wow, I was expecting you to say that while you were going to pick it up, it turned out to be really hideous. because in actual fact that thing is horrendous.

My living room comes to mind :)

agreed! (and they have two!)

I sure did make that mistake before. I found an armchair online that was listed as being blue, but in the picture was grey. I emailed the seller and she said the colour was correct and that perhaps the chair was actually grey.
She lived in a suburb and I got horribly lost on the way and was an hour and a half late picking it up. When I saw it it was indeed blue and quite an ugly blue with some stains on it. I felt so awkward having made her wait around for me and I was standing in her living room having committed through email to buying it, that I paid her and left with it.
That was two weeks ago, so I still have that stupid chair and it bugs me to look at it, so it's covered in blankets and novelty pillows.

I tried to buy new bed sheets on line to replace my light blue ones that recently died. However i cant seem to get the colour right, i ordered a set of light aqua which turned out to be a really garish in your face aqua. so i returned them. then tried again with a soft blue grey that looked perfect in the picture, but turned out to be mauve! which clashes hideously with my room. I think its time to call it quits, and just spend the money on store bought sheets, at least ill know i'm getting the colour i want.

I think that's a pretty sweet couch, but I have a thing for anything tufted. Um, a set of dining chairs I thought I could paint and have been meaning to forever, and a couple of lamps that in the picture looked like teak and white ceramic, but in actuality were just faux painted wood bottoms and all beat up. I was going to paint them, but ended up just leaving them in the basement when we moved. The chairs came with, but really they sat in the basement of our last place for months, and now that they're here we might paint them, or they'll end up in storage 'till I think they're worth the effort.

That's not our actual lounges pictured- that was sent in from a reader asking if anyone has any tips on cleaning a velvet chesterfield [see the link at the base of the post].

It's one of my all time favorite photos on ATLA! Love a couch hogging puppy.

Sell one of the lounges and get another complimentary feature chair.

I bought a coffee table online and when I showed up it was not at all what I had pictured. I was using a carshare and it was running out of time and the girl was all but moved out of the apartment she was selling it from. I felt bad and paid up. It's still here a year later, and I still hate it.

Oh, I can make you feel better.

We thought we were buying a gorgeous set of dining room chairs on ebay. In the photos, they looked large, substantial, exactly what we were looking for. The description said they'd been used in a cafe in Spain. When we won the auction, you would have thought we'd won the lottery. We had to have them shipped across the country. We were so excited, until..... they arrived. They were literally half the size they appeared in the photos. HALF. They were SERIOUSLY tiny and UNBELIEVABLY uncomfortable. Yes, we were idiots. But then my friend bid on (and won) what she thought was a gorgeous mission style rocker. Turns out, it was the size of a doll chair. (Literally, it was a chair for a doll.) So, no one was laughing at me anymore after that.

Read the fine print, people!

if you have the space you could put them facing each other with a decent sized coffee table in the middle. the matching chair in the same room might be a little overkill but otherwise i could see this working as an excellent conversation area. other then that ... sell one and make some money back on your investment.

I bought super cute anthropologie drawer-pulls in the shape of bows. When I got them, they were clearly made of crappy metal- there was no way they were made by anthropologie. Luckily, they were so crappy that one had snapped on the journey over and I returned them.

Woah, how can anyone call that sofa horrendous! It's one of the most beautiful sofas I've ever seen! Byoootiful!!

i'm confused by your story -- was this a craigslist purchase? How could you be committed to buying it before you actually saw it personally in person? If you didn't like it, why didn't you just walk away or only buy one piece? Also, you really should have put a pic of the actual pieces.

It is LOVELY! I went through a major "vintage tufted orange couch" phase a few years ago. Bought 4 within 6 weeks, none were quite perfect.... one was too shallow for lounging, one was not long enough for me, my bf, and the dog, one seemed plastic and cheap, one was too long for the staircase and the elevator so it lived in my apt's lobby for a weekend. Finally found a HUGE down filled dark gray couch with a queen sleeper inside and settled down for a few years. But my now ex-bf still cringes when I bring up the idea of changing out furniture... I'm never as careful as I should be.

Really, how disappointing is it that you got two sofas you like for the price of one sofa you like, and can now sell one of them and end up with an even better bargain sofa that you like? Am I missing something?

I'm with idontdobeige!

It's really a score, minus the fact that you're down one armchair you'd expected.

idontdobeige - apparantly you are - they were going for a lounger and 2 arm chairs and ended up with 2 loungers and 1 chair. Not only do they have to find room for the extra lounger they have to go through the hassle of possibly selling it - not to mention disposing of whatever was there originally. Sounds a bit off the original plan. I make the similar mistakes more often than I should on ebay - usually with measurements - on a smaller scale - just received a glass cloche that I pictured as small and had the spot in mind on a shelf - the one I pulled out of the box was HUGE!!! Too big for a shelf - have no idea what to do with it....ugh....no wonder the shipping was so high! Feel your pain!

