The Sofa In Question

We had a customer who purchased a naugahyde living room group. It was a beautiful sectional set and it looked great in their living room.

Several months after they purchased the sofa, the lady of the house called and said that she had a problem with the front of the sofa just below the arm. She said that the material was separating and that she was afraid that it would soon tear open.

I went out and looked at the sofa and just like she had said on the phone, the material was separating. It looked like an animal had scratched it but she said that she didn't have a cat or a dog. I said I would call the factory and then get back with her.

When I called the factory and explained the problem they said that they would remake a new sofa and exchange it with the one with the problem. I relayed this to our customer and she was very happy and said that she would wait to hear from us when it came in.

Several weeks later I called her and let her know that her new sofa was in and when would be a convenient time to exchange it and she said, Come out tomorrow before noon. We went the next morning and exchanged it and everyone was happy once again.

About three months later another call from the same customer, with the same problem on the same area on the new sofa. I said that I would call the manufacturer and see what they would do about it this time.

After talking with the manufacturer, I relayed the answer to our customer. The said that they would replace it again, but when they had ran a test on the other sofa they had found animal hairs imbedded in the Naugahyde and that some animal was tearing the material.

We delivered the third sofa to our customer when the third sofa came in. We had the customer sign and agreement where this would be the last sofa that the manufacturer would replace because of the finding of animal fibers.

A few months later my dad was walking down the sidewalk to the bank when he passed our customer and her son walking up the street. On her son's shoulder was a pet monkey. My dad just nodded and said, "Good Morning," as he walked on to the bank.

When he came back to the store he told us about the monkey and we all had a good laugh. Then my dad said, we just didn't ask the right questions.

I think we all learned a lesson that day.