2/5

posted Jan-21-2013

It could have been a great buy, but as I watch my husband spend a couple of hours of his only day off, attempting to repair the broken chair we ordered, I have to wonder. They said, when the chair arrived broken, that the particularly problem was not uncommon, that FedEx often puts things on top of cartons when they ought not to. At any rate, the Eames chair arrived broken. The box was not damaged, so the damage was not discovered until we thoroughly unpacked. They sent a replacement part which the girl said was "easy" to switch out. NOT. THey sent no instructions and no Allen wrench that fit this component. Fortunately, we had a wrench, but the screws are very tightly set and poorly made. Also, it was necessary to remove the velcroed-on leather part to "fix" it (it's still not usable), and it took a lot of strength to do that - and the velco, of course, came unglued. I do have glue that I think will fix that (if we ever get the new component attached). But, for $1000, we did not expect to be repairing a new chair. Further, the leather on the top part is also damaged, but we did not see that until we went to repair the first broken part - so we are out of luck (they have a 24 hour "must report all damage" policy. Advice: if you do order, completely lay out all parts (which will make repacking it virtually impossible, btw) and then contact them IMMEDIATELY to get new parts. Whether they'll send us new parts (one stripped screw and the damaged leather) remains to be seen. But it is turning into a weeks-long furniture building project, with things lying about the living room, and we had hoped for something different (such as a chair that came out the box and was easily assembled). I will say they sent the part (the one that is "frequently damaged" out fairly quickly (5 days, including weekend days). But, no instructions and it's a different sized Allen wrench than the one you use to put together the chair...Solution? Pack the chair better! Styrofoam on only one section isn't enough! Having the parts of the chair pressed right against the cardboard box is silly! Wrap the leather in bubble wrap or something (there was more bubble wrap in the replacement part than in the entire original chair!) If we had decided to return the chair (at our expense) we would have had to get it back into its original box (maybe we could do that, I don't know) but they'd still charge us a $200 restocking fee. If we return the chair now - as a damaged item - we still have to pay $100 shipping and $200 restocking if we don't want another (and we don't want to risk another of these chairs). That's $300 for an excursion with a broken chair! (And remember, their rep said that a broken bracket on the upper part of the chair was not all that uncommon). Whether we return it as damaged (or not), we are out $300 and their FAQ says we're beyond the number of days (of course) where we can do *any* kind of return. I guess we could contact our credit card company for some sort of reimbursement, but that's not the way I like doing business!

Oh, and as for the standard assembly, there are plastic pieces designed to hold screws, and you can't put the screws through because they were applied off center. Lots of little details are wrong like that - very difficult (possibly impossible assembly) and poorly made. I suspect many other Eames chairs in this price point are similar, so we should have known better. They simply didn't cut all the way through (we think) certain parts of the chair so that screws could go through - we will figure it out or glue it together or somehow make it work, but it may not end up being the go-to piece of furniture for relaxation and reclining that we had wished. Where those plastic pieces *are* properly placed, the manufacturer failed to adequately pierce them so it's very hard to get the screw going through the plastic. Have a power screwdriver and a strong will on hand for assembly. Also, check the screws throughout the product, as some of the ones that came pre-screwed are loose. If you enjoy home furniture building (and don't mind a bit of damage on the side of your leather cushion), this could be an inexpensive way to get a Eames-alike chair. But don't expect any aspect of assembly to be straightforward. Instructions could be way easier and the repair part was not, as customer service said, "easy."

The "instructions" by the way consist of several pictures. One shows you to open the box, another shows you to take the things out of the box. NO picture shows you which parts go where or which screws to use. As of now, we have figured out no way to get the chair arm pads screwed onto the chair - it would have been so easy for them to do this at the factory (the screw holes on the two pieces are out of alignment - they would have figured that out), and use a slightly larger box. We're thinking our only hope is to epoxy these pieces together (the "instructions" simply show that the pads go on the arms- yes, we get that - but HOW? Show the proper screws, which holes go where, which way the pad goes - have actual instructions! Very overpriced for what you get - go to Target or Plummer's or Costco instead.' IKEA has way better customer service, product and instructions.

Customer service is largely by email, by the way, and the staff we spoke to really didn't know how to assemble the chair. Final verdict: impossible to assemble (screw holes on armrests do not align with chair no matter what, will use two part epoxy or similar to create a fix, but seriously...should have been much less expensive for what we're getting, as in about $300).

In the end, we have a chair that is more or less glued and put together, and looks pretty cool. Still a little concerned about its overall quality - and the return policy at this store is not what we're used to with vendors like Amazon.

This review was modified by Themis on January 21 2013 06:30:01 PM

comment on review | report?

Is this review?… Helpful Cool Share