Receiving FAQ: The who, what, & why
There are many associated expenses when taking on an interior decorating project. The cost of the furniture, of course, will be the majority of your final price, but many times you will also see a line for receiving and storage. What do these costs represent and why do we have them?
Why do we use receivers?
Receiving is actually a very important step in a design project. After all, once we order your furniture, it needs to be sent somewhere! However, this location usually cannot be directly to your home. In the first place, many of our vendors only ship to commercial addresses, not residential. This is largely because your furniture does not move through the mail like your typical Amazon package would; manufacturers use freight line carriers, which are large semi-trucks that often travel across the country for deliveries. So, unless your home happens to have a loading dock and a dedicated team ready to unload the truck, we have to make other arrangements.
And, if you think about it, you don’t want deliveries to your house anyway. Most projects we work on require a minimum of a dozen deliveries per room, each of which can weigh anywhere from 25 for a couple lamps to 300 pounds for a sofa set! Even the most dedicated of Amazon shoppers wouldn’t want to be constantly waiting at home for these numerous and enormous packages to arrive in 4-8 hour delivery windows.
All this means that when we order your furniture pieces, they get sent to our receiving warehouse.
What do receivers do exactly?
Now, despite the name, “receiving” entails a lot more than just signing for a package. This company:
makes themselves available all day to accept deliveries
unwraps the item/package
inspects the item for damage upon receipt
repairs aesthetic imperfections
wraps the item back up for protection and delivery
disposes of packaging and crates
stores the item in a safe and secure place
delivers all your items to your residence when we’re ready to install
sends us regular updates throughout this process, including photos
Whew! Let’s break down some of the above steps, because the importance of this receiving work cannot be overstated.
Damage
A surprising amount of furniture arrives damaged, ranging from surface level scratches to broken legs, and our receiver takes photos and writes up a report of the damage so we can then contact the vendor and arrange a replacement. Most of our vendors require we report damage within a very short timeframe after delivery, or even stricter, they require the delivery is refused upon delivery if it is damaged. If there is damage to anything, even the box, our receiving warehouse notes it on the paperwork. Occasionally, they are even able to repair minor damage in-house, which is a huge time saver. We take care of this for you, so you don’t have to worry about filing damage claims yourself or spending hours on hold with customer service.
Storage
Our receiver also provides storage services; all of your furniture is scanned into their online database and safely organized and stored in their warehouse so it can be collected at a moment’s notice. We chose each piece to create a cohesive whole, so instead of making a million trips to the receiver to pick up singular items, our receiver holds onto it all in one place, so that when we deliver it, you can have that exciting, TV show-makeover reveal of your beautiful new home. Not to mention, delivery fee’s add up if you are delivering each and every piece of furniture. So they hold on to it and delivery it all at once for us.
Delivery
Speaking of delivery, our receiver provides a team of people to deliver all your items to your house with white glove treatment, assemble furniture as necessary, move everything to the exact spot our design team designed it to live, and clean up all the packaging before they go. Moving is an exhausting process, so it is invaluable to have a professional service do all the heavy lifting – literally!
Without being hyperbolic, we simply would not be able to do what we do – or at least, not nearly as efficiently – without our receiving warehouse. They are the crucial last steps in making sure you get your furniture in great condition and in a timely manner. Some design firms choose to markup receiving costs, but at Wendi Gee Interiors, we decided to just directly pass along these costs to you at what we are charged. Hopefully now, when you see lines for storage and receiving on your invoice, you know what those mean and the types of services they provide, though, of course, if you have any additional questions, feel free to ask us.
Haul off trash or old furniture
Another thing our receiving warehouse does, is haul away the gazillion boxes and crates after the install. They take this back to their warehouse and make large trips to the recycling center and dump on a regular basis. They do pass on a nomimal fee for this, but worth every penny in our opinion. We haven’t had a client yet that wasn’t happy to pay this. In addition to trash, we have many clients that have wanted them to haul off old furniture. These guys sometimes want it for their personal homes, and if they do, they don’t charge you anything to haul it away. If they don’t want it, there is a small fee for them to haul away old furniture to cover their time and costs to dispose of it. Another service our clients have loved! I think we have probably all had a piece of furniture or two that you know nobody will want and isn’t worth a dime - you just want it to disappear. Well, that’s what happens!