This is a general alert, particularly directed towards military families (which accounts for most of Charleston).

Beware of buying furniture from The Room Store. While the prices are good for the quality of furniture, if you are military, you will find that it may not be worth it in the long run to buy from this company.

To make a long story short, my husband graduated from nuclear training in July. We were slated to move to Groton, CT in August, and ordered furniture from them that was to be shipped to our new house when we received an address for delivery.

Approximately 3-5 days before we moved, they called and told us our furniture had arrived -- in Charleston. We were asked if we wanted to take it with us. Of course we didn't mind, we had a 24' truck for our self-move and needed the extra weight. So we loaded it on the top of our old furniture and drove on our merry way.

We arrived in Groton, ended up living out of a hotel for 2 weeks. When we finally moved in and unpacked our furniture, all was well until someone sat down and the seam on the middle cushion of the couch quite easily popped (cleanly). This was not a tear, and since we had paid for the fabric protection and were told we had a one year warranty, we called to have this taken care of.

We were immediately told that our warranty was voided when we relocated the furniture. My husband called the store; at first they seemed helpful, but subsequent follow-up calls revealed that they were going to stonewall and claim no-fault for their failure to fully disclose what was happening when we accepted delivery and moved it ourselves. The manager I spoke to was quite rude and essentially told me he didn't have to help me. They had their money, they were done.

Edit : I forgot to mention that at one point, I did find a customer service rep who would have helped us out. Unfortunately, he informed us that The Room Store does not service our area. They were perfectly willing to sell us furniture and fabric protection plans, but were unable to back up their warranties to begin with.

I have since involved the bank that issued the card the furniture was paid with, and it looks like they are reaching a resolution by applying financial force.

However, I still advise anyone who is planning on moving -- even a block down the street -- to pass this store by. Their customer service is horrendous from the store level and up, and their policy is, at best, inane considering that this particular location is right in the middle of a community that moves often and at the whim of our government.
Please pass this story on and prevent The Room Store from scamming any other families who already struggle to save up for new furnishings while dealing with long work/training hours, deployments, and/or a modest paycheck to get by on.