I am expecting delivery of a Flexsteel sectional tomorrow. The furniture store I bought it from has a 90 day return policy. After reading all these negative reviews, I'm glad I have a window for return if it is unacceptable. The sad part is that nearly every brand of furniture carries with it heaps of negative reviews. (Only found one brand that had good reviews, but they don't make a sectional that is right for my challenging room.) Same was true when I checked reviews for kitchen cabinet manufacturers. Talk about negative! If I avoid every brand of anything because of negative reviews, I will never be able to make a purchase! Quite frustrating. Gone are the days when you parted with a little more money for a quality product and knew for certain it would be good. I've concluded that we now have an array of choices that range from bad junk to better junk. I just hope I get the better junk.

Furniture manufacturers are in business to make money, just like everyone else. Your local furniture store buys from the manufacturer through the manufacturers sales representative. This representative also earns a percentage of all sales in their territory. So it should be common knowledge if you can purchase directly from the manufacturer you can avoid the retail store markup and also the representative take from each sale. I suggest that to partial38, the features your looking for may not get you the best deal, or fall with in your budget. A high quality frame? What this is, is not a pine plywood frame stapled together. Solid hardwood 4/4, 5/4 is better or hardwood wood plywood thats same thickness, minimum of 12 plys. This frame should be double-doweled and glued. Now the seat springs is where most everyone makes the mistake that it has to be coil springs that are 8-way hand tied. And thats simply not true. A no-sag sinuous wire spring; 8 gauge spring securely fastened to a hardwood frame using the clips that are required by the spring manufacturer, and that are engineered to the correct length and stretched accordingly to the spring manufacturers requirement will result in a seat suspension that will last a lifetime and have the same ride/push-back as the best 8-way handtied coil springs. The only time that a 8-way handtied coil springs suspension is better is when it is a spring edge with the correct rail heights all the way around the frame. At this time I dont know of very few manufacturers building their 8-way handtied coil springs this way, if so the costs for a leather sofa will be upwards of 5000.00 Its just too labor intensive and takes highly skilled worker to build. Truly the only type of seat cushion core that will last for 20 years+ is a 100% natural latex. A true 2.0+ pound density high-resilent foam core will normally last 5+ years. But all will loose some shape because of the wrap around the cushion core is of a softer material: polyester fiber or down blend or a thin foam wrap of same density foam which last better that the first 2 , and all manufacturers dont consider this softening of the softer wrap a defect in any way, but just normal wear. Back cushions are usually of a the same: polyester fiber or down blend and will not last or hold its shape after considerable use. But usually thats a fix the owner or upholstery shop can do to replace this filling to be like new again with minimal costs. If anyone does a search of my name in this forums will realize I have been preaching this for many years. My 38+ years of managing upholstery product design and development for 20+ manufacturers and many years working in re-upholsery. I have always said that your local re-upholstery shop that has been in business for 20+ years with the same owner is the best resource for understanding what it takes to makes a quality sofa. Because they have to repair or junk the ones that arent worth re-upholstering.

I've had a Smith Bros couch for probably 8 years (or more). It is solid, sturdy and I love it so much, I bought leather recliners from them 4 years ago. The fabric on my Smith Bros couch does not show wear, but does show dirt. Not the manufacturer's fault, of course. I have washed the cushion covers, arm covers and pillows in the washer many times and they come out great, but the fixed fabric doesn't come out so clean with the steam cleaner attachment. Anyway, the cushions are definitely as firm as day 1 and the quality is stellar. Our leather chairs (made a point to get away from fabric that shows dirt) are amazing! They too are solid and comfortable and well made. I'm very sold on Smith Bros!

We have a Crate & Barrel sectional sofa, and while it is very comfy, the build quality is much less than furniture I've had custom made from an extremely reasonable company called Carolina Chair - http://www.carolinachair.com/. It's family owned and in my experience is really top-notch. Kathy and her brother are extremely pleasant to do business with. I've had them make a large sleeper chair with my own fabric and they did little tweaks to their standard designs/sizes that you couldn't do with most of the big manufacturers. They've also made me one of their standard queen sleeper sofas with their fabric. We upgraded to their most comfy inflatable mattress for my son's room and his buddies love it when they sleep over. I've also bought one of their swivel-rocker chairs and matching storage ottoman cube. All are very well-made pieces of furniture in my opinion. I highly recommend them. (Not sure if it is ok to plug a business like this, but it seems like the OP asked for sources. I have no connection with them other than being a satisfied, repeat customer.) The reason I didn't have our sectional made by Carolina Chair is that they could not do any top-stitching on the sectional fabric, which is something I loved a LOT about the C & B sectional. The sectional is in a basement playroom with a tile floor and no carpeting. The sofa moves around very easily if a teen sort of falls into it, which they seem to do. I worry that the clips that hold the pieces together will snap one of these days. Anyway, I feel my Carolina Chair furniture is much heftier and one of their sectionals wouldn't move around on the tile floor as much as the C&B does. BTW, our C&B sectional is also on sale - it's this one, and the fabric I love the look of is the charcoal with "contrast stitching." http://www.crateandbarrel.com/lounge-slipcovered-3-piece-sectional-sofa/s485873