Design, Product Review

England Furniture – Couch Review

25 Comments

Hi all!  Thought I’d tack on a review of our experience with the manufacturer of our couch & chair, England furniture (American-made!  Located in Tennessee), including their warranty.

So far we are extremely pleased with the company.  Their website says they can make your furniture in as little as 21 days and ship using their own line of trucks, and that “We pride ourselves on being on time, every time. In our fiscal year (ended April 2010), we delivered 98.5% of our orders on time. We did this during one of the worst winters in recent history”….and I now believe that!  We submitted our order at the furniture store on a Friday night, January 18th, and they delivered our sofa and chair in our home on February 19th!  That’s amazing!

The workmanship, as you can see from their detailed assembly explanation here, and our couch pictures in this post, is quality stuff.  I’m also fond of details like the exposed wooden legs not being just straight pegs like you see with many couches – it adds so much character.

I especially am glad that you can flip the cushions on the couch and chair.  Word to the wise who may be couch-searching at this moment: look under the seat cushions in the showrooms you go to.  Many furniture makers are cutting corners by covering the hidden side with a lesser-quality, non-matching fabric.  Flipping greatly helps further the life of your cushions.

We’ve also been able to already test their warranty, lol.  It was snowing the day our furniture arrived.  I noticed that there was a smudge on the center couch cushion, and when I asked the mover about it, he said it was likely from the snow and would be gone when it dried, but to call the store if it didn’t.

The spot was not as noticeable after it dried, but was still there, so I quickly called the store (which we’re also really really happy with – if you know us on facebook and are in the market for furniture, we’d be glad to tell you the name of the company.  For security we’d rather not share it outside of friends/family – thanks for understanding) and the lady gave me her email so I could send some pictures of the spot, and she promptly sent them to England.

 

As for the discoloration, truly, it’s such a faint spot that I would have made-do if they hadn’t approved our claim, so when the lady called me today (that was fast!) to say that England was shipping us the replacement fabric for the cushion, I was this:

I read so many disappointed and angry customer reviews who paid hundreds for special warranties in addition to what they paid for their furniture on many other brands who did not follow through with their warranty, had bad customer service, shoddy workmanship, etc, when we were researching sofas.  So I am beyond thrilled at the no-hassle, quick follow-through service we’re experiencing!  Guess what else – it didn’t cost us a dime extra for their warranty – it comes standard.  10 year cushion warranty, 5 year warranty on mechanisms, springs, legs, and casters, lifetime frame warranty.

My faith in humanity has been slightly buoyed to find that companies that really do care about their customers still exist!!  I highly recommend England!!

What we learned from our couch-seeking & buying experience:

1) You really do get what you pay for with sofas.  If you’re looking for furniture that will last you 15-20 years, go for higher quality.  It will pay itself back seven-fold.

2) Get feedback from friends/family on furniture stores they personally have had a good experience with.  Same goes for when looking into furniture brands.

3) Don’t be afraid to (respectfully) approach a company that isn’t following through with their promise to you.

We may have earned a couple of gray hairs of wisdom from this whole experience since we started sofa-shopping, but it’s been worth it.  What’s life without a learning experience, right?  ;)  Thanks to everyone who offered their advice and cheerfully brought their own camp chairs to our home these last few months – you all deserve medals!

P.S. – If you liked this post, make sure to check out my guide for 9 Ideas for Decorating a Blank Wall Behind Your Sofa.

Update: learn how well our England Sofa has held up 3 years later (2016) in this post!

 

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25 Comments

  1. glad your happy
    wait a year and see if your still happy
    our sofa springs have failed and the arms are all caved in
    england says warranty is good but store tells us we have to pay to ship it
    thats no warranty its a joke

    1. Hi – I'm sorry to hear you aren't happy with your sofa. :( That is frustrating. So far so good with our sofa. I don't know the full situation, but it sounds like the store you bought yours from is a bit untrustworthy – I'd try talking directly to England. Hope it works out for you!

  2. hi there, we are couch shopping and I am currently looking at and England Leather Soda. (Lynch) unfortunately, i will not be able to sit before i buy due to it not being in any show rooms near us…but it is the look we want. Thanks for the review, at least I know they are good with their warranty!

