One of the things I lacked when I moved from my parents' house to NYC was a bed. It seemed to make the most sense to buy one in NYC, rather than lug one all the way up from the DC suburbs. The room I moved into, let me remind you, was only 8'x10' and the closet stuck into the room, so space was at a premium. My dad kept saying that I could take one of the extra twin beds from their house, but beyond the question of where I would have put it in the already stuffed-to-the-gills car, is the fact that I REALLY didn't want a twin bed. Moving to New York City was the first real grown-up move I'd made, and I wanted to do it in a grown-up bed, dammit.
Now the question remained, how exactly was I going to fit a double bed in a tiny room with all of my stuff? I thought about a loft bed, or a semi-lofted bed that I could put dressers under, but I really didn't want to spend a ton of money on a bed that would only be useful to me in this one apartment. After a ridiculous amount of searching on-line, I decided that a platform bed with drawers in it would be the best bet. I was meticulous about finding the best price, so I went with the one from Big Apple Futons. Not only did it have the most space, but it was also $200 cheaper to get it from them than any of their competitors. It didn't come with a mattress, so I ordered one separately from 1-800-MATRESses.
I thought it would be smart to put the orders in for everything before I moved so that they would come in as close as possible to the day I moved. I ended up sleeping on my airmattress for about a week before my real mattress came in. Then I had the real mattress on the floor while I waited for the bed. Big Apple Futons said that the bed would take between five and ten business days to be ready. They also said that delivery into my apartment was included.
After a week of sleeping on my nice, new mattress on the floor, I called Big Apple Futons to inquire about my bed. They said it would be another 5-10 business days and could give me a better idea of the exact day later in the week. Again they assured me that delivery was included.
Another week went by -- no bed. I called again and spoke with someone different. This woman said it would probably be another week. She muttered some excuse about Labor Day, now two weeks in the past, as to why it was taking so long.
Finally, after nearly four weeks, Big Apple Futon called to say that the bed would be delivered the next day between 10 and 2. I again asked about the delivery, since I knew my roommates would be at work during the day and unable to help me with the bed. The person on the phone assured me the bed would come right to my apartment.
The next day I made sure to have all of my stuff out of my room by 10, to ease the move-in. Then I waited, and waited, and waited. I was supposed to be at work at an afterschool program at 3:00. At 2:30 the delivery guys called to say they were downstairs and dropping off the bed. I asked them to bring it upstairs. They said they couldn't because I hadn't paid for delivery up the stairs.
WHAT?? I immediately called the people at Big Apple Futons, and they claimed ignorance. No one would have ever told me that carrying the bed up two flights of stairs to my apartment would be covered. It was an extra charge. The free delivery was only to the door of the building.
WHAT?? Who ever heard of such a thing? (yes, New Yorkers, I am now very familiar with this concept, but I'd only been in the city for four weeks at this point and was quite naive)
After some yelling on the phone, and assuring Big Apple Futons that they were the worst company I'd every worked with, I calmed down enough to realize that I had to think of a way to get the bed up the stairs. I offered to pay the guys with the bed (which, until then I'd refused to sign for, so they were just standing next to it on a busy SoHo street) to carry it up the stairs. They charged me $15/flight of stairs, which was cheaper than Big Apple and probably more than they would have gotten if I'd paid through the company as well.
And then, finally, I had my dresser-bed . . . complete with four drawers and a storage compartment, it's extremely comfortable and lived through five apartments with me. Excellent investment.
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