Bay Leather Republic Tablet

Poor Quality Leather – Purchased the, "Premier" style sofa, two end units (2.5seater) both with electric recliners. We loved the design, and the colour of the leather. Waited 13 weeks for it to arrive, but worth it. Delivery guys unwrapped it and took rubbish away too. However, on inspection we noticed that they had cut the arm of one piece with a box cutter… Read more

when unpacking! Called the store immediately, spoke to our sales assistant, who was lovely, and almost upset as us? After some discussion they concluded it best to replace it totally, we agreed, and waited 14 weeks for the replacement. We had to ring a few times to check delivery, eventually we got a delivery date! But, when it arrived and unpacked, it had a strong chemical smell, not a hint of leather! The red flags went up! Both pieces were mismatched, colour variations, and cushion sizes were different, they were two odd pieces, probably old stock that had been cleaned, as obviously they forgot to order the new one? Called them again and told them the facts. We settled on taking the original one back, now repaired, with a discount! However, we noticed it had been scratched and the colour had come off! Plus, the colour was PEELING off, along the stitch line, exposing a pale off White colour underneath, not the lovely tan colour we ordered! Well that was it, another call, some heated discussion, and we concluded it was best to return it for a full refund, before it got any worse! It was very distressing, and disappointing, we felt shocked that they used such cheap quality leather that was not properly tanned, but just had the colour sprayed on! The only good thing was that they were quick to respond to our complaints, due to pleasant and helpful sales lady. We could not recommend BLR, as their quality is is below standard.

Leather lounge – I bought a 5000 dollar leather lounge 5 years ago, the sales person convinced us that it would be a good idea to take out a extended warranty.We did,leather started to peal off,rang them didn't want to know about it they claim it was lack off maintenance on our behave,even though we had used the product they had recommended we use to protect the… Read more

leather.Very poor customer service do not recommend shopping there if you buy any furniture there take it home but don't sit on it cause your not covered it's just for looks

Can't understand all the Bad BLR Wraps!! – All is Nothing in comparison to being felt with by Nick Scalies, Harvey's, Eureka Street, and any major furniture retailers, have had dealing with all major furniture retailers in last 10years, they are all the same, BLR I have bought 2x lounge suites on 7years, In excess of $12,000 not because of damages or quality issues, because of there… Read more

quality and design of products in relations to the competitors,? There is always a flip side to all these silly complaints, it's called fair negotiations, or fair wear and tear, I bet a lot of consumers don't fair or disclose the way the furniture was treated, or repsected, like anything, you treat it rough it will wear quickly, and yes the industry has a trade practices act to follow, that is set by governing bodies, so does the electrical industry, and any industry to be fact, clearly if you sit on one location all the time, or slump into your lounge all the time, foams will wear very quickly, and leathers will stretch, if you take medications or have health issues where you take a lot of prescribed medications this will have a huge affect on the wear of any leathers, that was feedback given to me by a tannery expert, this has limited to no reflections to the leather quality.

Medications can play havoc with your perspiration making it acidic or toxic, like tbe affect your sweat can do to your jewellery.

I say, we blame a lot of environment causes on tbe retailers or poor choices in the style of sofas we buy, before we take responsiblity.

If you ask the right questions, and disclose the the environment it is placed, I am fairly sure you will be sold an appropriate leather, style of sofa, with appropriate foam standard, but if you walk in and get something without being thoughtful,

Leather lounge with electric recliners – 3 seater leather lounge with electric recliners on both ends My first experience with Bay leather Republic was delivery of the lounge. the electric cables for one of the recliner motors was damaged. this took a visit by the service tech. to replace it but the wrong side was delivered it took a second appointment to repair this poor delivery. Now… Read more

the cushions on the recliner I regularly sit on has collapsed I had to argue with the supervisor to get someone to have a look at it. finally the supervisor agreed with this request.

