An Ashley Furniture customer recently tried to exercise her warranty after discovering a crack in her brand-new bed. Instead of a human, she was greeted by an AI customer support chatbot that offered little-to-no help.
TikToker Lauren Urso (@lo_34_) shared her frustrating experience in a video posted this week. It has more than 159,300 views. Urso says she spent approximately $2,000 on a king-size bed and two end tables, but realized the baseboard of the bed was damaged some three weeks after delivery.
“Oh my God. Has anyone else ever had an issue with Ashley Furniture? I’m almost at a point where I just wanted to return everything I bought,” she begins.
Dealing with AI ‘customer service’
Urso’s journey through Ashley Furniture’s customer service labyrinth began with a simple phone call, where she was redirected to an online system.
She says what followed was a weeklong back-and-forth with an AI chatbot, repeatedly requesting the same information she had already provided.
“I had enough… I felt like an old person, but I was like, I can’t do this AI shit anymore,” she admits in the video.
The TikToker finally managed to get in contact with a human, but the process is far from over.
The resolution offered by Ashley Furniture left her even more baffled. “They’re delivering the piece of wood, the baseboard, to my home,” she explains.”What am I supposed to do with that? I don’t know how to put the new baseboard on the bed.”
The company’s solution? Wait for the baseboard to arrive, then call back to schedule a technician. If the technician discovers additional issues, they’ll “put in a ticket” for further repairs.
“Is this normal? Am I overreacting?” Urso asked her viewers, clearly at her wit’s end.
In the comments, viewers answered with a resounding no.
How much AI does Ashley Furniture use?
Quite a bit. Its CEO said in November that Ashley Furniture had “identified 172 individual projects in our company today that can use A.I. We’ve deployed it already in some cases, like in transportation and accounts payable. We’ve also deployed it in human resources. It goes through resumes and helps identify whether the person applying is capable of working for our company.”
Viewers agree: Ashley can be a headache
One user advised, “return everything, save your sanity!” while another shared, “my couch has had so many replacement parts and it keeps breaking.”
A third commenter wrote, “same thing happened to me 2008 with a leather sofa and trying to get it fixed was a hassle and even after they fixed it the fabric still tore. I never bought from them again.”
@lo_34_ Is this normal? Im so frustrated .. also should i return the bed if im already cracked after less then a month? Is this a quality brand? #ashleyfurniture #ashleyfurniturehomestore #ashleyfurniturecomplaint #furniture #bedroom #fyp #help ♬ original sound – lo_34_
“Forget it return everything get a refund,” another said.
Speaking of Ashley Furniture nightmares, another TikToker recently went viral after claiming she ended up in jail after a brush with the furniture store chain.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Lauren Urso via email and to Ashley Furniture via their press email.
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