MadisonSeating

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 2 Herman Miller Aeron chairs from them, and initally thought MadisonSeating were great... that is until one of them had an issue only 4 months later. I wrote them and they told me I had to ship it back for warranty repairs and would have to pay for shipping. I figured I would just have a local Herman Miller place do the repairs since it was under warranty. Not to mention why would I pay for shipping back and forth?
When I called the authorized Herman Miller dealer they asked me to give them the Serial number off the chair and they could do the work. I searched for the serial number and never found it. It was taken off by madisonseating. They admit to it and said it was because they were a reseller. Doesn't make sense to me that they would take off the serial number, since this is the only way you can get warranty repairs through Herman Miller. Makes me wonder if these are not stolen goods?
Don't buy from them unless you are OK with having your chair shipped back and forth for any repairs for the next 12 years of their so called warranty

I previously had posted about not receiving a refund for a returned chair. I posted a very negative review. I then received an email from Madison Seating saying MadisonSeating mailed the check about 45 days earlier to my address except there was no suite number. I will have to take their word for it. They are sending me a check to my complete address, suite number included. So I had the following issues:
1. Chair advertised was black. Once added to cart it was sahire. I did not re-check the color in the cart hence the return.
2. Return received by Madison Seating was never processed to refund me.
3. I called and emailed many times and could speak with nobody who could resolve my issue.
4. They said they mailed me a check 45 days earlier but nobody told me this.

The mitigating circumstances to all this is the amount of time that had passed. Approximately a year and a half had past before I discovered I had not been reimbursed on my Mastercard. I had furnished an office and did not discover the missing reimbursement until I was doing my taxes. Per their office they cannot research back that long over the phone. In all fairness, assuming I receive my replacement check, I cannot say they did not make things right. I can say I did not speak with anybody to help me until after I posted my previous really bad review.

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 MadisonSeating 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.

We have purchased chairs from the company before and have not had any issue until recently. We ordered 4 chairs, specifically the "Think chair by steelcase". After assembling the previous three, the fourth one had an issue regarding maintaining it's level. There was an issue with the gas cylinder and after emailing back and forth with the service team at madison, we were provided with the option to receive another gas cylinder. Unfortunately, this particular part is extremely difficult to remove once set. Even going through the steps provided from the video, the gas cylinder would not budge.

Finally, it was deemed the best course of action was to send out another chair. Originally, it was quite worrysome to have this chair start giving out so soon, especially since we have quite a few in service at the office. We were happy however to hear MadisonSeating will stand by the product.

I had originally posted on here back in January.

I had posted that I liked my two chairs and that I thought the price was great, but that when I had done my research I was worried after some of the reviews I had found.
It took two weeks for my chairs to show up, The chairs squeaked a bit, but I explained that for the price I was totally OK with that, everything else was "like-new". Overall I thought that it was a good experience and I was glad that I had made the purchase.
Two weeks later the chairs got a discount for 25$ cheaper than I had paid, and I had sent an email about getting a price match, I recieved a reply that that it would be a possibility and that MadisonSeating would check and let me know.
My next reply was that I could not get a price match due to my negative review, I did not see my review as negative, I thought it was honest and primarily positive.

That was when Madison Seating got wind of my review and started calling me, my review was "not worded to their liking and I had to change it", or send the chairs back so they could "correct any problems". It took two weeks from ordering to get my chair, I was not going to send it back and be without my chairs because of a squeak.

After I refused to send the chairs back, I got called again, then again, then by the sales woman's manager.
He said that my review was causing issues and being brought up in their weekly meeting, asked if he could make it right and I could take my review down.

I agreed to remove my review, if they would just agree to my original price match request, that I had no problems with the purchase and that I thought the review was honest and positive, he agreed, I took my reviews down.
That was a few months ago, and as soon as I took my reviews down, I never heard another word.

