We're Moved In!

Well, here we are, at home in the Adventure Bus. All in all the move-in went well.

The only real glitch was with the great deal we got on the memory foam mattress. It turned out to be a not so great deal after all. Mainly because the manufacturer - NasaFoam - failed to deliver as promised. The deal on Groupon looked great. A $2100 mattress for $699 - what a saving. Who could resist. So I ordered it. The order procedure seemed strange. No "thank you for your order" note. No receipt. No anything. That made me nervous.

So after three weeks I called the company. Someone answered the phone with "hello". No company name at all. That made me more nervous. I said I was calling to enquire about an order I placed. "They don't deal directly with the public" the voice said. "but you have a link on your website to redeem my Groupon" I said "Oh" said the voice "Well, where do you live?" "Halifax. Nova Scotia" "Halifax, where's that?" Now, that made me really nervous.

The conversation ended with a promise that the shipper would call me with a delivery date by "the end of the week". The end of the week came and no call. So I called again. The voice said "I will look into it and get right back to you" Then no call.

After another week I called again. The voice was starting to get abrupt and rude. So I hung up and emailed Groupon. After two responses saying there was nothing they could do because it was an internet order I wrote asking for a refund. One day later we got a note from NasaFoam asking for payment for shipping. Hurrah! Finally some action! I paid it immediately with Paypal. As you likely know Paypal guarantees they will refund your money if there is a problem. We use Paypal for Bay Hammocks on-line payments and know their system - they hold back 15% of each order for 90 days in case they need to refund someone's money.

We waited another week and still no mattress. Arch then called NasaFoam and talked to the voice. By now we know his name is John.  After some discussion he learned that the mattress was supposed to be shipped by a freight forwarding company and they (Nasafoam) had no control over the shipping date. So Arch asked for a bill of lading #. John said there was no such thing. Now, Arch used to work for Ford Motor Company in material handling so he knows - there is always a bill of lading.  After some discussion Arch got the name and a phone # for the supposed shipping/freight-forwarding company - Can Move. He called Can Move. Again, the phone was answered with "hello" and the addition of a lot of laughter in the background (are you starting to get suspicious?? we sure were!). After a short but heated discussion he hung up and called John back. 


If you know Arch, you know he is not the most gracious person in the world when he is angry. This conversation ended with John cancelling the order. 


I immediately emailed Groupon asking for a refund, which I received within 24 hours. By the time I got to Paypal our payment for shipping had been refunded - by John I suppose.


Nasafoam has a very fancy website and looks like a real and successful company, but I guess looks can be deceiving. Can Move appears to be non-existent. Here is the BBBs listing for them. We have no gripe with Groupon. We use them frequently and this was our first difficult experience. However, I do feel they should vent the companies they do business with a little better. And their complaint procedure could be more efficient.


After all this, we then got on the phone and found a company, right here in Halifax, Comfort Foam and Fibre, that custom cuts and makes foam mattresses to size. Very nice people. We got exactly what we needed within two days. It is not memory foam, but but it is extremely comfortable and cost only $800 tax included. The moral of the story: SHOP LOCAL whenever you can.


So here we are all moved in and very comfortable. I will write more about our first days in our new digs tomorrow. For now, here is Princess enjoying the new bed.