Molly sent a message to Marvin R. Ellison President of J. C. Penney Company Inc.- email address that said:
Hello Mr. Ellison,
I would first like to introduce myself. I am the great grand-daughter who worked closely with Mr. James Cash Penney in Kemmerer, WY as they started what would eventually become the mother store of the Penney's chain. In my great grandfathers autobiography "Nothing Can Stop Me", he talks a lot of Mr. Penney and his desire to listen to his customers and to always follow the Golden Rule. My great grandfather truly respected Mr. Penney and spoke highly of him and his business practices. Because of that family history, our family has, for generations, been loyal Penneys customers. My parents have furnished their homes with Penneys furniture and my sisters and I have continued to do the same. We have ALWAYS been impressed with the quality of the furniture for the value. I whole heartedly want to support Penneys. I didnt contact you to tell you about our love for Penneys, although Im sure youd love to receive more emails like this. I contacted you to let you know that my husband and I have become very frustrated with the customer service side of ordering furniture from your company with our last two major purchases.
The first being that we ordered a King bed (headboard/footboard/frame), a dresser, 2 night stands, a sliding door wardrobe, new mattresses as well as a living room entertainment center. This was a large purchase for us as we are just middle class people. We were given a date for delivery and Penneys called to let us know they would in fact be delivering on that date. Therefore, we sold our current bedroom set the day prior to delivery and thought we would just camp on the floor for a night. We ended up camping on the floor for 5 nights as no one could tell us where our furniture was. We were told (lied to) that the delivery truck had a flat tire one day, that the truck broke down another day, so on and so forth. I cannot express politely the frustration on our part. I just wanted my furniture delivered and a bed to sleep on.
The second instance is currently ongoing. As a Christmas and January birthday present to me, my husband ordered a new grey leather sofa for our living room on 12/21/15 from our local Redding, CA store. The first problems started in the store as it took more than 4 hours in the store to just order the sofa and buy a floor model leather chair. The female associate had no idea what she was doing and ultimately asked my husband to help her try to figure out how to order the sofa! She charged wrong amounts on the JCP credit card multiple times and then had to try to refund the wrong amounts. The result of the credit card mishaps was that when we received the bill, we spent another hour on the phone with JCP/Synchrony Bank trying to figure out what we owe and dont. Upon purchasing the sofa and chair, my husband was told at the store that it would take 4-6 weeks for our sofa to arrive as it was a "custom order" in grey but that they were sorry for the time it took and their associates lack of knowledge and that they would put a "rush" order on it so that it would for sure be here before the 4 weeks. It has now been a month and we just received a call and were told that it will be "at least" another month for our couch to arrive. Again, I am so frustrated with JCPenney and their customer service in dealing with furniture. I have loved Penneys. I have been impressed with the quality of the furniture that we have bought. I have ALWAYS gone to Penneys first when we need to purchase furniture but as the saying goes "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." I can pretty much guarantee that there will not be a third time that I will be put in this position with you and the company you are now trying to rescue. I am now done with Penneys unless something can be dont to make this right.
Good luck in your endeavors to try to turn around this company. I truly hope that you are able to get it back to the roots that my great grandfather spoke so highly of "Treat customers the way they would want to be treated".
Sincerely,
Molly
