MadisonseatingReviews 413

Office chairs are expensive, and Madison specializes in refurbished chairs and a fraction of the cost for a new chair. Solid business model, and I (obviously) knew that I wasn't going to get an original, like-new chair for 85% off of retail, but I took my chances with them. My chair arrived 3 weeks late, but was well packed and looked new mechanically. However, the fabric is noticeably lower quality than the stock OEM weave and the chair padding was not up to OEM par either. I've used this exact chair at my company for years, and I know how it should look and feel.

I left a 3-star product review on their site stating basically what I just posted above--that the chair mechanics looked great, but that the refurbished padding and fabric were both really poor quality compared to OEM, and that the fabric swatches they have on their own site didn't match the poor quality fabric I received on my chair. They edited my 3-star review and removed the information I described regarding the fabric and padding. They also changed my product review to a 5-star review, which is deceptive and unethical in my opinion.

In fairness, after posting an initial 1-star review here, customer service contacted me and assuaged me a bit, hence my reason for bumping to a 3-star review here. It's not worth the time, cost, and hassle of returning, even after she generously offered to waive the restocking fee. It's just not worth the hassle for me. For the price it is not a bad chair per se, and I will probably get the padding replaced and reupholstered with better quality materials at some point, since the chair frame, levers, and hydraulics are actually in pretty solid shape. That said, had I seen this in person first, I probably would not have purchased it, especially since I now know that they censor and edit product reviews on their own site. Would I buy from Madison again? Probably not.

These folks at Madisonseating [a shout out to Annie and Laila] are serious about customer service. How serious? You ask. Well, let me tell you. My office task chair arrived with a balky pneumatic lift. I finally got around to sending them an email late on a Friday afternoon [3:44pm their time]. Twelve minutes later and I have the time stamped emails to prove it I received a reply.

And it was not your automated boilerplate Thank you for being our customer, were sorry for the inconvenience, well get right on this, you should hear from us in two weeks response. This was from an actual human with the FedEx tracking number of the replacement part being sent to me. Yeah, thats right. On a Friday afternoon.

OK, you say, Im not convinced. You are probably one of their best customers so of course you would be treated like royalty. Au contraire.

I am a frugal individual [the less polite might say cheap] who had never made a purchase from Madisonseating before. And by frugal, I mean purchasing a refurbished, decadently-expensive-when-new Humanscale Task chair at a ridiculously low price. Heck, with the price I paid for the chair, the shipping cost [of my replacement part] alone probably eliminated their margin.

This will not be my last purchase from them. If you are smart, you will give them a try as well.

I purchased a Herman Miller chair from Madison seating a few years ago. Within 2 years the armrest material (? Leather) began to crack and look awful. Madison seating sent me a complimentary replacement pair which I installed myself. 3 years later, new armrests are cracking again! When I called today I was told they won't replace these and that I should go to eBay to get a replacement set. Even though the manufacturer (Herman Miller) warranties the arm rests for 12 years, the reseller (Madison seating) refuses to do so. For me it's all about customer service and this represents poor service.

We ordered 10 Leap Chair V2's by Steelcase and one was damaged during delivery. The customer service at Madison Seating is top-notch; quick to respond and very helpful. They sent us a replacement chair free of charge, without having to re-package the defective chair and return it, in return for writing a review on this website.
We have placed orders with Madison Seating before, and we will continue to order from them for our office furniture needs. They take customer service extremely seriously and have great prices on name brand furniture.

Madisonseating rocks! I have been a repeat customer with Madisonseating for over 8 years. During these years, my company has been expanding and we were in constant need for office chairs. We have been purchasing the Herman Miller Aeron chairs and Steelcase Leaps for our new office spaces. The chairs are always purchased at well below the market value and arrive in pristine condition. We recently had an incident where an employee was using the chair as a ladder and broke the armrest off one of the Aeron chairs. Madisonseating immediately helped us with the repair under their warranty coverage. They respond quickly and promptly to all our emails and have a friendly and professional staff. I'm currently redoing my home now, and will most definitely be buying my new home furnishings from these fine folks as well. Awesome products! Awesome Service!

