I only want to buy an Office Chair for God Sake *!

Some months ago I treated myself to a  handmade desk to fit in my home office space.  The old one had served me for 20 years and was too big when we moved house. Even better was the fact that my new desk was made in the UK! I would highly recommend the company not just for the quality desk but for their delivery and customer service.

Office Chair

Since then I wanted to buy a new office chair to go with the desk, for months, I've been using one of our dining chairs which is not ideal. The space where my desk sits is quite small so I needed to be mindful of the dimensions.  I also wanted a chair that has a decent guarantee and was shocked how many expensive chairs are sold without one or just 12 months (with lots of loopholes).  I also wanted a chair that was comfortable since I spend more time than I should at my PC.

After months of research and debate I bought this one from a company called Chair Office

It was an added bonus that the chair was manufactured in the UK! Great I thought lets support a British company and comes with a 5 year guarantee!

Unfortunately, when it arrived the back section was leaning to one side (see photo). 

I did not attach the head rest, I did not see the point as I was returning it but I did notice the headrest was stamped made in Italy! So much for being made in the UK, naive me!

So I looked it up online and this is what I found on a site called mlplaw

"To label your products as being made in the UK, you will need to demonstrate that there is either a ‘substantial transformation’ and/or that at least 50% of the manufacturing of / value added to such products is completed in the UK".

So a product can be labelled made in the UK if only 50% of it is made here, I bet not many UK consumers know that!

So I called up Chair Office and they apologised and arranged a replacement chair, which would take a few days.  They said they would put a rush on the replacement but I just asked them to please make sure the replacement had no problems.

When the second Ergo Sit High Back office Chair arrived it was full of problems. First of the cardboard box was beat up both inside and out, "That doesn't bode well" I thought to myself.  My next impression was the plastic bags the chair componants were in were dusty as if the pieces of this replacement chair had been lying around a warehouse. Rather than trying to explain the condition here are a few of the photos I took of chair number 2.

It is obvious that the replacement chair from MDK office seating was even worse than the lopsided one. Chair Office the company I had bought the chair from were "most apologetic" but as far as I was concerned both they and the manufacturer should have made sure the replacement was what I paid for, a brand new functional chair.  Chair Office offered me various solutions but by now my faith in both them and MDK were zero so I got a refund.

 

Long Story Short

Eventually, I bought an office chair that is comfortable and not too expensive but even that took two more attempts which left me with spare parts (predrilled screw holes not lining up with the bolts).

Buying any big ticket item on the internet is a roll of the dice. It takes research, tenacity and sometimes sure bloodymindedness to get what you pay for.

I always look to buy from a physical shop when I can but those choices are shrinking as we sleepwalk into mediocrity heaven where measurements and quality don't fit the description on the website.