Calling the Mercury News Action Line!

Dear Mr. Rockstroh,

In early May, 2007, we purchased a floor model ottoman (over $500) from the Ethan Allen store in Mountain View, CA. The day after we brought it home, one of the legs on the ottoman broke. When we cut away the cloth covering the bottom of the ottoman, we found that the support that held the leg in place was made out of “multi-layered laminate board” instead of a solid piece of wood, and that a large staple was being used to hold the leg in place (see photos to the right).

When we called Ethan Allen, they told us that they would not take the product back because we had agreed to buy the product “as is”. Is Ethan Allen is using the “as is” condition to abdicate any responsibility for selling a usable product? When we purchased the product, we made it very clear to the Ethan Allen sales person that we planned to actually “use” the ottoman; that we planned to put the ottoman in our family room, place books and newspapers on it, and even have people sit on it. At no time during that discussion did the Ethan Allen sales person say that the ottoman might break in those situations. If she had, we would have never bought the product

We were told that the product was “as is” and that the “as is” phrase referred to normal blemishes, discoloring, tears, stains and other cosmetic imperfections that occur to a floor model. We accepted that the “as is” condition would cover the above types of floor model-related imperfections. However, we were never told that the “as is” condition also covered the fact that the ottoman would break, or likely was already broken. Because the Ethan Allen sales person clearly stated that the ottoman was a floor model, did we not have the right to expect that someone could actually sit on it without it breaking?

This whole ordeal raises the question whether the Ethan Allen sales person sold us something other than a floor model, or knowingly sold us a broken product. Did the Ethan Allen sales person knowingly mis-represent the condition of the ottoman?

We continue to be disappointed that Ethan Allan won't stand behind their products. All that we want is our money back. Is that really that unreasonable?

BTW, we have established the blog below to share story about the quality of customer service from the Mountain View Ethan Allen.

http://ethanallenquality.blogspot.com/

Ethan Allen Product Quality vs. Thomasville

In order to give a better assessment of the quality of product one expects from a furniture manufacturer and merchant, I'm going to use this posting to compare the craftsmanship of the Ethan Allen ottoman versus an ottoman that we purchased from Thomasville about 10 years ago. Pictures don't lie!!

First Up: Ethan Allen Product Quality!

The first photo here on the right is a photo of my Ethan Allen ottoman (purchased from the Ethan Allen in Mountain View, CA). If you are looking to buy an ottoman and see an Ethan Allen ottoman, watch out!

Now, it's a nice looking piece of furniture, and from the surface, it looks just fine. But when you cut away the cloth that hides the structural integrity of the piece of furniture, well, that's again where photos don't lie (see the photo to the left).

As I was informed by one reader, the Ethan Allen used multi-layer laminate board, not a solid piece of wood, for the frame structure. Sorry, but multi-layer laminate board is NOT as strong as a solid piece of wood (Do you see baseball players using multi-layer laminate board? Do you see construction projects use multi-layer laminate board for their 2/4 studs?). Multi-layer laminate board was a poor choice of material, which calls into question the structural integrity of the ottoman.

Next Up: Thomasville Ottoman

Now we'll take a look at the underlying structure of the Thomasville ottoman. The photo on the right is the Thomasville ottoman that we'll examine. This is a piece that we've now had for about 10 years, and we still use it today in our family room (see photo to the right).

When you look under the Thomasville ottoman, that's where it really distinguishes itself (see photo to the left). Thomasville uses solid wood pieces in all of it's key structural joints. Solid wood, not multi-layer laminate board. And the result is a piece of furniture that has served us well for almost a decade!

The Final Vote

While I can't attest to the quality of Thomasville products today - I can't guarantee that they haven't gone down the same poor quality / poor craftsmanship route that Ethan Allen has chosen - I can say that from the pictures, one can easily see the difference between good quality structure (solid wood pieces in the Thomasville ottoman) and the multi-layer laminate board used in a poor quality structure (the Ethan Allen ottoman).

Again, take a look at the photos and make your own judgment. The photos don't lie!!

Ethan Allen Customer Service - The Last Defense?

