Comparisons with Many of our Competitors

Of the first fifteen websites that come up highest in response to a March, 2010 Google search for "contemporary sofas:", only two (including Comfy 1) sell furniture made in the USA. (One of the fifteen, archiexpo.com, is merely an illustrated listing of manufacturers all over the world.) Of the fourteen that sell furniture, it is apparent that all but two of us 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 furniture manufacturers: that is, no warranties beyond replacement for goods received in damaged condition.

Only one of the above group, Shangri-La.Furniture, openly (although reluctantly) acknowledges that they sell furniture from China. ("A California company" is written boldly next to their name at the top of their home page, but if one clicks on a link and reads far into the description of shipping details, you’ll find 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." Considering 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 effects, 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 if they can 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 information about the country of origin or the name of the manufacturer for an important product, that should raise a red flag.

We challenge you to find on the websites of any of our competitors that are ranked high in Google (other than Spacify.com and Shangrila) any indication of the country of manufacture of their sofas or any names of the manufacturers. We looked rather extensively and were unable to find such information, with very minor exceptions noted below. Spacify 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 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 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 in shipping of products returned under warranty. And even that effectively almost-worthless 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 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.

So our competitors have big cost advantages over us in the initial price, but we have big advantages over them in being able to make sure that our products have very long lives for our customers. (Our warranty on our sofas 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.

For any customers who are considering a purchase from ____________chair.com , as well as for people considering most typical sofas, sectionals and chairs:

A prospective customer should look closely at what the company says regarding their warranty and return policy, such as follows:
"A. We stand behind our quality construction with great warranties:
Frame - Lifetime of product; Springs - Lifetime of product; Standard Seat Cushions - Limited lifetime of product ...
....all orders are non-cancellable, non-returnable and non-refundable with the exception of manufacturer defects or damages."

What could be more vague than "lifetime of product"? They provide no details on this crucial question. We have heard many customers saying that average lifetimes of sofas in their households have been 2-3 years (before they bought from us). Another curious one we've read is "lifetime warranty", with the fine print identifying the "lifetime" as that of the original cover.

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, 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 don't. We invite you to compare their vague warranty with Comfy 1's clearly stated commitments to our customers.

Their 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 at least one company) they don't have a showroom where people can closely examine examples of products such as they are considering ordering. (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 very close to I-95, within the heavily populated region stretching from Northern 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), allowing refund of shipping costs both ways as well as 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.

On the other hand, if a company has no showroom with representative samples for customers to see and try out before ordering, and if that company allows returns only in cases of damage or manufacturer defects, that is a formula for producing unhappy customers who have no legal basis for complaining.

Almost all of Comfy 1's products are custom made, 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 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. (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 almost 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 really legally obligate them to bear the real expenses of taking care of problems that customers could well have after not many years of 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 their 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 their 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, at the following link: http://www.realestatejournal.com/homegarden/20030508-angwin.html

Also, since re-covering a typical sofa (that is, a sofa that isn't made to be economical to re-cover, such as those by Comfy 1) 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 their 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).

Customers who are considering sofas with typical, bulky arms and frames should check carefully how much (or how little) actual sitting or reclining space there will be; you may be surprised and very disappointed, especially in comparison with the larger amount of usable space allowed by Comfy 1's slender arms.

In their explanation about what sets them apart from their competition, what __________chair.com says at the very top is partly untrue and the rest is rather meaningless as regards quality:

Actually there are several companies, including Comfy 1, that can accurately and verifiably "make that claim." More basically, making your own furniture really says nothing at all about how well you make it.

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