Spent $4500 on a couch from their "downmarket" relaunched Milling Road line and the front right sofa leg messed up. It is attached to the side of the sofa (no visible screws etc) but somehow came loose and now "pivots" when I get off the sofa, i.e. if it is supposed to make a 90 degree angle with the floor, it now makes a 45 degree angle and one side of the sofa is moved forward an inch. Not a huge deal today, but its not even a year old and I don't want this custom special attached to the side of the sofa leg to fall off any time soon.
A link to the sofa, for those curious: https://mr.bakerfurniture.com/living...e-sofa-mr7202s
But that's not all!
I also bought a chaise (https://mr.bakerfurniture.com/living...haise-mr7231cs) at the same time and the cushion fabric has moved all over the place and it looks weird and ugly and I don't know how to fix it. I've tried opening up the zipper and moving the cushion inside around but it looks about the same afterwards. The fabric I chose (my fault!) is so fragile that touching it with so much as a drop of water on your hand stains it (I don't know if its permanent because I haven't tried to get it out). Basically a totally impractical product that looks nice unless someone actually uses it. Like the couch I've used it sparingly for less than a year--its in the bedroom and I occasionally lounge on it for an hour before bed.
Wait there's more! So I bought all this furniture from the Boston Design Center--technically "to the trade only" so I was planning on just looking at the stuff and then ordering it through my local retailer. When I got there this high pressure sales guy told me he could sell to me directly (this is the Baker showroom) and so I figured since I saw the stuff there I might as well order from them. The local retailer had flat fee shipping and could store items for indefinite periods of time (months), so I asked them to match this policy (my house was under construction, and they were already storing a bed for me so any additional items I purchased from them wouldn't cost additional shipping). Their price was the same as the retailer. Lo and behold, when the items arrived, this sales guy wasn't even working for Baker anymore! He apparently lied about the "free shipping" (the charge was $500) and the storage (I had to get the stuff delivered a few weeks before the house was ready for it--though it was stored covered in a "finished" spot where I am relatively sure it was not touched). To their credit after a lot of arguing they waived the shipping charge, but basically the customer service was the worst I have ever received at basically the most expensive furniture store possible.
So in summary, Baker Furniture seems to have a good reputation because they charge really high prices. Maybe I shouldn't have bought the downmarket line and instead paid $8000 for their mainline couch to get sturdy legs, but I think I'll stick to anyone else. For what its worth I have a lot of Stickley, some Hancock & Moore, and a piece each from EJ Victor, Century, Hickory Chair, no problems with any of it. Baker though, I hate them!!!
End rant.
