Early Settler ACT, Fyshwick

Disgraceful furniture – I bought a a table 4 chairs a sofa and three barstools chairs. We never used them as we were away for work. We started using the furniture this year and all the furniture has fallen apart. The lounge is like sitting on the floor. The chairs and stools are flat as a board like sitting on concrete. I want a full refund your furniture is a disgrace. Show details

Thank you Early Settler Fantastic Service – I would recommend Early Settler to everyone. Excellent staff and service. Went out of their way to help. I bought a dog bed from them. The lovely people there took it to my car when the box didn’t fit the lovely young man went back to the shop to get scissors to open the box to make the dog bed fit in my car. I was just overwhelmed with the wonderful service I had received. Keep up you great work. I can’t Thank you enough.  Show details ·  2

My beautiful big vanity – Staff online very helpful, Kelan and staff instore also. Only thing is please add weight to unit specifications sheet, we got a great surprise to see our beautiful BIG new vanity when it arrived, but were faced with quandary of 137kgs logistic of moving to place in "upstairs" bathroom. I would use Early settler again the vanity was… Read more

expensive but in this case a beautiful quality item and I was able to negotiate a little due to current sales for the spring. I didn't think I would ever spend that much money on bathroom furniture (about twice my budget) so Early settler team you ARE doing things well and I am exceptionally happy with the purchase. thank you Susan

Love love love – Such a beautiful mirror at a reasonable price, thank you EarlySetter for great service. The mirror fits beautifully against my freshly painted wall and we could not be happier. I will definitely be back for more.... Show details

Early Settler Fyshwick - Fantastic! – Super friendly staff and fantastic products at quite reasonable prices. Have bought loads of furniture and other items to decorate our home affordably. The staff are always pleasant and go the extra mile to help. Highly recommended.

"I always find the staff friendly and helpful" – I always enjoy my experience at Early Settler. The staff are friendly and really helpful and are happy to spend the time finding what your after. I highly recommend!  Show details

Awful Customer Service – In May 2017 my daughter ordered a tv/entertainment unit from the Fyshwick store and was told that it would be available for delivery the following week. When we didn't hear anything further we phoned to chase it up and were told, "I don't know why they told you that, there's none in stock and we don't sell it anymore", we were told to leave it… Read more

with them and they would look in to it. Once again weeks went by and we heard nothing back and had to chase them to be told that they may get some in October or we could have a floor stock piece from another store or a refund. Because of the problems we'd had, they also offered free delivery on the floor stock and a $50 store credit.

So we decided to accept the floor stock, free delivery and credit. Finally in July, they found a floor stock piece and delivered it to our home. When the truck arrived, the guys brought it inside, but laid it upside down on the floor (wrapped in plastic) saying that the legs were a bit wobbly and would need screwing in more before it could to put the right way up. Ok, a bit weird, but we were so glad to finally have it, that we said fine, we can tighten the screws and they left. I was home alone when it was delivered, so had to wait for my husband to get home so that we could screw the legs and turn it the right way up as it was very large and heavy. We had to add a screw to one of the legs as it only came with one instead of two, but we got there and were able to turn it over and unwrap it.

Unfortunately, once unwrapped, we found that it had a large, deep scratch in the top that had obviously been "repaired" as we could see a darker area around it where it had been painted over with more varnish, so whoever wrapped the unit must have been well aware that it had been damaged, but chose to wrap it and send it to us anyway. We called the store straight away, only to be asked “well why did you accept it if it was damaged”. We explained the whole upside down, wobbly legs, missing screws situation to then be told to send photos of it to their head office which we did straight away. The following day we unfortunately had to again speak with the store employee who was very rude and aggressive telling us that if we wanted a new one we would have to bring the damaged one back to them. We said, no, you delivered damaged goods, you can come and pick it up. She said, “We gave you free delivery, we can’t pay for it to be picked up again, it is costing us too much money”. This argument went back and forth and ended up unresolved, but with a promise that if we wanted to wait, new units were due in store on October 3rd. We should have learned our lesson by now, but as we weren’t in a rush, we agreed that we would wait until October for a new unit…

Fast forward to this week, Sunday 29th October. We have been waiting since May/July and the promised October 3rd delivery date has been and gone. We happened to be in Fyshwick and called in to the store to ask for a refund, we had given up any hope of ever getting the unit. The staff member we spoke to said that her manager would have to authorize the refund and would call us the next day (Monday) as she wasn’t in on the Sunday. By Wednesday we had not received a call so we called them and were told sure no problem, you can have the refund. They could do it over the phone so we gave them the card number and were told the credit would come through by the next day. Ten minutes later we got a call to say that they had made a mistake and instead of refunding us the $499, they had charged us a further $499, but could not fix it then, it would have to be authorized by head office but would not be done until the next day. When I said please do it as quickly as possible as that’s all the money in my daughters account, she said “I will, I didn’t have to tell you about it, I could just have left it and not called you until the morning and you would never have known”. Unbelievable!

