Madison Seating Reviews

Ordered 6/2/2020, got an email saying "The estimated delivery time frame for all in stock items is 10-14 business days from the order date. Should the item selected not be in stock, you will receive an email notification."

If you don't receive that 'email notification', the logical deduction is that the item is in stock.

Checked back with customer service on 6/15/2020. The response was "This order is scheduled to be shipped out by Early July. Tracking will be emailed once released."

When I responded that this is not what was promised on the order portal and the email, and that they should expedite the shipping, I got "Madison Seating is experiencing delays on all orders due to COVID-19. We do not offer expedited shipping."

I went ahead and cancelled my order.

Delays are understandable during covid19, but not being transparent and making promises you can't keep is not ok. I have a lower back problem and this delay keeps me on an uncomfortable chair for longer than necessary. I could have selected another vendor if I knew I wouldn't get the chair for 6 weeks!

Don’t like your item? You probably will get your money back for your item, maybe but first: shipping a chair back? Look up shipping a 27”x27”x40” 20lb box ... could be 50% (more than $200 via Fedex / UPS) or more of the item’s cost. In other words: it really doesn’t matter if you get your purchase price back ... you might end up keeping something you’re not really satisfied with to avoid shipping the return back ...

In my case the item received was different model than the one photographed on the site. Different SKU, model

They state they provide warranty service but are saying they closed the warranty department due to COVID, From the looks of it they are still selling chairs but delayed due to COVID. I asked for a refund after being told a 2nd time I have to wait month and even then no guarantees. So in my opinion they do not provide warranty service currently and won't until its safe to go back to work.

I would not recommend getting one of their chairs as they are not very good quality, mine broke after 8 months of use and now there is no warranty as stated on the site. You cant't say you have a warranty when you close your warranty department.

Good luck shopping here if you choose to do so. They seem to have good prices but... No guarantees. I am regretting that decision now.

I purchased a Steelcase Leap V2 chair on the morning of April 15th, 2020. Order # 437570. Initial response what that the chair would be delivered within 10-14 business days.

A few days later, I found their same chairs on ebay, with significant'tly faster guaranteed delivery times for the same price. So on business day 10, a full two weeks after placing the order, I asked them when it would be shipped. The most specific answer I got was "Sometime next week," combined with a rude attitude. When I asked "what would it take to ship that chair today?" I was told that the delays were due to Covid-19 and it would be sometime next week. Yet, on ebay they are offering the same chair, at the same price, with a guaranteed delivery date of Monday 5/4/20, which indicates they have stock on hand to ship within 24 hours.

"It's clear you are not happy with the services we can provide during these times.

We have canceled the order as we do not feel we can fulfill the order for you with the time frame you need.

Please find another seller that is not experiencing delays due to Covid-19 and can answer all the emails and inquiries you have on their product and services.

Stay well,

The Team at Madisonseating

Ticket ID: PBM-259-20452

I purchased a Herman Miller Aeron chair that was supposed to ship in 10-14 business days. I was willing to wait that long because the price was very reasonable. After 14 business days passed with no updates, I contacted customer service. They stated that the chair I ordered was out-of-stock. However, I never received a notification of it being out-of-stock during the three weeks I waited. Plus, the order was never placed in "backordered" status on the site.

Although they offered to substitute a different chair size when I contacted them, I was told this would take another 10-14 business days. They then cancelled my order without my permission. No explanation given or even an apology.

Just to test it, I found I was still able to put my original order into my cart on the site with no indication it was out-of-stock, despite being told it was out-of-stock. I asked them why I would still be able to order something that was not in-stock, but they replied they are updating their site.

I understand that this is a difficult period for businesses, but there is no reason why a customer should not be able to be informed something is out-of-stock. Having someone wait for three weeks for nothing is absurd. And why is domestic shipping so slow for an in-stock item?

I took my business elsewhere and suggest you do the same.

Many people think that when they order online the item should be perfect. It is when things go wrong and the company is put to the test to correct something that a truer evaluation can be made. I received a perfectly good Leap chair with a faulty cylinder. One email, quick response, and customer service recommended that I review a YouTube video. Cylinder still faulty. Second email, quick response. They sent me a new cylinder FedEx and it works perfectly. Bravo Madison Seating. Nicely Done!

