The distant cousin of leather not so suite
Times Media consumer writer Wendy Knowler writes a weekly column on issues affecting consumers. If you have something you would like her to investigate, send queries to: consumer@knowler.co.za Follow her on Twitter: @wendyknowler
THERE are a lot of very sad-looking “leather” couches in living rooms across the land, it seems.
In response to my column of two weeks ago on bonded leather lounge suites – and how they tend to crack and peel, but only after the warranty has expired – I received a rush of e-mails from readers who’d had the same experience with “leather” suites bought from a variety of furniture outlets.
No less than 14 of them bought their “bonded leather” lounge suites, which, they claim, are now peeling, from various branches of national retailer United Furniture Outlets (UFO) – as did Lebo Mohotji, the woman whose story I highlighted in that column.
All said they had thought they were buying leather, and had no idea that “bonded leather” is a very poor, distant cousin of full-grain leather, comprising only about 10 to 15% leather. It’s mostly synthetic vinyl blended with a few shavings of leather offcuts, something which is generally not disclosed to potential buyers, much less the fact that there’s a good chance of the suite cracking and peeling within two to four years.
In response to my initial enquiry around Mohotji’s suite and the way it was marketed, UFO’s Raymond Munitz said the incidence of bonded leather “defects” was relatively low, and that the company was transparent in its disclosure around the leather lounge suites it sells.
Mohotji and many of the other UFO bonded leather suite buyers claim the sales person they dealt with told them that bonded leather was “leather offcuts” which would last “a long time”, but sadly there is no recorded proof of hose conversations.
Hence my suggestion to Munitz that in the interests of full transparency, UFO should issue a fact sheet about bonded leather, revealing how it is made, given that it’s almost entirely a man-made product rather than the hide of a cow - and ask customers to sign receipt of it, so they can’t later claim that they didn’t know.
In the “spirit of goodwill” UFO offered to take back Mohotji’s suite and give her a credit towards a new one.
I sent Munitz a second e-mail including all 14 new UFO cases of peeling bonded leather suites.
I asked whether UFO was willing to consider taking back those 14 peeling suites and offering their owners a credit, and again asked whether it would revise the marketing of its bonded leather suites to “correct any perception on the part of would-be buyers that it is good quality leather which will last as long as full-grain leather”.
UFO engaged a firm of attorneys to respond on its behalf.
The firm said UFO had never claimed that its “bonded leather” lounge suites were “leather” or that they would last for more than 20 years.
The company sells both bonded leather and leather lounge suites, it said, each being described as such.
“However our client will . . . apply a swing tag to the bonded leather lounge suites
advertised for sale in its showroom . . . specifying the various components making up the suites, as well as the approximate percentage of the components.
It’s a welcome response, if sadly too late for those who have bought these suites from UFO stores, having no idea that “bonded leather” meant “mostly not leather”.
The bad news is UFO is apparently not prepared to take back the “alleged” peeling suites or to offer their owners a credit.