Where to buy a leather sofa (with great customer service!)

greencode

Well, I've been helping the folks look around for a leather recliner sofa (they're after 2 x 2 seaters sofas). They originally found one they liked at Harveys - I then searched on the web for reviews of Harveys and was shocked at just how poor they were.

So, we then found another one at CSL - again, looked at the reviews and once again, appalling.

To be honest, I then looked at reviews at all of the other obvious sofa places i.e. DFS, SCS etc and found similar poor reviews for each and every one.

Therefore I have 2 questions…

1. Does this mean that they're all as bad as each other or does it simply mean that people who have a poor experience are far more likely to leave a review of a company than those that have had a good experience?

2. Does anybody know of anywhere else to look as I'm beginning to think that if I go purely on reviews that they'll be sitting on cardboard boxes!

daveyjp

John Lewis or an independent furniture store, most cities still have them. Do a search for retailers of Stressless or Natuzzi as chances are they will do other high quality brands.

It does depend on budget and with leather you need to spend to get quality i.e. Leather which doesn't go blue when you sit on it in jeans.

greencode

daveyjp wrote: »

John Lewis or an independent furniture store, most cities still have them. Do a search for retailers of Stressless or Natuzzi as chances are they will do other high quality brands.

It does depend on budget and with leather you need to spend to get quality i.e. Leather which doesn't go blue when you sit on it in jeans.

Thanks for this. It's often tricky finding a reclining leather sofa. Tried John Lewis and next and neither have any. They have around £1800 to spend on 2 x 2 seater sofas.

rds60h

You will always find complaints when you look for them, as you are much more likely to post about a problem than something that went smoothly.
However, you say you have been looking at leather sofas, but were they actually leather ? A large number of leather sofas/suites are not actually leather.
Many are only leather on the "wearing surfaces" such as the seat cushions and arms and even then many are not proper leather but are "Bonded Leather" which is small pices of hide that has been disintigrated and then formed into sheets using pvc to bind it together. Then there are "Split Leathers" that are thinner lower quality parts of the hide that require a pvc coating to strengthen them, these hides can often be called "Corrected Grain" leather because they have been treated to give the hide the look of having a grain, this can be spotted by the "grain" being very uniform.
To known that you are getting a good quality leather then make sure the leather is described as "Top Grain Leather", "Aniline Leather" or "Semi Aniline Leather",
Top Grain, is as it says the top grain part of the leather and is hard wearing and natural.
Aniline, is a top grain leather that has been dyed with an aniline dye that permeates completely through the hide, and although it has been dyed the colour will most likely differ very slightly throughout the hide because ah natural hide will not absorb the colour in a uniform manner.
Semi Aniline, is not really a good name for the leather because Semi Aniline Leather is actually Aniline Leather that has then had a pigment dye coted on the top layer (this will give it a more uniformed colour) and then it is coated with a fine clear protective
coating to make the leather stain and sun resistant.
It should also be remembered that natural untreated or aniline dyed leathers will "discolour" with age and usage this is called "patina" and adds character to leather and should unlike the cheaper "leathers" last a long time.

greencode

rds60h wrote: »

You will always find complaints when you look for them, as you are much more likely to post about a problem than something that went smoothly.
However, you say you have been looking at leather sofas, but were they actually leather ? A large number of leather sofas/suites are not actually leather.
Many are only leather on the "wearing surfaces" such as the seat cushions and arms and even then many are not proper leather but are "Bonded Leather" which is small pices of hide that has been disintigrated and then formed into sheets using pvc to bind it together. Then there are "Split Leathers" that are thinner lower quality parts of the hide that require a pvc coating to strengthen them, these hides can often be called "Corrected Grain" leather because they have been treated to give the hide the look of having a grain, this can be spotted by the "grain" being very uniform.
To known that you are getting a good quality leather then make sure the leather is described as "Top Grain Leather", "Aniline Leather" or "Semi Aniline Leather",
Top Grain, is as it says the top grain part of the leather and is hard wearing and natural.
Aniline, is a top grain leather that has been dyed with an aniline dye that permeates completely through the hide, and although it has been dyed the colour will most likely differ very slightly throughout the hide because ah natural hide will not absorb the colour in a uniform manner.
Semi Aniline, is not really a good name for the leather because Semi Aniline Leather is actually Aniline Leather that has then had a pigment dye coted on the top layer (this will give it a more uniformed colour) and then it is coated with a fine clear protective
coating to make the leather stain and sun resistant.
It should also be remembered that natural untreated or aniline dyed leathers will "discolour" with age and usage this is called "patina" and adds character to leather and should unlike the cheaper "leathers" last a long time.

Wow, thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed reply... Really appreciated. Yep, I've been making sure when hunting around to only look for ones marked as leather. The one that they currently like is the Empire from CSL. Here's the link http://www.csl-sofas.co.uk/recliners/empire - looking at the leather it states it's semi aniline.

rds60h

daveyjp wrote: »

It does depend on budget and with leather you need to spend to get quality i.e. Leather which doesn't go blue when you sit on it in jeans.

The likelyhood is that if the leather has taken on a blue tinge whilst sitting with jeans on will mean that it was a top quality leather that does not have a protective coating, because leather hide is skin and as such absorbs moisture and takes on colour from whatever is put on it, including the natural oils from our own skin.

Dave_J_3

we purchased from CSL and were happy. Sales woman was good and informative and not too pushy. Delivery was as required and we requested it be held back an extra day so we could finish decorating and this was fine.
I would use CSL again but I would always recommend searching about

Pipkin

I bought a leather sofa from Indigo furniture and found them to be excellent.

rds60h

greencode wrote: »

Wow, thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed reply... Really appreciated. Yep, I've been making sure when hunting around to only look for ones marked as leather. The one that they currently like is the Empire from CSL. Here's the link http://www.csl-sofas.co.uk/recliners/empire - looking at the leather it states it's semi aniline.

You're welcome Greencode, yes CSL does have some lovely sofas but they also have sofa they describe as "grained" but Not "Top Grain" and/or "corrected grained" leather and others that just mention natural leather but also say they have been "tumbled" which just does not sound right.
And to quote from their sales pitch "A superb range of leathers"
to which I would suggest includes these lower grades of so called leathers.
I am not saying that it is just CSL it is almost every "Leather" sofa retailer including John Lewis and La-Z-Boy who Grade their Leathers A, B, C, D. and almost everyone would assume Grade A to be the Top Quality leather.........Wrong Grade D is the Top Quality !!
So, it would be best to ask if they are Top Grain Leather, Aniline or Semi Aniline to ensure that you get the best quality. If you have a busy house or children, then then quality of the leather may not be quite as important, if it is still important to you even in that situation then Semi Aniline would be the best choice.

By the way I have been in my local Harveys and the lady in there was one of the few sales people in any of the local furniture stores who knew all this imformation and was quick to point out what sofas were what, so a big compliment there to them although I think it was more down to the lady who took pride in her knowledge and level of service.

Pipkin

Just to add that my sofa from Indigo is analine leather, and you can request leather samples. I personally (sorry to disagree with poster above!) would not recommend it if you have small children though as it is not a simple wipe clean option, more care is needed - though I have spilt coffee all over mine and it did recover eventually!

greencode

Pipkin wrote: »

I bought a leather sofa from Indigo furniture and found them to be excellent.

Wow, some beautiful furniture. Unfortunately no leather recliner though. Will keep that one bookmarked though as I've seen some lovely beds :-)