Originally Posted by
JMR
I watched as the delivery men opened the back of the truce and became nervous when I saw the sofa loaded upright on one of its ends. This didn't seem like a very good way to transport such a nice piece of furniture.
I won't carry pieces in that manner on my trucks for the very reason you mention. The reason they do it is to get more on the truck, and also make it easier to handle with a 'hand truck', but one has to be very careful as the leather can and does get damaged. As long as its in the box, no problem, but once out of the box I keep them flat to the floor and protected. If my guys have to, we come back halfway through the day to reload, but never stack, or place them on end once uncartoned. And one has to be very careful if hand-trucking the pieces. I have one specialized hand truck we use for upholstery, and its fully padded on the back and nose so that nothing metal ever touches the piece.
After unloading the furniture and getting it into my residence I inspected the end of the sofa and wasn't surprised to find three damaged spots in the leather. Two of the spots tore the leather.
Tears are a big problem. Some can be glued down if not all the way through, but if they are torn through the hide then a repair is going to be unacceptable on a new piece.
I also noticed that the dust cover (I think that is what it's called) on the bottom of the sofa had been ripped in a couple of places.
That's a relatively easy repair, but it shows carelessness. I haven't torn a dust cover in our store in over 15 years...last time we did it was in the early 90's.
The delivery men were in a hurry as they had a truckload of furniture to deliver that day so they noted the damage on the receipt and left.
Lack of planning on their part is not cause for an emergency on yours. Keep them on site until your are satisfied with the solution to the problems. REFUSE all pieces that can not (in your opinion) be easily repaired on site.
Upon further inspection I found numerous scrapes and marks on both pieces. Small areas of the topcoat color were scuffed off. There are also some small indention that look like something poked the leather but didn't tear it.
Topcoat and color scuffs are repairable, and indentations can usually be taken care of with a hair dryer set on high. Play it over the area let it heat up and it should go away.
Here's my question for you, Duane. I hate to have to attempt repairs on these expensive pieces before I've even used them. I am also concerned of the possibility of hidden damage to the sofa frame do to the way it was transported. Would you expect one of your customers to accept H&M in this condition?
I'm mostly concerned on the leather tearing. That may need a recover depending on severity. The other things are due to sloppy delivery methods, but at the end of the day its what YOU want. If that were me, I'd call up the store owner - not the manager - and ask them to do one of two things:
1) Order you a fresh piece. Delivery it to your driveway in the H&M carton and take it out of the container in front of you. They can have the one back you now how - repair it - and put it on their sales floor at a markdown.
2) Repair the sofa, and refund you some money for delivering damaged goods. $ 300 to $ 500 is not unreasonable.
I have noticed that the back of the sofa looks a little odd in that the two seams that form the three back cushions don't look the same. One seam is pushed out to the point where you can see the stitching. It looks like the end back cushion by this seam has more padding which is pushing out the seam. The leather on both sides of the seam is gathered a lot more than the other seam. I'll take a picture to show you what I'm talking about.
That's difficult to evaluate without photos. Does it look like something that occurred from the piece being on-end in the truck? A pressure point on the one end that moved the internal padding around? I've seen that happen before (and sofas really are not designed to bounce around in a truck with all their weight vertically on one end).
Thanks for your time. Jim
Sounds like this store needs to change the way they do deliveries. I find that taking a few more minutes care in loading/unloading and paying delivery people a higher wage than elsewhere gets me better quality workers. Often I go out myself on deliveries, particularly if the piece is big and expensive. The delivery experience is as good as the guys on the truck, and the people handling the pieces once they are unpacked.
I think you are within your rights to make a pretty good squawk about the condition your sofa was left in. Get to the right people at the store, and tell them what will make you happy with the purchase, don't just accept what they offer to do for you. Let us know how it all works out.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
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