I never did believe the 5 star ratings on any of the sites, it was all 5 star ratings, or 1/2 star ratings with almost nothing in between. Realize that that is because they harass the people who leave low ratings until they get what they want. I just wonder how many people they got what they wanted from and then did not hold up their end of the bargain.

So MadisonSeating 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.

I purchased a Herman Miller Aeron chair from this sad excuse for a company back in 2010. One of the parts to go first on this chair is the seat. The mesh part of mine broke less than a week ago. I took a picture and emailed it to them since I am under the 10 warranty. I got a generic email and was curious, so I called Herman Miller and one of their official retailers told me that the arms of the chair I purchased has been obsolete since 2004. When I called Madison Seating about this, the woman that answers the phones said that nothing MadisonSeating sold was over a year in their inventory. Then when I called her out on it, I got transferred to another department. This guy, instead of trying to be accommodating with the lack of warranty they have or just sending over a new seat... tells me to look on eBay. Unbelievable with the careless service they provide and then takes me through all these loopholes within the site saying that "Open Box" means refurbished... and was not that pleasant about it. Actually he was kind of snobby. When I originally purchased this chair, the seller... his name is Louis, never took me to that page to agree. On top of that, when I tried to post my review of them on their site... I was BLOCKED. NEVER PURCHASE FROM THIS SITE... BUYER BEWARE!

So I ordered a Lider Chair from Madison Seating about three weeks ago. It came extremely quickly, within 5 business days. I didn't realize I was supposed to check the item before Fedex left, so I accepted the shipment. To my suprise, I opened the box and part of the chair was damaged. I'm assuming the damage was from the mis-care of the Fedex driver, since the packaging seemed very adequate.

However, I can't believe how nice Madison Seating has been with me. Even though I did not check the chair before I accepted the order, MadisonSeating permitted me to return the chair and get a new one.

I called in and explained to them what had happened, they asekd me to send in pictures to confirm that the chair ws actually damaged. After I did that and sent the e-mail in, I got a response within 24 hours. After that I was instructed to box the chair up again and that Fedex would come pick it up.

Fedex came to pick up the chair two days later, and Madison Seating received my chair another two days after that. As soon as Madison Seating received my chair they sent out my replacement, again, EXTREMELY QUICKLY! I received my chair within a week, undamaged, unscathed, and brand new.

Madison Seating was awesome. What they did for me was extremely nice and most other companies would have charged me for the return shipping of the damaged chair since its my fault i did not inspect the merchandise upon arrival. Madison Seating did not charge me one penny!

I highly recommend doing business with Madison Seating. You won't regret it.

I purchased a Herman Miller Aeron chair that was supposed to ship in 10-14 business days. This is slow, but I was willing to wait because the price was very good. After 14 business days passed with no updates, I contacted customer service. MadisonSeating stated that the chair I ordered was out-of-stock. I never received a notification of it being out-of-stock during the three weeks I waited, nor did their website indicate this.

Although they offered to substitute a different chair size after I reached out, I was told this would take another 10-14 business days. They then cancelled my order without my permission. Better online retailers would usually offer an apology, explanation, or maybe even an incentive to keep my business, but nothing here.

Just to test it, I found I was still able to put my original order into my cart on the site with no indication it was out-of-stock, despite being told it was out-of-stock. I asked them why I would still be able to order something that was not in-stock, but they replied they are updating their site.

I understand that this is a difficult period for businesses, but in the current year, there is no reason why a customer should not be able to be informed something is out-of-stock when it is ordered. Having someone wait for three weeks for nothing is absurd. And why is domestic shipping even that slow for an in-stock item?

With a little searching I found some other retailers with similar prices and better reviews. I took my business elsewhere and suggest you do the same.

I ordered a Steelcase Criterion char from Madison Seating and learned some hard lessons when attempting to get replacement parts (wheels).

Per the policy page, http://www.madisonseating.com/terms-of-use.html, "Open Box" simply means that the item has been removed from its original packaging. The chair was returned, refurbished, reconditioned, or the price has been reduced due to an overstock of open box inventory.

