England Furniture - Review

Hi all!  Thought I'd tack on a review of our experience with the manufacturer of our couch & chair, England furniture (American-made!  Located in Tennessee), including their warranty.

So far we are extremely pleased with the company.  Their website says they can make your furniture in as little as 21 days and ship using their own line of trucks, and that "We pride ourselves on being on time, every time. In our fiscal year (ended April 2010), we delivered 98.5% of our orders on time. We did this during one of the worst winters in recent history"....and I now believe that!  We submitted our order at the furniture store on a Friday night, January 18th, and they delivered our sofa and chair in our home on February 19th!  That's amazing!

The workmanship, as you can see from their detailed assembly explanation here, and our couch pictures in this post, is quality stuff.  I'm also fond of details like the exposed wooden legs not being just straight pegs like you see with many couches - it adds so much character.

I especially am glad that you can flip the cushions on the couch and chair.  Word to the wise who may be couch-searching at this moment: look under the seat cushions in the showrooms you go to.  Many furniture makers are cutting corners by covering the hidden side with a lesser-quality, non-matching fabric.  Flipping greatly helps further the life of your cushions.

We've also been able to already test their warranty, lol.  It was snowing the day our furniture arrived.  I noticed that there was a smudge on the center couch cushion, and when I asked the mover about it, he said it was likely from the snow and would be gone when it dried, but to call the store if it didn't.

The spot was not as noticeable after it dried, but was still there, so I quickly called the store (which we're also really really happy with - if you know us on facebook and are in the market for furniture, we'd be glad to tell you the name of the company.  For security we'd rather not share it outside of friends/family - thanks for understanding) and the lady gave me her email so I could send some pictures of the spot, and she promptly sent them to England.

As for the discoloration, truly, it's such a faint spot that I would have made-do if they hadn't approved our claim, so when the lady called me today (that was fast!) to say that England was shipping us the replacement fabric for the cushion, I was this:

I read so many disappointed and angry customer reviews who paid hundreds for special warranties in addition to what they paid for their furniture on many other brands who did not follow through with their warranty, had bad customer service, shoddy workmanship, etc, when we were researching sofas.  So I am beyond thrilled at the no-hassle, quick follow-through service we're experiencing!  Guess what else - it didn't cost us a dime extra for their warranty - it comes standard.  10 year cushion warranty, 5 year warranty on mechanisms, springs, legs, and casters, lifetime frame warranty.

My faith in humanity has been slightly buoyed to find that companies that really do care about their customers still exist!!  I highly recommend England!!

What we learned from our couch-seeking & buying experience:

1) You really do get what you pay for with sofas.  If you're looking for furniture that will last you 15-20 years, go for higher quality.  It will pay itself back seven-fold.

2) Get feedback from friends/family on furniture stores they personally have had a good experience with.  Same goes for when looking into furniture brands.

3) Don't be afraid to (respectfully) approach a company that isn't following through with their promise to you.

We may have earned a couple of gray hairs of wisdom from this whole experience since we started sofa-shopping, but it's been worth it.  What's life without a learning experience, right?  ;)  Thanks to everyone who offered their advice and cheerfully brought their own camp chairs to our home these last few months - you all deserve medals!