Complain about a product or service

Ethan Allen

Joseph of Clinton CT (03/31/09)
Purchased a leather Barrister sofa about a year ago. Noticed that the middle cushion sank more than the ones on either side and was attended by a strange noise from within the box spring portion of the frame. You get the same noise as you ascend from the sofa. I have called Ethan Allen many times, only to be given a number that asks to leave a message. You leave some contact information, and no one responds. This has been going on for months. HELP!

The sofa is is defective.

Ken of Coral Springs, FL March 19, 2009

Ken of Coral Springs FL (03/19/09)
Bought 3 Ethan Allen Barrister leather chair's in Vermont and Florida.Leather had been coated over (in an attempt to change the color)with a sub-standard colorant.Verified by a master upholsterer when we re-covered one of the chair's.He could not believe any company could be so deceptive.E/A replaced one and offered a 50% credit on the other (because it was just out of warranty) in making the latter settlement they had our history on the other one bought in Vermont.I can only assume that the colorant used was not approved for use in the U.S.

Brian of Union City, PA March 18, 2009

Brian of Union City PA (03/18/09)
I used to work for Ethan Allen. As did many other people in our small town. Ethan Allen was a major company in Union City since I was a small boy. We made high quality hardwood chairs and tables. We wouldn't put out anything less than perfect quality. If it wasn't right, it didn't go out the door.

We made end tables, coffee tables, bistros, and dining tables. Across the street in our chair division, we made several designs of hardwood chairs with hardwood, woven, and padded seats. We took a lot of pride in our craftsmanship and quality. We used only the best materials and solid wood parts. I have some of our furniture in my home now and it is in very good condition. We were the best producers of high quality hardwood furniture in our area and in the Ethan Allen chain.

Then Ethan Allen spent about six million dollars to build an addition on our building and purchased a lot of high tech equipment. I ended up running a fully automated, robotic finishing system. This was a million dollar system. It was a system designed to spray dining table tops with conventional and precat sealers and lacquers and later to be converted over to UV finishes. The system had a robotic spray head that would spray a good even coat of finish on each top. Our oven was huge. It had four bays that would hold fifty two dining table tops at a time. It was all automatic, when one top went in, one would come out the other end. The system had a UV tunnel that cured the tops when they came out of the tunnel. And it had a transfer table that would move the tops over to the start position to go through for a second coat if needed.

It was a very impressive system. It looked like we were here to stay. However, when we changed over to the UV finish material, we started having finish material problems. I alerted management about the problems and told them we should look into finding another finish company as this was starting to cost us time and money. Every time a bad top came out, we had to sand the finish off and send it through again, costing us more money. It was obvious that the problems were finish material related because I had four filters on the system and they were all getting plugged up with flattening paste and bad material,and abrasives, and our problems on the tops were blisters in the finish, dirt in the finish, fish eyes, bad adhesion, orange peel, and flaking.

Management tried to make it look like it was my fault as the operator, and refused to try another finishing company because our plant manager was good friends with the finishing company's rep and they would go to conventions together and they were golfing buddies and therefore, it couldn't be the material, it had to be something the operator was doing wrong. Then the company shutdowns came around. There were a lot of Ethan Allen companies in our tri state area, and they started shutting down, about three or four at a time. Then it came our turn. We were informed that our factory was being shut down and outsourced to China. We had a backlog of product to finish and then we were to be laid off.

We contacted another finish material company to come in and sample some of their material and guess what? All our finishing material problems went away and we didn't run a single bad top for the rest of our time there. But it was too late. Most of our company was gone and the doors were closing. That put about two hundred and fifty seven people out of a job, in a small community. I was one of the last to go in our Div. and I got the last table our factory ever made. Ethan Allen was the biggest employer in our town and they pulled the plug on us without a second thought so they could outsource their product to China and produce sub standard junk for less money and make more profit. The name used to mean something. It meant experienced, proud, American craftsmanship. Now Ethan Allen means Chinese junk. This is only my opinion, based on fact.

L of Gilbert, AZ March 16, 2009

L of Gilbert AZ (03/16/09)
Purchased lots of furniture from Ethan Allen a few years ago and if we had to do it all over again - would not have bought a single piece of furniture from them!

From the time of purchase until delivery all was fine. Then we took delivery and there were things wrong with a few of the items. We had to jump through hoops to proove the defects. One was a pair of chairs - they made one set of cushions different from the other. Then we had problems with the deferred billing - they wanted to start tracking the interest on the deferred billing for the defective goods - while they remade them. Had to send letters to the accounting office and to the designer and the store manager and they still did not understand that I did not want to pay for something or incur any interest on items that were defective until the replacing item was received.

We bought two casual chairs - black wood frame with seat and back cusions. The finish is rubbing off on the edges and the cushions are loosing their shape - these chairs have been sat in at the maximum of 3 times over a 24 month period. Purchased a black coffee table, console table and end table - finish is rubbing off. Purchased 2 wicker chairs - the wicker is coming loose on one of the chairs. I know the warranty period is over but what we paid for our furniture it should last longer than 2 years.

I would say Ethan Allen's furniture is nice to look at but it cannot be used and be expected to last much more than 1 year if that. And in our case for our chairs - we cannot even look Ethan Allen's furniture without the finish wearing off and the cusions loosing their shape.

We have furniture that looks awful despite the high cost we paid for this furniture.

Charles of Charlotte, NC March 13, 2009

Charles of Charlotte NC (03/13/09)
I had a terrible experience with Ethan Allen. This all happened during 04-2008 to 11-2008. My wife and I went to Ethan Allen in Pineville, NC. We ordered a leather chair, a couch, an oversized side chair, a wood-leather chair, an end table and some pillows. We ordered our furniture in April and were told 10-12 weeks for delivery. That was fine. The only thing that showed up to the delivery warehouse in June was the end table and 2 leather chairs.

They immediately wanted to deliver because as soon as you accept delivery on any portion of the order you will start making payments on the entire order. They are very anxious for you to accept something. We refused and told them we would wait until the entire order was in. In June, we were told that they had a high demand for the fabric we picked on the couch and the order was pushed out another 6 weeks. In August we took a vacation expecting our furniture when we returned only to find out that the fabric they received was damaged so they had to send it all back. Now we were told that our new delivery date would be in late September.

In September we got a call saying the couch had been shipped to their delivery warehouse. After a few days of not receiving any calls to schedule a delivery, I called and found out that their records were wrong and that the couch had NOT been shipped. The new delivery date was for November 17. In early October, we decided to take all the furniture that had come in minus the couch as the holidays would be nearing and we needed some furniture. It came, only to find repaired holes in one leather chair and white stains in the other wood-leather chair accompanied by scratches in the chair and end table. Someone was sent out to fix the furniture on site 2 weeks later.

The leather could not be fixed and the scratches were touched up. The one leather chair with repaired holes were explained as cow hide scarring. My wife and I are not rich by any means and decided that when we were going to get furniture for our house, that we were going to invest in some excellent quality furniture that would last us throughout the years.

What we got is service and quality of what you would expect from a typical furniture warehouse pushing furniture made in China. I will not be purchasing any more furniture from Ethan Allen due to this experience. Thanks for listening,

Laura of Windsor, ON March 9, 2009

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