H&M Illusion Sofas (#5359) in Piazza Loden

[QualityCounts]

Our two H&M Illusion Sofas (#5359) in Piazza Loden arrived Sunday. We love them! BUT FOR the Town & Country program and Duane's pricing, we could NOT have afforded them. It cost us a bit more to get them in Loden than in the standard T&C program Piazza colors, but we took the chance that it would be money well spent (and appreciated that because they were not the standard colors, they would be cut and installed in North Carolina just like non-T&C H&M pieces).

Before taking delivery about six weeks sooner than my wife and I had planned, we quickly had a doorway into our living room enlarged, as can be seen in one of the photos. Now we need to get the contractor back to finish that job.

I wanted to share these photos because we not only made this big (for us) purchase in reliance on all I learned by reading this forum, especially from reading and re-reading Duane's many entries, but we never got to sit on an Illusion sofa or see the Piazza Loden color in person. The leather samples sent to us by Duane helped immensely, for they gave us comfort that the Piazza Loden coloring would work very well with our living room furnishings and paint colors. We also took comfort from the Piazza Loden sample that the leather would not be shiny - we are matte people, not glossy....

We are even more pleased with how they look than we had anticipated. We are also even more pleased with how they feel than we had anticipated. Although it would have been wonderful to get an unfinished full aniline leather, and watch and feel it age with us, our daily reality is that we live in a house with teenagers and a dog (isn't he cute?), and we have been known to snack and sip beverages while in our living room, on and around our furniture. Because of that, we needed a finished leather, but we didn't think it would be as NICE as the leather of these sofas. They feel buttery - that's the word that best describes their feel to me.

As for choosing Illusion for our sofas, we picked them over our other finalists, two City Sofas, because our living room is eclectically decorated in contemporary and transitional pieces. We also thought the City Sofas with their T&C Cavalier leather might be too shiny for us (as pictures and the leather sample seemed to confirm). Having the Illusions in the room, we know that choosing their more contemporary look and their matte finish were wise choices for us.

A note about how they sit: I - at about 5'8" find them quite comfortable to sit on with my feet on the floor, and especially with my feet on the coffee table. My wife, who is about 5'6", enjoys sitting on them with her legs tucked under her, but needed the small pillow for her lumbar region in order to feel comfortable sitting with her feet on the floor. I find that I most appreciate that little pillow when I am working on my notebook computer while sitting with my feet on the floor.

One more thing: During the course of all of my reading on this site, I noted something recently written by Duane about delivery realities for long-distance customers. He wrote something along the lines of needing to understand that it is usually much better to accept delivery of a leather piece that may have been smudged a bit or of wooden feet that might have been scratched a bit. He didn't say you couldn't be insistent on perfection, but wanted people who might be on the picky end of the spectrum (saying "you know who you are") to understand that if you refuse delivery of something with a minor issue, once the piece is trucked back to the factory and then back to you, what had been a minor issue might by then have been fixed only to be superseded by a major issue ... because stuff happens when furniture is trucked long distances, not in its original factory crate but wrapped somehow or other to fit as much in the truck as possible.

Well, you guessed it, one of our sofas arrived with a smudge along the welt of its arm, and, below it, with a smaller-than-a-penny not-quite-a-rip-but-more-than-a-smudge. Since delivery was late on a Sunday, I presumed I would not be able to reach Duane to discuss it. My wife and I talked it over and took a chance and agreed to accept the sofa as it was. I sent Duane photos and a long explanation on Monday morning, and we talked midday. Once he examined the best of the photos I had sent him, he agreed quickly to pay for the cost of repair, and even sent me a link to a local mobile "jobber" with Fibrenew - a company he had not used before, but thought might be good.

Duane was not happy to hear how poorly protected the sofas had been (they were covered only in a thin gray sleeve taped underneath with a few little clear plastic tape pieces just to hold the thin gray material open parts somewhat together), and said he would take that up with Sun Delivery. Duane was also not happy to hear that Sun's driver told me that if I noted any damage on the paperwork he would have to return the sofa to the factory - for it apparently is not supposed to be that way.

Anyway, the Fibrenew craftsman came today and worked his coloring and repair magic, and you can't tell that there was ever a problem, let alone two.

