I went to DFL to get my sofa reupholstered, after meeting Maloos, the shop owner, who was professional and friendly. We discussed what I was looking for -- Maloos listened patiently to what I had to say, and I gave her a printout recapping what we had discussed, specifying the details of the upholstery job. DFL delivered my sofa to my apartment in about a week, and this was when the problems began. I noticed not one or two, but eight mistakes with the sofa. Attaching photos where I could in my profile.
1) The cushions smelled toxic. We had not been able to sit on the couch for longer than five minutes without feeling sick. I opened all our windows and unzipped the cushions and kept the fan running for four weeks. It still stank. DFL later claimed that it was the glue they used.
2) One back cushion was visibly undersized. The other was visibly oversized so much that I had to forcibly squeeze it onto the sofa. As a result the back cushions did not align with the seat cushions. They were also both overstuffed and extremely uncomfortable and aesthetically clunky.
3) The pipings are crooked throughout.
4) The stitching was so badly done that when I removed the covers, loose thread ran all over. It turns out that they used simple stitching instead of overlocked stitching.
5) I ordered HR foams for all cushions but they gave us polyfoams (cheap, low grade foams) for the back cushions.
6) The seat cushions protruded out of the sofa by a good two inches.
7) They changed the feet of the sofa without asking me. No, actually they did ask me and I told them NOT to change them. As a result, my feet dangled off the ground by a good three inches. (I am average height 5'6")
8) Instead of cutting the foams to fit the back cushion covers, they used loose polyester balls to fill the corners. They claimed that "That's how they always do it." In my experience with the couches I bought, I never had cushions that had loose polyester balls drop all over when I take the covers off.
When Maloos and I talked on the phone about the issues, she claimed that mistakes for custom stuff are common (Really? All seven of them?), vehemently defended her twenty years of experience, and cited the number of designers she's worked with. When I asked her how she or her upholsterer could let a sofa with such obvious and so many mistakes leave their shop, she repeatedly said that I was being too sensitive. In fact, every time we pointed out something odd or substandard, DFL would say, "That's how we usually do it." When I asked a DFL associate if anyone bothered to QC the sofa, she replied that "Well, it came to our showroom already wrapped in plastic."
Despite having lost my confidence with DFL's craftsmanship and customer service, we decided to give them a second chance and let them fix the sofa since they promised to buy the extra fabric needed to make the fix on their own expense. Again, I recapped our discussion in an email, listing all the things that needs to be done, and asked specifically that if anything can't be done, to please notify us. Needless to say, this did not happen.
First of all, they never purchased the extra fabric as they said they would -- I found out only because I had put the fabric on hold and the fabric store sent me an email informing me that no one's made a purchase. I had to chase Maloo's associate down to learn that they decided extra fabric was not necessary (despite the fact that one of the cushions is undersized). In addition, it normally takes anywhere from three to four emails to get our questions answered.
This sofa has sentimental value for us, and DFL's poor craftsmanship and shifty customer service makes me never want to get anything custom upholstered again. Good salesmanship does not equal good customer service or good craftsmanship. This is the hard lesson I learned. I am giving them two stars because they did make an effort to fix the problems -- though the pipings are still crooked and there's still a large weird gap where the four cushions meet. Overall, this was a frustrating and unpleasant experience. read more
