Cushion fill problem Leathergroups

I ordered a beautiful leather couch (comparable to RH Restoration Hardware) from Leathergroups and the website said "the back cushions are filled entirely with feather and down." When I got them, they didn't feel as soft as I had hoped. They were not lofty and I didn't sink into them, I thought they would be more comfortable. When I opened the insert to read the label, it said 85% feather and 15% cluster fiber. I researched and called the actual manufacturer of the pillows (not the couch) and he said that the "85% feather" is actually broken down into a mix of 85% feather to 15% down, and the remaining 15% is polyester fiber. (So now the total amount of down in the back cushions is even less than I thought, it is 12%)

Here is where it gets tricky, I called Leathergroups because the SEAT cushions they sent were actually completely wrong (they sent a grade level below what they were supposed to send, and they were extremely stiff and uncomfortable- my back was actually hurting from sitting on them). They apologized and very quickly replaced the seat cushions because it was a major error, but not the back cushions which were supposed to be entirely 'feather and down.' They said something about the polyester fiber being needed because it helps keep the feathers and down from getting 'sticky' or something along those lines. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt here.. and hope I just misheard thing and I wasn't being lied to.

To make up for the errors and what ended up being a 9 month wait for my couch to be built (for a variety of other reasons, ran out of leather, backlog, etc.) they offered to build a nice matching leather ottoman and send some nice down throw pillows which I thought was a really nice offer, except now that is taking months even though they are sending out other furniture that is the same shade leather I am waiting for (I won't even get into the fact that their swatches and 'shades' vary drastically from very dark chocolate brown to camel-light brown for the same name color). I had been saving up a lot of money for this perfect couch, so you can imagine my disappointment.

To make matters worse, I went to their website recently and they now tout on their site (specifically) that "Our back seat cushions feature zipper access to a Feather & Down stuffed insert (NO polyester fiber fill!)." Now I am really upset. Why would they say no polyester fiber fill if my tags say "fiber fill"? For a variety of reasons I won't get into, my family and husbands family has a total of 3 couches with polyester fiber fill in the back cushions AND seat cushions when their website said "entirely feather and down" and their now updated site specifically spells out no polyester fiber fill. When I spoke with them after we realized the bottom seat cushions were completely wrong, they said they would do everything to make things right and said something about remaking the back cushion fill any way I wanted so I asked them to up the down to feather ratio because I wanted loftier back cushions, and they said they still needed to put polyester fiber fill to keep the mix from being sticky but will increase the down in the pillows. Then I only got seat cushions (which still say 85% feather and down, and 15% fiber) and realized they were not going to replace the back cushions. When I called, they said they couldn't change the ratio and told me the back cushions were correct and it was just the seat cushions that were wrong, and I had the right back cushions.

Needless to say I'm very confused. They are friendly and often very responsive but still haven't resolved all of these problems, and sometimes communication is really slow and months go by and I don't hear anything. When I spoke to someone at RH about the cushions in the Maxwell- I learned that they are 50% feather and 50% down, and that's what makes them so lofty and comfortable.

Also, some of the couch cushions say "85% feather, 15% polyester fiber" and others say "85% feather and down, 15% cluster fiber" but I am assuming those are the same.

I just feel like I have been getting this weird runaround talking to a few different people and the thing about being told that the polyester fiber is needed in the cushions and then seeing their site change to specifically say 'no poly fiber fill'... it's heartbreaking. I realize this is all a first world problem, but when you save up hoping for a great couch- and then go with a local Made in America company instead of RH because it's made in China, and end up with cushions not as soft- well.... you'd be upset too. I've had a lot of conversations with Leathergroups, they are friendly and the couches look beautiful- I wish they felt as beautiful as they looked. Both the back cushions and seat cushions are firm and not that comfortable. We have a total of 3 couches and 16 cushions that have polyester fiber fill and their site says NO poly fiber fill! I'm hoping someone will see this thread and read the entire thing so instead of going through a thousand emails and phone convos, they can see the summary of where I am now- and finally fix this once and for all because I'm tired of spending over a year dealing with them and I'm sure they're tired of me too.

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This seems to be more of a rant than a question....

I thought this was where problems are posted, but you are right- it is more of a negative customer experience. If I could move it to the other forum I would, but I am not sure how.

I was puzzled about the build of this sofa. I couldn't find an exact match on the LG site. The gap in the center of the frame that extends all the way to the feet makes it appear that it's 2 pieces joined together, like the left and right parts of a sectional. What is the name of this sofa?

I could find nothing on their site as well about cushion cores, though I didn't spend more than 5 minutes looking for it.

I would not buy a pure down and feathers back cushion, especially in a leather sofa. Why? One word... GRAVITY. Over time it will migrate to the bottom and be a lumpy mess, requiring daily removal of the back cushions and fluffing to get the material back to the top. Fiber fill is the industry standard, and if you really want down and feather, then Ultra Down backs are the way to go. Those have foam core inners to keep the shape, and a surrounding ticking around that core with the down and feathers. You get the feel of down, but not the migration to the bottom of the seat back.