I was told that it was normal wear and tear and the foam setting down. the foam sure did settle down, and they did, down to nothing

I had a visit from their leather repairer (The Leather Doctor) and was told that all the cushions would do the same and should all be repacked.

A week after the visit from the repairer I rang Bay Leather Republic service centre and told that my claim has been rejected.

It took a bit of talking but they agreed to repair the seat in question

I have approached head office and they will not budge on this issue

Not happy with this because if the whole lounge was not repacked the other seats would collapse with regular use..

When approached the store manager did want to know or care about my problem

I have made a complaint to Fair Trading in the hope that they can resolve the matter to my satisfaction.

My lounge cost me $3,700.00 and it is junk

I will never shop at leather republic ever again and I caution anyone contemplating shopping there.

Bad warranty will not backthere produduct and have contempt for their customers

Appalling Customer Service and poorly constructed products – My partner and I recently bought several items from Bay Leather Republic and 5 of the items had to be returned - the hallway console twice - it was three times lucky on that one. My dealings with the "Cutomer Service" area which doubles as a call centre for Freedom Furniture was appalling - rude and uninterested. Not what I would call customer… Read more

service at all. Unfortunately my dealings with the store itself were not much better. It started out strong (well in comparison to dealing with a call centre) but in the end my experience was that they too don't really care about customers - just about making a sale. I felt that I the customer was simply a means to an end and that end = $$$. At one point after having a house full of half unpacked boxes, wrapping and furniture that was not constructed properly and didn't work I gave up in total frustration and asked for my money back - the unhelpful call centre "customer Service" area referred me back to the store and the store were very nice and offered $100 off for all the troubles I had experienced - but and please take note of the BUT - it was never forthcoming. I am not worried about the money per se - I am worried by its use as enticement when it was never really on the table. This is underhanded behaviour. The store was polite a bonus after the call centre and I guess were nice enough that I did get talked into giving them a further chance - I wish I had not - as it was just more frustration. You have to fit in with their time schedules even when it's the 5th time you have put your life on hold to accommodate delivery or pick up of items(which were faulty). Anyway the upshot of my experience - after giving a second chance, then a third chance, then a forth chance was that we received replacement items for some of he faulty furniture but for the last two pieces as by then we were up to the 5th chance - I have asked to have my money returned. Not a good experience and I cannot recommend this place - not for furniture quality - it's too hit and miss and certainly not for customer service.

Really poor customer service and hit and miss furniture quality.

Very Shady Business Practices – We purchased a lounge suite from the Logan store for nearly $5,500 and when it arrived it had scratches and chips out of the leather, it wan't boxed as promised, nor was it set up and inspected as promised. Essentially BLR claim they're not breaking any laws if they simply send out someone to touch up the damage to the leather (it's deep damage… Read more

in some areas).

The way i see it, i spent a lot of money to buy a factory second lounge.

If i wanted a damaged lounge i would have bought the floor stock or even second hand.

We've now lodged a complaint with Fair Trading Queensland to hopefully have the matter sorted out.

At no point in the purchase process were we informed of this policy, certainly if we had been, we would have never purchased the lounge.

Essentially they're trying to flogg off their damaged stock as first quality.

Unfortunately for BLR i'm a consumer with a very long memory and they won't see another dollar of mine and i will be making sure everyone hears the story.

Beware - i should have read the reviews!!!!!! Comfortable lounge suite damaged before i received it, Customer service never get back to you, floor staff don't tell the whole story, after they have your payment they couldn't care less about you,

They sell absolute Rubbish! – I purchased a 'cow hide' ottoman from BLR for $800. Within a few months it had changed colour from grey to pink. A pink cow? I made a complaint and was told this is not a manufacturer's defect and that no compensation would be offered. No explanation was given for why a natural hide would change colour to a clearly artificial one, and I was not… Read more

advised when I purchased the product to avoid putting it in a room with indirect sunlight. I would NEVER have spent that kind of money on a piece of complete rubbish. Their service is absolutely shocking and their products are a joke. Do not buy from this company.