Next day…. Actually get a call from the store without having to chase them up! They can do the refund for the extra charge but can’t refund the original charge until we bring the unit (which has been sitting in our home from July to November) back in. Again I told them that we cannot bring it back in and they will have to collect it. Their response is “No, our policy is that we gave you free delivery, so you have to pay to have it picked up or bring it in yourself” “we are doing you a favour by doing this refund” etc etc. Luckily I was prepared with the information from the ACCC website regarding returns/refunds of damaged goods which clearly states that the business is responsible for the return. As I began to read this information to her, she started shouting “no, no, no, no” over the top of me! I persisted and kept reading and when finished she said “the truck will be there within the hour to collect it” and hung up!

The truck did in fact turn up and the unit collected. I did however have to call the store after several hours to request the refund be put through. Finally by the next day we had both refunds in our account. There were many other occasions throughout this drama where we were promised calls that never happened and we had to chase them and the manner in which we were spoken to by this particular store employee, we have never experienced before, she should not be in a customer service job.

Beware of this business, we would never buy from them again. Oh, and we never did receive that $50 store credit either.

Terrible service – I went instore to enquire about a bed that I've been interested in for my daughter. Upon entering the store I was greeted by a very friendly gentlemen who stated that it was his first day so he would have to get help from someone else. The women who I was waiting to help me put the phone down without hanging up (obviously wasn't a work related… Read more

call ) she decided to answer some of me questions with a sour look on her face. Her answers were short! It seemed like she wasn't interested at all. She even suggested I go to their competitors to get an idea of the size of the item I was after, she just couldn't be bothered in making a sale. So I walked out and ordered a bed from pottery barn for my daughter. I actually wanted to purchase the bed, side draws, the chest of draws and the dressing table however, I didn't because the lack of customer care! Having an employee like her will only drive sales away.

Great product and great service – I made the purchase online. The process was straight forward with a deposit being made and the balance finalised before delivery. The product was delivered in a timely manner.  Show details

Don't go there – Last year I found some bedroom furniture (4 pieces) on sale so put an order in. Was told it would take a few weeks. The bedside tables arrived and they wanted me to pay the balance and take delivery. I said I would prefer to wait until all pieces arrived. 9 weeks after order I was told that one of the pieces would not be coming at all but I… Read more

could purchase one they had in stock which had a cracked top - no thanks! What a waste of time. If I had taken delivery of the other pieces I would not have had a matching set. When they issued the refund they didn't refund the credit card fee they charged me (that is actually illegal - but I couldn't be bothered chasing it up). Don't go there.

Good product for price! – Six months ago I bought the maroon coloured French provincial style coffee table from Early Settler, as did my neighbour. We have found this product excellent considering the price. We were fortunate to buy them at a 50% discount. Today I also purchased the bedside table to match and intend buying the dresser. Both reduced by 50%. In… Read more

December I bought a black chandelier for my granddaughter's bedroom. The staff have been excellent. The chandelier got damaged and they willingly replaced it. I think people should realise that this is not an expensive product and therefore, one gets what one pays for. If people really want good custom made furniture they will possibly pay five times more for the same product, when made in Australia. Denise Canberra Excellent service from sales people. Inexpensive furniture.

Fyshwick Store Poor Customer Service – Despite booking in a delivery time of 5pm as my husband and i work full time and have great difficulty getting time off work, which we explained, the delivery driver did not deliver our furniture and lied to us about the time he delivers until claiming he doesn't deliver past 3pm. I phoned the store and was advised that the driver wasn't given all… Read more

the delivery info and that he does deliver to 5pm. While advised she would follow him up, and call me back, i had to call again 30 minutes later after not receiving a call back. The store advised at 4:30pm they couldn't get hold of the driver as he was still making deliveries! Overall we found that the store staff including the manager couldn't care less about the inconvenience caused - the manager who knew of the issues didn't even come to the phone. Even if you see something you like, don't bother shopping there - the customer service and delivery service is so poor. Its because of stores like this that we are now all shopping online from overseas!