RE "I was puzzled about the build of this sofa. I couldn't find an exact match on the LG site. The gap in the center of the frame that extends all the way to the feet makes it appear that it's 2 pieces joined together, like the left and right parts of a sectional. What is the name of this sofa?"

Everything is custom built so it is split down the middle so it could fit in our condo in 2 sections. It is the braxton model

Quote:

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Originally Posted by drcollie

I could find nothing on their site as well about cushion cores, though I didn't spend more than 5 minutes looking for it.

I would not buy a pure down and feathers back cushion, especially in a leather sofa. Why? One word... GRAVITY. Over time it will migrate to the bottom and be a lumpy mess, requiring daily removal of the back cushions and fluffing to get the material back to the top. Fiber fill is the industry standard, and if you really want down and feather, then Ultra Down backs are the way to go. Those have foam core inners to keep the shape, and a surrounding ticking around that core with the down and feathers. You get the feel of down, but not the migration to the bottom of the seat back.

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There is a 1.8 density foam core in the seat cushions and the back cushions description says it has a fabric shell is channeled to prevent migration of the Feather & Down. The back cushions don't have foam cores, they feel kind of stiff as do the bottom seat cushions. I imagine it's because the composition is almost all feather with very little down (12%) but I'm not an expert.

UPDATE: I contacted LeatherGroups one more time (the head there) after checking with another customer who posted a happy review to see if it was just me or if everyone is getting these poly cushions, and it looks like my order was filled incorrectly. I don't know where the mixup was or why the other person I spoke to at LeatherGroups told me misinformation, but they are working VERY quickly to replace the wrong cushions. Kudos for fast customer service.

I just want to post a final update that I did in fact get the replacement cushions for all 3 couches (mine, my father in laws and my mothers) with the right fill and the change DID make the couches more comfortable. If I could go back a few years, I would have done some things differently from the start. After a ton of communications and a lot of waiting, our couches are in order. Everyone is mostly happy. A note on getting a take-apart couch that I didn't know long long ago, is that you are going to have a stiff and uncomfortable hard seat in the middle of the couch. Something that is probably obvious, but wasn't obvious to me when I ordered. In the end, I don't know how I feel about LeatherGroups, but they did solve my problems so for anyone reading about my ordeal- know that you WILL get a pretty good product and pretty good customer service. I can complain about a lot of mistakes along the way, but they did respond and they did eventually fix all problems.

Thanks for updating the post!

We're glad that sending out 8 replacement seat cores, and 8 seat backs for all of the 3 sofas ordered did the trick!

The entire team also hopes that you have been enjoying the Free $1599 Matching Full Grain Leather Storage Cocktail Ottoman and Free Down throw pillows we sent as an apology for the mixup and that all of it serves everyone well for a long time to come :)

We DEFINITELY made mistakes on your products and I apologize on behalf of everyone here. I hope that we've proven to you that we do stand behind our products and honor our obligation to our customers. It's important to us, because it's vital to our company's success and it's the right thing to do, which is a guiding principle at our company.

In addition to the collections we produce for sale at LeatherGroups.com, our factory produces a lot of commercial and contract orders, designer business, custom and one off orders, and even produce a lot of furniture that other online retailers are distributing through some of the larger traffic home furnishing sites, like Overstock and others. Depending on the product, price level, and retailer preference, cushions might be filled using foam combined with Dacron, Trillium or 100% poly fill. Some use a blend of poly/feather & down, and others like the products we distribute through LeatherGroups.com use entirely feather & down. Somehow there was a mixup, but we stand behind what we say we're shipping to customers and would never try to intentionally send the incorrect fill just to save money on an order. It would be very short term business plan for a business like ours, which has been shipping to customers nationwide since 2002.

If anyone ever finds anything incorrect about our products, we want to know about it! Although a bit strange at first, and unsettling to our customers, we're glad that you contacted our customers that had left positive reviews of our products on Facebook using your "undercover" facebook account. Some of them called us about it and after having them check their cushions, we were happy to not find anymore cases of this error. We're very sorry a mistake was made on yours.

If anyone ever has any question about what we use to produce our products, we have detailed pages about our cushion fill and product construction, as well as information about all of our Full Grain Aniline and Full Grain Pigmented leathers and we stand behind the information. We're always open to any and all questions.

Construction of our Collections

Our Leathers

Our contact information:

LeatherGroups.com
Email: http://support.leathergroups.com/cus...tal/emails/new
Toll Free #: 1(877)888-7632

I apologize to the site ownership if links from companies are forbidden, but I did not see that in the Forum Rules and this is not an intended to be an advertisement but rather a clarification and response to this customer's post.

Thank you!

LeatherGroups

No problem on the links on this post, it was in reply to a customer so its all valid. Feel free to stick around and contribute to the knowledge base. Glad you got your customer taken care of - everyone makes mistakes, its how the follow-up is done that is the true test.