Every once in a while, the Watchdog enjoys spending a night on the couch (voluntarily, mind you) instead of in bed.
But there’s no way I’d snooze there for nights on end. It’s just not comfortable enough.
So I can only imagine the tossing and turning Michele Johnson’s teenage sons endured. They’re 6 feet tall and have been sleeping on second-hand sofas for six weeks because the mattresses Johnson bought at Boscov’s are way overdue for delivery.
The Coplay mother bought the mattresses and box springs on July 14 at the Lehigh Valley Mall. She said she was told they’d be delivered in two weeks. She noted the date, July 28, on the top of her receipt.
A month and many phone calls later, her boys still are sacking out in the living room. Mom occasionally gives up her bed, or they use air mattresses.
Johnson said she’s gotten the runaround from Boscov’s, with the latest promised delivery scheduled for Saturday.
”It just irritates me,” she said.
She’s asked Boscov’s for a break on the price. She said she was offered 10 percent off, which she doesn’t believe is enough to compensate her for weeks of calls and aggravation.
She’d like the box springs for free, or half off her total bill of about $860.
”Time is money for a lot of people,” Johnson said. ”I’m not going to give up the rest of my summer sitting here waiting for two mattresses that I already paid for and nobody knows where they are.”
She said she already passed up one day’s work waiting for a delivery that never came.
A Boscov’s manager did not return my phone call, but I’m confident he got my message. Johnson said he chastised her for asking the Watchdog for help.
She said he told her, ”We don’t talk to those people.”
You don’t have to answer to me, Mr. Manager. You do have to please Mrs. Johnson, your customer.
And Johnson says she’ll be looking to replace those secondhand sofas soon.
”They’re shot, too,” she said. ”I need new couches, but I’m not going back to Boscov’s.”
Corporate spokeswoman MaralynLakin told me Wednesday the delay was caused by a backlog at the Serta factory. She said the mattresses are at the Boscov’s distribution center in Reading and will be delivered Saturday as scheduled.
Johnson said Wednesday that in her many conversations with Boscov’s, no one mentioned any problems on Serta’s end. She isn’t sure whether to believe that, because she said another store told her they could get her a Serta mattress in two or three weeks.
Johnson said the manager told her some suppliers have not been delivering merchandise to Boscov’s because of unpaid bills. The company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
In a news article last month, chairman and CEO Kenneth Lakin acknowledged some suppliers had stopped shipping to Boscov’s.
As for any discount, a saleswoman told me Johnson already has received 30 percent off, which is misleading because she bought the mattresses during a 20 percent off sale. That discount has nothing to do with the delivery snafu. Only the 10 percent offer does.
Johnson said when she first called on July 28, the day the delivery was due, she was told by the warehouse the mattresses were on layaway and would be delivered after she had paid in full.
Her mattresses aren’t on layaway, though her receipt does have a layaway number on it.
She paid in full the day she ordered them. She has a receipt to prove it, showing a zero balance.
As time passed and Johnson kept demanding delivery, she was offered a full refund. She turned it down.
She’s already spent two weekends shopping for mattresses and doesn’t want to do it again. The other places she checked were too expensive or the products weren’t as comfy.
If you’re wondering what happened to the boys’ old mattresses, Johnson’s two younger children inherited them. They’re 2 and 3 and just outgrew their cribs. Johnson figured her older boys could rough it for a short time while waiting for new bedding, but she never planned for it to be this long.
She had hoped to attend the Allentown Fair on Saturday, but now she’ll be waiting for her mattresses.
Again. All day. She said she was told they could arrive anytime between nine and five. I’ll let you know if they do.