Making consumer confuse is an age old sales tactics in almost every trade. Until consumer catches up with the knowledge, the sales people will take full advantage. That's why forums here is very useful.

Anyway, I thought you have always been buying from some reliable source?

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Added on October 31, 2012, 6:49 pmVariation order tactics. Never go that direction.

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Added on October 31, 2012, 6:51 pmThis one a another notch up from confusing. Hope they don't con!!!

This post has been edited by webby88: Oct 31 2012, 06:51 PM

I find China made sofa modern and trendy. However from my experience, it is not made to last. Sagging and other quality is a common problem. And getting them fixed is always issue.

I remember quite a few complains on the coffee tables too.

Sofa trade is very competitive so traders are using all sorts of sales tactics to close the deal on the spot. Some tactics are acceptable while many others can be misleading. You are right some buyers may be conned as well.

From my (good and bad) experiences, one should have a set baseline criteria like the following:

1. Configuration - can be L-shape, 2+3, 1+1+3 etc etc
2. After the configuration, what is the size of the sofa. Some sofa are mini size while some are larger. This will result in substantial pricing differences. Very common, you can see advertisement for certain configuration that sounds cheap but when you check, the size is usually smallish.
3. The upholstery, whether it is leather, fabric, PVC, PU, split leather etc etc. The upholstery can be 60 - 70% of the total cost. For leather, some details can be found in some other discussions like http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=2179746&hl=sofa. Also the thickness makes a lot for cost differences.
For fabric, there are many vairety and could also be substantial price differences. At the bottom of the range is PVC and PU.
4. The frame and support must be sturdy. Frame usually made of hardwood and some instances steel. What seat support is used such as non sag spring or rubberised webbing. For rubberised webbing, tendency for sagging is much higher.
5. The mechanism, which is the least of my concern. Remember, more mechanism, more likely to fail.

Having said that, there are still many tactics the trader can used. So be alert.