Furniture Central

heathen · Joined: 06 Jun 2004 Posts: 1

As much as I REALLY want to start calling names that would be born out of frustration, I will simply let the facts be known, and you can judge for yourself:

I had purchased a custom made couch & chair from a local La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery for around $2500 in June of 2002. It included fabric by Dupont, and has a 5 year warranty on it. Since it was custom made, there was some time needed before they could delivery it. About a month later, delivery was made.

On delivery, the furniture was falling apart and ripping at the seams. I pointed this out to delivery personell who indicated that there was nothing that they could do and that I should contact the store. I immediately did so.

I guess in order to justify their need for replacement, a technician was sent out. After his report, a replacement couch was ordered. About 3-4 months after receiving the new couch, the replacement couch and the original chair were exhibiting the same behavior. I contacted La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery for assistance. This is the beginning of the stiff-arm tactics used. All I ever wanted was for the quality furniture that I paid for. They refused to assist me. After some dialog, they suggested that I contact Dupont (the maker of the fabric) and file a warranty claim with them. I called Dupont, expecting them to have La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery replace my furniture as before after they had had a chance to inspect it. Instead, they indicated that would simply refund my purchase price. I was taken back by this, and didn't expect it. That mean't that I would have to go through the process again finding and buying another set of furniture, which I didn't want to do (me and the wife had very few agreements with regards to what is acceptable, and that was a painful process - you married guys KNOW what I mean!). I simply wanted the furniture replaced as before. They indicated that they couldn't do that, that the terms of the warranty stipulated a refund of the purchase price, which meant 100% of $2500 since my claim was made within the first year. Oh well, I thought, so you refund my money and I then begin to look elsewhere for furniture...

Well, their "report" spelled disaster for me, because they denied my claim with insulting remarks such as "abuse", "excessive wear", "cat hairs", "improper cleaning", and others. Now, I have furniture that is falling apart before my very eyes (see below), and neither La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery or the corporate office of La-Z-Boy will do anything to assist me. I have been in constant contact with La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery and La-Z-Boy "customer service" in an attempt to have them stand behind the products that they sell. They staunchly refuse. I have had the owner of the store call me up and ask what will make me happy (as if he already didn't know), and then indicate that he will do NOTHING to assist me. I have also had the operations manager of the same store call me up and immediately started to yell at me over the phone for even bringing my problems to his store's attention - a display of unprofessionalism of the likes that I have never seen before.

They have said everything in the book in order to get out of honoring the warranty, and have been told that it basically it is "warranty discretion". I will let you be the judge of my "abuse":

In addition, below is the latest cut/paste response that I received from La-Z-Boy customer dis-service:

>Dear Mr. Waits:
>
>Thank you for your patience while your file and pictures were reviewed.
>You file was returned to me today so I could respond back to you.
>
>Your file and pictures were reviewed by top management in the customer
>service division. Based upon the pictures and reports from Dupont and
>the dealer, they advised there will be no assistance given under the
>warranty terms. Repairs can be made to the fabric but they would be on
>a charge basis. Any possible future repairs on the wood frame or metal
>mechanism parts would still be ordered on a no charge basis as they are
>covered under the lifetime warranty. Fabric, standard padding and labor
>for any repair is covered under a one-year warranty and the review
>committee is backing the dealer and Dupont's finding based upon their
>inspection results. We are sorry that there is nothing further we can
>do.
>
>Thank you again for contacting our office and for allowing us the
>opportunity to look into this again for you.
>
>Regards,
>Joanne

I would personally recommend that you proceede with EXTREME caution if you even think of buying La-Z-Boy furniture.