Dr. Edward Shukovsky

If I could give them a Zero, I would. I will be reporting them to the better business bureau and possibly some other agencies. False advertising. I was so excited to get my Herman Miller Chair at a discount. I figured it was slightly used and thus the discount. When I got the chair, I realized that the chair was 15 years old. When I tried to return it, I realized that it would be $400 to ship it back and $50 for a restocking fee. That was the original cost of the chair, so now I am stuck with it. When I emailed to complain they bragged about what a great discount they had given me on the $900 Herman Miller Chair. I'm pretty sure a 15 year old chair is not anywhere near worth $900. This company is horrible. False advertising scam. Buyer beware. Spread the word. They should be out of business for this practice. No where on their website does it say that the chair might be 15 or more years old. Ridiculous.

I received my Steelcase Leap through Madison Seating (purchased through Ebay) very promptly. It is refurbished but that was reflected in the price. The chairs packaging was in rough shape but the chair was in good shape. The fabric looks brand new and the base and arm rests have been painted. I fear (after reading some reviews online) that the arm rests will start to look bad when the stain/paint begins to wear off. The piston looked brand new.

The base does have some deep gouges but the paint covers them up nicely, the rollers are *okay* at best, I may replace them in the future. Upon examination underneath the chair it does have a broken off clip that holds the seat to the depth adjuster, so hopefully the other one holds strong.

My two main complaints are

1) Missing the upper back support adjustment levers (lumbar support) which is the main reason I purchased this chair.

I contacted support and was given a run around saying the chair did not advertise this feature; which is completely wrong because they were shown in the picture, implied by stating the chair was “fully loaded” and oh yeah, it was specifically advertised in their own listing which I bought the chair from plain as day. When I pointed this out – all I got was an email to initiate a return of my chair.

2) EXTREME creaking and screeching with every movement that I cannot seem to fix by tightening all visible screws and lubing all points of contact.

Customer service offered me $25 credit for the issue.

Overall I feel like I got a pretty fair deal on this chair, but it was stripped of its identification/manufacturer date so I can only say by the couple weeks with this chair its easily 10 years old, moderately to heavily worn, mediocrely refurbished, and hell of annoyingly squeaky. Luckily at my computer I wear headphones which blocks the noise but to any bystanders RIP. Customer service was very fast to respond but every response was from a new representative and each was thoughtless and inconsiderate.

It’s not a scam, but it’s certainly a gamble.

PS:

LET ME SAVE YOU THE HASSLE – I've seen the reviews that shipping the chair back can cost in excess of $80 and they also charge a $50 restocking fee so if you choose this route to get reimbursed you could possibly lose $130 - $150

Make sure that you verify the small print at the bottom of the page hiding under the pictures of other products. Make sure you are not buying a "refurbished" or "open box" chair, which means "used" and filthy to them. Then check the small print in their terms, where you will learn that although shipping is free, if you return the item, you are responsible for shipping both ways. This means that it is too expensive to return the chair. So whatever they send, it's yours.

Terrible products, terrible service.

The chair arrived broken, so we have to contact them. Their management is very, very unprofessional and rude. They were not responsive on essential matters and they kept sending rude messages with lots of threats. After we returned the chair, they refused to confirm that they received it... I cannot imagine how horrible service they provided! I will never do business with them again.

They wanted me to spend over $200 in packing and shipping costs to get a $16.00 bolt replaced on a chair I received less than 9 months ago for just under $600. When I very professionally called them out about this and showed them a link to the part with a price of $15.50 per bolt on Amazon.com they tried saying their supposed cost for one bolt was $24.99 plus shipping and gave that to me as my only other option. I replied back asking about the items they had offered to sell me "at cost" that WERE SUPPOSEDLY COVERED UNDER THEIR "WARRANTY" but they continued to be rude and ignored my questions. They even blocked me on Facebook when I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Here I am paying over $40 out of my pocket and repairing on my own for something covered under a warranty.

We received a chair with burned/bleached fabric ... they tried to tell us that it was dust ...

They say one story over the phone and before the purchase and other afterwords.

SHAME ON YOU GUYS

7/9/18

IF YOU BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS COMPANY, PRAY TO GOD NOTHING GOES WRONG WITH IT

When I originally bought this chair online I knew it was refurbished but assumed it would actually be "like new" or without problems at the very least.

From the first week I got the chair, there were issues. The wheels were filthy and left black streaks along my white carpet, the mesh backing sagged, the armrests would not stay tightened in place and kept sliding down, and the lumbar support pad kept popping off. I sent an email stating my unhappiness, detailing the problems, and asking for the return process.

