Durango Bill’s
Vision Decor Furniture Complaint
This web page is a public complaint about the poor quality of a Chippendale Style Curio Cabinet that is advertised at Amazon.com (Although Amazon.com may be unaware of the problem.) The seller is actually Visiondecor Furniture
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aag/main?ie=UTF8&isAmazonFulfilled=&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&isCBA=&seller=A1WYITGC0CWN9K
(also http://shop.visiondecor.com/ ),
and the manufacturer is Coaster. (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_home-garden?_encoding=UTF8&node=1055398&field-brandtextbin=Coaster )
(China’s finest “junk”)
The picture above shows the Chippendale Style Curio Cabinet as advertised on Amazon.com . If you just look at the picture, it looks like a nice curio cabinet. Unfortunately, the picture doesn’t show the poor design that leads to the cabinet falling apart. The original Amazon.com page was at http://www.amazon.com/Chippendale-Style-Solid-Cabinet-Interior/dp/B0002KNN1Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1328407649&sr=8-2 If this page disappears, try searching Amazon.com with:
chippendale curio cabinet
The picture above shows my Amazon.com review of the curio cabinet. The text is:
Pretty picture but poor construction - falls apart and breaks, February 4, 2012
If it were possible to give a negative rating to a product, this curio cabinet would get a lot of negative stars. The shipping carton was badly damaged when it arrived. The glass panel for the front door was broken. (First broken glass cleanup.) There is only one cam-lock per side panel plus some flimsy, poor-fitting wood dowels. This is not enough to hold it together. One side panel fell off during attempted assembly (Fell apart during instruction "Step 4") - breaking another glass panel. (Second broken glass cleanup.) The mirrors on the back of the cabinet are only held in place by a thin board. (Strong probability of further broken glass cleanups.) DO NOT BUY THIS CURIO CABINET!!! It is poorly designed, difficult to assemble, and may fall apart at any time even after you assemble it. I was originally going to try and salvage what I could by replacing the broken glass at a local glass shop, but it now appears that the curio cabinet could fall apart at any time in the future. I don't know if I can recover my purchase price, but the advertised curio cabinet is just a pretty picture with flimsy components. Save your money for another product.
If it were possible to give a negative rating to a product, this curio cabinet would get a lot of negative stars. The shipping carton was badly damaged when it arrived. The glass panel for the front door was broken. (First broken glass cleanup.) There is only one cam-lock per side panel plus some flimsy, poor-fitting wood dowels. This is not enough to hold it together. One side panel fell off during attempted assembly (Fell apart during instruction "Step 4") - breaking another glass panel. (Second broken glass cleanup.) The mirrors on the back of the cabinet are only held in place by a thin board. (Strong probability of further broken glass cleanups.) DO NOT BUY THIS CURIO CABINET!!! It is poorly designed, difficult to assemble, and may fall apart at any time even after you assemble it. I was originally going to try and salvage what I could by replacing the broken glass at a local glass shop, but it now appears that the curio cabinet could fall apart at any time in the future. I don't know if I can recover my purchase price, but the advertised curio cabinet is just a pretty picture with flimsy components. Save your money for another product.
When I was trying to assemble the curio cabinet (fasten the 3 back cross bars to the 2 side panels), it fell apart. The picture above shows the relevant pieces. (After the partially assembled cabinet fell apart.) The photograph shows the left panel of the cabinet plus the rough alignment for the three “crossbands” that attach to the left and right side panels. These “crossbands” attach by flimsy wood dowels and just one “Cam-Bolt”/“Cam-lock”. The one “Cam-lock” was not strong enough to hold the partially assembled pieces together with the result that the curio cabinet fell apart. (Resulting in more broken glass.)
The picture above shows a close-up of two of the “crossbands” where they are supposed to attach to the left panel. For the combined three “crossbands”, there is only one Cam-lock/cam-bolt for structural support to hold the pieces together. The two small white objects in the end of the “crossbar” in the foreground show one wood dowel and the base of the cam-bolt. The “cam-bolt” is still fastened to the “cam-lock”, but the “cam-bolt” is supposed to remain fixed in the left side panel. The base of the cam-bolt pulled its screw-in base out of the left panel (It’s still attached to the Cam-bolt), and the remaining wood dowels couldn’t hold the pieces together.
The see-through portions of the curio cabinet should be made from acrylic plastic, polycarbonate, or even safety glass instead of ordinary brittle glass. This would cut down the breakage problem during shipping as well as reducing the potential injury from shards of glass.
