Ashley Furniture and Living Spaces are undoubtedly two of the most popular furniture retailers in the United States. If you’re setting up a new home, you may be undecided as to which brand to choose for your furniture. But what furniture retailer is better between Ashley and Living Spaces?
Living Spaces and Ashley Furniture both cater to the budget and midrange section of the furniture market. Since each has its strengths and weaknesses, the brand you end up choosing should depend on what you want from your ideal furniture retailer.
In this article, I’ll outline the specific strengths and weaknesses of both brands, and why you should choose one over the other. Also, you’ll learn some alternative furniture retailers to use if neither Living Spaces nor Ashley Furniture meets your needs.
Is Living Spaces More Expensive than Ashley Furniture?
Furniture can get quite expensive, and most new homeowners strive to get the best furniture for the cheapest prices. If price is one of your foremost considerations, should you shop at Living Spaces or Ashley Furniture?
Firstly, it’s important to note that Living Spaces offer a price match to competitors. If you can find the exact brand and model of an item you bought in another retail store for a cheaper price, Ashley Furniture will match the price and give you a 10% off.
Here’s how it works. If you bought a furniture piece from Living Spaces for $1,200, and you found the same brand and model in a Rooms To Go retail store for $1,000, Living Spaces will refund the difference plus 10%, getting you $300 in total.
With this price match offer, you can buy from any Living Spaces store with the assurance that you’re buying at the lowest price for which you can get the item. Living Spaces also offer price adjustments, so you enjoy the same package if the price drops in the store within 30 days of your purchase.
Ashley Furniture has almost the same feature, except that you won’t be getting the 10% discount on that purchase. You also get price adjustments on items that drop in prices on the Ashley Furniture price.
Whenever you’re purchasing from either Ashley Furniture or Living Spaces, you can rest assured that you’ll get the lowest prices you can ever get. However, Living Spaces has a more interesting price match policy than Ashley Furniture.
Both Ashley Furniture and Living Spaces accept negotiations. If you think you aren’t getting an item at a fair price, you can negotiate with the sales attendant to mark down the price to make the item more affordable.
Since these retailers offer similar price protection policies, it’s hard to refer to either brand as more expensive. If you make a purchase at either retailer and discover lower prices on the same item at another retailer, you can match the prices to get your full refund, and in some cases, a bonus.
Which Brand Have Better Customer Service?
When it comes to comparing customer service quality between these two brands, it’s hard to pick a winner. And no, this isn’t because they’re both too good; instead, it’s because they’re both pretty bad.
With Ashley Furniture, you can either get an excellent or an insufferable customer service experience, depending on who attended to you. While some are desperate to make a commission from selling to you, others seem to want to listen and help you resolve any problems that you might have.
On the other hand, Living Spaces’ customer service is mostly bad. When you purchase an item from the store, you should hope you don’t run into any issues using it. Otherwise, you may have to go through an unfriendly customer service that knows next to nothing about the store’s products.
The fact that both brands have terrible ratings across multiple platforms drives home this point. While you’ll be hard-pressed to find a positive review about either brand, going through the negative reviews also proves that customer service is an existential problem for both retailers.
Does Living Spaces Have Faster Delivery than Ashley Furniture?
Ashley Furniture utilizes different delivery methods depending on your location and the size of your package. There is standard shipping, home delivery, and both of these methods take different times to deliver your furniture.
For products that support the standard 1-day or 2-day shipping, you can get them delivered just two or three days after making your order. This delivery speed makes Ashley Furniture one of the retailers to beat in the furniture industry.
However, you don’t get these super fast shipping and delivery on every piece of furniture you buy from Ashley. Some factors like delivery capacity, availability, natural disasters, and weather can delay your delivery, with some having to wait weeks to get a product.
On the other hand, Living Spaces offer three delivery options on most purchases; full-service delivery, indoor or outdoor drop-off, and free store pickup.
On all delivery options except the outdoor drop-off, an adult must be around to acknowledge the receipt of the item. Unsurprisingly, you can only incur a delivery fee when you choose either of those delivery options.
If you order a product before 4 pm, you can get same-day delivery in select locations across the United States when you select full-service delivery. However, it’s important to learn that you will be paying a fee of at least $99, in addition to the list price of the item.
Indoor drop-off is free in most cases, but you may also incur additional charges in some locations. However, outdoor drop-off doesn’t require you to pay a dime, regardless of your location. You can also choose to pick it up at a store yourself if you’d rather handle delivery yourself.
Since you can get same-day delivery on certain Living Spaces purchases, they deliver quite faster than Ashley Furniture, but you must also be willing to pay $99 or more.
If you want super-fast delivery without having to pay an arm and a leg, it’s best to go with Ashley’s standard shipping. While it may not ship your items right away, you won’t be waiting for too long, and charges are always minimal if any.