They REFUSED TO PROVIDE ME WITH THE RETURN INFORMATION in their response. They ignored my request and instead told me how to fix ONE of the problems and left it at that. Rather than go through the hassle (and expense) of shipping the chair back for another one, I fixed the one problem they bothered to respond about and did my best to manage the rest.

Seven months later I had ANOTHER problem. The bolt on the armrest broke off. I sent an email and pictures asking if I could please have a replacement under the warranty just to replace the fastening bolt at the least, or the armrest if just the bolt could not be replaced. Instead of shipping me such a small part to have a happy customer, they gave me two options - either ship the ENTIRE CHAIR back to their warranty department ($50 each way, roughly). The other option would be to purchase the entire armrest from them at great expense (they told me just the bolt, which you could buy at a hardware store for $0.58, would cost $39.99).

For a $500 chair I never expected this much time/money hassle to replace a small simple part THAT'S COVERED UNDER THE WARRANTY.

The lesson in all this is that if you are going to buy something refurbished, make sure the company has good customer service and doesn't use fine print and BS email tactics to avoid helping their customers enjoy the product.

You will not get what you order. Its as simple as that. Total waste of time. Nice sophisticated English accent until you call back to find out why your money and order disappeared or some total broken junk showed up. THEN the TRUE attitude comes out incredibly rude and condescending. You go online and simply order a chair then when nothing happens and you call back they....lets just say they are the "gaslighting " masters. Stay away!!!!! You've been cautioned.

Do not make the mistake of buying anything from Madison Seating. The prices catch your eye -- and the truth is that they are simply too good to be true. Here is what you end up with:

-Huge delays in shipping

-Wrong items sent

-Used products sent

-Poor customer service

-Fraudulent representation of products on the website

** Read reviews elsewhere - they are pretty consistent**

(I found that chair manufacturing giant, Herman Miller, "filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois court in August against Madison Seating for unauthorized use of its trademarks, improper marketing and sales of its products, including its best-selling Aeron chair."

As anyone else who has been scammed by this company has learned (and look around the web to read the stories) you may end up with a used chair or a defective chair, a grey-market chair, or simply a different chair than you actually ordered. But to return it (if they grant you permission to do so) will cost you a major chunk of money -- first there is the "restocking fee" - even if the problem was their fraudulent representation of the item -- second is how you find a carrier that will ship a massive and heavy box at a rate less than $100. Because Madison wont pay for shipping to return anything. I should have known when they advertised a chair for $267 that is sold all day long at Crate and Barrel for $800+. It's simply too good to be true. Save yourself the disappointment and ship elsewhere. Additionally, Hermon Miller "filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois court in August against Madison Seating for unauthorized use of its trademarks, improper marketing and sales of its products, including its best-selling Aeron chair."

open box chair that arrived was either a floor model or used. Every painted surface was blemished, scratched, or had exposed metal. plastic item had chunk missing. Photos to company were diminished as normal condition product. After posting a negative review, company sent me a threatening email. Please read reviews on glassdoor.com to hear from people who worked there about what kind of company this is.

So they imply they are selling you a new chair. In the fine print that you don't notice till you receive a piece of crap instead of a nice chair, it says they may send you an "open box" chair, which implies it is nearly new and, at worst, refurbished to put it back in new condition. They sent me a chair that (1) looks like it rolled around on a smoky, dusty factory floor for 10 years, banging into things and heavily scarring the wheels, (2) had very dirty cloth on the seat and back, such that I took a swipe across each with a white cloth and it came up black (you would never want to sit in this thing prior to a power wash and perhaps a steam clean), (3) had several gooey stains that made it hard to hold my lunch down, let alone sit in it, (4) had several stripped screw holes and Allen screws such that I couldn't put it together completely without a trip to the hardware store for replacement screws and a tap and dye set, and (5) generally looked like one of the worst piece of crap chairs I've ever seen (versus the beautiful, elegant lines and quality of a new Aeron chair). I called and they said if I sent it back and they would refund my purchase (after first saying that there could be no refund unless it was sent in original packing, which I no longer had), but they would NOT pay the $285 return shipping cost. This meant that I lost $285 on the entire transaction. When I now see their history, I get it. The are frauds, Herman Miller has sued them for exactly that, and they are pond scum. Spread the word: avoid these guys like the plague.