I bought a tiny tiny chair. The ad said it was small, and she gave measurements, which i checked. But I checked the height of the back of the chair, not the seat height. And since it's a dainty sort of design anyway, it looks freaking tiny next to my bed. It looks child size. I'm still not sure what to do with it, because it is really cute. Maybe I'll give it to someone who has a child. At least it was cheap.

It's like AT tracks my life and posts accordingly. Just last night, the new bench I bought from Target finally arrived. I *knew* its dimensions before it came, and yet was still surprised by how big it is (I think seeing it assembled was the key). It overwhelms the space I had planned for it, so my husband and I dragged the bench around the house to find it a more suitable home. It's under the window in our bedroom now, which isn't a terrible spot for it, but is also not ideal. We desperately need the extra available seating, so we're keeping it. Live and learn, I guess.

I'm with venus_thames - musical chairs takes a new meaning when applied to craigslist purchases. Just sell it again. Missed opportunities caused by fear of mistakes suck, bad purchases recycled make you stronger. You won't win everytime, but continued practice will make you smarter and more able to visualize. Also, practice saying "Sorry, but this won't work for me" and spinning on your heels to leave. Gets a lot easier with repetition.

Fortune favors the brave!

How can so many people have looked at this page and the comments, and not reported the spammer?? Spamming on otherwise quality sites makes me so angry, and it makes the site look cheap. Report, report, report.

I recently had an awful experience when buying furniture online. There was an absolutely beautiful 40s kitchenette on Ebay, and the seller said the only fault was some leadlighting that was coming slightly loose, which she photographed and it really was not that bad. There was a bidding war at the end, and I won out for something like AU$250. When it was delivered (for which I was charged AU$75 for a distance of about 8km/5 miles), it turned out to be an absolute piece of junk, with the described fault the least of many – one entire leadlight window loose from its surrounds, the metal mesh screen (that many old kitchenettes have on the side) loose and irreparably bent, some of the hinges broken, and the doors and drawers so stiff it is just awful to use. But because my partner had been the one to receive it and pay for it, not realising that I didn't know the extent of the damage, the seller refused to give a refund because under law we technically "accepted" it. GRRRR! None of the faults were visible in the photographs, and because the description had listed *one* of them, and the seller did this as her primary business, I didn't really have any reason to suspect she was crooked, or to ask for more detail about any other faults. After many terse emails she still refused to refund, and at the same time had the gall to repeatedly refuse to answer my direct question of whether or not she knew the extent of the damage when listing it on Ebay (just by ignoring the question). Such a nasty, vile woman. There is a special hell for traders like her.

The worse thing is that I bought it because my new rental kitchen didn't have a built-in pantry, and now because I spent so much money on this piece of sh*t I can't afford something that is actually properly usable and in good condition!

When I moved into my condo, I took forever to decide on living room furniture. I measured, remeasured, searched, and finally settled on a brown velvet sectional from Pottery Barn.

It was wrong. While it fit into the space, it didn't fit. It was - just wrong.

Three months after living with it and hating it every day, I called PB to see if they could offer me any help.

They took it back. Issued me a credit. I ended up with new pieces that I absolutely love.

And..I love PB customer service. Not many places would have taken it back.

RosieGreenie--

There is a link below the comment box that says "Seeing spam? Let us know."

That's probably the best way for you to deal with it if it's bothering you. Plus, that way, when the spam is removed, your comment doesn't look like a crazy rant about something that's not there anymore. :)

The sofa shown in the photo is not what the author is writing about. That is from an old question about cleaning velvet. (There is a link shown after the article.)

Again:
"Houses should be lived in.
Dogs should be on sofas."

I found some lovely handmade benches on craigslist and thought they would be the answer to all of my dining room seating woes.

Despite measuring beforehand, they too were larger than anticipated (the legs splayed too much and would require climbing on top of them before sitting down). Calling the woodworker that made them to take them back seemed very tacky. They will be great for outdoor seating in the summer, but not for the dining room. I'm really contemplating whether a long space that is 6 feet wide can really be used as a dining space for a big group after all.

This is why I love Craigslist. If something ends up not working for me, I'm usually able to sell it for as much as I paid for it (and in some cases, more).

This sounds awful! I haven't had this happen to me as I'm a bit mental when it comes to making purchases online and not being able to see the real thing until its time to pay and pickup. Either way, that lounge is fantastic!

businessgypsy said it best...

A few years ago, the hubs and I found a perfect leather sectional sofa at IKEA--I believe it was the 'HAMRA'?--but decided we would wait and save up to pay for it in full ($1400 /-), when I found the exact sofa on CL like a week later for only $800, and 10 miles from my house! Score! Or, so I thought. We went and looked at it, and all seemed ideal, so we paid and brought it home. It wasn't until weeks later, when we were trying out new furniture arrangements, we realized it was not the same sofa. This one HAD to be left connected, and could not be broken up, like the one in the store. The sides of the chaise and loveseat were unfinished and had ugly holes/sharp pins where the pieces locked. So, it's pretty, but not very versatile, and I wish we had just bought the perfect one from the store... Live and learn. :)

Oh, I don't know, Mr. PP looks happy.

