Comparisons with Many of our Competitors
If you're considering a purchase from Ethan Allen or from any of our other well-known, big competitors, the first thing you should do is perform a web search using that company's name and the product category, such as "ethan allen furniture". Bypass the websites published by the company, and look for comments from actual customers. You may read some real eye-openers about how customers are often treated these days, even though you may have had favorable experiences with a certain company in the past. Also notice that, according to Upholstery Design and Management magazine (Sept., 2004), over 70% of American upholstered furniture manufacturers (under price pressure from imports) are now making their frames from "engineered wood" (plywood, or possibly even particleboard). Ethan Allen now makes almost all of their upholstered frames from plywood, thereby gaining savings in "...time, money and man hours far beyond what was originally believed possible" (UDM, July, 2004, p. 4). In a four-page article on Ethan Allen's conversion to plywood, no mention was made of any testing for durability. (We encourage you to look elsewhere on this website to see how seriously and successfully we deal with the important matter of durability.) One problem with using "engineered wood" for structural members is that strong construction methods can't be used with it. Describing the joinery methods used by companies that have won design competitions in the industry (UDM, Sept. 2004, pp. 19 & 21), the magazine points out that those companies use staples as structural fasteners: "Staples are less labor intensive and help avoid potential problems with screws, which can separate plywood plies...."
Also, make sure you carefully read the other company's warranty material, as well as ours. Quoting from the warranty section of Ethan Allen's website, "Coverage exclusions: Wood furniture will have ….inherent characteristics such as knots…and pitch pockets, which are not considered quality defects…Warranty does not cover normal compression of filling materials. Our leathers are warranted to be free from ….splitting for one year. Warranty does not cover loss of resiliency..., loft, or crown (may compress up to one inch within first year).<Editor's note: Think how baggy the covers will look after the cushion has compressed an inch, and think what that says about the comfortable life of the cushion if it compresses an inch in the first year.> Upholstered backs, back pillows … warranted for one year. Seat cushions for 4 years, but warranty does not cover compression ....." Page 10: “Our products are not warranted against normal wear and tear….” But we give Ethan Allen credit for at least acknowledging that their warranties don't cover things that customers normally assume should be covered by a well-known, respectable vendor. Most other companies won't back up their products well either, but the other companies just won't say that up front.
Considering any of our
competitors who come up high on a web search?
Of the first fifteen websites that came up highest in response to
a March, 2010 Google search for "contemporary sofas:",
only two (including Comfy 1) sell furniture made in the USA. All
but two mostly or entirely sell furniture that is made in China.
And their warranties are what you might expect from sellers that
are essentially distributors for Chinese manufacturers of
inexpensive furniture: that is, no warranties beyond replacement
for goods received in damaged condition.
Only one of the above group, Shangri-La.Furniture, openly
(although inconspicuously) acknowledges that they sell furniture
from China. ("A California company" is written boldly
next to their name at the top of their home page, and one has to
click on a link and read far into the description of shipping
details before learning that their U.S. office is just a
distribution facility for a company that does its manufacturing
in China.)
But at least the above purveyor of Chinese furniture admits that
their products are made in China, which is better than one can
say for almost all of the other sources that Google ranks highest
under "contemporary sofas." The others don't openly
admit it, but it is easy to figure out, as will be explained
below. Consider the following:
(1) all the publicity about
hazards found in Chinese products, including toxic off-gasing
from materials,
(2) concerns about U.S. jobs being lost to Chinese imports
because of their cheap labor and their low standards for working
conditions, health and environmental regulations, and
(3) concerns about carbon emissions resulting from products
(especially bulky products) being shipped long distances,
considering all of the above, it is very much in a seller's
interest to indicate a product's country of origin
if the origin is any country other than China. And it is very
much the standard thing, even with a $20 product, for the seller
to indicate the name of the manufacturer, given
the great value of manufacturers’ reputations in guiding
intelligent purchase decisions. So if a seller neglects to offer
either information about the country of origin or the name of the
manufacturer for an important product, that should raise a red
flag.
We looked rather extensively
and were unable to find such information, with very minor
exceptions noted below. Spacify.com indicates country of origin
but almost no names of manufacturers; in the one case we found in
which it was indicated that a sofa was “by” a named
company (SoHo Concepts), a click on that company’s name
leads to text saying only that SoHo is an “international
…furniture supplier”, with no pretense of their being a
manufacturer; most likely they are a wholesaler of Chinese
products. On Amazon.com, we were unable to find any information
about where the first several sofas listed come from or any
manufacturer identification, including after clicking on all
possible links that might lead to such information. On
contemporaryfurniture.com, no country of origin or manufacturer
name is indicated for any of the first six sofas shown.
