As part of our interior house update, Ted and I decided to replace our many-years-old baker’s shelf in the kitchen with a nicer piece of furniture. We shopped, and we shopped some more before we finally selected a cabinet that we liked and that would fit in the corner. Then we eagerly looked forward to its delivery.

Included with the delivered cabinet was a duly checked and signed checklist–for bed parts. Huh?

The delivery men brought the cabinet in, removed the protective bubble wrap, laid out the parts (shelves, doors, legs, etc.), and discovered that the 12 screws needed to attach the legs had not been included. “Hardware” was checked on the list, but “Legs” does not appear. We had the unmentioned legs, but not the checked-off hardware. Go figure! Here’s the cabinet, standing on the floor with the legs waiting to be attached.

One of the men called the boss man, explained the problem, and told us they would send someone out within the next two weeks to attach the legs. Okay, things happen. Everything will be fine in two more weeks. Or will it?

As promised and scheduled, two more delivery men arrived–without screws. I offered to let them select screws from our collection, and I made the alternate suggestion that they could go to Home Depot to purchase new screws. “No,” they said, “we can’t do that.” Apparently, the screws have to be the manufacturer-provided screws or the store’s responsibility for assembly becomes null and void. I would have attached the legs myself, but Crate & Barrel would not allow us to pick up the cabinet to save the delivery cost. Instead, they charged us $250 to deliver and assemble it. For that, I decided they could work this out themselves.

Ted followed up with a call to our salesperson to explain the situation and to express our disappointment that we’d had two delivery/assembly appointments and neither one had the screws needed to complete the assembly. Ted mentioned that we were disappointed at receiving this kind of service from a reputable store. To make up for the problem, the salesman sent us a $200 Crate & Barrel gift certificate. That made us feel a little better while we waited another two weeks for the next two delivery men, who arrived with a surprise.

Instead of bringing 12 screws and a screwdriver, they brought a replacement cabinet. Again: Huh? There was nothing wrong with the first cabinet; it simply needed screws to attach the legs. However, Team #3 not only had the replacement cabinet, but the screws as well. Whoopee! They attached the replacement legs to the replacement cabinet and, three delivery appointments after we bought the first cabinet, we have a cabinet standing on its legs.

Insert happy ending here.