An unhelpful store

I had a nice lady in the store today shopping for a new leather chair. She can't decide between a Bradington Young that I had in the store or ordering a H&M Austin Tilt Back. We got to talking and she mentioned to me her most favorite chair had broken, it was a swivel chair with an ottoman. I asked her what broke on the chair and she told me that the chair came off the swivel base and her husband tried to fix it but couldn't. Most swivel bases can be bolt on and bolt off, and can be replaced - sounded like she had a bearing failure on hers. She said she called the store she bought it from in Williamsburg VA and they told her that it could not be fixed, and there were no parts available. If was made in China, that could very well be the case, did she know the brand?

'It was not made in China, but I can't remember the name" she says. "The name of a woman."

I said "Jessica Charles?"

"That's it!".

"I'm a dealer for Jessica Charles and we absolutely can replace the base on that chair, a new one is $ 125 for the part (her chair was out of warranty) and its a simply bolt on/off operation that takes all of 10 minutes."

Now why did her selling dealer in Williamsburg tell her that? All I can surmise is that they A) Don't know their product line, B) Are lazy and don't care C) Wanted to sell her a new chair. If they didn't know it takes them all of 1 minute to call Jessica Charles to find out. If its B, then I'm sure they're not THAT busy, and if C then they show themselves to be unethical.

I told her I'd get the mechanism for her at dealer cost if she wanted - but she really took a shine to a new red leather chair instead, so her old chair looks like its all done for.

Dealers like that give the industry a bad name. I sure hate to see that happen.

I did a job for a guy recently to replace some recliner parts that were rather unusual. A couple of people before me told him they would not be able to find parts. I spent a fair amount of time tracking down leads and corresponding with suppliers. I finally got exactly what he needed and he was very happy. I probably spent more time finding the parts than actually installing them.