Seriously, lose the pillows and replace with a contrast color to put it more in scale to your space. It's an illusion, but try purple (color of the year in menswear) in recovering or replacing the pillows. And the brown is a great supporting color.

It's big, and perhaps that's what's scary right now. I have a feeling if you let it come forward as an anchor piece -- you may have to minimalize a bit to do that...don't know your space -- this piece could be very cool.

I don't quite understand the issue here. I actually thought you were going to say you got the buy home and couldn't get it in the house.

You were buying off of Craigslist, therefore if you arrived at the seller's location and discovered you misunderstood the listing or found something different, you could have just walked away. If you were that in love with the sofa, perhaps you should have simply negotiated to buy the sofa and one chair instead of both. If the seller wouldn't break up the set, then I think you did the right thing, take it home and just sell off the unneeded piece.

I have bought a number of items off of Craigslist and Ebay. And there are a significant number of unrealistic sellers and buyers on the site, (i.e. buy my entire set of items). Yes, buyers and sellers should be considerate to one another but one should never feel obligated to buy something you don't want simply because you spent a lot of time traveling to the destination or the seller waited. These inconveniences go with the territory and your willingness to walk away from the sale is actually leverage to get what you want.

RosieGreenie,
Ebay has a complaints resolution system that you probably still can utilize for your unfortunate purchase. The company is supposed to be very particular about item misrepresentation.

I did the same thing, purchasing a dining room set off Craigslist, paid $400.00 when it was worth $100.00. Made my friend drive me over an hour, getting lost and complaining the entire time. When I went to pick it up, I felt awkward and didn't exactly love the set but felt guilty for making my friend take me and it was a single mom who seemed like she needed the money. Of course now, I totally regret it. And yes, I could've walked away but I wouldn't have learned such an important (and expensive) lesson. Same goes for my Total Gym purchase LOL.

JennyB, why would you post a picture of a different piece of furniture? Bait and switch.

what's a lounge, that's what I want to know.

Have to agree, that the pic is misleading.

No I have never made that mistake- well not yet lol. But they are stunning. Can you sell the spare couch?

I just wanted to say I LOOOOVE this picture. It looks like my pup, except he totally fill up our 3-seater (from the 30s when apparently seats were smaller) and always paws the pillows into a pile to make his bed extra comfy. So cute.

People this is a post from AUSTRALIA. There is no Craigs List in Autralia so it's most likely an ebay transaction or similar auction site!

Even if it has nothing to do with the post, BEST PICTURE ON AT EVER. I love people who give their dogs couch space. It's easy to clean pet hair off furniture, but snuggling your dog on the couch is life changing. And knowing your dog is totally comfy makes your heart explode with love.

Actually, we do have Craigslist in Australia and it does list furniture--just not as much as the US, since we've got fewer people and less stuff!

Yes. I have had so many failed online purchases. Most have been ebay purchases that I thought would be perfect and then had more damage than the pics showed or turned out to be totally different colors than the pictures represented. On Craigslist I have also had some blunders. Once I drove for an hour to see a dining table that turned out to be a horrible laminate wood (said it was real wood in the ad) but since I'd driven so long and needed a table I bought it as a temporary piece (and have since replaced it, thank god). Those sorts of transactions leave such a bad taste in my mouth...

On the other hand though, I have had some great experiences where I got way more than what I expected, like ebay finds that ended up being worth way more than what I paid for them. So I guess it all evens out. In the end, though, I think usually if something looks too good to be true, it is. I think it's generally better to go for the thing that is realistically priced and where you're pretty sure that you're getting a good quality item than the thing that you think may be an underpriced treasure and turns out to be junk. I've always been happiest with the things where I spend a little more than I would like but am fully satisfied with the quality of the item.

I have operated under the assumption that ebay is a two way street. Yes, you should always read the ad carefully, but keep a copy of the text of the ad if it's a major purchase. If the seller is omitting information, misrepresenting the thing they're selling or outright lying, then what they're doing is fraudulent. I am not a lawyer, but there are some things a seller cannot do to entice you to buy furniture, and lying is one of them.

@creative license
Ha, a similar thing happened to my parents. They bought a beautiful room divider from China on Ebay...and it turned out to be about 8 inches tall. I took a look at the auction page, and it was pretty misleading, no dimensions were provided and nothing else was in the picture to give perspective. I have to wonder if some sellers do this on purpose (though not sure why they'd want to deal with disappointed auction winners), or if they truly don't see that the item could possibly be interpreted as being full-size.

just can't believe there are people who don't think that sofa is gorgeous! the sleeping dog is pretty awesome too.

this dog is way too spoiled... in a cute way :)