Our New Bed Set

Beds and other things October 2, 2005 About two blocks from us, there was a new rattan store. They imported everything from Indonesia. They had a nice selection of things, but Hungarians being Hungarians, the store never had customers. Perhaps since it was called "The Rattan Shop", no one could understand what it was and just ignored it. Who knows? I found it by accident one day and we bought a couple of small pieces there for the hallway. I had noticed they had this bedroom set with 9 different pieces: Bed, end tables, large dresser, upright dresser with mirror, upright dresser without mirror, etc. I have never had a nice bedroom set before and loved this set at first sight. The bed and the two end tables were included in one set. Being imported, it was pricey, but really sturdy and well crafted, obviously from hand. Each week, I would go and visit it to make sure it was still there. I took a student with me to translate since they did not speak a lick of English, though the store was owned by three young guys. The set was also available in colors like green or gold, but it would take 4-6 months to get from Indonesia. I thought a color would just cheapen it and loved what they had in the store. My fear was that they would sell the set in the store close to when I saved the money for it and then would have to wait 4-6 months for another set. At the end of August, I took a student there with me and told the salesman that I wanted the set, but could not buy it until the first of October. I had retro pay coming from the university. He said it may be sold by then and they could not order another. I had to risk it, though each and every time I had been to the store, it was empty. By September, they were there with the doors open, but the lights off. I had this feeling they were saving on electricity. I feared the store's contents were going to disappear one night never to be seen again. By September 23rd, I had the money and took a student to go buy the set. I had gone to the store the night before and peaked in the window to make sure it was still there. As the student and I approached the store, he pointed to signs in the window and said "This is your lucky day. Everything in the store is 10% off. We verified that this offer was for the bed set too and I bought it. They offered delivery and asked if that weekend would be good for me. I said yes and was thrilled. Since there was the savings, I decided to buy the dresser too. I plunked over a whole bunch of money and they gave me receipts for all of it. It always makes me nervous to give a big chunk of money and only get a flimsy printed paper in return. They were to call my student in two hours and arrange delivery. Two hours went by and I did not hear from my student. Three hours, four hours, and then five went dragging by and not it was close to five o'clock. I called my student and asked him to call them and see what the story was. When he called back, he said they could not tell him when they would deliver yet. They would call him on Monday. MONDAY? They have a lot of my money and all I have is a sheet of paper that I signed. Then I worried that by signing it I had signed that I had taken delivery of it. The student had received a phone call on his mobile just as I signed the paper, so I did not ask him what I was signing. Holy cow!!! By Monday morning, I haunted my student to haunt them with phone calls. By Tuesday, they finally told him that they were "moving the store" on Thursday and it would be easiest for them if they delivered on the same day. He shared his thoughts with me that "moving the store" meant going out of business for good. I had visions of my bedroom set being put in storage somewhere, never to be seen again, our money along with it. I had to keep reminding myself that we had paid for our apartment in cash and did not have any paperwork stating we were the owners for over a year. I told my student to make sure he safe-guarded their phone numbers so I could turn them over to our lawyer here just in case. Thursday morning at 10:30, they did indeed deliver. After the pictures on the wall behind the bed are rematted, it will look perfect.

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