    1. Hi Trina! Glad this post helped! I hopped over to your blog and saw your "furniture shopping series" woes. Oh my goodness, so sorry that is happening to you! We had a similar experience before finding this couch. Who knew sofa shopping could be so crazy, right? The furniture gods must have too much free time to be pranking peeps like this. ;) Anywho, after these months of owning an England couch I still highly recommend them. I hope they can solve your couchless-ness once and for all! :)

  3. Hi,
    Loved your review!
    We also had purchased an England loveseat & sofa set about 10 years ago and absolutely loved it! So, when we needed a new one back in the Fall 2013 of course we ordered another England. What a hige disappointment this one has been! Like the other reviewer our arms are dented in (no one has been sitting on them) and the cushions are too soft and saggy already! We have been trying to deal with the store we purchased the set from, which has been nother but a huge pain in the butt and I emailed England directly and NEVER heard back!
    Never again! The company has gone completely down hill.
    So, BUYER BEWARE!

    1. Hi Christina! It HAS already been over a year – wowzerz! 0_0 Both our sofa and armchair have been getting heavy daily use, and yet they've been holding up beautifully and look as good as they did in the beginning. I just switch the cushions around on the sofa every few months or turn them over, and that keeps them in ship-shape. Still highly recommend England! :) Just go with a really reputable furniture dealer and you'll be good as gold. Good luck with your search!

  5. Hi there! Do you mind telling me which fabric choice you went with? My husband and I are about to buy this exact couch and the colour in your picture is exactly what we are looking for. Thanks for all the great info on England!

  8. We stayed on the furniture store we bought our England Furniture sectional. New update is the furniture store's England sales rep contacted someone in a higher position at England and we just got word from the furniture stores salesman that England is going to send them 2 seat covers to replace the ones that had issues. Not sure if they are coming from same dye lot but we sure hope that is the case so they will match in color to the rest of the sectional. Good news for sure but we have yet to get the covers. I am hoping the leather cushion covers do match because it takes a long time to find a sofa style and leather color both me and my husband could agree upon. I will state though there are some creases in the corner of the 3 seat and still a shorter lighter line on the back cushion of the chaise but I am willing to live with that because it is hard to find a leather sectional with chaise in the price range we bought this one for and the lighter lines on back cushion is not as visible because chaise seat cushion covers is up. If I had it to do over again though I would dish out more money probably for a sofa and a separate chaise instead of a sectional but with a store that carried top leather manufacturers. It probably would have cost more especially with an additional leather warranty purchase but I wanted to post that England Furniture wants to replace two of the leather seat covers. Not as good as picking up entire sectional and replacing but we will see how it goes.

  9. Any chance I could get an update on your satisfaction with the couch now? I am considering ordering either an England or a Flex Steel couch but have found negative review on both. My primary concern is with the durability of the frame and cushions.

    1. Hi Katie! I still am very pleased with the couch – it's looking as new as it did the first day and the cushions are holding up swell. :)

    2. Just wanted to thank you Draven for your review, we are putting in an order tomorrow for the England 2400 series "Malibu" model. I decided to hunt reviews online 1st since this is a large financial dent to our budget! Really appreciate the 2 year span of your experience! Thanks!

    1. Ah sorry, somehow I didn't see your comment until now! Anywho, glad to help and hope your daughter loves her sofa as much as we do! :)

  11. Not sure you still check this but I'm curious as the four year mark approaches how the sofa is holding up. I have seen almost all bad reviews but my wife has fallen in love with an England sectional.

  13. We too were suckered into the “Made in America” logo which meant nothing in the long run. Imitation leather cushions started cracking after 6 months on couch. The cushions were replaced. So sorry we didn’t scream at the time, because I noticed the side arms and back cracking at about 18 months. We paid $1000 for a “used” looking couch which is ready for replacement and an embarrassment to show visitors. All you will get after one year is a big run around. There warranty is virtually worthless. They must breathe a big sign of relief at England when it goes by the one year warranty period which is not adequately explained at purchase. What a worthless excuse for a company! You would think a bunch of preschoolers used it for a trampoline. Big Lots furniture is much better and cheaper. Save yourself a lot of grief! Buy some other brand!