Stratolounger rocker Recliner Chair - from Hecht's store, Laurel, MD - purchased with lifetime warranty - Stratolounger retroactively changed a lifetime warranty to a one-year warranty and will only honor the one-year warranty

Complaints.com received the following on March 26, 2003:

From: orcoffman [Email User]

RE: Stratolounger rocker Recliner Chair - from Hecht's store, Laurel, MD - purchased with lifetime warranty - Stratolounger retroactively changed a lifetime warranty to a one-year warranty and will only honor the one-year warranty

On December 26, 1998 I purchased a Stratolounger rocker recliner chair from the HECHT’S store in Laurel, Maryland. This chair was sold to me with a lifetime warranty. In November 2000 the tension holder bolt and shoulder bolt that holds the seat back broke. The HECHT’S Strawbridge’s Customer Service Department in Joppa, Maryland was contacted and a repairman was dispatched who ordered the necessary parts and repaired the chair. In January 2003 the same tension holder bolt and shoulder bolt broke. Again I contacted the HECHT’S Strawbridge’s Customer Service Department. This time I was informed by the customer service representative that the lifetime warranty no longer applied and that the manufacturer (the Stratford Company) had changed all warranties to one year. If I wanted the Stratolounger rocker recliner chair repaired I would have to pay a fee to have a service representative come to my house just to look at the chair and inform me how much in parts and labor I would have to pay to have the chair repaired. On March 12, 2003 one of the metal frames that hold the seat back broke. With the breaking of this metal frame in addition to the same two bolts breaking in November 2000 and January 2003 indicates that the Stratford Company has a design flaw in this particular rocker recliner and they and HECHT’S know it. There is no way that a chair that is properly engineered and costing $500 should have the same bolts breaking every two years and then having the frame breaking after four years.

I bought the Stratolounger rocker recliner chair with a lifetime warranty. In November 2000 this warranty was honored when the two bolts broke. Now in 2003 when the same two bolts and the frame break I discover that the Stratford Company and HECHT’S has retroactively changed a lifetime warranty to a one-year warranty and will only honor the one-year warranty. I would like to have my chair either repaired or replaced as stipulated by the lifetime warranty.

Comment On This

You have a legal contract with the lifetime warranty. You could go to the BBB and waste your time or just pay for the repairs and take the bill to Small claims court. You will win if you have the lifetime warranty on paper with your original recipt.