I have a chair that I got in March off of amazon. An hour ago the baseplate bent and now the pole that it sits on is just wobbling around. Cannot sit on it unless it is directly up. I found this out when the whole thing tilted back, slamming my head into a shelf and throwing me out of the chair. So I go to Amazon to at least leave a shitty review, maybe see if I can contact them for a replacement part. Product is de-listed and no contact information at all. So I contact Amazon who just instantly starts a refund process I didn’t ask for, smugly telling me I’m not eligible when I knew that. First rep sent me to a ‘special team to help’. That ‘special team’ was the front desk for Amazon.com instead of the Canadian one. She just did the exact same thing, another refund I never asked for and putting me on hold and refusing to listen to me. Asked to speak to a Supervisor who then started to say the same shit before I cut him off and said I just wanted the fucking contact information for the fucking manufacturer. He emails over a page for the manufacturer that is their warranty/refunds page.
It’s empty.
It’s literally empty.
So I’ve got a chair I can’t sit in without it causing personal injury, no way of getting a replacement part from the manufacturer without like buying a whole ass new chair that I can’t afford and both Amazon and this fuckin Company are just like “You bought a shitty product? Aww. Poor baby. Cope.”
I just wanted to LEAN BACK AND WATCH PORN BUT FUCKING NO.
I’d throw the fucking chair at the wall if I didn’t need to still sit on it like a goddamn stool.
I’ve learned to recognize these fly-by-night “brands” that sell generic chinesium and then disappear before people figure out they are selling junk. For many things I’m buying on Amazon, I’m looking for some sort of established brand name that has a website and some videos on YouTube.
I’m also very aggressive about utilizing the returns system. If it’s crap, it’s getting returned. Thankfully the returns process has been more or less painless, don’t even have to box them up anymore, just bring them to Staples.
For desk chairs specifically, I recommend this brand. I know, the brand and website looks like it’s designed to cash in on AI hype, but I’ve had their ErgoChair Pro since before ChatGPT was a thing: https://www.autonomous.ai/office-chairs
I’ve also learned to buy more from local stores, even if they are national chain big box stores, simply because they will NOT continue to stock garbage if people keep returning it. I’ve found that ACE hardware tends to have better quality stuff than Lowes/Home Depot.
For cheap online purchases, I think some of these sellers understand that people are less likely to return online purchases, so they don’t have as much of a disincentive for selling junk.