Associate
Let's start from the beginning, I purchased this chair on sale from Overclockers back in May 2018 for £230, not an insignificant sum of money for a university student (at the time). It arrived the next day, and straight out of the box, it looked great, and it was relatively easy and painless to assemble. The first time I sat in it, I couldn't believe the difference, when compared to the £60 amazon special 'disposable' gaming chairs I had been used to for the past 2 years. However after that initial sit, I started to notice the issues...
The chair rocked side-to-side a little, as though the part of the frame that connects to the gas lift had a slight gap or play due to poor manufacturing tolerances, the rocking eventually got worse over time and began to creak and squeak. But I could live with this as the chair still felt relatively solid.
Another issue was the armrests, these both had a ridiculous amount of side-to-side play, and rattled a concerning amount. But to their credit, they did have a large range of adjustment.
After around 2 months of pretty regular usage, I noticed cracks starting to form in the faux leather of the seat base, I understand that this is going to happen to any chair eventually, but on high quality chairs, this is normally after a year or two, not 2 months. Over the 2 - 3 years of ownership, this wear to the material became disgusting.
I lived with these issues, as I thought it too much hassle to go through the RMA process for seemingly minor issues, besides, the warranty doesn't cover wear to the material anyway.
Fast forward to 2.5 years of ownership ('coincidentally', just past the end of the main warranty period) and the chair gradually becoming worse, the real problems started to show, a section of the seat base frame, that supports the reclining function, snapped. This left a sharp chunk of metal digging into my thigh and meant I could no longer use the reclining function. It was at this point, I believe, I contacted Vertagear's RMA team, due to the frame supposedly being covered by a 10 year warranty.
First of all finding the contact details for the EU division of Vertagear was a task and a half, then getting passed around multiple contacts before finally reaching the RMA team took a few weeks in itself. Initially, they asked for some details, like images of the damage along with a short description, name and address, and place of purchase and an invoice. The invoice was difficult to get a hold of as the chair was now between 2-3 years old and most vendors don't normally keep them viewable for that long, instead archiving them, so it took a week or so to get a hold of this invoice from the Overclockers team, but they sorted me out very well, Thanks.
So I sent all the information off to the Vertagear team and they gave me an RMA number, and said the replacement seat base would be sent out soon. It was anything but 'soon', I sent emails multiple times asking for a shipping date, but they came back with the same answers, 'we are expecting a shipment in the next couple of months', 'delays due to covid' etc. (by this point the beginning of covid was well over a year ago). Bear in mind, Vertagear are still selling new chairs with fast delivery on their website, no delays there it seems?
It has been a long time waiting on Vertagear to ship replacement parts and by this time, the chair has completely disintegrated, the whole frame in the seat base has snapped, the sections of metal have bent and somehow ripped (good quality metals don't tend to rip). The chair is in pieces, very unusable. Thought i'd strip it down to see how it failed, as in this state it was going to the local recycling center anyway. It was a mess of sheared metal and poor snapped welds, not things you'd expect on a high end chair.
In summary then, if you made it this far, the Vertagear SL4000 felt initially like a good chair, after all, it has the appearance of one, but when you look closer, you see the low quality materials used, the very dodgy spot welds, and the bad manufacturing tolerances, and it does not feel like a £230 chair, let alone the £290 they charge for it now. I feel obliged to include some positive points about the chair, like it's good quality pins and included tool, comfy headrest pillow, thick seat base foam, and a solid level of adjustment, but other than that it's mostly bad.
I have now replaced my SL4000 with a Secret Lab Titan EVO 2022, and have never been happier with chair, okay the seat base is a little thin and the price a little steep, but it's built far better than anything else I've ever sat in, plus it has a 5 year warranty.
TLDR; don't buy Vertagear chairs.
The chair rocked side-to-side a little, as though the part of the frame that connects to the gas lift had a slight gap or play due to poor manufacturing tolerances, the rocking eventually got worse over time and began to creak and squeak. But I could live with this as the chair still felt relatively solid.
Another issue was the armrests, these both had a ridiculous amount of side-to-side play, and rattled a concerning amount. But to their credit, they did have a large range of adjustment.
After around 2 months of pretty regular usage, I noticed cracks starting to form in the faux leather of the seat base, I understand that this is going to happen to any chair eventually, but on high quality chairs, this is normally after a year or two, not 2 months. Over the 2 - 3 years of ownership, this wear to the material became disgusting.
I lived with these issues, as I thought it too much hassle to go through the RMA process for seemingly minor issues, besides, the warranty doesn't cover wear to the material anyway.
Fast forward to 2.5 years of ownership ('coincidentally', just past the end of the main warranty period) and the chair gradually becoming worse, the real problems started to show, a section of the seat base frame, that supports the reclining function, snapped. This left a sharp chunk of metal digging into my thigh and meant I could no longer use the reclining function. It was at this point, I believe, I contacted Vertagear's RMA team, due to the frame supposedly being covered by a 10 year warranty.
First of all finding the contact details for the EU division of Vertagear was a task and a half, then getting passed around multiple contacts before finally reaching the RMA team took a few weeks in itself. Initially, they asked for some details, like images of the damage along with a short description, name and address, and place of purchase and an invoice. The invoice was difficult to get a hold of as the chair was now between 2-3 years old and most vendors don't normally keep them viewable for that long, instead archiving them, so it took a week or so to get a hold of this invoice from the Overclockers team, but they sorted me out very well, Thanks.
So I sent all the information off to the Vertagear team and they gave me an RMA number, and said the replacement seat base would be sent out soon. It was anything but 'soon', I sent emails multiple times asking for a shipping date, but they came back with the same answers, 'we are expecting a shipment in the next couple of months', 'delays due to covid' etc. (by this point the beginning of covid was well over a year ago). Bear in mind, Vertagear are still selling new chairs with fast delivery on their website, no delays there it seems?
It has been a long time waiting on Vertagear to ship replacement parts and by this time, the chair has completely disintegrated, the whole frame in the seat base has snapped, the sections of metal have bent and somehow ripped (good quality metals don't tend to rip). The chair is in pieces, very unusable. Thought i'd strip it down to see how it failed, as in this state it was going to the local recycling center anyway. It was a mess of sheared metal and poor snapped welds, not things you'd expect on a high end chair.
In summary then, if you made it this far, the Vertagear SL4000 felt initially like a good chair, after all, it has the appearance of one, but when you look closer, you see the low quality materials used, the very dodgy spot welds, and the bad manufacturing tolerances, and it does not feel like a £230 chair, let alone the £290 they charge for it now. I feel obliged to include some positive points about the chair, like it's good quality pins and included tool, comfy headrest pillow, thick seat base foam, and a solid level of adjustment, but other than that it's mostly bad.
I have now replaced my SL4000 with a Secret Lab Titan EVO 2022, and have never been happier with chair, okay the seat base is a little thin and the price a little steep, but it's built far better than anything else I've ever sat in, plus it has a 5 year warranty.
TLDR; don't buy Vertagear chairs.
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