When most people think of the furniture store MFI, they tend to think of the store in a negative way. I’m sure that this has a lot to do with people of my age ( I’m 33!!) remembering all the times the store was featured on programmes such as “That’s Life” because of their misleading advertising and poor customer service department. So I thought I would share with you my experience of MFI.
As a few of you may know, I’m currently pregnant with my first child. As a result of this, we have had to give up our music room and transform it into a nursery. Money is a big issue at the moment for us, and whilst we want the room to look nice, we also want something practical, affordable and something we wont mind if it gets ruined by “bump” in a few years time. So, today we headed off into town to try and find some furniture.
We never really gave MFI a thought until today, but as we were passing we popped in. It was easy to park and the spaces were not too close together. The first thing that hit me about the store itself was the air conditioning – a welcome relief in this hot weather. The shop was not crowded by any stretch of the imagination and this was lunchtime on a bank holiday. There were big signs up saying that today you could get an extra 10% discount on the sale price of goods.
As we walked in, two assistants said hello, but didn’t hassle us. We wandered round the kitchen and office furniture, without taking too much notice, then we came to the bedroom furniture, which we were looking for. They had a wide variety, including solid pine, modern style arty designs, as well as the bog standard cheap melamine range.
We opted for a five drawer chest of drawers and a cupboard/one drawer storage unit. We could have these in a choice of blue, cream, yellow or green colours with a choice of five different handles. The sales assistant we approached was very helpful and explained that as the things we had chosen had yellow stickers in them, that meant that they were in stock. He wrote down the item numbers and walked us to a till, where there was no queue. Each item was in the sale and reduced from £35 each to £31 each. I asked about the extra 10% bank holiday discount but he told me that this range was excluded from the offer!!! Even so, I thought they were still a good price.
I went outside to open up the car and he carried the items outside within about 2 minutes, and put them in the back of the car.
I think that the service was helpful and courteous, and the range of value furniture wide. I could have bought other items in the same range, such as a bookcase for £13, a blanket box for £15 or a wardrobe for £40.
I admit that its not the best quality stuff in the world, but you do get what you pay for. If, like me, you want something cheap and cheerful, then I recommend having a look, because their prices are good and, having got the furniture home and assembled, all the parts were there and the instructions were clear and concise.
If you want high quality furniture, don’t even go through the door, but if you need a few items like I did, then I would strongly recommend it.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Wide selection, hygine checked, charity aid, low prices, great name clothes and friendly people. As well as the thrill of the chase! Disadvantages: As with all things, there are some good and some bad charity shops. Don't be put off by one bad one, as the majourity are excellent.
Advantages: stores all over the country, always a sale on, not too pushy, payment and delivery Disadvantages: those annoying adverts, having to pay extra for everything
May 28th, 2001
very helpful by (100%):
