Excellent experience from the homepage to assembled bed!
Written: Feb 19 '08 (Updated Feb 19 '08)
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How Did I Find the Place?
After reading a review by Miss susieq on All Children's Furniture Online Store, I decided to give them a shot since we were in the market for sleeping quarters for my 4 year-old son and did not have a ton of money to spend, but wanted something nice-looking. We had looked around at places like Kid’s Rooms to Go and other places with children’s furniture and found two things: 1) If it looks decent, expect to pay over a grand, and 2) if you want something that MAY last him or her awhile, see #1. Come on, if you spend a ton for a themed bed elsewhere an 8 year old with a Diego bed will get jeered if he has a sleepover, like me and my Mickey Mouse sleeping bag back in the day. I plan to get a new one soon!
Then, you look online. Ebay is fine, but you have NO idea what the product is like from a quality standpoint until it arrives and the shipping costs can be a deal stopper very often. I would not have bought from this site but for a person on epinions, who’s “epinion” I trust very much, writing a positive review. I figured I could blame it on her if it all went to heck!
The look and feel of the site
The website is well-organized, easy to navigate and/or search, making it a snap to find the type of bed/other kid's furniture you are after. On the homepage, you are immediately greeted with several pictures of their finer furniture. As a website owner and having it professionally done, I can tell that they invested properly to make the customer’s experience easy and fun versus throwing in your face what THEY want you to buy.
More importantly than the pictures, you see CLEARLY many ways to navigate to the brand, style, accessories, toys and all offerings they have. For those that like to click their way around, on the left side, there are links to categories. After a selection, it brings up suggestions, but of greater value, it offers ways to narrow the results still on the left so that you are not befuddled of where to look.
Others, like me, prefer the “Type in What I Want” method. You are not left out in the least. On all pages, at the top, you have the ability to type in your search and have it look at a single brand or all items. It brings up nice pictures with links to read details of a particular selection AND you can sort the results by: standard, popularity, price -low to high or high to low and alphabetically, A-Z or Z-A. In addition, it gives other category suggestions and how many items are displayed per page, 40 or 100. Got dial-up or slower DSL, stick with the default of 40 and faster connections you get to look at 100 at a time without paging through. Combine this with the “smaller” image selection for each in your search, the default is “larger”, and you maximize your time spent on the site.
This is how every merchandise website should be designed. You can not get lost no matter your method of navigation, because the top right corner of each page has their logo that will bring you back to the home page. Add tons to your “Shopping Cart” as a way of making favorites since they are so easily removed.
The Experience of Purchasing/Checkout
This is where we ALL say to ourselves, “I am about to get ripped off,” but have no fear with allchildrensfurniture.com. You have several payment options: 1) their built-in billing gateway, complete with security certificate so it is VERY safe, 2) PayPal and 3) Google Checkout. Any of the three are likely fine, but we chose the site’s checkout process and it was no problem.
You just give them a valid email address (this is how you get your receipt), enter your address and name as well as phone number. We have received no solicitation calls since doing so. Give the credit card info for billing, review your order, then submit.
I like this set up as well since it tells you along the top the 4 steps: Shipping, Billing, Review and Receipt. The step you are on is bolded. I always feel like I am going to submit before being able to review and have 10 items processed, 9 of which I did not want. Not so here, you are secure in knowing when you have hit the point of no return.
They also offer a type of insurance so that if you are not satisfied, you can send it back without paying restocking/shipping fees. We did not elect this nor did we need it, having done our research. It is not that expensive to get and would save you a ton of hassles if you received something you did not care for at all.
Delivery
I think they are a little gimmicky with the “FREE DELIVERY”, which we were the beneficiaries of getting. I believe they have put timeframes up that say, “Order by MM-DD-YYYY for free delivery.” I have yet to see ANY bed on the site not have free delivery by it in the several weeks we have been perusing it. Do not make a hasty decision based on time running out is my message. The delivery was on-time and hassle free!
Quality of Merchandise/Assembly
Even though we went the budget route, we feel that of all the looking around we did, we got THE BEST value for our dollar. We chose the South Shore Toffee Mate’s Bed which is made of particle board and covered with a veneer. When put together, the veneer covers all particle board and it looks nice. You can tell it is not real wood if you study it for a few moments, but not so much that it is the first thing you think about.
Assembly was easy, no missing hardware, the directions were clear, though it still may take you a couple hours – we got the bed and headboard. As far as buying a child a bed that costs thousands, think long and hard before punishing him or her for defiling it. Are you angry based on the expense of the furniture you bought or how the child behaved?
In no way should cost be a factor in that, which is why we made the decision to go with an item we can replace after several years once our 4 year-old is mature enough to respect something nicer. Accidents happen and “on purposes” do too with children, since they are not miniature adults. I am in the business of saving kids from time-out and maybe this helps in determining a budget!!!
We are EXTREMELY pleased with our purchase and I am thankful to susieq for the review or we would have never known about it!!! This website is 100% legitimate and has a wide variety of things other than beds in the form of furniture and toys for kids.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? South Shore Toffee Mates Bed & Bookcase Headboard
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Epinions.com ID:
mongomad1
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Location: Actionville, FL (Jacksonville)
Reviews written: 58
Trusted by: 65 members
About Me:
I would give my right arm to be ambidextrous.
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