Daveyap

This is my favourite thread and I read it with great interest all the time.

Best to avoid chengal wood because the ones sold in Singapore are not the best quality and will deteriorate within a few years.

Hmmmm, strange because the message box came out saying it was sent. Let me try resending it again.

Castilla better do what needs to be done to make Bro Musingaway happy and to do it fast or else we should all help keep this thread alive and shame Castilla for not living up to our expectations and their reputation. It is totally unacceptable that the stitching have broken barely a week after delivery and that there are cuts on the leather surface. They ought to be for it.

If I am not mistaken, they can only test the mechanical parts because they are not leather specialists and would not have the expertise or right equipment to test leather quality so they may have to outsource the testing of leather. I am not sure about the costs but in my case where I needed their certification, it cost me a few hundred dollars per product test.

You are most welcome Bro. Glad you find it useful. Now lets bring it up to the next level.

Hi NSK, I have taken a good look at your photos. I will PM you later as I don't want Hilker to read my advice to you in here. Cheers Dave

Very bold of the manager to come up with such an outrageous excuse for what is an obvious manufacturing defect.

You flattering me too much, Bro. Seemed you are now the only one in Renotalk forum with a really good quality leather sofa set

I feel your frustration, Bro. I am sure it is 100% top grain cow hide leather for the seating portions but strongly suspect it is split leather for the non seating portions. It seems that the quality of the display set that both you and I saw at the showroom is of a much better quality than what was delivered to you.

Hi Bro, Received your PM. I am so sorry to learn that they have screwed it up big time for you. I recalled you did tell them to hold back on the delivery as your house renovation was delayed for a considerable length of time through no fault of yours. Hopefully, they will not used that as a convenient excuse to say that your leather sofa had deteriorated while being stored at the warehouse through no fault of theirs. There could be something wrong with your recliner if it is not that responsive despite trying it out repeatedly for a couple of days to run it in. As for the leather quality, I think there is nothing wrong with the grains not being consistent but if the color inconsistency is too obvious, then it would not be acceptable. I got the feeling the non seating portions are made from Split leather, nothing wrong in that so long as there is no constant contact and friction. In my honest opinion, I would want to reject the set on the basis that the severe rust at the base of the sofa would indicate poor quality control and poor storage. I also have the niggling suspicion that this is an old display piece and they could have given away your set to someone else. Try to make as much noise a possible to see if they can give you a new piece or at least get someone to go down to recondition the leather,check on the recliner and remove the rust.

I think your posting here has scared off a lot of potential customers of Hilker. I have sent you my email address via PM.

Hi NSK, Without the photos, none of us will be able to help you to confirm if Hilker conned you into paying a premium for fake leather. Are you able to upload the photos using Photo Bucket and then provide the link here for us to view the photos? I have personally come across real life horror stories where acquaintances of mine paid $12-$15 for PU leather. It was such a high quality fake that even experts would have great difficulty in identifying it as fake but were it not for the fact that it started to peel off in significant quantities after my friend applied leather conditioner to it. I believe PSB is the only authority in Spore that can investigate whether product/sofa warrant a recall be due to manufacturing defect. I have used their services in the past to get my company products certified as per my customers' requirements. Here is the link. http://www.tuv-sud-psb.sg/Furniture.aspx

This is a repost as I have posted it under the EL thread. I finally decided to go ahead and replace my teak day bed seat and cushion cotton covers with entry level semi aniline Italian Leather. It will take 3 full cow hides and the total cost is $1750 inclusive of labour. The point I am trying to make here is that just the removable foam seat and loose back cushions alone needed 3 full cowhides. If you are buying a standard conventional 3 Seater Italian leather sofa, you will need more than 3 full cowhides. If you add in the costs of the frame, foam and other materials along with the leather hides, it would seemed very fishy for any furniture retailer to be able to sell a 3 Seater plus 2 Seater Italian Leather Sofa set at less than $3000 with profit. The obvious conclusion would be that the leather is definitely not from Italy. Nonetheless, it is perfectly fine if the leather sofa set that you bought thinking that it is made from Italian leather turns out not to be the case so long as it is a decent quality leather, then the country of origin is immaterial. $1500 for a leather sofa set certainly cannot be of good quality. It is frustrating to note that customers in Singapore still want to expect good quality leather sofas at unrealistically cheap prices.

Any contractor would know how to fix the swing onto the ceiling but very few would want to take up the job because no one wants to bear the risks of accidents. Your contractor is smart enough to decline the job and feign lack of expertise.

Real leather does not peel off, it will only crack.

I finally decided to go ahead and replace my teak day bed seat and cushion cotton covers with entry level semi aniline Italian Leather. It will take 3 full cow hides and the total cost is $1750 inclusive of labour. The point I am trying to make here is that just the removable foam seat and loose back cushions alone needed 3 full cowhides. If you are buying a standard conventional 3 Seater Italian leather sofa, you will need more than 3 full cowhides. If you add in the costs of the frame, foam and other materials along with the leather hides, it would seemed very fishy for any furniture retailer to be able to sell a 3 Seater plus 2 Seater Italian Leather Sofa set at less than $3000 with profit. The obvious conclusion would be that the leather is definitely not from Italy. Nonetheless, it is perfectly fine if the leather sofa set that you bought thinking that it is made from Italian leather turns out not to be the case so long as it is a decent quality leather, then the country of origin is immaterial.

Ok, I see what you mean now, sorry for the miscommunication. Previously, I was basing my assessment on your hand drawing. That is quite an eyesore indeed but the problem can be resolved if you get a sofa re-upholsterer to unstitch the leather trimmings and insert new single pieces high density foam before stitching it back. Can be quite costly though because quite a hassle to restitch back the leather pieces so you need to weigh the pros and cons.

I just seen your latest uploaded photos. The sponge/cushion are in 2 parts to accommodate the 2 separate pieces of leather. It is full leather, only that it is full split leather. They have given you a very thin split leather. These type of leather usually used for the non seating parts like the back and sides of the sofa. As they have used it for the high contact areas like the seats and backrest, it is not surprising that it has now started to tear and crack.

If you read all the other postings on leather sofas in this forum, you will realized that it is perfectly normal for a $2K-$3K leather sofa to last only 3 years or less. If you want it to last longer, then you have to pay for the quality of which Kalimantan's leather sofa is a perfect example.

The sofa was designed that way in order to save cost as they can then use 2 smaller pieces of leather instead of a single large piece which will cost more so it is not really a single piece of leather that was being used for the seating portion. Your leather tore because the leather stucco that was applied on the leather surface to cover up the imperfections is pretty thin. The problem can be minimize to a certain extent if a thicker stucco had been applied to the leather surface while it was undergoing correction. However, this is a common problem whenever you are not prepared to spend more for better quality leather.

They must be fully accountable to their shareholders as their parent company is a public listed company so they have to maximize profits at every opportunity.

I believe what you are doing here in this forum is a step in the right direction since hardly any other furniture retailers would bother to respond to their customers' complaints and concerns in here. More power to EL if more of their customers are put at ease expeditiously.

The resident ants in my house always zero in on the filtered water in my Hyflux Water Pitcher so I guess there must be something good about these types of water filters.

Same name. You can check out their website http://dcms-d193c.aar0.dk.hostnordic.com/the-history.aspx?ID=116493