I recently had the most terrible experience with this place- know both as the 'Oriental Rug Gallery' and 'Effandi'- same business. The owner sold my wife and I a rug, assuring us we could return it for a full refund if we weren't satisfied with it, or exchange it for another rug.
Wanting to support a small local business, I bought a rug from him.
We don't have tons of money to throw around, but my wife and I just bought our first house and wanted to buy one nice item we've always wanted- a persian rug.
The owner of this business makes a big show of coming off as a 'nice guy', making all the assurances that if we weren't 100% satisfied with it we could return it, no problem.
However, upon getting it home we noticed a strong, unpleasant odor from it- not noticeable in a store filled with rugs. It was quite musty, and when the sunlight fell on it (again, not possible in his dank store) we saw that the rug had quite a few defects in the weave.
We brought the rug back, and the owner gave us another two rugs to try out. Neither one worked for the room, so I went back for the promised refund.
This is when the owner did a complete 180 in his attitude. He acted shocked that I would think the rug could be returned for a refund- even though he explicitly told me it could be. At no point did he ever mention a 'no returns' policy, nor is there a sign in his store claiming such- which legally should be in the State of California.
My wife and I were shocked; he claimed to have 'invested' the money and that he no longer had it.
He then offered to exchange the rug for another one... but he had the audacity to ask for another couple thousand for each one. As I'd quite extended myself financially on the first rug, so this was out of the question.
Another interesting bit we noticed was that each time we were in his store the age and prices of the same rugs varied; one rug he told us was a 'mint condition antique' turned out to be a new, machine-made rug. Another that was '70 years old' was 'twenty years old' another day. The man is just making things up on the fly- his stock is obviously cheap new rugs (that can be had for half the price at Crate & Barrel), and cheap old rugs (that can be had for 1/5 the price on ebay or Craigslist) , and he inflates all of his prices outrageously to his whim.
Go figure- this sad rug salesman misrepresented everything about the sale in order to part my wife and I from our cash. He took advantage of his own customers unscrupulously- a pretty short-sighted strategy on his part- to make a quick buck.
After the transaction i did some research online (which I'll admit I should have done in the first place)... this man has had to change the name of his business as he's had so many complaints filed against him through the Better Business Bureau. Now he's got another one.
Spend your money anywhere else but here. You'll save literally thousands of dollars and a massive amount of grief.
more