My personel experience with 2 different N.C. stores produced similar results but required different efforts on my part. First, a less pleasant experience with Furnitureland South required many phone calls and attempts by them to repair an armorie that had poorly mounted door hinges (the doors would not stay fully open since the hinges were not plumb). This was a frustrating experience
since they sent 2 different repair crews from N.C. to northern Va. (actually delivery personnel who stopped by on their route) who were less than knowledgeable about any repairs beyond fixing scratches. Finally afer many exhausting telephone exchanges, Furnitureland South replaced the unit with a new one. The brand was Lexington (manufactured offshore) and we would not recommend this brand to anyone because of the poor quality control.

The second experience was with Boyles, with the assistance of Terra in customer service and the help of Larry Hendricks (the owner). They were very helpfull in working a problem of settling down-fill in a H&M Austin sofa and chair, (these are the straightback versions, not the bustle-back style). As an aside we love these pieces, and the down-fill is luxurious, but problematic so we would recommend their foam cores rather than the down cores. Boyles ordered replacement cores for the backs and seats (a total of 8 cores) and sent a delivery crew to replace them. The crew was unable to remove the existing cores (sewn in place). Boyles then scheduled a pickup of the units by their movers and took the units back to H&M in Hickory N.C. for new cores to be factory installed. During this time we also spoke with the H&M factory reps. directly since these was amazement at H&M that the cores were not removable in the seatbacks.
All in all this was a good experience and Boyles and H&M treated us fairly and timly.
In both cases there was no charge for any of the work or visits/deliveries etc.
One additional note, we were interested in purchasing an ottoman for the H&M sofa and worked with Duane, the owner on The Keeping Room, a small high quality store in Alexandria, Va. The key was to find a match to the leather after 4 years of ownership. He procurred a sample from H&M that was not a great match, and then coordinated an attempt to match the leather when the sofa and chair were at H&M for the core replacements. He was very helpfull and personally involved with his contacts at the factory. While ultimately we were unsuccessful with the match, we have since become customers of The Keeping Room because of his excellant service level. So, while we have used Furnitureland South and Boyles in N.C. and have had very good service from Boyles (even after 4 year from the original purchase date) we ultimately made our most recent purchase of a Leathercraft desk chair at a competitive price from The Keeping Room (about an hour away).

Hope this helps
Cuse69

Thanks for the helpful info, Cuse69 :)

I think I'll be buying locally instead. $700 isn't enough of a saving to risk having to deal with someone I can't even go and talk to in person.

Furthermore, I'm a little turned off by the service received so far from Alan Ferguson. "Can I get a shipping quote to city XX?" "Sure, here's a quote to city YY!". Huh??? The cities are a 3 hr drive apart. Am I suppose to get it from city YY to city XX myself? Is the shipping quote an estimate of what it would be to my city? Dunno, since not much else was said in the response I received.

If anyone has more info re: warranty / service from Alan Ferguson please share!

Thanks!

If you do a search for Alan Ferguson on this forum you will find many happy customers (myself included). Alan Ferguson is an excellent reputable company and I had a great experience with them saving over $2000 in the process. I'm glad I went with them over my local store. That being said, since you are hesitant, you may want shop locally for your own peace of mind.

Thanks jyyanks :) Yes I read about the experiences that others have had which is why I decided to contact Alan Ferguson in the first place.

I've also not received a response from them re: how warranty issues are handled (sent the email last week). Perhaps it's just the person I am dealing with but they certainly don't seem too interested in making this sale. Naturally, it makes me wonder how interested they'll be in responding if I have a warranty issue.