Deceptive Business Practices at Civilzzation Furniture in Salt Lake City, Utah

Ro-BEAR aka Bob at Civilizzation got my hopes up with his Going Out of Business ads but unfortunately it was his little marketing trick to get people into his store. When I saw the ads I got excited, hoping that Bob and Civilizzation were actually going out of business. After I posted the horrible service experience my brother-in-law Tony had there people have continued to post and comment how bad their experiences have been at Civilizzation. I’d imagine that a company with such a terrible track record of service and disgruntled ex-employees wouldn’t be able to stay in business as long as they have but I guess stranger things have happened.

You can read my earlier post about Tony’s experience with Bob. It’s pretty astonishing but what is even more concerning is that to date more than 20 other people have commented on my post and even shard horrible experiences of their own with Civilizzation Furniture in Salt Lake City.

I’m hoping to make $100 that Civilizzation stole from Tony the most expensive money Bob ever took. Help me show this immoral scam artist that you’ll support him. Never shop at Civilizzation. Advise everyone you know, everyone you meet, and tell complete strangers to avoid Civilizzation. Never buy anything from Civilizzation.

Just Sitting At Home

I’ve started a new job a few weeks ago. I’m working for a company called Karaktr Media. I’m doing graphic design and web programming. It is a good thing that I’ve got an MBA and 10 years of marketing experience so I could become a graphic designer…have I mentioned that I started teaching myself HTML about a year ago…Odd how thing work out. They did give me a new MacBook Pro to work on so I did fall in love with my job on the first day. I can’t complain because after being out of work for 8 months, I was willing to take anything.

My beautiful wife bought me a surprise yesterday. She bought me Dan Brown’s new book called Lost Symbol. I’ve only read the first 30 pages (in a Dan Brown book that’s like 40 chapters) but I am already addicted. I love it because I suspend reality and just enjoy a good story.

I am looking forward to this fall. For some reason I really enjoy great TV shows and every fall they all start up again. Summer TV is painful. You’d think that someone at the big networks would figure out that people still watch TV during the summer. Maybe they’ll move some of the better shows to summer and not leave it to the reject programs. The worst part about fall TV is the MLB playoffs. Baseball is really lame. We get like two weeks of new episodes and then the baseball playoffs start. For some reason all the TV stations stop playing new episodes for the month of the baseball playoffs and we’re thrown back into TV rerun hell. You’d think it would be bearable with cable TV but it’s not… that just means there are more channels with nothing on.

Civilizzation is going out if business. HA! I hope I my post, Never Buy Furniture from Civilizzation, had something to do with their demise but I think that ship has been sinking for a long time. There is some kind of gratification in seeing a bad owner, manager, boss, and company reap what they sow. I don’t wish ill will on people because it’s not politically correct but I’ll never pity anyone who gets served a bit of their own medicine. I can think of a few other companies that should look into karma insurance.

Never buy furniture from Civilizzation in Salt Lake City, Utah

Tonight at dinner my brother-in-law, Tony, told us about his experience at Civilizzation, a furniture store in Salt Lake City, Utah. Tony stopped in to shop for couches a few weeks ago without his wife. He found one he liked but learned it was the last one. He put a $100 deposit down on the couch so he could go home and measure the room it was going to be put in and bring his wife back to see it. He received a receipt that said if he chose not to purchase the couch he could use his deposit as in-store credit on any other item. They returned this weekend to the store to discover the couch wouldn’t fit the room he and his wife had hoped to put it in. They looked around the store to find something they could use with their $100 deposit. They found a chair that they liked and when they went to purchase the chair the owner “Robert” (who pronounces his name Robe-air) refused to honor the $100 deposit. Initially Bob tried to lie saying that there was no record of the transaction but when my brother-in-law went around the counter and looked at the computer the transaction of his deposit was on the screen. The two argued back and forth for a bit until Bob ask Tony to come back to his office. It was there that Bob yelled, scream, threw a little bitch fit at Tony. He swore at him, threatened him, and kicked him out of the store.

Now Tony is not a small guy. Had I been in Tony’s place I would have spent the night in jail for beating the shit out of this Bob after hearing about the way he spoke to Tony. Tony asked Bob if he was threatening him and then warned him that if he touched him he would defend himself. That’s Tony’s way of saying “if you get any closer to me I’m going to kill you”. Tony wasn’t talking like kill you/punch you in the face, He’s talking like kill you, you’ll be dead. They exchanged heated words and Tony left. Bob wouldn’t sell Tony the chair, give him a refund, or even honor the in-store credit.

After cooling off a bit Tony returned home and called the store. He wanted to talk to Bob and get things resolved. Tony was happy to pay him the difference for the chair and walk away forever. While Tony was waiting on hold he got another call. He got a call from the SL Police Department. Bob had called the police and claimed that Tony has pushed him but didn’t feel the need to press charges. He just wanted to make sure that Tony knew he couldn’t come back to the store ever again. Tony spoke with the officer and told him his side of the experience. When all was said and done the cops knew Bob was a lying sack of crap.

As of today there are a few ways for Tony to get his money back. One of those ways to help Tony get his cash back is to never buy anything at or from Civilizzation. No customer should ever be treated the way that Tony was. No one should ever be talked to that way. Do not support a company that treats customers as poorly as Civilizzation treats theirs. If you find something in Civilizzation you like contact me. My wife is an interior designer and will find another wholesaler who will get the same furniture for you without having to deal with this horrible company.

One thing was interesting. When Tony started telling the story, Geoff, another brother-in-law, said, “Oh my parents had the WORST experience at Civilizzation. They delivered couches with a hugh tear in them and refused to fix, swap out, repair, or refund any money. In fact they told my dad that if he wanted them to even look at them he would have to load them back up and bring them in to the shop.” Within a small group of 8 adults, there were 2 horrible customer service stories from Civilizzation.

I’ll add Civilizzation to places that I will never spend a dime! Here are a few places on that list. They are all here to my personal experiences or something that I’ve heard from someone else.

1. Low Book Sales
2. Orbitz.com
3. Brent Brown Toyota
4. Regean Outdoor Media
5. Civilizzation

Here is the Better Business Bureau report on Civilizzation. As you’ll see, Tony isn’t the only one to have some problems with ol’ Bob and the boys at Civilizzation.

They have had 11 complaints in the last 36 months. You’ve really got to suck to get someone to complain to the BBB
1 regarding Contract Issues, 2 regarding Customer Service Issues, 1 regarding Delivery Issues, 2 regarding Product Issues, 4 regarding Sales Practice Issues, and 1 regarding Service Issues

Do your part to pass the message to people like Bob at Civilizzation that it’s not okay to treat people, especially customers, poorly. Let him know that Civilizzation is a poorly run and poorly managed business. Don’t shop at Civilizzation in Salt Lake or any other market they might move into in the future. Don’t let your friends, family, or enemies shop there either.

If Bob will refund Tony his $100, I’ll take this post down. Until Tony’s money is refunded I plan on using my down time at work to do everything I can to make sure anyone who searches Google, Yahoo, MSN, or ask Jeeves for Civilizzation, furniture in Utah, or many many more keywords related to buying furniture in Salt Lake City, Utah, find out just how bad Bob and Civilizzation treat their customers.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

I’m reading a book called Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott. She quotes a poem by Phillip Lopate. This poem is great and unfortunately reminds me of WAY TOO MANY people I know.

We Who Are Your Closest Friends

By Phillip Lopate