In this blog we will list the disadvantages for purchasing second-hand office chairs. Please read on.
One of the biggest drawbacks of buying used is that you rarely get a manufacturer's warranty. It is rare for a manufacturer to follow its warranty on the chair and not on the original purchaser. Since the warranty is only valid for the first purchaser, it expires once used and resold to someone.
The warranty on an office chair is quite expensive. It guarantees that you will have a certain amount of time with an office chair that works well. This becomes increasingly important as the price rises. High-end office chair brands offer guarantees of more than 10 years on the entire chair. The warranty includes repairs, replacements and return costs. You make a big investment up front, but you know you'll have a top-notch office chair for the next 10+ years. We have both new as Refurbished office chairs, both contain warranties of up to 50 years!
A used office chair will save you money, but you can't expect it to last as long as one brand new of Refurbished version of the same chair. Office chairs are not designed to last forever. Parts such as foam, fabrics, arm cushions and cylinders will eventually wear out and need to be replaced. If you buy a chair that is five years old, there is a chance that it will only last a few more years.
This gets a little riskier if you don't know where the chair came from or who used it. You don't know how many hours were put into the chair or how it was used. You may find a chair that has only been used a few hours a week in a home office, or the chair has been in a 24-hour call center where it has been used 24 hours a day for four years. It's a bit of a gamble. You may be lucky, but there is a risk of buying an office chair at the end of its life cycle.
Office chairs often have little things that don't work perfectly as they should. This is more common the longer an office chair is used. As we discussed in the previous section, office chairs will eventually break. Perhaps the seat foam has compressed and now sags after a short time. Perhaps the backrest no longer locks. Or maybe the armrests can no longer be adjusted in four ways, as they were designed.
There are plenty of things that can go wrong with a chair. You can't see these flaws in a photo from an online ad. The seller may list the item as in perfect condition, but it may arrive with functions that do not work properly.
One way to overcome this problem is not to buy used office chairs, but to look for them Refurbished office chairs with warranty. With second-hand office chairs, there may still be things that you simply do not notice until you start using the chair intensively. Perhaps the cylinder slowly sinks down over the course of a day. This isn't something you'll notice when you see it in person, but it means you're buying a chair with a cylinder that needs to be replaced. These things may seem minor, but they can make the chair uncomfortable or unusable.
Like some of the other things we've discussed, buying a used chair is a bit of a gamble as to the condition of the chair upholstery you receive. Again, you may not know the person who used the chair and how often it was used. There is a chance that the person has eaten while using the chair and things have spilled on it. There is also the possibility that the chair has a foul odor. This may mean that you need to have the chair professionally cleaned.
An advantage of one new chair is that you know that you are the first person to use it. It's fresh, clean and has that smell of new furniture. When you consider how much time many people spend in an office chair, it starts to become comparable to a bed. Many of us sit in our office chairs for six hours or more a day. This is comparable to the amount of time you sleep. Buying a used mattress is not very common and one major reason is the potential hygiene issues.
Deciding between buying a new office chair versus a used office chair can be a difficult decision. Are you going for a long-term investment, which costs more money up front, but gives you a long-term seating solution? Or will you go the used route of saving some money up front in hopes of getting a seat that outperforms its price?
There are downsides to both paths, but buying secondhand will definitely be the riskier path with the potentially higher reward. If you look at the problems we've presented here and don't think they're a big deal, then the used office chair option is probably a good choice. If any of the issues are red flags for you, you may want to look at a new office chair. As long as you know what to look for and what is important to you, you can decide whether you are the right person for a used office chair or a new office chair. A good middle ground is to buy one Refurbished office chair. These have been checked by professionals and work as they should work when new. At Offeco we offer new and refurbished office chairs. The warranties for new and refurbished office chairs range from 2 to 50 years.
If you have a second-hand office chair in mind and would like to have it checked, that is possible. We offer an office chair repair service where the chair can be checked and possibly repaired. This is already possible from 55,71 euros ex VAT. You can use this for all possibilities page to look at.
