Iggy Z.

The level of stupidity and incompetence knows no bounds at Harvey Norman starting from sales assistants and ending with their delivery people in Harvey Norman Moore Park Furniture franchise.

I am questioning Harvey Norman "Shop with Confidence" and "Shopping you can Trust" mottoes because I did both.
Both company statements give shoppers a peace of mind but it is the last thing on their commission driven staff minds by the looks of hundreds awful reviews on every possible review site in Australia and my own atrocious experience.

The promise of safe shopping at Harvey Norman is what gets people in through the door. Beware, this reputation is FALSE.

The trust and the confidence they are advertising are the core points however what follows in reality is inappropriate behavior of their staff resorting to:

Verbal manipulation with big pressure because you are there and you want their goods
Blatant deception, poorly masked hostility, emotional bullying

However politely they are doing ALL THE ABOVE, the psychological stuff unleashed on an unsuspected customer's psyche makes for a toxic unhealthy environment to be spending your hard earned money where arrogant attitudes of the desperate nobodies trying to make a commission off you by pretending to be utmost "helpful" to start with BUT with zero product knowledge/customer skills coupled with wrong advice while acting like they are a best friend to you and would be offended if you did not do what they ask. If you had a Harvey Norman sales technique experience and survived you have a strong mind.

Greed is what drives Harvey Norman's sales people spearheaded by their proprietors not the skill or customer satisfaction.

The elaborate ways Harvey Norman sales assistants and their managers play their little mind games with their prey aka customers is astonishing. Insert 'vomit' emoticon.

All we wanted was a Splendor Leather 3 Seater Lounge with Chaise 3 months ago advertised for $2999 interest- free/no-deposit and only available at Harvey Norman.

So we went to Harvey Norman Moore Park Furniture Store. How difficult was it to get it right with the item pictured in a magazine brought with us at Harvey Norman? IMPOSSIBLE

The young girl assistant swayed the whole thing onto a different sofa. Same brand but smaller and cheaper to make a sure sale I believe which was not even on their display to look at or sit on.
What kind of a moron tries to sell something else entirely to customers who are after a specific 1 thing that is on display and they already like it?

I am convinced if she could offer a toaster instead of the sofa she definitely would have done so.
Anything to make a sale of. Why not just give what we wanted. Game over. We came to Harvey Norman for it, didn't we? Why confuse customers with other items not asked for and taking us around and round the store?

We complied not wanting to be rude to her as she got enthusiastic and all which she obviously counted on after "befriending" her customers. Dirty sales tactics.

It was the beginning of the next 3 months stressful ordeal - the whole nine yards.

She ended up pushing us ever so sweetly into ordering the smaller coach with uncertain dimensions of. We were concerned.
SO she kept measuring and re measuring the large sofa on display to get the right length the smaller one, consulting with manufacturer's measurements on their website which by the way were also dodgy as they did not stand by them 100% and said to find out in store:
"measurements quoted are a guide only. Please confirm details with your local retailer before ordering".

Duh. Did we not?
Going with what she said for the 2.5 seater sofa length being no less than 212cm or 210cm. We still have it written on a piece of paper. Our previous coach was that very length so 210cm was OK.
2 weeks later than scheduled making it a 2 whole month wait exactly the tiny teeny sofa arrives through the door.

Get this: apparently you are not supposed to trust sales assistants and they can say anything according to Harvey Norman floor manager in that store. He literally said this to our faces looking like we should have known it all along and were just a couple of fools.

He was actually there and was no help when she manually measured their existing Splendor Leather 3 Seater Lounge without its Chaise and adding the arm rest dimension instead to the rest over and over for 2 days in a row.

She concluded manufactures website must had been wrong as it was not what she got by measuring the big lounge in person minus the chaise on it. We went with her, and the manufacturers website said to check with the store.

SO why wouldn't we while Shopping with confidence at Harvey Norman? She's the assistant. To know this stuff is her job. If not what is it? What is she getting paid for?

Obviously I turned the doll sized sofa away and went 3 times to the store pointing out to her bad advice and wrong measurements only to get threatened with the 20% cancellation fee by floor manager. Wonderful, no one there wants to admit or fix ANYTHING but kept "politely" intimidating us.
Is it too much to ask to be served with dignity?

The original sofa is what we came in for and somehow got swayed into a smaller unsatisfactory purchase which turned out to be missing a whole arm rest in length (like 30 cm at least) and was so tiny, it was preposterous to pay $1850 for.

Maybe $300 but not 6 times more. Talking about a huge rip off with shopping you can trust advertising.
Terrible value as far as I am concerned.
DO NOT LET THEM SWAY YOU FROM WHAT YOU WANT FOR WHATEVER REASONS.