Overall, while the advertised picture looks nice, the cabinet doesn’t have the structural strength design that someone would expect for a piece of furniture that is going to last for an extended period of time.
I have asked Amazon.com and Visiondecor Furniture for a refund. If they provide a refund, I will post the information here. If Visiondecor does not provide a refund, I will also document this as well as filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/ (And quite possibly, with other parties. The California Department of Consumer Affairs http://www.dca.ca.gov/online_services/complaints/consumer_complaint.shtml would be next on the list as Visiondecor is based in California. I “might” even file a complaint with the Attorney General’s office in California. http://ag.ca.gov/contact/complaint_form.php?cmplt=CL)
Feb. 8, 2012 Addendum:
I have successfully stopped payment to Visiondecor. (Was on Amazon.com’s credit card.) Amazon.com has also backed up its integrity and said that they will guarantee that I don’t lose any money on the deal. (They even gave me a little credit for the inconvenience.) It looks like we’ve found out who the “good guys” and “bad guys” are.
Feb. 16, 2012 Addendum:
Visiondecor seems bound and determined to pick up the pieces for their curio cabinet. They have dropped off a cardboard carton for all the disassembled components although they have as yet to pick it up. As of the end of Feb., Visiondecor has picked up (and paid for) return shipment of the curio cabinet.
For my part, I’ve already ordered something that appears to be far more substantial. Pulaski curio cabinets (See http://www.pulaskifurniture.com/index.cfm/furniture/catalog.list/type/Curios%20and%20Display%20Cabinets ) are usually delivered in one piece to the room of your choice inside your home.
March 27, 2012 Update
I have received a refund via Amazon.com and returned the cabinet to VisionDecor. As far as I am concerned, the case is closed.
P. S. The Pulaski curio cabinet has been delivered, and appears to be very good quality. I would recommend Pulaski furniture as an alternative to anyone who might be thinking of buying something from VisionDecor.
Surprise !!! Surprise !!! Or maybe it’s not that big of a surprise. It tends to explain why “Customer Service” agent Sean Ward is a mouthpiece for Visiondecor Furniture whose “business plan” appears to be trying to defraud customers. Visiondecor is one of the vendors that sell through Amazon.com. I wonder if Amazon.com knows (yet) that one of its vendors has a “business plan” that appears to be “defraud the customer”?
For fun and games try running a Google search using:
Visiondecor complaint
Alternately, I got 268,000 hits using:
Visiondecor fraud
If you follow some of the above searches, here’s a sample of what shows up.
“Visiondecor.com, Vision Decor Received damaged goods, Company doesn't answer phone calls or return messages or emails. City Of Industry California”
http://www.ripoffreport.com/home-garden-stores/visiondecor-com-visi/visiondecor-com-vision-decor-d6bfz.htm
“VISIONDECOR.COM is a terrible company!”
“DO NOT buy anything from VISIONDECOR.COM!!”
http://visiondecor.pissedconsumer.com/visiondecor-com-is-a-terrible-company-20080330116786.html
Complicity by Amazon.com?
People order merchandise from Amazon.com because Amazon.com usually stands behind merchandise that is purchased from the Amazon.com website. We have grown to trust Amazon.com.
The Print Screen picture above is from an Amazon.com forum at:
http://www.amazon.com/visiondecor-Furniture/forum/Fx33R185JSGQ9AP/Tx3HBRS4QDYB9BC/1?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B0002KNPUA
People who have ordered merchandise from Visiondecor through Amazon.com’s website have had problems with Visiondecor starting in 2006. Why has Amazon.com continued to provide a marketplace for Visiondecor?
Addendum: As noted earlier, Amazon.com has stood by their warrantee and given me a full refund.
Alternately, Amazon.com might have missed this “Bad Apple” merchant as Amazon works with millions of merchants. It appears that Visiondecor has been defrauding Sears customers too. If you click on "Return Policy" at http://ww.sears.com/shc/s/search_10153_12605?keyword=&sellerId=1397&mktPlaceInd=FBM , you will see that Visiondecor’s "return policy" includes "IMPORTANT: All returns must have the original packaging. All items must be unassembled and repackaged in the way it was received.". This tends to be "difficult" when you have torn apart the original shipping carton to unpack your piece of furniture.
Note: I received an anonymous email from a person who claimed he had inside knowledge of what Visiondecor Furniture does with returned merchandise. Hint, if you order something from Visiondecor and you are expecting something “new”, you may be in for a surprise.
We will have to wait to see what happens from here.
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