ETHAN ALLEN GALLERIES INC

After extensive searching, my wife and decided to purchase a leather couch and matching loveseat from Ethan Allen. The decision was based on a variety of factors including quality of piece and customer service. Unfortunately, what we perceived as good customer service turned out to a combination of lies and a hard sell of a faulty product. In this case, I'm referencing the Guardsman "Gold in Home" - 5 year Protection Plan. Once we decided on our purchase and were completing our paperwork, the saleswoman started putting the hard sell on us to purchase the protection plan. This only increased when we revealed we had kids. She assured us that this is what protection plans like this were made for and they would cover pretty much anything include stains, "punctures, cut, teas and rips from a single incident", burns and internal springs, etc. Well, as they say, if its too good to be true, it probably isn't. So we paid our extra $250 to purchase the insurance. Sure enough, our kids were wrestling on the furniture and managed to tear/rip the leather. We pulled out our policy and filed a claim online. Within the hour, without seeing a picture or speaking with us, the claim was rejected. We were told it was normal wear and tear. We tried to appeal and were rejected again. Never once did we get to speak to a person or submit a picture. Turns out that Guardsman is notorious for this and has nearly 1000 complaints with the BBB. Sadly, because of the hard sell we had no time to research this. I then contacted Ethan Allan's District Operation Manager - Crystal O. Price - and described our issue via email. I simply asked for a refund of our $250.00. It was like deja vu. Without speaking with us or asking to see a picture, she rejected our request outright. To add insult to injury, she highlighted the wear and tear clause of the contract. I then responded re-explaining that it was not wear and tear but rather a covered incident. This time she simply ignored me. Well there you have it. Ethan Allen claims to be one of the higher quality furniture stores around. Just be prepared to be met with lies as they sell you a product that they obviously know doesn't work. It seems customer service is there just long enough to get you to sign your check, and then you are on your own. You could argue this is an issue with Guardsman and I don't disagree. They are criminals. But Ethan Allen is pushing this with every sale and has an obligation to stand behind it or not sell it. When confronted with an issue they would rather sacrifice a customer over $250 without even a conversation. Buyer beware. We learned our lesson the hard way. We hope this serves a warning to others.

We felt we got adequate attention when ordering the furniture, and reasonable but rushed assistance with making decisions from the young woman who helped us. Fortunately, we had already made some decisions on our own. That was the extent of our interaction when making a sizeable purchase! There was no follow-up call or cleaning information given to us after delivery. The positives are that the furniture was delivered earlier than expected, and appears to be well -constructed, though there were still quite a few strings hanging from the fabric.....not a big problem, but annoying, and not to be expected from a furniture store which purports to sell good quality furniture. We were going to order several other pieces of furniture, but decided not to go back to Ethan Allen. Customer service is what brings people back and establishes trust.