I was always under the–apparently incorrect–impression that when you pay the prices that places like Restoration Hardware command for their furniture, you get some kind of guarantee along with that. Say, that if you drop eighteen grand on some beautiful weathered-finish patio furniture, that beautiful finish isn’t going to just weather itself right off the furniture in under a year. Dennis has learned that this isn’t the case.
I purchased an extensive collection very high end patio furniture from Restoration Hardware. The patio furniture is from the Antibes Collection and is the weathered zinc finish. I also purchased all of the associated furniture cushions in Sunbrella fabric (canvas fabric in mocha). Within 1 year of purchasing this furniture, I started having problems with the finish. The finish is coming off in pieces. The finish started chipping off on the legs of most of the furniture pieces, and then moved upwards to the arms and frames of the chairs, tables, ottomans, chaises, sofas, etc.
All pieces have been well taken care of, covered and stored indoors during winter. No harsh chemicals or cleaning products have been used. The finish is now coming off in large pieces with large chunks peeling off on the arms of the sofas and lounge chairs, leaving the white powder coat residue exposed.
After spending in excess of eighteen thousand dollars on patio furniture with Restoration Hardware, I expected more from the quality and durability. This is completely unacceptable.
This furniture is now a liability and an embarrassment. I cannot entertain using the furniture in this condition. I am including a sample photograph taken on May 28, 2012 as a sample of what is happening to the finish of each piece of furniture. The peeling finish is clearly a product defect and is happening on all pieces.
I contacted Restoration Hardware. They asked me for photographs which I sent and never heard back from them.
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Let me see if I get this right. A company, who’s senior management is in the 1%, exploits Chinese labor to make poor quality outdoor furniture dirt cheap. This company then sells it at an obscene profit to RH, who’s senior management is also in the 1%. RH marks this cheap Chinese crap up again to create another obscene profit for them. Then along comes another 1 percenter who pays way too much for this cheap Chinese crap. Within a year it is clear that he is the proud owner of cheap Chinese crap. RH not willing to give up their obscene profit tells this 1 percenter we are in business to make money and giving yours back interferes with that objective. Sorry. So all in all I have to say Boohoo to the 1%.
“After spending in excess of eighteen thousand dollars on patio furniture” your joking right?
I have often had the same problem with my eighteen thousand dollars on patio furniture, so I now buy from Wal Mart.
I cannot entertain spending that much on outdoor furniture. Have you seen what’s at CostCo? ‘cuz…it looks the same.
I came for the “only an idiot would spend 18K on lawn furniture” and I wasn’t disappointed.
I hope all of your proletariats feel the same next time someone complains about their BMW, their $6000 ultra-super-mega HDTV, etc.
The OP paid top-dollar for something with a good reputation from a great company. This amount of money, RH should be all over this with a repair or replacement. If you own the type of home that includes 18K worth of furniture, you probably entertain (as in, have people over) some big fish. I wouldn’t invite people over to sit in peeling furniture. It’s tacky and gross.
I have purchased “zinc finish” items from R.H. before. It took 3x to get an item that didn’t have defects. If I were you I’d avoid anything from them that has that finish on it. Also, I have a brand-new linen bedroom set and one of the duvet cover buttons just came off. I called them and my very nice salesperson that sold me my stuff told me to “sew it back on” myself.
Folks, this is more than four chairs and a table from Lowe’s. The letter refers to “chairs, tables, ottomans, chaises, sofas, etc.” — in other words, a suite of outdoor furniture. Sure, RH is overpriced, but they do sell quality stuff, and he wanted something that would look good and last.
It wouldn’t take long to reach $18k buying from this page: http://www.restorationhardware.com/catalog/category/products.jsp?link=KlismosWeatherdZinc&categoryId=cat1696021
Putting aside the fact that I can’t even fathom paying $18k on patio furniture, I don’t understand how this is yet a problem worthy of posting on Consumerist. Dennis has sent an email, gotten a response, and sent a response with photos. He says that he hasn’t heard back from the company, but doesn’t specify how long it’s been since that last email.
Where’s the phone call where the customer service rep hangs up on him? Where’s the EECB that gets a snarky and/or dismissive response from the VP of Customer Relations?
For a guy who has a cosmetic problem with a furniture set that costs as much as a car, Dennis sure hasn’t tried very hard to get satisfaction before whining to Consumerist.
Do I have, or would I spend $18k on furniture if I had the money? I don’t know. But if I did, it sure as hell better last for-fucking-EVER.
Flipped through a Restoration Hardware catalog recently. Serious furniture porn.
For Dennis: With a little bit of work, I seem to have my RH problem solved. Maybe it will help you too. I bought a new light for my foyer from RH just over a month ago, and it came with the wrong hardware. We didn’t discover this till the electrician showed up to install it, lucky us. But, should be a simple fix, right? Just have them send new hardware. Well, after 3 weeks of going around and around in circles with a sales associate at the local RH store, I finally gave up and send a long, detailed message to their customer care email at webcs@restorationhardware.com, including the date I bought it, when it was delivered, the issue with the hardware, and then included the date and a synopsis of every time we had spoken with anyone (and the names of each person) at RH over the past 3 weeks.
I was polite, but I also asked for a specific resolution (new hardware) as soon as possible, explaining how frustrated I was that my first RH purchase had gone so badly. And magically, I received a call last night that new hardware was being overnighted to me, and a email confirming the same arrived this morning. Now, until I have my new hardware in hand tomorrow, I can’t say for any certainty that it is all taken care of, but I definitely got a better response from the Customer Care address than I did from the web contact form on the page.
My next step would have been to find all the executive emails and numbers, and create an executive email carpet bomb, which I learned from Consumerist. Good luck!
It’s not that he spent $18k on a set of patio furniture. It’s that he spent $18k without making sure he wasn’t buying crap.
My patio chairs I bought from Target when they were 75% off. A year later when the fabric was faded I had the cushions reupholstered in Sunbrella. The cushions cost a lot more than the original set, but that was five years ago and they still look good.
If the OP doesn’t hear back from RH, he should have somebody sandblast the old paint off, prep it and paint with something that’ll hold up, send RH the bill and then take them to court if necessary.
I think the obvious problem here is subby didn’t purchase the furniture covers for $65-$450. I mean really how pedestrian!
Also, I think it’s absolutely hysterical that the furniture covers have a 3 year warranty, but apparently the furniture itself has no warranty whatsoever, at least not any that I can see. Additionally, it doesn’t show the country of manufacture, which I’m assuming is good ol’ pals in Communist China. It’s probably much easier to do metal coating in a country where nobody gives a damn about the incredibly toxic waste that is created.
Do some investigation to find who heads product Quality Assurance within the company and complain directly to them. These are they guys that are supposed to be doing thurough product testing of this stuff, I cant imagine paint chipping within one year passing any sort of standardized compliance of products in this category. Also, patio furniture could mean a family which may have dumb children eating these flaking paint chips cant be good.