When Furniture Delivery Goes Wrong

The time has come for Grace to buy her dream sofa, and she has decided to order it online. The shopping process is easy, and she’s confident that her new sofa will arrive in good condition. Yet, when the delivery-team brings it into her living room, there’s a gaping hole in the wall where they pulled it through the doorway. 

How can this happen? What do you do? 

Fortunately, there are ways to prevent furniture delivery problems like this so that you don’t get stuck with damaged goods, including these tips on how to reduce furniture damage during delivery.

Ways Furniture Delivery Can Go Bad in a Hurry

There are many different reasons why furniture delivery can go wrong. It might be that bulky, burly men aren't as careful as they should be. Or it could just be because they're late for your appointment and mess up before they're even there! And if you thought losing luggage at the airport was bad, we've got some stories about delivery-mens who weren't doing their jobs.

A few of the most common things that happen when you move: bulky, unskilled workers; late deliveries; and damage before they even arrive.

Why?

When your customer orders furniture online, there are a lot of logistics at play. For example, not all couches fit through doorways or down staircases. However, we don’t usually think about how furniture is being moved from the warehouse to the customer's room of choice.

If you want your delivery experience to go as smoothly as possible and without any complications, here are some things you can ask your customers to do :

• Move heavy pieces into the living room in advance so that movers won’t have to take them from their designated rooms.
• Make sure there aren’t any items blocking the doorway or stairs (i.e., toys or other obstructions).
• Be aware of surroundings and make sure there isn’t anything delicate around that could break (such as glass tables).

Damaged Furniture

Damaged furniture is another popular thing with your delivery teams, unfortunately. As we mentioned earlier, these teams aren’t exactly dexterous and graceful by and large. A broken TV screen, a cracked coffee or end table, small furniture tears, etc. The more fragile something is, the more likely it will be damaged. Even careful teams can damage your customer’s furniture.

Having furniture damaged is very common, and it could take a very long time for the company to cover these damages, and that’s even if your third party partner is good enough to pay quickly.

Damaged Property

Furniture damage is not the only thing you should worry about during move-in. Movers often carry heavy furniture crooked through doors, sometimes damaging drywall or poking holes in windows.

Customers need to keep their equity up, which is why they need to get repairs done immediately. They won't get away with the delivery-team excuse because most landlords require security deposits.

How to Remedy the Situation

If the property or a piece of furniture gets damaged while being delivered, there are steps you can take to remedy the situation: alert everyone involved, determine who is responsible and negotiate compensation between parties.

But what if there is a better and preventive solution?

One alternative option may be to use the Responsibility Discharge Model of Gomove. This allows you to be protected and releases you from being responsible for the damage if it occurs.

Gomove gives you many other tools when dealing with 3rd parties, to educate and continuously improve the delivery-team’s behaviour,  such as the evaluation team's form and the customer’s feedback on your delivery-team.

‍