Sundeen Furniture, Inc.

I am ** years old. They sold me a defective recliner that tipped over & pinned me under it. They refuse to give me my money back for the chair.I went to Sundeen Furniture to purchase a new recliner & told them it would be going against the wall. I needed something sturdy as I am a small, ** year old woman. I told them this is the chair that I will be sitting in all the time & putting my shoes on. They sold me a small recliner. I paid in cash & with a check. They delivered it. Within weeks of getting it, as I sat down in the recliner I leaned down in front of me to put my shoes on. The recliner tipped over on top of me pinning me under it. I live alone & I was very scared & could not move. It took me a long time to get out from under the chair. My family and I have tried contacting Sundeen Furniture by phone multiple times and my grand-daughter even brought me back there twice to speak to a manager or the owner. No one would even speak to me that first day. They refused to speak to me for weeks and [redacted] insists he will not speak to me at all. They said I needed to speak to [redacted]. [redacted] finally agreed to send 2 of their employees over to take care of it. The 2 men came & one man ([redacted]) was extremely unprofessional. Even before he looked at it or sat in the chair, he insisted that the chair was not defective and that they had no intentions of taking it back or refunding my money. He kept joking and I assume pretending to be me sitting in the chair. He plopped himself down and spread his legs wide, banging his feet on the floor and laughing at me. He kept putting the footrest up and down, which makes a huge banging noise each time it is put up and down. Both I and my grand-daughter asked him to stop behaving like that several times & finally kept asking him to leave - which he kept refusing to do as he kept laughing at me. He kept saying that the huge banging noise each time the chair was put into the reclining position & then banging again when it was put down was how it was supposed to sound. My grand-daughter called & spoke to [redacted] while they were still here and he said he would not take it back. She told him how the chair tipped over on me & trapped me & he said he didn't care, he wasn't taking it back. She told him that if he wouldn't refund my money she would write a letter to the Revdex.com as well as notify the AGO. The [redacted] called me the following week and said for me to come back to the store and pick out any chair I wanted & they would exchange it for the defective one. My grand-daughter brought me in a few days after the call on 06/07/13 and I picked out a recliner that was on sale for $600 - approximately the list price of the one I bought that was on sale. [redacted] then tried to charge me another $200 saying I wasn't getting anything for free. She then agreed that she had told me over the phone that I could pick out any chair I wanted and they would exchange it, but after talking to [redacted] they would be charging me for the extra cost. She then said they didn't have to do anything because it had been 2 months. My grand-daughter told her that we had tried to someone about this for over a month & asked to speak to [redacted] and no one would talk to us about this. This was not my fault that so much time has passed because they refused to talk to me about the defective chair. [redacted] said [redacted] has refused to talk with me. I have asked for my money back as the chair is defective but they said they NEVER give money back to anyone. I could have been severely injured by the chair tipping over on top of me. My grand-daughter sat in the chair and she said you can feel the back of the legs going up in the air as you sit forward & she said the back of the legs should sit flush with the floor as you sit forward. The chair should NOT be making a huge banging noise (sounds like a gunshot) each time the footrest is put up and down. The chair is clearly defective and I feel that I have been taken advantage of as I am a senior citizen. I am unhappy with the way I have been treated by the owner & employees of Sundeen Furniture.Desired SettlementI originally wanted them to replace the defective recliner that tipped over and trapped me under it. I was told I could pick out any chair I wanted & they would replace it. After I picked out the recliner they wanted an additional $200. I cannot believe that with terrifying scare I went after being trapped under their defective chair that they would even ask me for more money. I want all my money back that I paid them. I am afraid to sit in the chair.Business' Initial Response We have sold hundreds of these recliners and this is the first issue of this kind we have had in 30 years. The recliner she purchased on March 22, was the right size chair for her; since she is a small woman. It was delivered to her on March 26, 2013. On May 27, two months after using the chair without a problem, the customer called the store and said we sold her an unsafe chair; because she leaned over and tipped it over on herself. [redacted] asked her what happened, and she said, "I was sitting in the chair in the reclined position and leaned over to pick something up off the floor and the chair came over on me." I was trapped under the chair." We tried replicating the incident in the showroom, by leaning over in the recliner, and it did not tip over. We sold a La-Z-Boy recliner to the customer that is perfectly safe. It is unknown what she did to tip it over. She wanted us to take it back. We originally told her "no" because we would not accept a return of something that has been in a customer's home for 2 months. We were going to make a exception and do her a favor by letting her come in and choose another chair for exchange. The customer's granddaughter was very rude to our delivery/service people when they went over to see if there was anything wrong with the chair. The customer and her granddaughter were both very rude to my sales people and customer service person on June 4, 2013 when they came in to choose a new chair.When they came in to pick out the new chair, her granddaughter kept putting her in chairs that were too big for her and she was unable to operate. [redacted] suggested a power recliner and the granddaughter said that she did not want her to have anything that needed to be plugged in. [redacted] also suggested that she get the same chair she had, accept for the wall recliner instead of the rocker; because it is more stable, especially for elderly people. The customer went on to say that she did not want that model because it was uncomfortable. Did she just not like the chair? That statement starts to make me wonder. The original chair the customer purchased was $449, but with the discount and the tax it came up to $463.21. The one she wanted was $599 plus tax, equaling $636.44. [redacted] said it would be roughly between $150 and $200 more to get the new one.The customer was outraged and yelled throughout the store that she was entitled to pick out any chair and should not have to pay an additional money for it. The customer and her granddaughter thought we owed her a new chair without any additional charge to her. If in fact, the old and new chairs were equal in price...that would be the case. However, typically we take the price of the newly chosen chair and subtract the amount paid for the old chair as a credit toward the new one. The customer then pays the difference, if any. They did not want to pay anything additional. They both insisted we owed them something because she fell over in the chair. They asked to speak to me, but I was in a meeting. I do not typically do customer service issues. [redacted] is the one that handles all of those situations. In my opinion, we did what we could to help the customer and she did not want to take advantage of it. It is unreasonable to think we owe her any chair in the store, no matter what the cost is, at no additional price. Our same offer stands until June 24, 2012.Consumer's Final Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)After [redacted] was informed that we intended to go further by filing complaints, she called [redacted] & told her that if she would come back to the store she could have any chair in the store she wanted at no additional cost. Her grand-daughter, [redacted], went with [redacted] to make sure that the next chair would be sturdy & not likely to tip over. [redacted] spoke with [redacted] about the way their 2 employees acted when they came over to her grandmother's home, especially [redacted], who was extremely unprofessional. Before stepping inside the house, he insisted that the chair was not defective & that they had no intentions of taking it back or refunding my money. [redacted] asked him to please come in & see the defective chair for himself. When he finally came in, he kept joking & laughing, and I assume, pretending to be me sitting in the chair. He plopped himself down & spread his legs wide, banging his feet on the floor & laughing at me. We both told him that its obviously defective because of the loud banging noise (sounds like a gunshot) when the footrest is used & pointed out how the back legs went up when he sat forward. He kept putting the footrest up & down, over and over again laughing out loud. The footrest keeps making a huge banging noise (like a gunshot) each time it is put up & down. Both I & my grand-daughter finally asked him to stop behaving like that several times & when he refused & continued making fun of me, we kept asking him to leave - which he kept refusing to do as he kept laughing at me. He kept saying that the huge banging noise each time the chair was put into the reclining position & then banging again when it was put down was how it was supposed to sound. After being informed about how her employee had acted in my home, [redacted] said she was sorry for that. She then showed [redacted] several small "rocking chair" recliners & [redacted] informed her that she was afraid to sit in the chair for fear it would tip over onto her again. [redacted] commented several times that she wanted a sturdy chair that reclined & was the color blue, her favorite color. [redacted] did have trouble operating the plastic handles on some of the models, but even her grand-daughter tried the plastic handle & noted it was extremely difficult for anyone to pull the handle up to open the footrest on the recliners. [redacted] did show [redacted] a power recliner, but her grand-daughter did not know where the outlet was in comparison to where the recliner was going, was concerned that her grandmother might trip over the power cord, & also the increase to the electric bill as [redacted] is on a fixed income. [redacted] did pick out a chair after she was told that Sundeen Furniture would not refund her money, and that she could pick out any chair she wanted in the store. After finally deciding on a chair, [redacted] insisted that [redacted] give her an extra $200 stating she wasn't getting anything for free. [redacted] reminded [redacted] that she was told that she could pick out any chair in the store at no extra cost to her. [redacted] agreed that that was what she had originally told [redacted], but that after her husband found out she said that, he was upset that she told her that. [redacted] then told [redacted] she made a mistake in telling her that she could have any chair at no cost & was going to insist that she pay an extra $200 if she didn't like the chair she had and wanted to exchange it for a new one. Her grand-daughter reminded [redacted] that this was not a case of someone NOT liking the chair, but that an **-year-old woman was trapped under the defective chair after it tipped over on top of her. [redacted] said it was not Sundeen Furniture's fault that the chair was defective; they just sold her the chair, so that they weren't responsible for it. As for the chair that [redacted] picked out, it was on sale for the list price of the one she had purchased. The reason this has gone on for so many months is because Sundeen Furniture has refused to allow for resolution by not handling this complaint in a timely fashion. This is not the fault of [redacted], as she has phoned the company several times & attempted to take care of this by visiting the store at least twice in person trying to resolve the problem of the defective recliner. [redacted] could have been severely injured by the chair tipping over on top of her and trapping her under the chair. At this point, [redacted] insists that ALL of her money be returned to her as she feels as a senior citizen she has been taken advantage of by Sundeen Furniture,its owners & employees, and no longer wants to deal with how they have continually treated her. Business' Final Response We have been in business for over 30 years and have never had to deal with such an unreasonable request in the past. We are doing the customer a favor. We do not have to let her return this chair. She purchased it and there is nothing wrong with it. She had it in her home for at least a month before she called to complain about it. [redacted] did say the customer could come in and pick out another chair for exchange. [redacted] did not say that she could get any one for the same price; it was only assumed by the customer. It is only common sense that if the new chair costs more than the old one, that there is a balance to be paid. We have never had any complaints about our service people in the past; many people call and let us know what a great experience they have had with our deliveries and service calls. We are not giving the customer a more expensive chair unless she pays the difference. There will be no money returned.