For the seventh sofa shown by contemporaryfurniture.com, a
Canadian manufacturer is identified, and looking into their
warranty shows that they warrant against “defects in
materials and workmanship” (therefore not against normal
wear and tear) for one year, requiring the customer to pay
for shipping the sofa both ways to and from their plant in
Ontario, where it’s up to them to decide whether the
problem is covered by the warranty. In usual fashion, they take
no responsibility for damage that occurs during shipping of
products returned under warranty. And even that nearly-worthless
(for all except local Canadian customers) warranty coverage
extends for only one year.
However, the above-stated warranty is actually better than you’ll find from almost all of our competitors that are on the first two pages of the “contemporary sofas” listing from Google. If you look closely for warranty information, you’ll find either (a) nothing at all, (b) steps you should take upon delivery if goods are received damaged, or (c) a vague reference by the seller to one-year warranties from the manufacturers, with nothing in writing stating the warranties. If one calls and asks to see the text of the warranty, they may say they will send it to you, but you’ll probably never receive anything. That isn’t surprising, since the manufacturers are almost certainly unnamed firms on the opposite side of the world. If one thinks about the costs of shipping to and from the manufacturer for warranty work in such cases, it should be obvious why no warranty information is provided.
If any reader can find any examples that contradict any of the above statements, please tell us where we can find them, by e-mailing to info@comfy1.com or calling 800-659-0436. Thanks for any input. (As of eight months after posting the above, nobody has offered any comments that contradict the above.)
So our competitors have big
cost advantages over us in the initial price, but we stand out
from them in making sure that our products have long, useful,
enjoyable lives for our customers. (Our warranty on our sofas and
chairs is for structural soundness and good support for ten
years, we agree to pay for shipping both ways in honoring our
warranties, there are no exclusions -- normal wear and tear or
anything else -- and we take responsibility for any damage in
shipping.) Obviously distance is part of our ability to guarantee
long life of our products. But also we can do so because (1) our
furniture is made up of economically-shippable components that
are easy to unbolt from the rest of the frame and then to replace
with new components, compared with our competitors' frames, which
are normally nailed and/or stapled together, and (2) we have a
decades-long history of making furniture that has withstood hard
use, with steady feedback from our customers, so that we know
that there will hardly ever be problems that require warranty
service.
Any prospective customer should look closely at what the company
says regarding their warranty and return policy, such as follows:
One of our major competitors trumpets their "lifetime
warranty", with the fine print stating that the "lifetime"
is that of the original cover fabric.
Also, all of the warranties
from furniture manufacturers that we have read, when they provide
details, say that (1) only "defects in materials and
workmanship" are covered, expressly or implicitly excluding
normal wear and tear, and (2) the customer must pay the very
large expenses of packing and shipping the sofa to and from the
distant manufacturer for warranty work, and all damage in transit
is a matter between the customer and the freight company. If any
company's actual, enforceable warranty were any better than
what's typical for furniture (above), it’s reasonable to
assume that they would be willing to provide written details
about it. But they normally don't. We invite you to carefully
compare different vendors in this regard.
The other companies' refusal to allow returns except in the case
of defects or damages is another matter to consider closely,
combined with the fact that (in the case of some companies) they
don't have a showroom where people can closely examine examples
of products such as they are considering purchasing. (Comfy 1
maintains a showroom at a location that is very reasonably
accessible to millions of customers, since we are only an hour
from the nation's capital and just over a mile from the major
north-south artery I-95, within the heavily populated region
stretching from Central Virginia to eastern Pennsylvania to New
York City and environs.)
In addition, Comfy 1 allows returns during the
first week after delivery even for mere dissatisfaction, with
full refund (of up to $10,000 per individual order) upon return
of the product, and allowing refund of shipping costs both ways
in addition to the full product cost. We state the above in
writing, and if we ever failed to honor that commitment our
failure to do so would be easy to find out about from
publicly-available sources.
Almost all of Comfy 1's
products are made to order, and therefore would not be returnable
if from a typical custom manufacturer. But there are good reasons
why we nevertheless offer a satisfaction guarantee: (1) If a
product is returned by a customer when new, it won't be hard for
us to sell it for a good price; we may have to change the covers
to satisfy the next customer, but with our furniture, that's easy
and inexpensive to do. (2) More importantly, we make our products
well enough that our customers are happy well over 99% of the
time. And (3) it's a way to expand our sales by making customers
comfortable about buying from us even when they can't come to our
showroom. Compared with the burdensome overhead of maintaining
showrooms at distant locations, offering a satisfaction guarantee
(with shipping paid both ways) is an inexpensive, low-risk way of
profitably greatly increasing the size of a company's base of
potential customers.
