the girl who should have ordered your grommets quit so we never placed your order". In each conversation he had to ask for my phone number. After the 5th call asking where my grommets were, you'd think this guy would have my number or at least have my name on a hot sheet that he needed to follow up on.

Finally a guy showed up on 10/9/08 to drill my desks. He drilled the first desk successfully. He then attempted to drill my second desk and his drill slipped across the top of my desk leaving ridges and chipped finish all across my desk. The same guy promised to come back very early on the 10th to fix the desk. That did not happen. Another call went into Al and after he offered to have someone come and refinish my desk on Monday morning I decided I had enough. And ask that his company stay away from my office.

What was a simple furniture delivery turned into a month of inconvenience for my employees and a waste of my time having to constantly call and follow up on Al. What amazes me is how companies like Morgan Stanley actually use these amateurs for their furniture needs. Do yourself a favor and go somewhere else to buy furniture. This company and Al Hernandez in particular are complete amateurs and do not understand the meaning of customer service.