Whatever furniture we have in our home right now is either: (1) borrowed; (2) customized by my Mom's carpenter; or (3) a hand-me-down from our parents. My experience in manufacturing and exporting furniture proved useful when we transferred. What we failed to take note of though was the fact that we forgot to buy a mattress, so we ended up sleeping on the floor on a 2-inch old mattress for a few days after the wedding.
In the past year we only bought a couple of cheap shelves since we got married. We bought most of them on sale and really needed them. In the last 2 months we realized that we've outgrown our dining table -- a marble inlaid 40"x40" table borrowed from my Mom. We didn't buy one because one of my aunts promised she'll get us one after the wedding -- it's been 15 months and we knew that it was going to take more time before she could fulfill her promise because of her obligations.
So I set my eye on a temporary dining table. I saw a wooden set at SM that only cost PhP10,000. I became very busy, so I hadn't gotten around to buying it. One Sunday afternoon we chanced upon a similar set at Market Market at PhP6,000+. Since we needed a new table we decided to get it. The furniture shop promised that they would deliver it on Wednesday afternoon.
I was out all-day Wednesday, so I asked Miguel to wait for the delivery. I got home late and was disappointed when I didn't see our new table. We were all tired and went to bed at around eleven in the evening. We were jolted awake at around midnight when our doorbell buzzed. I peeked out the window and was surprised to see a delivery truck. It couldn't be? I thought.
Sweetie went down and had no choice but to accept the delivery since they were there already. They explained that the original truck broke down. What they failed to do was inform us by phone about this and just assumed that they can deliver our goods at midnight. What made matters worse was the fact that the delivery guys were asking for double the amount (PhP100) we usually pay (PhP50) to the homeowners association for deliveries. So we just told them that we'd settle it at the homeowners office the next day.
So they left, but 15 minutes later they were back and were demanding for PhP100. I told Sweetie that since it was already 1 in the morning we shouldn't entertain them anymore -- plus who knows what they might do to us since all our neighbors were asleep already. I just SMSd them and told them that to tell the guard that we would settle the bill the next day (in the first place the guard should have followed the 6pm delivery cut-off!), so they left again. A few minutes later I got an SMS that they needed PhP50. I felt that they were already extorting money from us and just said to tell the guard that we'd settle the bill at the homeowners office. It just didn't feel right that they would deliver at midnight without informing us and the guard let them in way past the allowed delivery hours in our village.
I guess we won't be buying any furniture for a long time after this experience. I was annoyed and ended up cranky when I work up. Sweetie knew I'd be that way and I was surprised to see the dining table set-up the next day with a funny note on it -
Lesson learned: if your goods aren't delivered on time try to call up the store. In this case though we couldn't contact the store anymore since we got home at ten in the evening. Oh well...