After trying to put a simple point across of an obvious inconvenience of sitting on floor to the manager we offer to take their display lounge with $100 off which is only reasonable after waiting 8 weeks and receiving a miniature, he is still vehemently denying girls' fault.

Turns out their best buddies and he has promoted her to a... wait for it... complaint manager.
Wanting to keep his store lounge for display purposes and not be without it for 2 weeks or more, he took another $100 off to order it in with an additional wait of 2 extra weeks.

Honestly by that point I did not want to continue with purchase. I was simply exhausted from all of the blame and denial he kept dishing out but the cancellation fee kept us on.

Honestly by that point I did not want to continue with purchase. I was simply exhausted from all of the blame and denial he dished out but the cancellation fee kept us on.
I would be happier obviously to take the display as I did not want to sit on the floor any longer
No skin off his nose, of course. He went on his holidays. I however had to wait 2 weeks more and take 2 half days of work in a row to come to the store to finalize my interest-free finance and his $200 off sofa did not cover it all.

Later on the proprietor rubbed it in making it sound like after getting a wonderful deal and fantastic service we wanted more from him. What a nerve!
SHOPPING EXPERIENCE SHOULD NOT BE THIS DIFFICULT.

As I did not have enough now to cover the larger amount for the original lounge with one card due to the girl's bad advice to get it in a smaller size on interest-free card I had to apply for a second finance credit card.The finance itself cost me $170 which was not even mentioned.
There is no transparency at Harvey Norman.
DO NOT TAKE THEIR ADVICE AT ALL COSTS.

So my lounge arrived late by a whole week. I got extremely irritated by this as well as they deceive me again by not giving me my Cleaning Leather Kit the floor manager gifted to me for inconveniencing me.
Apparently taking $50 off the second card finance fees due to fearing I would not otherwise sign it qualifies for removing the gift without notifying me but my paying an extra $49 on second card fee is no big deal. He "saves me money" according to him.

DO NOT TRUST THEM. THEY CHOP AND CHANGE AS THEY PLEASE.

To add an insult of not getting what was rightfully gifted to an injury after demanding my Leather Kit the proprietor threatens with cancelling lounge, saying he's not making the money. NASTY.
IF THEY OFFER YOU ANYTHING DEMAND TO RECEIVE STRAIGHT AWAY.

By that point I was considering his rude "offer" honestly but firstly wanted to ask him in writing, of course, if there would be cancellation fees as the girl said there would be.

He just goes ahead and cancels without confirming with me.

THEY DO NOT READ OR LISTEN AND RUN ON ASSUMPTIONS then they twist WHAT YOU SAID to suit themselves and DO NOTHING FOR CUSTOMERS.

If you ask me after all this the bloody thing by now should be free.

To cut long story short the girl re-instates the invoice and as it has been 3 months of no sofa we don't want to sit on the floor anymore.

Sofa comes but Harvey Norman deliverymen damage leather in it tripping and dropping it on cement which is noticed after it is fully unpacked and refuse to take it with them unprotected saying to wait for the replacement as new drivers will have sofa bags to take it safely away.

I comply to make things easy and honestly it is really difficult to constantly predict ANOTHER DECEPTION and offer to swap it for a display as no way I am waiting or keeping damaged goods with a $3000 price tag on it I am to pay for a whole year (all up with the fees $2920) calling manager twice, who reassures to deal with replacement on Monday. DO NOT TRUST THEIR DELIVERY PEOPLE.

Monday he passes me to same girl now made complaint manager and I am wondering whether I should give her a piece of my mind as if it was not for her wrong advice to get a bloody small sofa I would have been alright as other drivers who brought teeny sofa were very professional and careful unlike the imbeciles she sent to me (someone else organized the previous ones)when she informs me they do not deal with the damages.

It is not their domain, manufacture deals with that. Gah!

One lady's review actually asked whether Harvey Norman employees are from Mars.
Am wondering that myself here.

Completely disgusted I email the proprietor. Not a peep. Floor manager is hiding from me.

The complaint girl keeps making things up denying responsibility as well as the promise of lounge replacement discussed.

She is trying to get out of it emotionally blackmailing me like I was her best friend who's betraying her saying she is "only trying to be nice to me" acting personally offended and does not appreciate a firm reminder that she is not my best friend,
I AM a Harvey Norman's store CUSTOMER who is promised a swap and happy to take their store lounge to get it over with as twice discussed last Saturday afternoon on the phone with manager who passed it onto his delivery drivers and they instructed me to wait for replacement!
Is it too much to ask to get what's advised and needs to be done to customer satisfaction?

Harvey Norman Moore Park Furniture store has made a nightmare out of a simple straightforward purchase.

Harvey Norman, do right by your customer. You will go out of business treating people like this.