To the editor,
My wife and I recently moved. We downsized from our home of 36 years – a four-bedroom, full basement one on a large lot (about 0.4 acre).
We had been on a waiting list to get a unit in a complex geared to seniors; two bedrooms, no basement, no yard to speak of, and, best of all, no maintenance.
Consequently, we sold or gave away things like rakes and shovels, and many tools, a snow blower, and a riding lawnmower.
We signed a lease and sold our house within a week near the end of April.
We also decided it was time for some new living room furniture. On the recommendation of both relatives and friends we chose to deal with a major national chain with an outlet in Owen Sound.
We placed an order for a sofa and loveseat on April 26. We were told it would take 16-20 weeks to arrive. We decided we could live with that and would use a couple of easy chairs from mid-July, when we moved, until mid-August or mid-September.
After calling at the end of 16 weeks we were informed it would be the end of the time range. After a suitable wait a further phone call brought the suggestion that it could be yet another six weeks. They promised to inform us regularly even if it was that they had no new information. No calls came.
Another call was made near the middle of October resulting in a somewhat firm date of sometime in March.
At that point we made a short list of other retailers we would check out.
Our first choice resulted in a road trip to Dublin (Ontario). Listowel and Kitchener were also part of our planned outing.
When we indicated what we were looking for, we were directed to a lower level of a quite old, multi-level building. At the bottom of the stairs was a matched pair of units, right colour, right place of manufacture (not Asia), and, most importantly, available.
Our trip ended right there. Delivery will be one to two weeks from now.
John Finlay
Walkerton
