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La-Z-Boy - Graphite Stains

La-Z-Boy
• Sales Practices
• "Lifetime Guarantee"
• Wrong Model
• Delivery Delays
• Sofa Problems
• Graphite Stains

Joan of Newport MI (9/9/03):
If you are thinking about buying a La-Z-Boy dual recliner motion sofa, think again. There is a lifetime parts warranty on the structural components (mechanism, frame, springs) but labor after the first year is the customer’s responsibility. This company professes that they use no oil, BUT, without being upfront about this, La-Z-Boy DOES USE GRAPHITE that leaves a dark, oily-like substance on one’s carpet underneath the sofa. It is a problem that we have been left to live with for the life of the couch.

We ordered our new couch on 12/28/92 and waited 8 weeks for it to be delivered on 03/02/93. Problems:

a minor, but noticeable, red mark on one cushion (the red mark is made at the factory to note a flaw in the fabric);
most of the sofa’s cushion fabric was noticeably loose;
in July 1995, an entire recliner seat section failed (R.S.S. metal mechanism broke and L.S.S. Release Cable broke). Even though it was their defective part, we had to incur a $35 service charge for labor to fix this;
In 1996, we discovered that the other recliner seat section had a manufacturer defective tie-rod stabilizer wire protrude out from the underside of the cushion that extended, underneath and unseen, toward the sofa arm.

This defective tie-rod stabilizer wire broke through and tore the sofa material, leaving a large hole and the poly cushion material coming out. We incurred another service charge to fix this even though La-Z-Boy acknowledged that it was their mechanism, a tie-rod stabilizer wire that failed and tore the sofa material. They "refused" to repair the material because the material only had a 1 year warranty, despite the fact that it was their defective tie-rod stabilizer wire that caused the tear and hole in the material; therefore, the hole remains.

Time and time and time again La-Z-Boy kept professing in mantra-like manner, that they use no oil (we kept describing the large, dark spot on our carpet, underneath the sofa, as a dark, oily-like substance). We made it clear that we were not asking for any carpet replacement, but only asking that the mechanism that would be causing this large, dark, oily-like markings be fixed. Finally, a repairperson admitted that La-Z-Boy does use GRAPHITE and this mark was a graphite mark. Even though a mechanism was replaced that La-Z-Boy said would resolve the graphite markings from occurring, its replacement did not eliminate this problem.

We were then told that the graphite marks the sofa leaves on our carpet would lighten over time. The graphite markings on our carpet, located underneath the sofa, remain to this day and remain just as large and just as dark, and just as oily looking, 10 years later. (Only with great cleaning effort can the graphite markings be somewhat lightened but never totally removed from the carpet whenever the sofa is pulled out; however, the dark, graphite markings just come back again. This makes it most difficult for us to change the location of our living room furniture because the graphite markings need to be covered up with another piece of furniture since, even with cleaning, there is some of the graphite markings left in the carpet.) It has been 10 years, but customers don’t forget when they have gotten a raw deal from a company!

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