You may have heard that 3M changed the formula for its Scotchgard products a number of years ago after it was revealed that they were causing significant environmental damage (well, it’s actually much worse than that, but that’s the basic idea). The new Scotchgard doesn’t work as well as the old one did. Apparently, none of the anti-stain treatments currently on the market that aren’t bad for the environment work as well as the old, toxic ones did.
For a relatively small fee, Jordan’s Furniture used to apply an anti-stain treatment to new upholstered furniture and warranty that if the furniture got stained, they would get the stain out or replace the item at the expense. Well, actually, it was at the expense of Stainsafe, the company that provided the anti-stain treatment and administered the warranty.
However, in a recent visit to Jordan’s, my wife and I learned that Jordan’s no longer offers anti-stain treatments on new furniture. This is supposedly motivated by three factors: (1) Jordan’s wants to be an environmentally conscious company, and the anti-stain treatments are bad for the environment; (2) the anti-stain treatments that aren’t bad for the environment don’t work well; and (3) the microfibers used to cover a lot of the furniture sold at Jordan’s have some intrinsic stain resistance. I suspect there are two more factors that the Jordan’s associate didn’t share with us: (1) there were a lot of complaints about the Stainsafe warranty (google for “Stainsafe” and you’ll see what I mean); and (2) oh, by the way, Stainsafe is bankrupt. Of course, it’s not clear whether Jordan’s stopped offering Stainsafe because they went bankrupt, or Stainsafe went bankrupt because Jordan’s stopped offering it.
What Jordan’s will sell you, instead of anti-stain treatment, is a five-year limited warranty under an Extended Protection Program (EPP) administered by a third-party company. (more…)
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