I slept poorly last night (because in love with the Styling of the Cottage Revival Set and the lighter color on three of my pieces of furniture that is so creamy and happy in color so I did not really want to return it but I knew I must since no one wanted to work with me yesterday) but at this time 9:32 AM, I feel relieved that the damaged and mismatched furniture (especially the Chest of Drawers that was very grayish/bone color and did not match the other three pieces of furniture... disliked this color a lot.. also had damage in too many places... drawers too small for opening... big holes deep, cracks with putty, excess glue not wiped off, etc.) is out of my home that I tried so hard to keep by wanting to work with Stanley and the store on having the damaged items fixed with only the real mismatched items replaced IF THEY LET ME KEEP THREE OF THE PIECES OF FURNITURE IN MY HOME NOW SO I CAN PUT MY CLOTHES AWAY.

Now I see since it is out of my bedroom, that I do not want such poor quality made furniture in my bedroom with no guarantee I will get back matching furniture after waiting weeks again (waited one day short of 11 weeks for the furniture to arrive).

I want my money back from Stanley Furniture/the store and I want to go with the Solid Wood Durham Furniture made in Canada that may be a little less stylish and a little less drawers but is quality since I saw that in person int he Royal Cottage Line and I was impressed. I only went with Stanley for the bead board sides and bun feet and taller triple dresser.

I will update everyone on the outcome with the Mace Bros Store and with Stanley.

Mace Bros. was highly recommended by a friend who dealt with a different owner who was a male. Diane seemed so nice in the store so maybe she is still nice and will understand when she sees the quality of the Stanley Furniture that they sent to me without inspecting it for color matching (told me they used one paint just for all my furniture... what a LIE... but I think Albert told me what he believed to be true so it is Stanley's LIE), and internal and back damage. Structure damage to runners is not acceptable and having the wood splinter in the back when a screw is placed in it is not acceptable.

I want to switch to Durham Furniture now since I do not believe that Stanley can send to me matching pieces in the lighter color with no damage since the quality control looks like it is no longer what it once was from the outsourcing in China.
I lost a Weeks's work due to the stress I was feeling and the time consuming pictures and posting and emails to Stanley and calls to the store, as well as from all this disappointment.

At least I love my Wesley Allen Maywood Iron headboard and Iron table that are in the Rustic Ivory Color that I am keeping.

Also at least I love my FloBed with the higher 10" legs so now I can buy drawers to put under the bed and hide the drawers with a bed ruffle.

See Links Below on the damage and in the next email an I am sure you will all feel this is not acceptable for paying so much good money for what felt would be quality furniture.

Maybe this post will be a wake up call to Stanley Furniture to outsource less or provide better inspection internally and color wise with their production overseas before sending it to the retail stores. Also the retail stores should be inspecting the furniture in good lighting for color matches and inspecting the drawers internally for slitting runners and externally in the back for deep enough holes, cracks and chipping before sending furniture to a customer to keep their reputation also.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mismatch in Paint Colors on Stanley Furniture as well as Damage

Please see the link below for more Pictures of Stanley Furniture Damage that is Unacceptable for Brand NEW Furniture.

I welcome all comments if anyone else bought from Stanley Furniture and has had any of these problems and if these are recent problems due to the outsourcing in China since so many problems are coming forward due to China's poor Quality control in their dog food and other issues recently.

Anyone with Durham Furniture that is very happy since I am now thinking I need quality furniture and I can not go through another week of stress and the waiting for the furniture.

I will keep everyone updated on my furniture fiasco. Now I better get work done, order under-bed drawers and put all the bookshelves back in my hallway to neaten my upstairs that this fiasco has made a total mess.

Here is a link that might be useful: Stanley Furniture Damage & Mismatch in Color the day it arrived

I finally decided to keep the new beautiful black Toshiba 32" LCD TV and stop worrying about it not matching and looking too big for my antique white night stand especially since I returned the damaged furniture this morning. I was going to exchange it for a 26" LCD Sharp in white.

The furniture company arrived earlier than I thought they would and now my TV's Universal Toshiba Remote is missing.

I hope I do not have to file a police report and that when the nice moving men get to the warehouse, integrity takes over so I can have my Remote back. I hope it was an oversight since the two movers George and Edgar seems so nice and very careful when moving the furniture out of here.

The store's warehouse sent the store my TV Remote (was in the night stand) and they are federal expressing it to me for tomorrow. Sorry I was so upset but I guess the stress of everything was getting to me.

