LA-Z-BOY RIP-OFF (also known as Lazy Boy, Lay-Z-Boy)!
One consumer's nightmare turns into "a matter of principle"!:
If you're looking for quality furniture...don't be duped and fooled (like we were).
In 2005, my wife and I bought a La-Z-Boy sofa, La-Z-Boy large ottoman and two La-Z-Boy reclining chairs. We also bought the factory extended warranty (...yeah, yeah, we know that extended warranties are usually a waste of money..., but as you'll see, even the original purchase was a complete waste of good hard-earned money!).
Within the FIRST YEAR, the leather on the sofa seat cushions began getting cracks on the surface and even began "de-laminating". Essentially the leather on the seats looked very old even though they were just a few months old.
I had never heard of the term "de-lamination" prior to owning a La-Z-Boy product, but here's what I learned: De-lamination looks like bubbles that appear right below surface of the leather (kind-of like a skin blister). Eventually, through normal wear and tear, these bubbles got so thin, that the skin of the leather tears, due to the tiny bubbles popping.
Picture-1 Picture-2 Picture-3 Picture-4
The condition of cracking and de-lamitating leather is caused by flawed processing of the leather. Here's a document that I easily found on the internet by an expert on leather processing:
Mind you, that even though this is in the first year, we had also bought the La-Z-Boy 5-year "extended warranty", so they can't even complain that we're "out of warranty".
The store we bought them from is part of a small chain of furniture stores on the Central Coast of California. We could have driven to a different town to go to a "big-box" store, but we wanted to buy locally to support our local merchants.
So of course, we called our local store and let them know about the problem. They (of course) promised us that this would be handled promptly. Having kept their previous promises to us, we trusted them to take care of this. They asked us to call the La-Z-Boy "Service Line" to get this handled.
I called the line and a fairly pleasant female took our information. She said someone would contact is within the next week or so.
We NEVER even received the courtesy of a return phone call.
Being a busy couple, and after about three (3) weeks of waiting, we called them back. The new female I spoke to said that our claim was closed. "Closed?, I asked... but nobody even came out to fix it". "Yeah!" she said. "Since you didn't respond to our address-verification card (that we mailed you), we were forced to close the case".
I literally shook my head and said "What?...You're telling me you "mailed" us a card, asking if we still lived at the same address?, ...then closed our case because we didn't answer"? "Yes" she said.
I told her that, if in-fact a card ever got mailed...then it got lost in the mail, because we didn't get one. "OK, well, as crazy as this sounds, it really doesn't matter...we still have flawed cushions. When can we expect someone to come out and fix it under warranty"? She sound disappointed and told us, "Sorry, we have closed that claim and can't help you any further since you didn't respond to our card".
How is it possible that a company can treat consumers this way? We paid top-dollar for their merchandise at a reputable store and they just want to give us some DOUBLE-TALK and just expects us to go away.
Frustrated and getting no-where with the people at La-Z-Boy, we took the cushions directly to the store. We found the salesman that sold the furniture to us and he examined the cushions. "Yup, that's a bad dye-job", he said, this happens sometimes with leather and we should be able to help you".
Unfortunately, even the store employee would soon learn to what extent the La-Z-Boy company would go to avoid "making good" on their warranties. The store salesmen called La-Z-Boy himself and got the exact same explanation!
How odd it is, that that they could make up a lame rule like this, only to have it used as a way to keep from honoring their warranties?
We get asked this question, so here's the reason we don't name (or blame) the store... When the store owner found out about the situation, out of his own pocket, he had three (3) leather cushion covers made and sent to us. Unfortunately, there are issues with the covers. They were folded up and mailed to us in an oversized envelope and as a result have creases that have not come out. Also, they don't match the color of the sofa. We discussed this with them, and even considered having him send new ones, but matching the dye colors from one manufacturer to the next is extremely difficult. We feel that this is the manufacturer's problem and La-Z-Boy should fix it themselves.
Well...at least the local store tried to make-good; La-Z-Boy on the other hand is just a LOUSY no-good company. If we can help even one (1) consumer by providing some insight so that YOU will buy furniture from a company other than La-Z-Boy...well, I guess we'll have to settle for that as our only satisfaction.
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Update (10-9-2007):
Since our original posting in late 2006, we have received almost 100 emails about this!. Over 98% have been positive and supportive. One email even suggested we camp out in front of the store and try to get TV coverage. But as we said, this store has at least tried to intervene with La-Z-Boy and even got treated to the same avoidance tactics.
Important --> We now have ten (10) emails from other disgruntled La-Z-Boy customers with very similar stories. Boy-o-Boy this is really a LOUSY company to find yourself having to deal with. We cannot warn you enough! If you value your hard-earned money and want to buy QUALITY merchandise with it...don't buy La-Z-Boy furniture.
To date, only one (1) email was negative in nature. It was from a guy who is an "Unhappy Service Manager" who apparently thinks that whenever a consumer complains, it is always the consumer's fault. Sorry dude!, You're obviously need a job change!
Open letter to "Unhappy Service Manager":
I once managed the Consumer Relations Department for one of the largest Air Conditioning Distributor's. I can remember those tough days too; there are definitely a few consumers who we could not satisfy no matter what we did. But in general, if you demonstrate your sincerity by showing the consumer that you are genuinely trying to resolve their issue, you'll make 98% of them happier then before they called you.
I can also tell you from my many years of experience, that even when the consumer is difficult to deal with, the company has an obligation to uphold it's warranty (period...end of subject). In fact, the faster YOU (the company) do your part to resolve a problem, the SOONER you're rid of us (the awful customers) ...who buy your products.
Update (June/2008):
To date, we have received in excess of 150 emails. We have been told that are webpage has convinced a few consumers to buy other companies products. YEAH! But we're pretty sure things like the linked consumer complaints about La-z-Boy probably have done some of the work too...
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Read what By Dennis Rockstroh of the Mercury News Action Line found out about this awful company...
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/consumeractionline/2007/02/warning_la-z-boy_furniture_galleries.html
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Checkout the Consumer Affairs website...they have a whole section dedicated to the complaints that they have received about La-Z-Boy!!!
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/furniture/lazboy.html
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Will this page ever come down...? At this point, it's a "matter of principle". Until La-Z-Boy resolves our warranty problem, this page stay's up, and we will continue to submit it to web search engines.
If they need to contact me, my contact info is directly beneath, of course...they'll probably just mail me a card or something...
