I bought one a little over a year ago, through Amazon. Great chair, I loved it.
But about a week before the warranty was up last month, the base broke, sending me falling backwards. I contacted AKRacing, which responded by saying that they didn’t make that particular model anymore and referring me to the seller.
WTF? This is your damned chair and I’m contacting YOU because it is a warranty issue!
Well, they stuck to their guns and basically refused to help me at all. I contacted Amazon, which is taking it back as a return, getting about 70% of the purchase price back.
Hell, I even asked about just getting a new base for it and AKRacing blew me off.
So FUCK AKRacing and their piss poor “customer service” that refuses a warranty issue and even refuses the most minor of customer assistance. I’d have loved to get another one at some point, but you folks have not only lost me as a customer, you’ve made me an enemy for life. If the subject of your company and your chairs ever comes up again, I will be sure to tell everyone present about your level of ‘service’ and customer support.
In closing, FUCK YOU, I hope your company burns to the ground and gets sued out of existence.
Do you have a Twitter account? If so, you might send them a tweet about this. I’ve heard that some companies pay close attention to tweets and Facebook posts and quickly respond to complaints publicized that way. (Perhaps because these things are very visible.)
I have a simpler beef with AKRacing chairs - I’ve never, in my life so far, found one that’s in any way comfortable. With how fast my ass goes numb in them, I feel I might as well be sitting on a wooden bar stool.
I thought this was something that you might mount in a car that you use on the track… But still, that sucks.
I had a similar experience with Office Max. Used the company CC to buy a new chair for myself. Seemed nice, but after a month the left arm pretty much fell off, and I couldn’t fix it. It was a local store, but their only ‘fix/solution’ was that I had to box/ship the whole damn thing back to the manufacturer. I could not bring it back to the store. I’m going to spend hours screwing around with that? Umm… No. Gum Bye.
Well, I got a delayed response from a guy there whining about my complaint of shitty service, pointing me at their warranty and claiming that they hadn’t in fact told me that I couldn’t just get a new base when their previous response was a very terse statement that they didn’t have them. They keep asking for the ‘receipt’ too, when I’ve provided them with the Amazon invoice three fucking times already.
This jackass I’m corresponding with clearly isn’t very good at doing a customer service job.
The 6014 model, which they claim not to make anymore, but is still available on Amazon. I tried to leave a review on that model on Amazon but I got a response back saying it wouldn’t be published. :rolleyes:
Had the same problem with my other chair, which I’m sitting in right now. The welds on the base broke, well within warranty. I walked in the store with the base in hand and the clerk just blew me off and told me to take it up with the manufacturer. I walked back out to my car, brought in the seat portion and showed them that they were listed as the fucking manufacturer, so replace it already! That clerk kept being a jackass until I yelled at her about it and a manager heard me. She came walking over, got the story and replaced the chair immediately.
Office Depot doesn’t manufacture anything. Did the label say something like “Manufactured for Office Depot”, like some generic grocery store products? Genuinely curious.
It’s like the store-brand products at the supermarket/drug store/etc. Sure, the chicken says “Stop 'n Shop”, but it comes in a Tyson or ShadyBrook Farms box with Stop 'n Shop labeling. (I’ve noticed both at my local SnS). From the consumer viewpoint, Office Depot is the manufacturer, regardless of who is actually turning the screws.
Really? I know of no one who thinks Office Depot manufactures anything, nor anyone who thinks any store actually manufactures their house branded products. Simply makes no sense to me. Not that it has to…
Whether or not we think that Office Depot manufactures anything, the point is that when the label says “Manufactured for Office Depot”, they’re usually assuming the job of supporting and warranting the product. (Do you imagine that they’re going to look in a book and then tell you to call, say, Shenzen Office Chair Factory for support? No, because the Chinese factory that made the chair isn’t set up to support US consumers and their agreement with the retailer almost certainly says the retailer is the one to deal with the consumers.)
Similarly, I buy a computer from Dell or HP. It might have a motherboard and CPU manufactured by Intel, a hard drive manufactured by Seagate, memory manufactured by Micron, and so on. When the computer doesn’t work, Dell or HP don’t tell me to call the manufacturer of the suspect part.
I said that I liked the chair but that they’re refusing to honor the warranty. Response said I should concentrate on the features of the chair. :dubious:
If I had this chair I’d get out of shape. Because I’d find myself thinking “I have to spend hundreds of hours not exercising or even standing, to justify spending $300 on this chair.”
But then I’d get plenty of exercise pacing in anger when I tried to get any customer service.
I think most people never think about whether Office Depot actually manufactures anything. But they expect that anything branded “Office Depot” is an Office Depot product and that they’ll stand behind it.
That’s after all the purpose of a trademark, to indicate the origin of goods and to connect the quality of those goods with its source.
The appearance of a trademark means that that trademark owner is claiming the status of source or origin, whether or not they contracted a third party to actually make it. So it’s the brand owners reputation at stake and normally it is considered the brand owner’s place to be responsible for the quality of the goods.
Why aren’t you getting the full purchase price - plus the cost of returning it - back? That would be the case in the UK, the chair not being fit for purpose, but you’re in Australia, aren’t you?