I dont know anything about Stanley furniture, but I dont blame you for being upset! The damage is unacceptable. I hope they resolved the issues. I dont know if I would buy from them again, if I were you.

"There is hardly anything in this world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and those people who consider price only, are this man's lawful prey.
It is unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little.
When you pay too much you lose a little money - that is all.
When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot; it cannot be done.
If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better"
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

One domestic furniture plant after another closes because Asian labor is 1/40th what we have to pay in US. But we want cheap goods, not quality goods. Most of this stuff would be lucky to last 5 years. Even then, you won't be able to repair, refinish, or reupholster. Figure that out on a TCO (total cost of ownership) basis.

I work on new furniture every day and have seen things you would not believe.

Thank you jennye for acknowledging that the damage was unacceptable to you also. The store came and picked up the furniture and gave me a credit for the returned Stanley Set one week after it arrived so I am happy about that.

I still love the Stanley Cottage Revival bedroom set the best out of the Antique White Bedroom Furniture sets i have seen in the price range I am looking at but after seeing that there is no guarantee of matching pieces or pieces of furniture without damage if I reorder even from another store, I feel I want to go with the Durham Royal Cottage Collection that is made in Canada and is solid maple.

Again, thank yo for your opinion.

Thank you kmealy for the reply to my post that I wanted to reply back to but I think you accidentally clicked reply to the email from this furniture site and since I accept private emails, it came to my inbox rather than here. Since it says you do not accept private emails, I thought I would copy and paste your wonderful reply below.

I have learned a lot about furniture importation from my experience and that is why I want to try to stay with at least furniture made in Canada or the USA that is not outsourced which may give me a little more reassurance of matching pieces I hope.

I want quality furniture that will last at a reasonable price. Hence, I am hoping Durham's Royal Cottage Set will meet this criteria of mine. If it does not, I hope someone comes forward before I order the furniture. I was really shocked that furniture could even be delivered mismatched or badly damaged like the Stanley furniture arrived. I had thought they would at least have better supervision or inspection processes but maybe some of the damage incurred in transit or at the store before it arrived here but I will never know. The mismatched pieces and the damage to the runner of a drawer bothered me enough to return the set. The other damages, I was ready to live with and fix. This was a wake-up call for me.

Lynn2006

You wrote:

'There is hardly anything in this world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and those people who consider price only, are this man's lawful prey.
It is unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little.
When you pay too much you lose a little money - that is all.
When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot; it cannot be done.
If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better'
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

One domestic furniture plant after another closes because Asian labor is 1/40th what we have to pay in US. But we want cheap goods, not quality goods. Most of this stuff would be lucky to last 5 years. Even then, you won't be able to repair, refinish, or reupholster. Figure that out on a TCO (total cost of ownership) basis.

I work on new furniture every day and have seen things you would not believe.

kmealy

I am glad they did something about it, but in my opinion, they should have refunded your money, not given store credit. I am sorry you had to go through that and I hope you end up getting what you want.

Those are wise words, kmealy. However, regardless, there is no excuse for the product she received.

jennye & kmealy, thank you both for your support on agreeing with me that furniture with that type of damage and mismatched colors should have never entered my home. I do not understand why the store did not inspect it first and refuse it and just let me know of the delay.

I was promised on Wednesday a credit to my credit card so I could go to another store to buy a better quality bedroom set. I called on Friday to thank Diane again for sending back the TV remote overnight that was unintentionally taken with the furniture when the two furniture delivery guys removed the TV instruction booklet from the night stand but left the TV remote in it. I had to go downstairs to get the doorbell and when I went upstairs again, the night stand was gone and the blooklet and TV was on the floor and I was told, they emptied it hearing that I had said I left the remote and booklet in the drawers.

I was so appreciate of the returned remote since it is a new TV that I bought so my old over 100 lb. TV would not break the night stand I was planning to use as a TV stand.

I was told by Diane on Friday that she had already put the credit through on my credit card and did this on Wednesday but I have yet to see the credit and I just checked my credit card on line. Maybe it takes awhile for the store to put the credit through?

I just returned a pottery barn duvet cover yesterday and I already see the credit on my Chase online credit card activity statement.