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.

Purchased herman miller chair from them, shipping is late after 14 days of payment. Called to cancel but still shipped. Turned out the lumbar support is defective. Then they refuse to return. Sent pics and videos to show defective part, first they say nobody uses lumbar support, then they say no evidence of defects. Extremely rude customer service. Finally sent me a fedex return label without pickup service and warn me have to drop off within 24 hours otherwise pay full price. NEVER BUY FROM THEM

For the chair, 5 stars. For not really knowing I was buying used, I deducted 1 star. I am 5 star happy with my chair.

If you didn't now the subtle differences with new style and where to look for MFR date, you'd think this was new. Delivery in about 2 weeks. Aluminum base, everything looks like brand new. No marks on frame, fabric is perfect. No visible wear anywhere on it. The arm rest padsd may not be HM original, but they look great.
Here's the catch: Open Box to Amazon, Newegg, etc. are new/ current products It is not the current model (updated in 2014 I believe) Date code on chair shows it was made in 2007. So know you may be buying refurbished, not current model when it says "open box" Saved me about 35% off what I could buy new model in box., but about $200 more than I could buy used in excellent condition. For me the 200 was worth having a "like new" chair. We had gas lift cylinder problems with our vintage 2007 HM chairs, Hopefully the durability of this chair will match its good looks.

While I was on hold to speak to a Madison Seating sales rep, a recorded message extolled their "No Hassle, Easy Return Sales Policy" so I felt super confident buying a side table from them.

When the table arrived, it didn't work for the spot we planned to use it, so I called to arrange returning the item and was told that I needed to email, not call, in order to do that. This seemed odd but made more sense after I'd emailed and was immediately sent the company's Terms of Use stating: "A credit for the purchase price of the item will be issued, less the 30% restocking fee, plus the initial shipping cost."

This meant that of the $105.73 I spent, I'd receive a final refund of $19.02, or less than 20% the costs being $66.71 for 30% restocking and initial shipping, minus $20 postage to ship the table back. In other words, it cost me around $90 to return a $105 item using Madison Seating's "No Hassle, Easy Return Sales Policy".

I called to complain today and was told that I'd clicked a Terms of Use Agreement when purchasing the table, and had been sent the additional Terms of Use email after I initiated the return, so legally Madison Seating were covered.

I acknowledge that this was my fault as I should have read the initial Agreement more closely (perhaps I'm complacent after clicking Agree on too many Apple updates) but I also feel it's misleading to have a "No Hassle, Easy Return Sales Policy" when in fact, Madison Seating's return policy is far more stringent than any other furniture stores I've dealt with, and I've dealt with a lot.

The upshot is that, even though this company is not literally deceiving anyone, I'm coming away from the experience feeling deceived.

I ordered a size A Aeron chair by Herman Miller from Madison Seating. The chair delivered was size A for the seating part but size B for the back support. Because the chair design needs perfect match to be assembled into one piece, I called them to inform them about this mismatch. The person asked me to report this by email and I did. Since they do not have size A backing, I returned the chair intended to get full refund. Initially, there was a mistake happened through FedEx ground shipping: A few days after picking up from my front door, FedEx called me to ask for direction of reshipping back to me. I felt a bit uneasy thinking that Madison Seating was refusing the return, especially after reading a recent review at this site. However, after I spoke to Madison Seating and FedEx rep, the chair was successfully returned to the sender. After a couple days of receiving at their warehouse, I received a full refund of $668.99.
I am impressed of the professionalism of the manager at Madison Seating. He is very courteous and quick in reply. I did not give it perfect score is because it should have sent me the right size of chair at the first place to save my anxiety over getting refund. The mistake made at the very beginning can be avoided if they have a good warehouse staff.