But, what MadisonSeating do not tell you is that the serial/model number tag will also be removed from the char. Per email interchange "again, the serial number must be removed as the chairs are not covered by the Steelcase warranty". Without this information it is very difficult to get replacement parts. It is also very difficult to determine what chair was actually purchased. Although a current Criterion chair sells for ~800 and Madison Seating sells their open box version for ~150, Steelcase (based on photo) estimate that my chair was made in the 2000s based on pin configuration in the base.

Bottom line, I would not use Madison Seating again for any 'open box' item or any other chair that is not covered by the manufacturer's warranty.

Complete con artists here. I ordered 2 chairs during a free shipping promo and had them shipped to HI where I live, which their site let me do. Days later MadisonSeating tell me they do not ship to HI (yet their site let me pick it and showed "Free Shipping!" when I did). A few emails of them telling me it was a mistake didn't help.

Then the sale ended and the chair price dropped by $270! Their site then said shipping to HI would be $350, a difference of $80... meaning, their mistake would have only cost them $80 to correct but "Susan" who listed herself as a "Supervisor" on her email said they canceled my order and can't ship to HI. I called Susan and after she yelled and screamed at me on the phone without letting me talk I asked to talk to her manager and she said (after pausing a lot) that she didn't have one and she was the owner of the company.

Right... supervisor of the call center or owner? Which is it? She wouldn't stop yelling at me and calling me names because I said I'd report her shady business to the BBB. I'd stay away from this place... even if you don't care about their crap service the fact that all they do is raise prices to have a free shipping sale should be enough. Total rip off here.

I am very disappointed with Madison Seating. It all started with receiving a chair with no instructions on how to assemble, I had to go online and after searching without success, I emailed customer service and waited for them to reply with a link to YouTube for assembly, which I could not believe for such an expensive chair.

MadisonSeating also sent a part that did not belong to the chair, so I spent I good amount of time figuring out where to put the part, after emailing them they just said it was an error.

After assembling the chair, a week or two later I noticed the chair was small and I thought I was not very happy with the chair, so I went online and found a YouTube video discussing how to verify the size of the Aeron chair, which confirmed they shipped the wrong size. I am 6'4, so a small chair would not work. After I emailed them, they did not apologize, they emailed me a shipping label to return it. Which means you have to take the chair down and find a huge box or hopefully you kept the huge box just in case you need to return it. You also need to miss a day of work to stay home during the week waiting for FedEx all day to pickup the huge box.

After returning the chair, they said they would immediately send a new chair, they did not, they waited for the chair to arrive and waited about a week to send the new chair, its been a month and a half chair drama. Buy your chair locally, you might find the deal attractive, but they can care less about their customers.

The most frustrating aspect of dealing with this company was their return policy. Be advised that should you have ANY issues, MadisonSeating require you to send the entire chair back to them for service. To be fair, they will cover any problems with the chair, but you will be covering the shipping (as stated in their warranty), which, for a chair, was around $50 each way for me. So a $600 used chair could end up costing you $700-$800 or more over the life of the warranty.

One of the problems that I had concerned one of the chair arms breaking 7 months after purchase. Initially, the company insisted I spend $100 on shipping the entire chair rather than allowing me to send only the broken arm. After I refused, they told me the other option was to sell me the replacement part (they valued the part, a bolt, at $39.99. I bought one at the local hardware store for $0.58)

After much back and forth, the company, to their credit, did offer to send the part I needed as a one time courtesy, after which, should anything go wrong, even another bolt breaking, I would have to strictly adhere to the warranty as stated (i. E. $100 shipping). In the end we were able to resolve the issue. I purchased a part locally and repaired the chair on my own.
EDIT: Annie, the supervisor has informed me that despite the original email they sent me, the company does work with customers to provide courtesies like additional parts where necessary)

Tldr - The prices on the chairs are great and the company WILL honor their warranty as written, but for even small issues expect to pay full shipping each way, which can be expensive.