I feel SCAMMED. I purchased a brand new Freedom Task Chair with Headrest from Madison Seating online in 2012. I THOUGHT I bought a brand new chair, but slowly over the course of 3 years, the wheels started to crack and fall apart, and the head rest and seat back would tear and rub off from normal use, the screws from the back side was coming out and not staying into the cushions, and the plastic backing was coming apart from the frame that attaches to the leather. This chair was falling apart everywhere except the actual frame which is metal and plastic and stayed intact. I use the chair as a home office chair under normal use with hardwood floors, just myself, and I don't weigh more than 150 lbs. I took the seat cushion and head rest and the back rest apart and found that the chair was from 2007!!!! There were labels on the inside of the parts showing that this was made in 2007, and I bought this in 2012. They sold me a BAD OLD CHAIR! I had to get new parts including the wheels directly from Humanscale headquarters, which they don't do normally, because Madison Seating is NOT an authorized reseller for Humanscale. When I compared the new parts from Humanscale with the old bad original parts from Madison Seating it was like night and day: the new parts had good smooth leather and was not rubbery/sticky like with the bad Madison Seating parts, the stitching was superior, the stapling was neater, and the leather was cut nicely and not all frayed. It was as if someone tried to reupholster it with bad leather, leather that doesn't even match Humanscale's leather at all. If you try to deal with Madison Seating for replacement parts, they will ask you to send the whole chair back so they can fix it (you must pay for the shipping both ways, which would be around $200 in shipping for me). What a nightmare. I'm so glad Humanscale Corporate Headquarters was able to help me fix the chair, but I have a feeling not everyone can receive such good treatment if you purchased it from Madison Seating. Just don't buy from Madison! DO NOT BUY HUMANSCALE CHAIRS FROM HERE! Madison's warranty doesn't cover shipping costs both ways and it's so expensive to ship the whole thing both ways. Plus, they may ship you a refurbished chair, if they cannot fix it, which is what I believe I got in the first place. Go to Humanscale's website and find out which resellers are authorized resellers that meet Humanscale's customer service and quality standards.

Also, I should mention that someone at Madison Seating (or wherever they got that chair) tried to remove the labels showing that the chair was made in 2007. There were deep dented scratch marks as if someone used a metal tool to remove the date label to hide the fact that they were made that year. It shows that someone really tried hard to hide the fact that they were old parts. No wonder everything was falling apart!!

I will be surprised to see what response I get from Madison Seating on this wesbite after posting this review, if they respond at all. I have photographs to prove all of the above in my statement. I will be searching other review sites to post my review and warn other people about this online scam company.

I ordered a blue Herman Miller Aeron chair, but was later told by Madison Seating customer service the color was unavailable. When the chair arrived it had grease on part of the chair webbing, frame work, and some of the knobs. There were scuff marks on the plastic parts. No deep gouges, just marks one would not expect on a new item. One of the control knobs was covered with so much grease; I could not read the symbol. I was also displeased to find out the center support pole has much more play (wobble) in it than I expected from a chair of such high acclaim. The height adjustment is also sticky and does not operate smoothly. I suspect the sticky height adjustment and the wobble of the central support shaft are manifestations of the same problem. Overall, the delivered Aeron chair is what I would expect from a pre-owned product. Perhaps this is what I bought unwittingly from Madison Seating. I must say, most amazingly, the lower lumbar support attachment to the tension control wire gives pause to the actual genius of the Herman Miller design group. For final assembly, I needed to drive a sheetrock screw (literally, a sheetrock screw supplied in delevery) through the bottom rail of the seat back frame to attach the end of the lumbar tension control cable structure, then take an awl (carpenter's tool), part the seat webbing carefully with the awl without cutting or fraying the webbing, poke the wire from the end of control cable through the webbing, and finally insert the wire with crimped end into the lower lumbar support tension control slot. There exists a hole with beveled sides to accept the sheetrock screw to attach the end of the tension control assembly to the lower portion of the seat back support bar. However, this hole was not pre-drilled through the entire bar. Intuitively I had a hard time imagining Herman Miller would have made such an incomplete design feature in an otherwise very thought out chair. I build things for a living, so I am no stranger when it comes to assembly! Eventually, I wiped all the grease from the chair, verified the integrity of the working parts, including my handiwork with the lower lumbar support tension adjustment, and finally sat down in my new(?) Aeron chair. Ergonomically it deserves the praise it gets. From the moment I sat down in the chair, I felt the well designed support structure evenly couple with my body like no office chair I have owned before it. A design befitting the praise it has earned.

The only reason i haven't given 5 stars is there was a delivery issue that Furniture Choice were unaware of. Once they were informed, they were very helpful and got the issue resolved by the following morning and offered next day delivery. High level of customer service and i will be recommending this company. Problems are unavoidable but its how they are handled that keeps me happy! Thanks