It saga started last year in May. I remember that I discovered a tear in the seat of our sectional. Good thing we bought the protection plan. I told myself. I found the paper work and was even more thankful the the protection plan had NOT expired, the next step was figuring out who to call. I was afternoon when I made the call and was surprised that of the two language choices, you know press 1 for English... the second language was French.

They arranged for a repairman to call me and make an appointment. I had to call a second time and let them know a week had gone by and no one had contacted me. When I finally got the appointment, it was 9 am on May 26 - I remember it because it was the day we were having Aiyana’s birthday party. The guests wouldn’t arrive until 11 am but it would be a hectic morning and having someone come to fix our chair would just add to the chaos.

The fix didn’t take that morning. The repairman came back twice to try different things finally telling me he’d have to order the fabric from the mainland and recover the entire piece. We waited and waited and five months later I was on the phone again only this time dismayed to find out that according to their records, the case was closed - apparently my chair repaired.

Irate I explained the timeline that I diligently kept recorded and finally was told that the fabric had been discontinued so I would be able to make a “reselection.” Were they kidding me. Didn’t they know how long it took me to choose this furniture in the first place. How would I “reselect” and exactly what did “reselect” mean?

Well, after a couple more calls I found out that I could choose anything else I wanted up to the price I paid for the original sectional. We went down to the furniture store and I really, really, REALLY just wanted the same sectional with the closest fabric to our old set. Cris on the other hand was more than willing to go with five matching massage chairs and be done with it. We compromised.

I was willing to look around for a different look, and he would put recliners out of his mind.

We were both delighted to finally find this set at a downtown location and thought we’d even have extra credit because the set was less then our old sectional... UNTIL we were told the ottoman wasn’t a part of the sectional.

I few choice discussions later and I was put in my place and understood that in the furniture world, the ottoman is an accessory and basically they were being overly generous replacing my entire set instead of simply replacing the one chair.

I debated “discovering” a tear in the ottoman a week later, but decided to take the high road and be happy with what I was getting. We ended up paying $19.26 in the end and that included the protection plan for the new leather sectional.

It’s a different look for the family room. The pillows need to be changed. Cris thinks he should paint the walls another color, but I’m advocating to keep my tri-colored stripes. The kids are constantly reminded not to eat on the furniture or jump or write near it or hang on the back or site on the arm rests or sneeze near it.... yeah, we’ll see how long that lasts.