Ah, a new line of defense by the Ethan Allen store in Mountain View, CA ... Customer Service!

It appears that the phrase “as is” is being used by Ethan Allen to abdicate any responsibility for selling a usable product. When we purchased the product, we made it very clear to the Ethan Allen sales person that we planned to actually use the ottoman; that we planned to put the ottoman in our family room, place books and newspapers and magazines on it, and even have people sit on it. At no time during that discussion did the Ethan Allen sales person say that the ottoman might break in those situations. If she had, we would have never bought the product. Again, we made it very clear that we planned on actually using the ottoman. We did not plan to put it in a corner of the room so that folks could just admire it.

When we were sold the product, we were told that the product was “as is” and that the “as is” referred to normal blemishes, discoloring, tears, stains and other cosmetic imperfections that occur to a floor model. We accepted that the “as is” condition would cover the above types of floor model-related imperfections. We were never told that the “as is” condition also covered the fact that the ottoman would break, or likely was already broken. In fact, because the Ethan Allen sales person clearly stated that the ottoman was a floor model, we had ever right to expect that the product would perform as we needed it to perform – that someone could actually sit on it. But instead, we were sold a product that broke the first time someone sat on it in our family room, or was already broken when it was sold to us.

This whole ordeal raises the question whether the Ethan Allen sales person knowingly either sold us something other than a floor model or knowingly sold us a broken product in order to get it out of the store. We are now very concerned that the Ethan Allen sales person knowingly mis-represented the status or condition of said ottoman.

The sad thing about this entire process is that we just want our money back. We're not suing for damages or for the Ethan Allen sales person mis-representing the product. All we want is our money back. And that's what we stated when we called the day after buying the product.

Sigh... Oh well, watch this space for the continued adventures of trying to deal with Ethan Allen, a once proud brand that has to resort to this sort of customer treatment.

Ethan Allen Product Problems Everywhere

Well, it appears that I'm not alone in having problems with my Ethan Allen product. As you can see from the link below, there are many others having similar problems with their Ethan Allen products.

ConsumerAffairs.com

It is really sad, as there was a day not too long ago, where Ethan Allen stood for quality - both in product and customer services. In fact, when we first got married over twenty years ago, the Ethan Allen store in Schaumburg, IL offered an innovative financing program that allowed us to purchase numerous pieces of furniture over a 4 year period. Many of these pieces we still have today.

Unfortunately as you can see from the photos below, Ethan Allen has started to cut corners. In the case of our ottoman, Ethan Allen thought it smart to replace solid wood supports with particle board.

Watch this space for the continuing saga of my "adventures" with the Ethan Allen in Mountain View, CA!

Ethan Allen: Product Quality?

In early May, 2007, we purchased a floor model ottoman from the Ethan Allen store in Mountain View, CA. The day after we brought it home, one of the legs on the ottoman broke. When we cut away the cloth covering the bottom of the ottoman, we found that the support that held the leg in place was made out of particle board instead of a solid piece of wood (click on either of the photos to see enlarged photos on the craftsmanship details).

When we called Ethan Allen, they told us that they would not take the product back, and that if we wanted it fixed, we would have to pay for it. Ethan Allen then sent a "technician" to our house to examine the product. He claims that we broke the product on purpose by hitting the ottoman with a sharp object.

So we should have assumed that the product was of poor quality when we purchased it? The Sales person told us that it was a floor model; it was not marked as a second, nor was it marked defective. However, it broke the first time someone sat on it at our house. The very day we brought it home! So we're to assume that Ethan Allan won't stand behind their products?

By the way, we agree with the technician's assessment that someone or something had to have hit the ottoman pretty hard in order to break the leg. However what the technician failed to mention on his report that there was no tear in the fabric underneath the ottoman that covers the bottom. So it would have been impossible for us to have "struck" the ottoman to break the leg without tearing the cloth. So we are then forced to assume that the ottoman was broken before we ever got it.

We continue to be disappointed that Ethan Allan won't stand behind their products, even though it broke within one day of bringing it home. We can only assume that this point that the sales person knowingly sold us a defective product or a second, and not a floor model as promised.

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