Hello and God Bless. Thanks in advance for advice. I apologize for the length but I want to give as much background as possible.

I bought several pieces of furniture in December 2014 including a leather Stickley Sofa and matching ottoman, plus 2 Hancock and Moore Roy Loungers. The chairs were delivered in March 2015. The store employee verbally assured us at the time of order that the chair fabric in particular would "last a lifetime." Please keep that "last a lifetime" in mind as you read this. My wife and I had looked for just the right chair fabric among the Hancock and Moore offerings and found nothing we really liked. I had read online that Jessica Charles fabric could be used on Hancock and Moore furniture, so I suggested we look at Jessica Charles fabrics. While looking through the Jessica Charles swatches the sales associate suggested we look at a Jessica Charles chair that had just come in for a customer. My wife loved the fabric called Fields Russet. It went perfectly with our Stickley Sofa (which by the way looks as good as the day it was delivered). While we were looking at the chair I asked the sales associate about it and this is when she made the "last a lifetime" comment. Unfortunately, the chair fabric has not performed well. And unless the good Lord takes me home tonight it will certainly not have lasted a lifetime. On both chairs it looks as though it is fading though neither are in direct sunlight, or even indirect sunlight for that matter.

The store we bought from had an employee look at the chairs last week. He said the chair fabric is simply wearing or wearing out. What looked like fading is in fact from contact wear. He pointed out small places on the footrests where the fabric has worn completely through. These are places no body part even touches, but where the fabric has been stretched tightly around a corner. He removed the arm covers and showed us the difference in the fabric pile height with and without contact. I told him we sit in these chairs no more than 2 hours daily. He said some fabrics wear poorly but agreed this appeared excessive. He documented all he found, took photos and said someone would be calling. Yesterday, the sales associate we bought from, the one who assured us this fabric "would last a lifetime" called. She was not her usual bubbly self. Instead she seemed unwilling to say much more than "fabric wear is not warranted unless defective." When I asked her about what the employee who looked at the chairs had said about excessive wear and what constituted defective versus usual wear she said their is no evidence the fabric is defective. She offered 40% off any future purchase as a "sign of good will" and to keep us as "happy customers." She concluded by suggesting we buy custom slipcovers for the chairs.

I guess deep down I feel duped by buying not one but two relatively expensive chairs which have not met our needs. I also feel the store sales associate's "last a lifetime" comment should be considered for it influenced our decision, yet now means nothing to them. If we were running a daycare center and kids were in and out of the chairs all day long I could accept this. However, this is not the case. My mom's 30 year old LazBoy chairs look better than these two chairs after 8 months.

My original thought was someone in the chain of fabric supplier, chair manufacturer and retailer would step up and agree to reupholster the chairs with a better wearing fabric or even negotiate to split the cost 50-50. Is that out of line?

What is a reasonable solution? Should I expect more or is this as good as it gets? Or..........?

I appreciate your advice. If nothing else it helps to get this off my chest.

Sincerely,

Al Simon
Baptist Pastor Retired