When Johanna Trujillo was in the market for a new sofa set, she knew exactly what she wanted.
"I wanted leather. I wanted something that has good quality," Johanna says. "I just fell in love with this sectional."
So in 2012, she purchased a white, bonded leather sofa set from City Furniture and, for the first few years, she says the sofas were barely used.
“We didn’t use it because we had a bigger space,” she says.
But when her family downsized to an apartment and they started using the sofas every day, Johanna says they noticed something strange.
“I realized it was kind of peeling,” she says. “You couldn’t sit down on the sofa without your t-shirt, for example, because then everything will stick to your skin.”
The problem, Johanna says, only got worse and it turns out she’s not alone. From Philadelphia to Chicago, NBC Responds units across the country have logged more than 700 peeling furniture complaints in the past 6 months. The furniture in those complaints was purchased from different stores. Johanna bought hers at City Furniture, so she initially reached out to them for help.
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“They asked me for pictures, so I took some pictures and they came back to me saying that I didn’t have warranty, that there was nothing that they could do,” she says.
That’s when Johanna and her husband got creative. They purchased glue, tried to sew new material over the cushions and even ordered new covers – all so they could use the sofas.
“But it hasn’t been fixed,” she says. “It’s so upsetting, you can’t sit down. We ended up buying bean bags to sit on the floor so we can watch TV.”
The couple’s frustration turned into relief once NBC 6 Responds got involved. City Furniture agreed to give her credit for the sofas so she could pick out a new set – one that’s allowed them to ditch the bean bags for good.
In a statement, City Furniture says complaints about bonded leather are rare, adding: “We’ve built our 45-year reputation delivering excellent customer service and high quality products that we stand behind… We take each situation case by case because there are so many variables… In this case, we felt giving the customer new merchandise of her choice was the most appropriate resolution – and one she found satisfactory…”
The company says it has reduced the stock of bonded leather for newer fabrics that still look and feel like leather, but don’t include any leather.
