Around April of I ordered a 3 piece sectional (form the local Della Robbia Dealer (Interior Design Outlet). I paid $5,200 IN CASH. The name of the piece is The Monti. The piece arrived 3 months later as planned. When it was delivered, I noticed that the corner unit had some very noticeable wrinkles in the fabric. (Note, these are very contemporary pieces, and the lines should be straight and the tailoring should be tight) I was told by the deliveryman that the wrinkles would "go away" after a few days. They did not go away.
I call the dealer to voice my concerns and they came to my house 3 weeks later to look at the sofa. They said that the wrinkles were due to the way the piece was wrapped and shipped and suggested that the problems could be "Steamed out". They also felt that in general, there was "nothing wrong" with the sofa. Also, the cushions on the sofa were loosing their height by the day. Della Robbia tells me "I will loose 10-20% of the cushion height within the first few months of usage of the sofa". I think that was a ridiculous statement. Not for that kind of money.
They arranged for a service man to come out and he "steamed" the sofa - wrinkles are still there. At this point the sofa is getting uglier by the week. I called my interior decorator out and he agreed that it looked awful. At this point I am angry and demand a refund. The dealer puts me in contact with the area rep (Cathy Kroger) that arranges to come to Cleveland to look at the sofa. This goes on for 2 months. She never comes due to family illness.
I pay a local furniture maker/repair person to come look at the piece and he agrees, the sofa is junk. It would cost me $2100 for him to fix the problems. I show the dealer and Della Robbia a copy of the report from the furniture repairperson and then they agreed that the sofa is no good. They won't refund my money but they will make a new sofa form me. It' nov-03 now.
At this point, the dealer had a showroom sample of the sofa that I bought. The dealer invited me to come look at the sample and assured me that my new sofa would have the same quality and workmanship as this sample piece. I agreed that the sample was excellent. New sofa is to arrive feb-04. New sofa arrives and other than the fact that the legs were put on in the wrong location, it was a slight improvement over the old one. The dealer comes out to relocate the legs. However, I noticed that each cushion had very noticeable "bumps" on each lower end. I brought one of the cushions back to the dealer and complained. Now I compared my cushion to the showroom sample and simply noted that the sample piece does not have any bumps. We determined the bumps were caused by an additional piece of fiber that was stuffed in at each side of the cushion. I concluded that this was done because the fabric was again cut too loose and filler material was stuffed in to compensate and make it tighter. They called Della Robbia and the Mfg manager Jullian was quoted as saying that the "pieces are hand made. There will be some variations in each piece". Again, a ridiculous statement. He suggested that I send him the cushion and he will get back to me. This was 2/26/04. After receiving the piece back, the additional piece of foam had been simply removed, however, the cushion was very wrinkled. The owner of the store simply told me that there was nothing wrong with the piece and there was noting that he could do.
My conclusion: Della Robbia and Interior Design Outlet is a major bait and switch company. The samples in the showroom and the pictures in the brochures are indeed wonderful. They do not deliver that kind of quality after the order has been placed. I am in the process of complaining to the Better Business Bureau in addition to a lawsuit. For $5200, I expect a reasonable quality level. Pictures of the sofa are available upon request, in addition to the repair persons' report.
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