<p>Hello:</p>
<p>As parents of an incoming freshman, starting to get all those mailings from schools, and not knowing which are legit/sanctioned, and which are not.</p>
<p>Got one yesterday about a company that provides the full spectrum of linens for the dorm room and they are set up in their room. Not cheap, but wondering if anyone had done this before and had thoughts.</p>
<p>Seems like BB&B is also a good option.</p>
<p>We looked into this service after receiving a brochure from Middlebury. We decided against it because they deliver to your home rather than the college, and we have to travel a long way to Vermont. We decided to purchase similar items from BB&B, Kohl’s, or J.C. Penney. They all have college dorm websites, sell the extra-long sheets, and can arrange for pick-up at a store near the college. In our case, ‘near’ is Burlington, VT, but it will be easier to load the gear into a rental car than to to take it on the plane or ship it from home.</p>
<p>The quality is completely awful. DO NOT buy from them under any circumstances, or you’ll just be replacing the items after a couple months.</p>
<p>The only ones I know who have done this by necessity were folks who resided out of the country and wanted their kids to have linens when they arrived at college. BUT even those students tossed these substandard linens as quickly as they could and bought their own at Target or BBB.</p>
<p>We went with Bed Bath and Beyond. Ordered at our local store and picked up near the college. It was extremely easy and efficient. Actually for the sheets and towels we did buy those locally so we could wash them first - everything else we picked up.</p>
<p>I just bought all my linens/other stuff at Target and places like that - it seemed much cheaper to me than paying for a service.</p>
<p>In my naivete, I used this service for my S and it is a real rip-off. As other posters have said, the linens were very poor quality. For the same price, you can buy much better merchandise at any other store. Don’t get tricked into buying gift baskets at exam time either - those brochures will start coming at the end of October.</p>
<p>Well said, all posters here.</p>
<p>You can do so much better than the RH linen service. Just look for sales in Bloomingdale, Macy’s, etc. You can get wonderful quality, 400+ thread quality cotton at discounted prices during special sales. I did this and got wonderful, long-lasting linen for S when he started college last year.</p>
<p>Also, BB&B is a great option, especially if your child’s college is near one. They make it easy for you to order online or at a local store then pick up at a location close to your child’s college. Don’t forget to sign up to be on their email list. They will send you discount coupons or codes. You can get 20% off one item (go for most expensive like a comforter or sheet set) or maybe even 10-15% off all items purchased in one order (have to wait or look carefully for these).</p>
<p>For BB&B, it works well to buy a bed-in-a-bag (1 item) and use 20% off coupon. </p>
<p>Make sure to check what size you’ll need - most colleges have XL Twin bed.</p>
<p>^^bbb now has automatic system so that if you give them a bunch of coupons for an order, the 20% will come off the most expensive items first (and reduce down automatically)…so you don’t have to stand there figuring out which items to use the coupons for…</p>
<p>best thing about THEIR pack and hold (vs JC Penney/Kohl’s etc) is that you do not pay for anything until you pick it up; if you find other/cheaper/better stuff along the way, you can pick through what you ordered and not take it; and they will hold it indefinitely (so if you order this week, you can pick it up in September if need be)…also, JCPenney’s etc will not hold the merchandise at their stores for as long; Walmart is a week, Staples is a week…pushes alot of ordering to right before you leave (and risks items being sold out)…</p>
<p>I will go against the grain in this thread. I brought my S to numerous places the summer before freshman year (BB&B, Kohls, Target, Macy’s etc.) and he didn’t see anything he liked. He really liked a set he saw in the residence linens catalogue.</p>
<p>So I bought him the 200 thread count set. And they seem ok, and he’s happy with them, which was the most important thing, because if he dragged me to one more store, I was going to throttle him.</p>
<p>It may have been more pricey than a sale at some places, but was probably cheaper than something at the Company Store. This was for XL sheets.</p>
<p>We did get his towels, matress pads, etc at a local store.</p>
<p>I liked what i saw from res. linens as well. And i can totally understand why you would want to resort to violence from too much shopping! i have been there! That is probably the best thing about ordering from those guys, you don’t have to shop-only pick out what you like from the catalog. You then get the stuff and you can get it all washed before going to school. I though they delivered to school as well, and was thinking that was a great idea. But then you consider that no kid wants to be doing laundry their first few days away at school.</p>
<p>oh wow-I just noticed that this is a bit of an old post. I would imagine all of the issues these folks had with bedding is long past!</p>
<p>My S took care of this himself, actually. His Project Graduation party featured a silent auction and one of the items was a Tommy Hilfiger “bed in a bag” with extra-long sheets. He realized he needed them so he bid on it and won. He got home at 5 the next morning when I was letting the dog out and I saw him getting this big, bulky thing out of the truck bed - I about fell over when he said it was a bed set!</p>