But admittedly it can only work if the products are accurately
depicted and so well made, packed and shipped that the company's
customers are essentially always happy.
If a company neither
provides a showroom where people can examine representative
samples of the product nor offers a satisfaction
guarantee, its customers are really taking a chance. Even more so
if its warranty is so vague that it doesn't legally obligate them
to bear the real expenses of taking care of problems that
customers could well have after not very much use.
Thinking out to future years, aside from the warranty question,
also consider the cost of re-covering the furniture when the
fabric is worn or when it's time to re-decorate. We encourage
customers to look into the cost of re-covering one of the other
company's sofas, checking with local re-upholsterers, and also
look on the Comfy 1 website (at www.comfy1.com/replacement.htm )
to find the cost of re-covering one of ours. You'll very
likely find that the additional amount you might pay Comfy 1 in
the initial price would be more than paid back in savings the
first time you have replacement covers made. And the savings in
future replacements of covers or cushions would be pure gravy.
That's not even taking into account the big question as to how
well the other company's frames, springs and cushion filling will
hold up over the years.
Readers interested in ordering furniture from _________chair.com
(or from other companies offering sofas that, unlike
Comfy 1's, can't be disassembled), should read the
article from the Wall Street Journal about an order from
Carolinachair.com that couldn't fit into the customer's room but
also couldn't be returned, by going to the following web address:
http://www.realestatejournal.com/homegarden/20030508-angwin.html
Also, since re-covering a typical sofa (that is, a sofa that
isn't designed to be economical to re-cover) with well-fitting
covers is likely to run well over $2000, any customer considering
typical furniture should be very watchful for specific durability
information about the cover fabrics. Keep in mind that a fabric
can be called "heavy duty" if it passes only 15,000
double rubs on the industry-standard test, but 15,000 is near the
low end of fabrics offered by Comfy 1 (many of ours exceed
250,000).
Other things to look for and think about on our competitors' websites:
Azzia.com, like some others, shows only a post office box for their address. They trumpet "a 100% satisfaction guarantee," but returns are accepted only with a 15% re-stocking fee, and the customer has to pay shipping both ways, and it will be rejected for return if they detect damage. Some internet sellers, showing a U.S. post office box as their address, sell products that are shipped directly from China with no mention of that fact -- think what your shipping costs would be to return such a product, not to mention the risk of damage for which you would be responsible.
The following is a typical position of these sellers, but it's one that not all will admit until it's too late for you: "If it is found that any of the larger products upon delivery 'will not fit' through any doors/stairwells and the product is subsequently returned/refused, you are responsible for all outward & return carriage costs." And they almost certainly also hold the customer responsible for costs of any return shipping damage incurred.
"The delivery personnel will be responsible for delivering the Product only curbside." Others say that the driver will only move the product to the back of the truck. (We always deliver at least to your door, except when (1) we deliver it in our own van, in which case we bring it in and set it up in your room, or (2) if you live in an apartment building and can't receive it during the day, in that case the evening delivery would be inside the lobby of your building.
"Orders cannot be cancelled due to delays, shortages, damages, installation and set up issues or for any other reason, without incurring the 45% re-stocking fees."...."purchased items may be returned within one (1) day of receiving shipment. 45% restocking fee will apply and the customer is responsible for the return shipping charges." (Note: 20-45% re-stocking fees are typical)..
"SPACIFY expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, including without limitation any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose....."
"Once an item has been assembled it is no longer returnable. Special order products such as items where fabrics can be selected are non refundable."
On the Rooms to Go site, at the first four sofas shown there is no mention of a manufacturer name or where the items were made. For products purchased in their showrooms, "no refunds are available and sales cannot be cancelled after merchandise has been delivered."
At Interiorexpress.com, "If you....return a non-defective or undamaged product, you will incur original shipping charges along with actual return shipping fees. Return shipping fees typically range from $150 to $695, but may be more..." in addition to the original shipping charges that the customer must also pay. "Items not in their original, new, unopened condition may qualify for a partial refund of the product’s price." There is no mention of warranty, and using their “search” for warranty yields nothing.
On the Amazon.com site, trying to find information about the products' manufacturers, their locations, warranties and return policies will yield about the same results (or non-results) mentioned for the above sellers
.
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information about construction and materials, click here.