Madisonseating

Coming here now to share a recent experience with Madison Seating. I purchased a Steelcase Leap V2 office chair from them to give to my wife, and my God do I regret that purchase. There's an old saying - if something sounds too good to be true, it isn't. I'm feeling that one right now, as seeing a Leap V2 for less than $500 should definitely stand out as something about it not being right.

The chair that Madison Seating provided me, advertised as "open box", was actually crudely refurbished, at best. Comparing it to the Leap V2 I am sitting in right now that I bought from a local seller, the fabric is low quality, uncomfortable and the padding was also likely replaced with lower quality material. The best part, though, was the fact that there were two screws just jammed into the bottom of the seat, right at the lip where the plastic meets the fabric. I assume this was to further secure the fabric from the cheaply done upholstery work, but because they didn't pre-drill the holes, and they weren't threaded, the screws brought plastic up and out and was left in a jagged manner to scratch my legs when I sat in the chair.

I contacted Madison Seating about this, and was told that I could return it...if I paid for the shipping and restocking fees, totaling about half of the cost of the chair. Total scam, and to be fair, I should have seen it coming.

Just buy this stuff full-price from a reputable company, or be sure to inspect it yourself before buying 2nd hand or refurbished. Don't trust Madison Seating.

I bought a herman miller aeron chair and decided to splurge on adding attachments they had available at checkout on on August 5th, 2021.

I received a confirmation email from Madison Seating saying:
"The estimated delivery time frame for all in stock items is 10-14 business days from the order date. Should the item selected not be in stock, you will receive an email notification. The FedEx tracking information will be emailed to you prior to shipment so you will know the exact date of delivery."

This was the only email received so I assumed my item was in stock and would be receiving the chair in 10-14 days.

13 days from the purchase I heard nothing from them about the shipping details of my order so I reached out to get the estimated time of arrival of my chair. They responded with another email stating I should wait 10-14 days and it had only been 13 days... Nice.

I reached back out to them 21 days (August 26th) after purchase date with a requested update. They then respond telling me how COVID has really affected their business and that they hope my family is safe and well (I don't care to discuss my family's health to a chair warehousing business. I'd much rather discuss my $600 purchase that is no where to be found). Also in the email they told me if should be shipping early to mid September. Ambiguous. Love it.

Four days later, I am charge the full $600 amount for the chair with 0 shipping details. I am actually notified by my bank that I was charged - not by the company. Seems legit. I reach out asking what is the status as I was just charged the full amount. Their response:

"You were charged as the stock was allocated to your order and the chair is being worked on.

With limited staff working and holidays closures all of next week, we estimate the delivery to be around mid September.

Do you wish to cancel and be refunded?

Sarina"

It is now September 28th, nearly 2 months of back and fourth emails with ambiguous shipping dates from them.

TL; DR
Madison Seating is a headache and I would HIGHLY recommend just buying the real deal instead of trying to get a second hand Herman Miller chair. VERY unimpressive operation they have going on!

I purchased a Herman Miller chair from Madison seating a few years ago. Within 2 years the armrest material (? Leather) began to crack and look awful. Madison seating sent me a complimentary replacement pair which I installed myself. 3 years later, new armrests are cracking again! When I called today I was told they won't replace these and that I should go to eBay to get a replacement set. Even though the manufacturer (Herman Miller) warranties the arm rests for 12 years, the reseller (Madison seating) refuses to do so. For me it's all about customer service and this represents poor service.

Update 10/29/2018

First, props to Madison Seating for making some positive changes to their website to correct the issues I encountered in my original review. I've upgraded my review by one star, though I don't feel I can justify more than that unless I ever buy another product from them and have a more positive experience. Still, they are moving in the right direction here.

I just took another look at their site, and decided the changes warranted an update here. They finally removed their deceptive "satisfaction guarantee" blurb and replaced it with a far more accurate "moneyback guarantee" link. Also, unlike the previous blurb which linked to a page full of misinformation, the new link now takes you directly to their Terms of Service, so you can see what you're actually getting.

For the curious, I attached a screenshot of what their old "satisfaction guarantee" used to promise, so you can see what the issue was. For most online purchases, paying return shipping isn't a huge deal. But when it's for a chair you paid $500 for instead of buying a new one for $500 more, a $200 return shipping charge is a pretty big deal. At that point, you may as well have bought the new chair for a couple hundred bucks more.

**ORIGINAL REVIEW**

Their "satisfaction guarantee" is false advertising and worthless. Even though they say you have 30 days to return an item and they will pay the return shipping, this is a lie. Hidden in their terms and conditions, they state that not only is the customer liable to pay return shipping, they also charge a $50 restocking fee. The Aeron chair we ordered was too small, and between shipping and restocking fee, it is costing $216 to return the chair.