I just checked my Chase Credit Card online and the credit for my furniture was there. I now feel sad that I have to pay 7% sales tax (the Kearny Store was 3.5% sales tax) and find a store that will come close to the great prices I got from Lexington Furniture Store in Kentucky since Durham told me today that within 1 week all the pieces that I want will be in stock and it would only take 4 weeks to get to a local store around me. I really would love the new furniture in 4 weeks. Lexington Furniture takes 12 weeks I am told but their prices were at least $1,000 less and the saleslady on the phone was so nice.

I feel bad that the salesman and Diane the store owner did not discuss with me the procedures involved if furniture came damaged. I still do not understand why stores do not inspect pieces of furniture first before shipping them to customers.

I see now I did the right thing by sending all the pieces back since I really need to buy from Durham instead of Stanley since I need furniture that has a better chance coming to me not damaged and not mismatching.

I have seen mismatched pieces from the same "manufacturer." I think the story I got was that though it was the same series and same brand, it was made in two different factories. Even if it was from the same factory, they should have a standard to hit. Even two different finishers can have a different appearance unless they are trained and held to a standard.

One piece I saw Friday had drips, runs, bubbles, brush hairs, unstained areas, and the packing material had been put on before the finish was dry and left a mottled spot in the shape of a triangle. This was in addition to the six spots of transit damage upon opening the box.

Let's just say that Quality Control is often left to the consumer.

Kmealy, Thanks for letting me know that the Quality Control is left to the consumer.

I will be buying Durham now instead of Stanley due to not caring about matching the paint and pieces of furniture without sloppy damage which is important to me. What a shame since Stanley really has unique and wonderful styling to their furniture.

But well made furniture is more important to me that will last when I am investing my hard earned money.

I did not mean Stanley in particular, but offshore in general. The piece I mentioned was not Stanley.

One of my children has a Stanley DR set and it is fine.

One only has to listen to the Chinese product recall du jour to understand what is happening. They can do quality, I'm sure, but only if consumers demand it. I grew up when "Made in Japan" was a label of inferior goods. By the time I became an adult it was a mark of quality.

What do you think would happen if 80% of the consumers refused to accept shoddy goods as first quality, or to buy it in the first place? But every week in the Sunday paper, I see "complete bedroom set $799" What do you think that buys?

[**ahem** stepping off soapbox now. next?]

kmealy, Thanks for sharing again. Thanks for letting me know it was another manufacturer that outsourced to China.

I am sure Stanley's furniture made in the USA and inspected here is very nice. All their furniture lines to me have such style and I like what they offer.

I am sure in the past the products made in China were nice also but recently China it seems is not being consistent in their quality and cutting corners as can be seen by the dog food recalls and deaths, the lead paint in the children's toys, etc. I hope this is a wake up call to those manufacturers known for high quality to supervise and inspect better products coming from overseas due to outsourcing.

I paid around $3200.00 for my Stanley bedroom furniture (which did not include a bed since that was from Wesley Allen and also I ordered a matching metal round 24" table to use as my night stand.... Wesley Allen I kept since that did not come to me damaged). This price included a chest of drawers, a bureau and mirror (mismatched of course... mirror did not match the dresser), a bachelor's chest and a night stand to use as a TV stand.

It was a good price but I was not the quality I contracted with. I was told by Albert, the salesman at the store, that Stanley mixes up one back of paint just for my pieces. This can't be possible with so many mismatched pieces that came to me.

From reading from the President of Stanley Furniture how Stanley inspects furniture before it goes out to the stores so that the retail stores do not have to fix damaged furniture, I was shocked at the way my furniture set was allowed to be delivered to my home causing me so many mixed emotions since I wanted to keep it at first due to my I had never seen my bedroom look so pretty. This was before I found internal damage and mismatched pieces. I need a bedroom set to work to hold my clothes and to last. Function and quality must come before beauty. But I had thought I was getting function, quality and beauty. If it was just external damage, I was willing to keep it and fix it due to my need of it so badly.

I can see I wrote this when I was so tired...

I meant "It was a good price but it was not the quality I had contracted for that I was told it would be. I meant "batch" of paint. I better go to bed. Maybe my spell check made those errors. :)

I am happy I learned from this fiasco and will for now on try to buy products made in Canada or the USA until China's quality problems are fixed.

Update- A few weeks ago, I ordered solid wood Durham Furniture from another retail store in NJ. I will update this post with my experience with Durham Furniture when the furniture arrives.

For the two people asking about Stanley Furniture that is stylish but I do not feel the quality is there anymore, here is the post about the Stanley Furniture you were looking for.

I had dinner with a friend who owns and operates a furniture store. He said he's starting to see more quality issues with Stanley.

