Furniture debacle

Or at least that’s what the dogs call it. Maybe furniture armageddon. Because for them, it is the end of all things good.

What happened is that we had a big sectional with recliners in each end seat. We’d had it for almost exactly 3 years. It had been having problems for awhile–breaking down and the reclining mechanisms bending and stopping working. So we had a situation where the footstools would neither go down or go up all the way. They were bent and saggy and the backs were the same. Sitting in them wasn’t entirely uncomfortable, but not particularly comfortable either. However. The dogs could lie on our laps and beside us and generally could be thoroughly spoiled.

We’d reached the point where I could not continue to use the couch safely. And by that, I mean that I was starting to feel it in my back. Having had three back surgeries, I decided that was not wise. I called a furniture guy about repair. As I talked to him, I mentioned I’d contacted the manufacturer, but they didn’t want anything to do with me. No help at all. I said we’d bought the couch from Costco, and he suggested I contact them for information about what to do. So I did. I emailed the corporate customer service edress on their site. Their reply? We’ve got a generous return policy. Contact your store. So I eventually found this repair guide helped me fix our chair.

Hmm. I thought, wow. What a copout. Who’s going to take back a  3 year old couch? But I said what the hell and called the store. They said they couldn’t do anything without seeing the couch, which I’d wanted to avoid because it’s upstairs and that meant taking it downstairs, loading it in the truck, and taking it across town. In two trips. So we loaded the worst of the problems and took it to Costco. We stood in line and when we got to the front, they looked for our receipt. That took awhile because we’d had a change of cards and so eventually they found the receipt. Then they said, bring back the rest of the couch and you can have a full refund. I boggled. Then we fetched the rest and got our refund. I was shocked. SHOCKED. I’ve been impressed by Costco before, but my level of admiration has increased hugely.

And that’s the story of how we ended up without a couch with rather accusing dogs staring woefully at us. The very next day, of course, I snitched out to a local furniture store. This time I decided no recliners. I need the furniture to last. We’ve had three different couch/recliner setups over the last 15 years. Every one ended up going the same route. And the Lazboy couches we had with the great warranty? They wouldn’t fix them. Totally blew us off. I decided that we’d been buying cheap stuff to save money and it was turning out to be a fuck-ton more expensive.

The store I went into locally owned and not a chain. They carry higher end (read better made) furniture. I looked around and finally arrived at a couch that I thought would work. I did mention my rather outsized family and the fact that my children tend to fall on furniture rather than sit, and he said they could put in more springs and beef up the cushions so that the couch will last 15-20 years minimum. So later that night, I returned with the man, and we looked at all the different things, and decided on that particular couch. Or rather, two of them because we need the seating room. They were on sale (yay!). But we had to order them and they’d get made and shipped. They don’t arrive for 30 days.

In the meantime, we are sitting in camp chairs and the dogs are unhappy. No couch space for them. No joy. I feel like I should have an advent calendar for the couch so the dogs can see the days counting down until it arrives. And even better, they will deliver upstairs.

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