In my partner and I purchased in excess of $5,000 of office furniture from Podany's in Minneapolis for our new law office - including two office chairs at $500.00 apiece. Within months, my office chair began to break down. First it began to lean to one side. Then the base cracked altogether. Eventually a leg broke off.
Each time, I sent it back for repairs. On one of those occasions, Podany's held the chair for over three months - eventually acknowledging they had "lost it" in the warehouse. After the third set of repairs, and nearly five months without the chair, I asked that it be replaced. Podany's refused.
The chair broke down two more times, on one of those occasions collapsing under me. I sent it back again on each occasion. On the fifth round (or sixth, I have lost track), Podany's finally agreed to let me "exchange" the chair for another. It was now four years since I'd purchased the chair, but it had been in Podany's possession at least eight months of those four years. When I picked out a replacement, Podany's informed me they would only give me $150 store credit - or less than 1/3 the original purchase price for a chair that had proved defective within months of my purchase.
When I protested, Podany's manager informed me the chair was in "rough shape" and I'd had its use for four years. I pointed out that it was in rough shape because they had picked it up six times; it had undergone repairs the same number of times; and had collapsed under me. As to the four years of "use", I pointed out that I'd been trying to return it for two and a half of those years and reiterated that it had been in their shop nearly a quarter of that time.
Podany's eventually gave me $250 credit against a new chair. That meant I had to spend yet another $250 to get a comparable chair to the defective one I originally bought.
I was astonished at the attitude of Podany's. At one point in our discussion, the manager drew analogies to trying to return a used car. GIven this attitude, if you shop at Podany's, you'd best assume that they will not stand behind their furniture beyond the letter of their contract - which I believe is a ten day return policy. After that, they'll repair defective merchandise for the term of the contract - but you'd better have spare furniture on hand for all the repairs to come because if you get a lemon, you're stuck with it.
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