My guess: Pricing pressures have to give somewhere...

kmealy, Thanks for letting us know this.

I had figured that by outsourcing to China and maybe using cheaper products to keep the costs down, the Stanley quality is not what it used to be. I just knew, after seeing so much damage and mismatched pieces of furniture, I could not take another chance with another retail store in ordering Stanley Furniture especially since the President of Stanley did not even answer my emails or care about my situation.

This is a repeat of what I just wrote on the decorating site but if anyone does a search on the Furniture Forum, I would want them to know Durham Furniture is quality. I will post pics when I have some time. Right now I am recovering from a car accident, my father's death and my tax season deadline.

My new Durham Furniture arrived yesterday in wonderful condition and made so well with all matching pieces. I am so impressed with the quality of the furniture, the perfect creamy color of the furniture, the pretty look to the furniture, the wonderful delivery service (Rica Transport, Inc.), the wonderful store (Flemington Department Store) that sold me the furniture that came all matching in good shape at the best price in NJ that was only a little more than $120 than Lexington Furniture (that is because Lexington Furniture in Kentucky does not charge sales tax but I would still be liable for use tax if audited... so since I would have been liable to pay the Use tax if I bought my furniture out of state then Flemington's price was a better price with sales tax and free shipping). Also Flemington Department Store only made me pay 25% upfront and the balance over the phone with a credit card right before it was to be delivered. The furniture was ready for me in 6 weeks and they held it for me for a few more weeks until my tax season deadline ended.

If I started out with Durham, I would have loved their shutter/plantation headboard also seeing how much I love the look of the shutter/plantation doors on my small armoire that matches the plantation design on my pretty mirror. I did love Stanley's Chest of Drawer's bun feet and bead board look better but I like the color of the Durham Furniture better (Stanley's chest of drawers did not match the rest of the furniture), the quality of Durham so much better and the top drawer at 2" lower is easier for me to see what is inside since I am petite.

Durham should really update their Website's Royal Cottage with a cream color wall and bedding and some white accessories since the way they have their site now does not do justice to the creamy color of the furniture or styling of the pretty solid maple wood quality furniture.

I have been shopping around for the best price for Durham bedroom furniture. I checked out their web site and it appears they do not sell via the internet. I read about your unfortunate experience with Stanley,....but lucky for you,.......because now you settled on Durham which is of much better quality. Would you mind sharing with me your experience on pricing. I emailed Lexington Furniture but never heard from them. I found a store that had a 40% off sale that I was told was sponsored by Durham but did not want to order from a picture since their in-store sellection was limited. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Janet07, I ordered my Durham Furniture from a store a little less than 1 hour from me that Durham Recommended when I called them. They were at least $1200 less than a local store and $600 less than another store and $800 less than another store. If I added USE Tax which NJ requires one to pay if ordering out of State, then Lexington Furniture in Kentucky was more money than Flemington Department Store. Lexington Furniture was the 2nd best price.

Also Flemington Department Store (salesman was Goose: 908-782-7662 ... they have a website also with their store name and dot com after it) let me charge only 25% down on a credit card and the balance paid the day before delivery on my credit card. The delivery service (which was free) was so impressive and on time with furniture coming to me in wonderful condition with quality that I could now appreciate so much after all the stress I had from the Stanley Furniture Fiasco.

The beauty of my Durham Furniture and the quality was well worth the wait and is much prettier in person than in the pretty pictures on the Durham Website. I am very happy.

The Furniture arrived in 6 weeks but they held the furniture for me another 2 weeks (I asked them if they could do this for me) until my work deadline ended so I could take the time to clear out my hallway and bedroom for the furniture delivery men.

If you do not live near New Jersey, then if you can get in touch with Pat R. at Lexington Furniture, she is the one I almost bought from until I asked Durham if they had any stores in NJ besides the one near me that was so high in price that they could recommend since I preferred to buy local and to use my credit card in case their was any disputes. I was so lucky to find such a wonderful retailer as well as a wonderful manufacturer.

If you live far from New Jersey, then you can compare the Lexington Furniture Store's price to a local store by calling Durham for all local stores within a few hours from you that they would highly recommend.

Hope this helps.

Thanks so much for the info. I was on the Durham website but did not call them because I didn't think they would give out prices, but maybe they will refer me to a store that offers a better discount. Since I saw the quality and craftmanship of Durham I won't even consider anything else. In doing my research on the internet I also came across an article that came out this month indicating that Durham was coming out with a few new collections as well as offering color choices in some of their current colletions. Thanks for your help and enjoy your new furniture.