expensive, useless warrantly, rude staff, no customer 'service'

Can't keep their promises – Ordered furniture for my living room and was promised by store manager to get the products delivered within a specific time frame. This was even mentioned in the invoice. We have unfortunately relied on this and invited guests. However were surprised by the lack of planning of the store to have our items in stock but not able to deliver them as promised due to trucks being full!!! Nice looking furniture Poor store planning and delivery

Still waiting more than two months after they said it would arrive – Logan store were happy to sell us a lounge suite, said it was in stock, and would arrive in ten days. More than two months later and hours and hours out eye phone being told the system is down, can't find our details, on hold etc, then quality problems with the couch, then being told it isn't in store, and we will never ever deal with bay leather… Read more

republic again. Give them a very wide berth - they aren't worth the angst at any cost.

Really bad service, quality apparently, no one gets back to you, no back up or ability to call a customer service division if the company

Terrible Customer Service from Bay Leather Republic – Bought a couch from Bay Leather Republic and it was delivered broken!! And missing a cushion and feet stoppers. I rang customer service to complain as we did not break it, it was delivered as an unusable item. They sent someone to look at it which sent one week. The guy said he needed to order a part, which should take 24hours. I rang a week… Read more

later to be advised, part has not been ordered or sent and will not arrive until at least early next week. No apology and no sense or urgency on their part. I also posted some negative criticism on their facebook wall and it was deleted. Buyer beware.

worst piece of furnuture we have ever purchased! – We bought what we thought was a lovely classy leather lounge, just after the 2 year warranty ran out the leather started 2 peel, we phoned customer service only to be told it was out of warranty. We now have to purchase a new lounge suite (obviously not from bay leather republic), this time we will ensure it is genuine leather! Our advice to… Read more

anyone looking to purchase a lounge, look elsewhere & don't waste your hard earned cash at bay leather republic.

leather, warranty, after service

Expensive piece of furniture - which looks like a huge Panadol – The ottoman I purchased was the Bay Leather Republic Tablet Ottoman Large in white. This ottoman is extremely large for an ottoman, and you could easily lie down on it and rest. The colour is a rather stark white, or also known as a china/snow white. So it will definitely pick up stains and marks quite easily - but continue reading on. The… Read more ·  1

leather used on this piece is crazy thick. By Bay Leather Republic's leather classification, it's upholstered in category 55 leather. I'm not 100% what the numeric value attributes to - but I gather it's a combination of quality, finish and thickness. To give you an idea of what category is commonly used in lounge suites by Bay Leather Republic, they use category 15, 18, 20, 30 (and the price increases respectively). So Category 55 is crazy, and when you touch it, you can definitely tell its thick and stiff - I would say it's anywhere from 5mm to 10mm thick. It is so thick that they have opted to not fill the ottoman with any support material.

The finish of the leather is a processed/pigmented finish. It's definitely not semi or full aniline - and in this instance a good thing. I've found that I can relatively safely apply relatively strong cleaning products to the surface, without damaging the leather finish.

Continuing further on the filling, there is actually very minimal filling. To simply describe it, BLR have taking a tube (with the hole in the centre) and just upholstered the whole thing in super thick leather. Support in the centre is entirely! supported by the leather's thickness. So it is somewhat strange, and initially I thought it may be a defect, and that the foam in the middle and broken away - but that isn't the case. After owning it for a couple of months now, the foam really isn't needed, but it is weird.

Overall, I'm liking this piece, much like all my other BLR pieces. Three important key points come into play when considering this piece though; price, size and colour. It being stark white, is a bit sterile, but white goes with anything I guess. The size is huge, and not many living areas could comfortably house an ottoman which is 1 metre in diameter. Last, but definitely not least, is the price, at a recommended retail price of $1,899, it's definitely by any means cheap - you could purchase a budget package deal for that price ...

On the last note, it's difficult to recommend to a friend. Crazy thick leather Insanely expensive for an "ottoman"