Complaint Review: Madison Seating - Brooklyn New York

On March 21, 2020, I ordered two chairs from Madison Seating, one Herman Miller Aeron and a Humanscale Diffrient.  They charged my credit card right away for both chairs.  One April 3, I received an email that both chairs shipped, which was not true, as only the Aeron arrived on April 4.  I was happy with the Aeron and upon emailing Madison about the second chair, they said it would ship “next week.” 

On April 21, 2020, one month from the order date, I received the Humanscale chair, which was not in mere “open box” condition, but clearly heavily USED.  The same day, I emailed Madison with photos, showing that it was a stained, scratched and snagged chair.  Madison said it cannot open the files.  I re-send in JPG format.  Madison says “no attachments.”  I email photos within Google drive with a link.  I also send photos separately embedded in Gmail.  I email again to confirm receipt of photos.  No response.  I follow up the next day.  No response.

On April 28, 2020, not having a response, I emailed Madison to have the chair picked up and that I will be disputing the charge with my credit card company.  On April 30, I received an email offering for me to keep the chair with a 50% discount.  I was not interested in keeping a heavily used and dirty chair for $250.

On May 1, 2020, Madison sent me an email threatening to file a police report for “stolen merchandise.”

On May 5, 2020, Madison sends another threatening email, again claiming the chair is “stolen merchandise” and that I would have to defend said action in New York. (No legal basis).

On May 5, 2020, an unidentified person with caller ID of Madison Seating calls my home number and leaves message purporting to be a third party investigator looking into “stolen merchandise” and threatening to call my local police department.

On May 6, 2020, after getting a letter from my attorney (which detailed all their illegal actions), Madison FINALLY send a pre-paid shipping label for me to return the used chair.  I accept Madison’s offer to resolve the matter with the return of the chair in exchange for the full refund for the chair.  The chair has been boxed up with the label affixed.  Photos of the same are included in the email to Madison.

On May 7, 2020, (as I would find out later from the documents received by my credit card company), Madison challenges the dispute.  To support its challenge to my credit card dispute, it includes a letter dated 4/24/20 which is obviously fake since I did not file the dispute until 4/28/20!  Also, they falsely claim that they already sent me the return label, but the label is clearly generated on 5/6/20.

On May 8, 2020, UPS picked up the chair.  On May 19, 2020, the chair’s receipt by Madison is confirmed by the tracking number.

On May 24, 2020, after getting a letter from my credit card company, I call to find out that Madison has NOT indicated the matter resolved.

On May 27, 2020, I send an email demand that Madison either issue credit or inform the credit card company that the matter is resolved.  Madison REFUSES to cooperate.

On May 28, 2020, another email is sent to Madison to confirm receipt of the chair and to reverse the charge.  Madison never responds.

Subsequently, I found out from my credit card company that they have tried repeated to contact Madison to release the refund from their bank.  The person who answers the phone at Madison indicates that “the person who handles that” is not in, just left, out for several days, etc.  Not surprisingly, they do not return calls.

So, several months after Madison took my money for two chairs, they got one used chair back (to sell to another unsuspecting customer?) and kept the money for both.