I purchased a cloth sectional and 2 ottomans from Boston Interiors in May. Although I've sucessfully made 3 Stainsafe claims so far, the process was tedious - taking 20 minutes on the phone each time, giving all the same information twice and being asked to fax all my information twice. Note that by the third claim I talked them into pulling from my original information - so readers should try it too!
In April I had a light stain on a cloth ottoman from a wet cloth left there, as reported to me by my housemate. The cloth was clean, but strangely had left a light stain when it dried. I had just filed an unrelated claim the week before and called to see if they could tack the new stain onto the old claim to save the cleaners a trip. What ensued was disaster.
I explained that I didn't know why the water in the cloth left a mark, but clearly there was something else in the cloth, but I stated I didn't know what it was because the cloth had been clean. I was trying to get across that the wet cloth stained my furniture. Apparently wet cloths are not covered. An unusual case, I will grant you. Unfortunately I stated that it must have just been "dirt, like from a dust cloth, " even though I didn't know for sure. NEVER say "dirt" to these people or they will automatically deny all future claims. So with my new claim denied, I graciously (although disappointedly) ended the phone call. A few minutes later my housemate woke up and informed me the cloth had been used to wipe up water and white grape juice. (IObviously it would have been helpful to know this earlier, but the fact is that I didn't.)
I called back within 5 minutes to explain. The rep immediately accused me of lying. Not a modicum of tact. Pure in-your-face offense and outright anger. At me. The customer. I had to ask to speak with a supervisor multiple times, until finally the rep "hung up" on me in the form of putting me on hold, without warning. After about 10 minutes of muzak, I spoke with a manager. She promptly left me on hold for another 10 minutes while she reviewed full tapes of my conversations with both reps. I was thrilled! A reasonable person would have exonerated me immediately as I stated multiple times in both calls that I didn't know what was in the cloth besides water in the first place - and was coerced by the rep to pick something, and under the pressure just said it was dirt. But no - that wasn't enough.
The rep said, because I mentioned dirt, it was dirt. Period. And dirt's not covered. Now, not only would they deny this claim, they would deny all future claims on the ottoman until I provided proof that my ottoman was professionaly cleaned. Obviously I am furious. Apparently the truth holds no water with Stainsafe.
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