FLORIDA LEATHER GALLERY

I bought $4000 worth of leather furniture from Florida Leather Gallery which is owned by Matter Brothers Furniture chain in SW Florida 2 years ago. The sales lady was very nice and highly recommended that I buy the additional $400 Guardsman Protection Warranty for my furniture to ensure my investment even further. She said, "Anything that happens to the furniture, Guardsman will take care of it for you. If they can't fix the problem, they will replace it without any problems." They delivered the leather power reclining sofa and chair but the sofa had a tear in one corner so they had to bring a replacement. Their first delivery crew knew nothing about the "power pack" for the sofa that had come with it so I had to call the store back and track down my sales person to find out what was what and what the different components were and how they worked, etc. Basically, the delivery crew wasn't able to set up my furniture so I could try the power reclining feature on my set to make sure everything worked properly before they left my house. It took them 1 week to take care of even the preliminary delivery and set up. Too long in my opinion. 3 months later, the arm on the reclining chair broke off. I called their store, they bounced me to their headquarters, the headquarters bounced me to their service department, the service department rudely told me that it was past their 90 day store replacement date so I had to take it up with Guardsman. We left to go out-of-country for 3 months so I wasn't able to follow up with Guardsman until I returned. I called Guardsman upon my return to the US and after answering all their detailed questions about my furniture problem, they sent me a form to fill out and send back to them. I completed the form promptly and mailed it into them. it took them 2 weeks to get back to me from the date they sent me a "mass standard email" saying they had received my claim and it was being processed. In other words, they took their time, 14+ days, handling my problem but I only had 10 days from the date of my call to the date they would receive my paperwork or my claim would have been null and void. Eventually, I get their email response, saying " Your claim is denied. Refer to your warranty agreement for further information." I read through the warranty agreement and could not figure out why they had denied my claim which on the phone they encouraged me to file to begin with. I was shocked. I called them and after bouncing me twice from the CS department to their Resolution department to their Claim Manager, their rep told me that I had only 5 days from the date the arm on the chair broke to report it to Guardsman and since I had not done that my claim was denied. I found that very unreasonable and unfair. They said, they would send a furniture repair person to my house for a fee of $200 to see if it could be fixed. If there were any additional charges after the repair person's examination, I would be responsible for paying that additional amount as well. But, if it couldn't be fixed, they wouldn't do anything to take care of my issue! I thought that this was another ploy to get more money out of me for a piece of defective and sub-par furniture that they had refused to take back or fix, making any excuse to line their own pockets further instead of taking care of their customer by standing behind their product &/or service. So, I opted out of having them charge another $200 with no idea if the piece would be fixed or not. Another yr. passed and we didn't sit on that chair at all, just used the sofa. My 3 yr. old nephew was at my house one day. I was cooking in the kitchen and he was playing in the living room. I could see & hear him the whole time but the sofa's back is facing the kitchen so I couldn't see everything that he was doing at all times. I walked up to him every 5-10 min. to face to face see him, talk to him, play with him and check on him. I don't know where he found a pen, we suspect from under the sofa. It must have fallen and rolled under there before and he found it because he was so little and could bend so easily. So, unbeknownst to me he had chewed on it and gotten the ink all over himself and the sofa. I caught him between travelling between the chair and the sofa. Well, suffice it to say that everything was a mess. I got him cleaned up as much as possible and laid old towels on the sofa so we could still sit on it. The chair we weren't sitting on anyways. I immediately called Guardsman, completed the claim form and sent it in. This time it took them over a month, 30+ days from the date I received their email saying they had received my claim form until they actually processed and responded to my claim. After 2 follow up calls by me, eventually, they decided they were going to send an "expert furniture rep" to my house to clean the stains. Their warranty agreement says, "If we cannot remove the stains, we will replace the furniture with the same from the same store for you." Well, their "investigator/prosecutor" arrived at my house with a "plastic bag". No badge, no briefcase or toolbox as professionals of various trades would. He took pictures of areas around the sofa that didn't have anything to do with the stained areas, areas on the inside corners of the sofa where usually dirt and debris accumulate. I had tried to not mess around with the sofa and just put towels on it so the ink wouldn't spread to our clothes or other areas. This person they had sent to my house was no "expert furniture cleaner". He was a "prosecutor/investigator". It was clear from my description of the stains both on the phone and on my claim form that they ink was not removable unless someone had a magic wand so the guy states the obvious and basically took pictures and asked questions to build a case to deny our claim again! Basically, Florida Leather Gallery/Matter Brothers Furniture chain and Guardsman are not only ripping people off by taking our money for expensive furniture and "protection plans/promises" but also work against their customers and not for them! I will never again pay a dime to these outfits and hope that no one else falls for their scams either! It is really a shame! After they denied my claim the second time, I called them to find out why because their email again was very vague and inconclusive, "Your claim is denied." The claim case rep said, "The age and condition of the furniture didn't justify us replacing them with brand new ones." How absurd and shameful! The warranty protection plan I paid $400 for was the best plan they had, the Gold plan, and it was a 5 yr. program. Under those terms, they had to fix or replace any problem that normally occurs with furniture because let's face it, "we live on our furniture" especially the family room furniture. So, for Guardsman to deny my claim because the "age and condition" of the furniture didn't justify it's replacement was nothing but pure hogwash! The furniture was practically brand new. When we put it on the curb for the trash pick up to take it, all of our neighbors walking by thought we had put brand new leather furniture outside until they got closer and saw the stains. It is clear that these outfits are in business only to stuff their own pockets with your money but not to provide you decent, lasting and fair products and services! Don't be fooled by their stores' good looks, the nice sales people or their Guardsman super duper protections plans that you pay through your nose for. They will scam you every way they can and have no shame about any of it!

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