FINAL NOTE: The customer service was initially unpleasant to deal with and very curt, but the managing supervisor, Annie, was incredibly nice and did a great job explaining things to me in a pleasant manner, once it escalated to her.

By way of background, Madison Seating first screwed up an order I placed back in 2015. Their customer service rep (CSR) emailed me after that, to promise a discount or expedited shipping on 'any future order.' This month (January 2020), I placed an order with them for a new Herman Miller Aeron chair. I referenced that prior promise, and a CSR on the phone assured me MadisonSeating would honor this promise, and then the company followed up in writing with the promise of expedited shipping (not a discount). In reliance on this promise, I placed my order. But then they swiftly wrote to me, reneging on this promise, saying they won't expedite delivery... or do anything else as a make-good. The order is now cancelled. I cannot in good conscience recommend doing business with an organization that makes a written promise to a repeat customer twice, and then breaches that agreement and denies any further responsibility. My suggestion to you: find another online seller for your business furniture needs. I do not consider this company ethical, trustworthy or responsible. Nor are their "sale" prices astoundingly better than other sellers, at least not enough to justify the leap of faith necessary to count on them to follow through.

I purchased an Aeron chair by Herman Miller. The recommended size was a B/C but Herman Miller recommends that anyone falling in the B/C range order the B size. I am 220lbs, 6'2" and was in the upper limit of the B/C range. The B size was way too small, The lumbar support needed to be set so high on the supporting rails that it popped off and the seat was almost 6 inches from the back of my knees. Use the sizing chart with caution or, better yet, call Madison Seating and speak with a sales rep before you buy. If you have to return the chair the shipping cost, which are on you, can be very high, the shipping from California was about $165. Madison Seating was good enough to waive the restock fee of $50. It was an expensive lesson, but the chair was delivered within the stated timeframe, there is a 30 day money back guarantee and Madison Seating was responsive.

I wish I could comment on the quality of product, but I did not receive my chair after nearly 4 months of waiting and sub-par customer service. I ordered a chair mid-July 2020. The website did have a banner mentioning that COVID19 would potentially delay orders, but when my confirmation came it said 10-15 days. That timeframe came and went, but understanding supply chain issues, I tried to call them. There phone support is shut down and the voicemail instructed me to email them for an update. I emailed them in early August and was told mid-August. Emailed again when that date came and went, MadisonSeating responded with a canned email exactly the same as the first delay, but with a new shipping estimate of late August. Date came and went, emailed them early September, new shipping estimate of mid/late September. Date came and went, emailed early October, new shipping estimate of mid-October. Date came and went, emailed late October, new shipping estimate of mid-November. Date came and went, I sent one last email telling them I'd like to cancel if they could not provide a concrete date, they sent another canned email with a new date, not acknowledging my request to cancel, and I asked them to cancel one more time and they did. I understand the supply chain has been interrupted during COVID, but there is a way to handle customer service, and this is not it. Very disappointed in the lack of communication and transparency. When I initially saw the prices I thought they were too good to be true, and it turned out that was the case.

I've been in the contract office furniture for 15+ years. I have purchased from Madison Seating many times. My last purchase was for 25 or so Aeron Chairs. The casters on the chairs destroyed my clients carpet. I can't exactly say what the problem is other than the caster material seemed to be crumbling away and it was leaving black marks. Over the course of a month the carpet had a dark black ring where the users were sitting. I called Madison Seating to see what the issue is and MadisonSeating simply responded saying, "you should buy upgraded casters". I called them to clarify what flooring the standard casters are used for and they just couldn't answer. I called Herman Miller and was told that the standard casters on the Aeron Chairs are indeed meant for Carpet. With this new information i wanted to place a warranty claim. The people at Madison Seating were rude, spoke to me with raised voices, and we're disrespectful. The Madison Seating 10 year warranty is not what one would expect. The consumer has to ship the chair BACK to Madison Seating and they will fix it and apparently the consumer also has to pay for parts. Shipping cost are at the consumers expense. As a courtesy they said they would ship me the casters but i would still have to pay for them. So i'm not too happy... casters are falling apart, clearly a warranty claim, and i have to pay for new parts.