As for the chair itself, they do indicate that they are open box. This is true, but a bit deceptive. They are essentially used chairs that Madison Seating refurbishes. They claim they provide a 10-year warranty for their Aeron chairs, but given how untrustworthy their "satisfaction guarantee" is, I wouldn't trust this one bit. The chair I got was in good condition, and did look practically new, so if you can be sure you're getting what you want the first time, it can still be a good deal.

Also, their shipping was VERY SLOW. Estimated arrival was 8-10 business days from the date it was ordered, well, it was over 2 weeks before they even made a shipping order, and then another 3 days before they finally shipped it.

In conclusion, if you are sure you know exactly what you want, and you can't find a better price for a nearly-new chair, Madison may still be your best option. Just be aware of what you're getting into.

Update 12/14/2016: Madison is now threatening legal action because of my reviews pointing out their dishonesty. At this point, I cannot recommend this company under any circumstances.

I have photo proof of the purchase, screenshot proof of their lies on their website, which at this point, anyone can still see for themselves, and if they change it, I'm quite certain Google cache will still reveal the truth to anyone who cares.

DO NOT TRUST THIS COMPANY.

Update 6/30/2017, Re: Madison seating response

Yes, as I already clearly stated in my honest and accurate review, you can find the ACTUAL return policy hidden away in the terms and conditions. Calling it "clearly visible" is, at best, somewhat disingenuous, as the terms and conditions conditions are not easily accessible until the purchase page, and then not highly visible so as to attract attention. Unlike the entirely false so-called "satisfaction guarantee" made extremely visible and attention-grabbing on the home page. It is blatant false advertising, nothing more, nothing less. Any company this blatant and shameless with false advertising is a company I can neither trust nor recommend to anyone else to any extent.

The fact that so many reviews exist revealing similar experiences speaks volumes.

Also note that to this date, Madison Seating has never contacted us in any attempt to resolve this amicably, but only to threaten. We ended up selling the chair ourselves at a far more moderate and less-costly loss than returning it.

Caveat emptor.

A previous user said it best: "smells like the inside of a fiesta on a used car lot". When I got my "open box" leap it reeked of a chemical cocktail. It's been three weeks and the smell still hasn't subsided. On the other hand if you enjoy sniffing chemicals for pleasure, this won't be an issue for you.

Horrible customer service. I ordered a display cabinet online. It took forever to be delivered and when it was it was damaged so I took pictures and refused delivery. Then I immediately submitted a request for return. When I was not issued the return number that I was supposed to get, I contacted customer service and they told me that they were working directly with the delivery company and I didn't need to worry about it. After waiting several weeks to hear back from them on how they were going to resolve my return, I filed a complaint with my credit card company to dispute the Madison Seating charge. At that point I finally got an e-mail from Madison Seating, but still no resolution. I never heard back from Madison Seating, but several weeks later I got a notice from my credit card company that Madison Seating had issued a refund.

Misleading in Purchasing an Aeron Chair - What does "open box" mean? Used? Floor model? Returned? The shipping label was created, delivery date estimated to be 2 days later, I received it a week later... not sure why they psych you out like that. Chair arrives, no assembly instructions with Posturefit, so YouTube it is that helps. The chair is obviously used as it has marks and dings and smells like the inside of a Fiesta on a used car lot. I'm fearful of keeping this thing as it sounds like if I were to have issues 3 weeks+ down the line this could get pricey and problematic as there's no Herman Miler serial number, just one from Madison Seating. I've owned several Aeron chairs and haven't had issues with them, but depending on what Madison Seating is selling, I am concerned based on these other views...

What a saga it was just to deliver a simple desk. The freight delivery company they used here in southern California was horrible. They never called to schedule delivery, just decided to head out and attempt to show up but then called me after they got lost where I had to spend a half hour giving them turn-by-turn directions.

After all that they didn't even deliver the desk, because I wasn't home since they didn't bother to schedule delivery ahead of time. I specifically instructed them to drop it off at the leasing office of my apartment so they wouldn't have to come out again. I come home to find no package at the office then tell me they would need to charge me $100 to attempt delivery again because I couldn't take their initial surprise delivery.

After a week of going back and forth with the delivery company and finally with Madison, they took care of not charging me $100 for another delivery attempt, which is the only reason I gave them 2 stars. So I finally take delivery of my desk... except only one of the boxes contains parts of my desk in it. I opened the other box and it was the legs to a completely different item (coffee table?).

So here we go back to another round of dealing with customer service and the delivery company to return the random coffee table I got and get the legs to the desk I ordered. I still haven't gotten my whole desk yet, and while in the end I think they'll get everything to me, just... never again. Get a new delivery company, the one they use in the L. A. area at least has been a total pain.