Arshsrugs

This was my simply TERRIBLE! Experience at buying rugs from Rugknots.com and their rug "partner", Arsh's Fine Rugs. I strongly believe in giving every business completely fair and honest reviews, and feel it's never "right" or ethical to write a false or undeserved review, under any circumstances. Everything in my review is my honest opinion, and accurately depicts what happened to me as a result of my now truly regrettable decision to buy rugs from both these rug companies. I originally chose Rugknots to buy custom, handmade persian rugs, based on their mainly positive reviews and their overall rug selections. I was also impressed by Rugknots' Owner's rug background, along with her (stated) charitable donations made from each rug sold. I had always wanted to have these types of rugs in our home, but had found them too expensive. Rugknots' prices seemed competitive, plus they offered me an additional 15% discount for being a 1st-time shopper, which was a nice, unexpected bonus as well. In September 2018, I bought (3) handmade persian rugs online from Rugknots.com. I later found out that all (3) rugs shipped to me had both been stored at, and shipped from Rugknots' rug partner, Arsh's Fine Rugs. Rugknots' rug partner, Arsh's Fine Rugs, is in a warehouse location in Carlstadt, NJ. Rugknots business is located in a different and separate warehouse location in Hagerstown, MD. This is very relevant to my situation, because I later learned NONE of the Rugknots' employees I worked with ever personally saw or inspected any of the (3) rugs shipped to me from their partner, Arsh's Rugs. When I first got my rugs near the end of Sept 2018, my Contractor was with me as he's been doing renovations on our home for around the past year. As soon as we laid out all (3) rugs, and were able to view them up close, we immediately saw the rugs had varying degrees of damages and defects. The worst of the (3) rugs were my (2) rugs from Iran: both these Iranian rugs had significant deeply set-in permanent stains and marks throughout, and both rugs looked used versus new; my 3rd rug, from Pakistan, did not have any noticeable stains and marks, unlike my (2) Iranian rugs, but instead it had significant weaving defects or flaws running through it, that looked like deeply set-in lines and creases that ruined its overall appearance. All my rugs were definitely NOT as described or as shown on Rugknots' website, and NOT at all what I'd paid for or expected. When I first saw my rugs, I was very disappointed and upset, as all my rugs had looked "perfect" in their online photos. (since this happened to me, I now know it's next-to-impossible to see ANY type of rug damages and defects, even significant ones, like mine had, in any rug photo: you need to be able to go see a rug in person, and properly view it up close, to fully see all the details in any rug). IF I had been able to first personally see any of my (3) rugs they sent me, I would not have bought any of them. After viewing each of my rugs, I immediately called George, the Rugknots employee who'd sold me my rugs, and told him how unhappy and dissatisfied I was with them. George apologized, and asked me to send him some photos of my rugs he could show to his "partners", Arsh's Rugs. My Contractor later took some rug photos (as his cell takes better pic's than mine) which I then sent to George. (also keep in mind, at this point, I knew nothing about Rugknots being in partnership with Arsh's Fine Rugs, and that all my rugs had come from Arsh's Rugs, and not from Rugknots' warehouse: George never did get back to me about what transpired after showing my rug photos to Arsh's Rugs, but as events later played out, I now have a pretty good idea of what they told him; this was a huge red flag at the time, which I totally should have picked up on, but I was naive and too trusting all along). I did keep my rugs past Rugknot's 30-day return period, but there were genuine extenuating circumstances behind this. George later approved extending my 30-day return window, to accommodate me for being shipped damaged rugs. During the just over 2-month period I had my rugs, NO ONE in Management, including the Owner, ever called me to apologize, or acknowledged I'd been sent damaged rugs in error, or tried to make things "right", or ensure I was satisfied. Had they done these things, I would have been OK with being sent damaged merchandise by mistake, and would now be giving them both 4 or 5-star reviews, versus the 1 * I feel they deserve. Unexpectedly, George left Rugknots near the end of Nov 2018, which upset me, as George had been the only Rugknots employee who seemed to care about my being sent damaged rugs, and had been trying to help me. George gave me Lexi's name as his replacement before he left. As crazy as it sounds, even at this late stage, I was still considering even keeping all my rugs, as re-packaging and shipping back large and very heavy handmade rugs is a HUGE challenge and undertaking for the average person. I was also even considering possibly buying (3) new "replacement" rugs, as I would have happily kept all my rugs, IF they'd actually matched their online descriptions and photos. I briefly worked with Lexi on perhaps buying "replacement" rugs, but after finding out she wouldn't be able to personally inspect any of the rugs I was interested in, due to the rugs being at Arsh's Rugs' warehouse location, I opted out. I simply didn't want to take the high risk of being sent damaged rugs again, and Lexi, unlike George, didn't indicate she believed I 'd been sent damaged rugs in error, and I really felt like I was on my own after George left. In the end, I decided to return all my rugs at the beginning of Dec 2018. Unbelievably, Arsh's Rugs falsely accused ME of damaging all my rugs while I'd had them, and claimed they'd thoroughly inspected each of my rugs before shipping them to me in "excellent condition". Arsh's Rugs also said "all the rugs I'd shipped them were damaged beyond repair" and denied ever shipping me damaged rugs in error. Rugknots fully backed and BELIEVED their partners, Arsh's Rugs, over me, despite my telling George from Day 1 that I'd been sent damaged merchandise, and despite all the "proof" of emails, phone calls, rug photos, etc, I'd sent him ever since first getting my rugs. To further bolster my case, my Contractor also sent a firsthand "eyewitness" statement confirming that "I hadn't sent them back damaged rugs, the rugs they'd sent me had been damaged from the start, and Arsh's Rugs were simply NOT telling the truth!" Also, Rugknots has a very biased and slanted against the customer Return policy, which I now know definitely worked against me b/c I'd been sent damaged rugs from the start. In their return policy, it states that "the rugs need to be sent back in the same, undamaged condition they were shipped in", so when you're shipped "damaged" rugs like I was, you're in a total "no-win" situation, and it is truly your word against theirs. Based on what happened to me, I believe there HAVE been other instances where customers were mistakenly sent damaged goods, but they didn't complain, unlike me, and kept their rugs. However, since it did happen to me, I fully believe it has happened to others' before me, and will happen again. Businesses are run by humans, not robots, and all humans make mistakes at some point, whether these (2) rug companies want to admit it or not. Someone at Arsh's Rugs has to know who was responsible for inspecting and shipping out my rugs, as they're a very small family-owned business. I do believe more often than not, these (2) rug companies ARE successful at sending out "nice" rugs to the majority of their customers, based on their reviews & the # of years' they've been in business, but it doesn't change the fact that I was NOT sent "nice" rugs, far from it. What really upsets me, even now, is how they chose to handle the whole thing, and totally throw me, their paying customer, under the bus. Rugknots only paid me back about 1/2 the money I paid them and I have taken a total loss of just over $4000! Despite my awful experience, I still really want to have custom persian rugs in our home, but going forward, I will now only shop in person from a reputable rug dealer, and never shop online for rugs ever again. I have to say this: Whatever happened to actually BELIEVING AND BACKING YOUR PAYING CUSTOMERS?! Both Arsh's Fine Rugs and Rugknots need to take a huge lesson from excellent companies like Nordstroms and Costco who actually BELIEVE and support their customers, no matter what, and make sure they're fully satisfied.