My experience with Madison Seating was not great so i went on a review site and gave them a negative review. No biggie, it happens. But this is where the story gets good. No sooner did i click on the submit button i get an email from Madison Seating stating the following,

Based on your recent review we will no longer be offering you the courtesy option of sending you parts. Please send the entire chair to the following address for repair service.

I sent them an email back telling them that they should stand behind their products and the furniture dealers that support them (buy from them). They got me upset so i went to another review site and put in another bad review.

I was then sent another email from Madison Seating with the following,

This email is to notify you that we too, will be reporting you to other online merchant services regarding the circumstances surrounding your order. In this way, other online retailers will decide if they want to fulfill your future online requests based on our experience with you.

Some of these online retailers will be emailing you with a review summary that we have provided. Other platforms will just retain this information for any online retailer that registers or requests this information.

We are sorry you felt the need to escalate this matter unnecessarily.

I received another email from Madison Seating the next day saying the following,
You will be receiving an email within the next 24-48 hours from various online companies regarding the review we posted concerning our transaction. Some of these reviews will be live within that time frame. The review will be under **Company Name** as well as ***MY NAME!***. (You may have already seen some of these reviews posted under your company name)

I think this is quite childish. At the end of the day Madison Seating had an opportunity to do the right thing, solidify a relationship with a contract office furniture dealer, and simply send us replacement casters for the chairs. Instead they destroyed a relationship using bullying tactics. My reviews are honest and based on my experience with Madison Seating. Madison Seating actions are based on spite and vengeful.

Be careful if you purchase from Madison Seating. The savings you might get purchasing a used chairs might not be worth the head ache nor potential damages the chairs may cause to your flooring.

First of all MadisonSeating did not deliver on time. Second, the chair was extremely poor quality, the adjustment mechanism broke down after three weeks use. I've tried to get this product replaced or repaired, or claim 30 days money guarantee Madison Seating offers. They replied there is no warranty, there is no money back, I cannot replace the chair because "I was supposed to file a claim immediately with the carrier when it arrived". When I unpacked the chair it seemed ok, but it did not last more than 3 weeks. They either sold me extremely poor quality product or the one with latent defect and they did not want to find a solution for the problem. They do not reply to my emails on time, they promise on the phone they would come back with some solution or at least the answer the next day. They never do. I had to send numerous reminders so they could finally reply that I am not entitled to get the money back, or replacing the item even when it doesn't work after 3 weeks of normal use. Very bad customer service, very bad quality product for approx $200 price."

OK, bought a couch and two chairs online specified I was available only on mondays and saturdays for delivery and to be contacted during business hours. MadisonSeating attempted to deliver my living room set with just an email for notice and did not pay attention to my statements that said I could only be contacted on mondays/saturdays. They then cancelled my order and marked my account as fraudulant, wich almost got my credit card cancelled. When I called madison seating the lady i spoke with was a B----H she told me that she was in sales not customer service, I would have to call there customer service line and I would have to stay home from work on the day they choose to deliver my furniture if I wanted it. When I told her I was shocked and I asked for her name she laughed commented she was in sales, I was not going to make her money and they were closing (at 3; 11 in the afternoon) So I called back nope, they were open untill 5; 00. Irf I had her name, I would have her job, I've never been treated worse in my life. In an economy like this I can't beleive they are still in business and I can't beleive that woman I spoke with is still employed. I ordered the set off a different web site for $600 more, a garunteed delivery date and time, Frankly I am looking over my credit card statements to make sure the didn't steal my information! Worse company EVER! Don't even look at their web site!