Dear Stanley Steamer,
I love you. You saved a life today. The life of our very expensive microfiber sectional. You are my hero.
Love,
Steph
About a year and a half ago we spent a LOT of money on this sofa from Bon Ton. Well over a thousand dollars. I don’t even want to think about it. We also paid extra, supposedly for a stain protector and a 7 year warranty.
I’d like to call B.S. on Bon Ton right now. You’ll see why in a minute.
Our sofa looked great for the first few months, but as life happened it started to look awful. Downright disgusting. And it was actually because of the cleaner the manufacturer provided. It left these terrible dark rings everywhere you applied it, although I followed the directions precisely.
Case(s) in point:
Sorry for the flash photos, I had to take these at night, which is actually a poor representation in favor of BonTon because the stains looked even worse in daylight.
It also wore enough within the first few months that there is a large tear over the springs, which is a safety concern to me as a mother with very young children.
I tried filing a claim through their channels, but they told me that since these things happened over the course of time they were considered normal wear and tear and not covered under warranty. Way to stand behind your product, right? You can’t create a product that will hold up to a family for one year? My grandmother had her sofa for over 30 years and we were not gentle with it. It didn’t look nearly as bad as this one.
Apparently if I had “accidentally” taken a knife to the sofa they would have replaced it, but tears that are created by a four year old merely sitting on the cushions are not covered. Likewise, if I “accidentally” spilled a gallon of coffee everywhere I could have it cleaned, but not if the cleaner they gave me destroyed the fabric. Nice, huh?
So reluctantly I made an appointment with Stanley Steamer and paid an additional $175 to have it steam cleaned. It looks amazing! They got out every one of the dark circles, which they confirmed were in fact from cleaning with a soap-based product. (The only cleaner I ever used was the one provided by Bon Ton) The steamers recommend only using water-based cleaners.
They showed up 5 minutes before our scheduled appointment, were really patient with the kids, and had the whole thing done in about an hour. Then we went bowling to give it a chance to dry.
Ahhhh…much better.
In conclusion, do not shop at Bon Ton, ever, but by all means support Stanley Steamer. 🙂
If I had it to do over I would drive my butt to Ikea and get one of their sectionals that has a washable slipcover. As it stands, I’m pretty sure my new boyfriend, Stanley, and I will be having a steamy date about once a year.
Jan and I made the mistake of buying a light colored sofa when the kids were young. After having it cleaned several times I decided that any future furniture purchases would be dark fabric, the darker the better. But now that the kids are grown we have started buying much nicer furniture.
wow! how disappointing that they would not work with you at all. i would be tempted to file a complaint with maybe the BBB or someone else! i’m glad your steam clean worked. I also have a microfiber sectional similar to yours but my is a smokey gray….so far i have been pretty lucky with appearance, although i know different things have been spilled on it. probably wouldn’t hurt to have mine cleaned!
Stephanie–same *exact* thing happened to me with my microfiber sofa purchased at a store which has since gone out of business. They told me I needed the extra stain-resistant treatment, then that exact treatment caused water stains. I argued for a year before they agreed to replace my sofa, and I learned this happens all the time! Go Stanley!!!