The morals of the story? H&M T&C furniture - even in finished leather - is of amazing quality. Duane Collie is as good as every on this this forum has led us to believe he would be. We greatly appreciate all he has done through this forum to inform me about H&M and T&C and furniture and leather and so much more. (Indeed, he taught me so much through the forum that I didn't insist on talking to him as we narrowed our choices during that last hectic week in July of T&C madness. The first and only time we have spoken was during that short call Monday.) We further appreciate how he has provided the service after the sale that we knew he would based on the many testimonials here. Keep up the great work, Duane!

[zebradoc]

The color is perfect for your room. Well done!

[QualityCounts]

Thank you, zebradoc. My wife and I are not shy about painting walls with good rich colors, and it was fun to buy two sofas in an unconventional color. The sofa and loveseat they replaced were a nice camel leather that had darkened over sixteen-odd years, but the Piazza Loden brings out the colors of the rest of our furnishings even better. Our only 'worry' was that the green might be too dark, but it is not. It works incredibly well with the things you can see in the photos, and also with artwork that you cannot see. It also contrasts nicely with the parquet floor, whereas the old aged-camel leather furniture kind of got lost in it.

[AusTexGal]

The sofas are incredible and your room is lovely! Always a treat to see leather furniture in something other than shades of the ever so practical brown. Great selection in your pillows for the sofa, which add that extra bit of "pop," and compliment the playful red table in the corner. Well done!

[drcollie]

That's a good review! Thank you for that and for your business!

I never like to leave a customer hanging once their pieces arrive and they are not as expected. Once I saw the photos of the abrasion wear on your new pieces, I wanted to get that fixed for you promptly, and didn't want to go back and forth on who was at fault for the marks. The delivery companies always say "we got it that way" and the manufacturer's say "we would never ship it like that", and by the time you go back and forth trying to get a resolution its frustrating for everyone. It's just simpler for me to take the bull by the horns and get it fixed, then I can battle it out for reimbursement after the fact, and not get my customers all stressed out about it. So I'm glad to do that.

I'm working with Sun Delivery right now to change the way the pieces arrive, and to keep them all in the box until they land in the driveway and then they are unpacked right there. I believe this will cut down shipping friction marks to zero. This is going to have a surcharge, mostly because of the trash they have to take with them on the truck after delivery. That has always been the sticking point with delivering in the packing, because the guys in the truck have no where to dispose of the cardboard and any wood. Once I have that agreement and rate in place I'll offer it to folks and they can choose if they want that added service, or not! I hope to have that ironed out by next week....

[Ci2Eye]

As a customer, I much prefer furniture to be delivered in the box as it was shipped from the manufacturer. I will happily dispose of the packaging myself.

I had a sofa, love seat, and side table delivered recently and lots of packaging was left behind but the furniture was perfect. I broke all the boxes down, cut them up and put them out for pick-up by my trash collector over the course of a few weeks but that was much less hassle than dealing with damaged furniture.

If the delivery companies balk because of the empty boxes, why not offer the customer the furniture to be delivered in a box but with the understanding they'll be responsible for disposing of the packaging.

[drcollie]

I am in discussions with Sun Delivery to leave pieces in the boxes until they arrive. I am all in favor of that because there seems to be an uptick on friction marks on a number of deliveries these days, and even a broken frame on one sofa this summer. To stay in the cartons requires more room on the truck, so the rate would increase because it would go to a cube rate rather than weight. The problem is there are no cube price lists, and I don't know the size of the boxes for every single frame from all the makers (that database is never going to happen). So what will happen is I will give the estimated rate based on being OUT of the box, then when the pieces arrive they will likely measure and compute the cube, and adjust the rate accordingly. This will make a few folks crazy, as they have to have an accurate quote and that's probably not going to happen at time of order because we don't know the box size, sorry.

If you request In-The-Box delivery, and you have Hancock & Moore pieces, I will advise you to have a # 2 Square Bit and power screwgun handy as that is how the support frame is screwed to the underside of the sofa. They are very hard to get out with a Phillips # 2 bit. I would not count on the driver and helper having the correct bit on the truck.

I'm going to post an addendum this into more detail, and put it under the SHIPPING INFORMATION header.