It's unfortunate that you accepted delivery of this extremely, poor quality furniture.
Enclosed is the contact information that I hope will help you:

Mr. Jeffrey Scheffer
Stanley Furniture
1641 Fairystone Park Hwy.
Stanleytown, VA 24168
Phone: 276-627-2000
Fax: 276-629-5114

Hopefully, the pictures you have taken will get the president's attention. If not, he has no regard for his customer base.

Good luck!

Daisyntn, Oh how I wish I had this information when the Stanley Furniture was still here. I did email Mr. Scheffer the pictures and the link to this site but I got no response. Customer Service at Stanley said once the store gets the furniture they are not involved. But I do want to call Mr. Scheffer when I have some time to remind him what he is doing to his reputation by not caring about what the stores are getting from China that does not seem to be inspected properly. I lost hours and hours an days of work and missed seeing my father before he died due to the furniture fiasco I had to go through due to Stanley Furniture's misrepresentation of the quality of their furniture and the store not inspecting it first before it ever arrived in my home.

If I were in you shoes, I would take a little extra time and write to the president.
I would enclose all pictures, and a copy of the responses from this forum. I would then snail mail it to him in a US Post Office Priority Mail envelope. It will cost you $4.05 but I think that will get his attention. For me, this approach has worked in the past.

As consumers, we need to complain to the top about the horrible quality of many of the products we are receiving from China. You would think these CEO's would be interested in protecting their brand recognition. It doesn't appear to the most ot them care. What has happenened to quality control? Look at the Mattel toy fiasco!

Daisyntn,Thanks for sharing this idea. After a few more deadlines, this is exactly what I will do since I really feel the President of Stanley needs a wake-up call if he cares to not lose more of his customer base and reputation. I really loved the style of Stanley's Cottage Revival in the Mackinaw White and felt it was so pretty in my bedroom despite the very unacceptable mismatch in color, damage and quality but since the President of Stanley never replied to my emails and the store would not work with me, I had no choice but to return all pieces of the furniture and go with Durham's Solid Maple Wood in the Royal Cottage Collection that I bought at a different retail store.

Daisyntn,Thanks for sharing this idea. After a few more deadlines, this is exactly what I will do since I really feel the President of Stanley needs a wake-up call if he cares to not lose more of his customer base and reputation. I really loved the style of Stanley's Cottage Revival in the Mackinaw White and felt it was so pretty in my bedroom despite the very unacceptable mismatch in color, damage and quality but since the President of Stanley never replied to my emails and the store would not work with me, I had no choice but to return all pieces of the furniture and go with Durham's Solid Maple Wood in the Royal Cottage Collection that I bought at a different retail store.

Update, Each week I love my Durham Solid Maple Wood with the rubbed off-white/antique white finish more and more and I just wish I went with Durham first.

At least I have warned others about how the Mace Brother's store did not inspect the Staneley Furniture (that was made in China) they sent to me and how Stanley Manufacturing could care less about me once the store accepted their damaged and mismatched product. Their styling is very pretty but the quality was not there.

I'm glad that you're so happy with your Durham bedroom furniture. I thank you for sharing your problems with the Stanley bedroom furniture. Because of this, combined with the problem with my Stanley desk (which I had thought was an isolated problem), I stayed far away from Stanley Furniture while looking for new bedroom furniture.

As a note, during my search for bedroom furniture, I found this message on the Durham website:

Please NOTE: Durham Furniture will no longer be selling their Product West of the Mississippi & South of the Florida Panhandle.

mhillgal, what manufacturer did you end up going with for your bedroom set?

I am sorry that Durham was no longer selling products West of the Mississippi and South of the Florida Panhandle. I wonder why they incorporated this policy?

I still love my solid maple Durham Furniture Set (Royal Cottage in Sand White finish) that not only looks nice but the drawers work so well and all the pieces match one another.

I ended up buying Cresent Furniture, the Moderne Collection. It's beautiful.

mhillgal, I love your choice. The Moderne Collection is gorgeous. I had wanted dark wood but due to my small Master Bedroom and the need for many pieces of furniture to hold all my clothes, I chose light furniture. My home office furniture is a rich cherry and I love it. Cresent Furniture is quality made furniture and I am glad you are enjoying it since you are right that it is so beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cresent Furniture, the Moderne Collection