Herman Miller Customer Service

ne0

ne0

Associate
Joined
2 Feb 2018
Posts
1,333
Anyone got any experience with HM customer service? I'm talking about HM direct and not a dealership.

Only had my Embody for 1 month and the gas cylinder has failed already.

Sent them an email on Monday with all the details required and still no response. Just called and waited on hold for nearly 30 mins before finally someone answered and simply told me they were busy due to a promotion and they would get back to me. So they're admitting to prioritising new business rather than looking after someone who's only just bought a chair from them?

I'm feeling this just isn't good enough. The chair cost me over £1200 and I've barely sat on it.

Seriously considering raising a charge back through Amex if I don't get anything concrete sorted by Monday next week.

Anyone else got any experience or stories to tell with HM?
 
Last edited:
If this has happened in a month, I'd have no faith in the product lasting as long as they claim, nor in their customer service, if this how you've been treated already.

Charge back vote from me.
 
Our back health is more important than the hurt feelings I would say, so I would persevere if the chair feels great. I've got two HM Mirra chairs that solved the back pain that I was having with my previous cheapo chairs, so I would cut HM a lot of slack. Not that I had to, I had the chairs for a good few years now and they work great still.
 
Last edited:
Never had to deal with Customer Service at Herman Miller yet, but I would also recommend not jumping the gun. No company guarantees flawlessness in every mass produced product - after all, we have some amazing overclockable chips in CPU, GPU and (V)RAM too, just there can be some downright lemons too.

Yeah, they're swampped from orders right now, but that should give you an idea on why being so expensive they're still in business (Along lines of Noctua - expensive, and plenty of alternatives yet still has business going). It was their Black Friday sales recently so 30% off of everything is always going to cause delays in response since no one wants to pay £1300 when you can pay £900, etc. It's like getting a 9950x3D for £200 along with a Noctua D15 G2 for £30 instead of their normal prices, you know there's users out there who will go, oh Noctua, why pay for so much for so little improvement? Yet if it was cheap like that, they would be scrambling for it too - causing a backlog for them.

In any event, I'm sorry to hear your chair experienced an issue so soon after getting. Fingers crossed they get back to you soon with a solution to the issue (I believe it'll be a straight swap, either by their visiting engineer for the faulty part, a replacement part if you can fit yourself, or full chair swap by delivery if I remember reading right).
 
Last edited:
I bought my HM chair from a reseller, in Jan 2023, and after 2 years the back was covered in cracks and fractures in the plastic. Got in touch with the reseller, and had an engineer out with new parts to replace the back, all within about 2 weeks. The chair is the Mira 2. I've checked it over again just now and I have 3 small fractures again. So that is a year after having it fully repaired. Not impressed as it cost me over £800. The chair is wonderful. But quality - yeah, lacking for the cost.

 
Last edited:
The chair is the Mira 2. I've checked it over again just now and I have 3 small fractures again. So that is a year after having it fully repaired.
That's pretty sad, planned obsolescence seeping into HM as well now? I hate it :( My two chairs are both Mirra1, and the oldest is about 7-8 years old. Both are perfectly functional, and built like beautifully engineered tanks - heavy, great plastics, steel where necessary, durable mesh, leather, padding etc
 
I bought my HM chair from a reseller, in Jan 2023, and after 2 years the back was covered in cracks and fractures in the plastic. Got in touch with the reseller, and had an engineer out with new parts to replace the back, all within about 2 weeks. The chair is the Mira 2. I've checked it over again just now and I have 3 small fractures again. So that is a year after having it fully repaired. Not impressed as it cost me over £800. The chair is wonderful. But quality - yeah, lacking for the cost.


If the back was made out of 10mm sheet steel an unpadded, it would still be ok :D
 
Yeah I saw the Trustpilot reviews and I think this is one of the things that's got me worried.

The thing is the chair is ridiculously comfortable and I absolutely love it. Worth the money? Nope, but it's an amazing chair and I certainly do not want to get rid of it.

After I called them someone responded to my email within 10 mins asking for a video of the 'issue'. So I sent one straight back and still waiting for some kind of response. My gut feeling is it's just a delay tactic.

I am a bit concerned that the quality just isn't there and I really don't want to have to deal with shoddy customer support; even if there is a 12 year warranty. My Secret Lab was horrible, really uncomfortable and in retrospect a really poor decision for my physical health. However, the thing was solid and never let me down after 5 years. I even sold it for more than half of what I paid for it - that's how good it held up in terms of quality.
 
Last edited:
I've seen a lot of posts on Reddit this week about poor quality control on HM chairs, mostly the Embody, from people who bought one on Black Friday.

Before I knew what Herman Miller was my Uncle gave my Mum a chair and I hated it sitting in it. Turns out that chair was an Aeron and I don't even remember what I did with it when she died and I emptied her house, most of the stuff when into a skip or to the tip.
 
Yeah I saw the Trustpilot reviews and I think this is one of the things that's got me worried.

The thing is the chair is ridiculously comfortable and I absolutely love it. Worth the money? Nope, but it's an amazing chair and I certainly do not want to get rid of it.

After I called them someone responded to my email within 10 mins asking for a video of the 'issue'. So I sent one straight back and still waiting for some kind of response. My gut feeling is it's just a delay tactic.

I am a bit concerned that the quality just isn't there and I really don't want to have to deal with shoddy customer support; even if there is a 12 year warranty. My Secret Lab was horrible, really uncomfortable and in retrospect a really poor decision for my physical health. However, the thing was solid and never let me down after 5 years. I even sold it for more than half of what I paid for it - that's how good it held up in terms of quality.
Stick with it. I bought one last year, just before the sale started (I know, stupid) and it started squeaking about 3 days after the no quibble return policy and they tried the same thing with me.

Unfortunately, in scenarios like this you just have to be a bit of an arse. I wrote an email saying that I’ve basically bought the Porsche equivalent of a chair and I’m not receiving anywhere near the level of service I’d expect from a company with their reputation and I wanted it escalated and a manager to get back to me. They originally wanted to send someone out but I said at this point and with the palava I’ve been through I’d want a replacement or a refund. The manager was really helpful and they ended up sending me a new chair as well as refunding the difference between the full price and the sale price. The replacement has been perfect.

It’s the common thing now of needing to get to someone who has the power to do something, and being the loudest wheel to get the grease. I hate how that’s required now, but there you go.
 
Still heard nothing back from HM after having given them the 1-2 days to get back to me (as they advised ) so I've just fired off a stern email. First raised the issue over a week ago now and still no progress.

Have to say I'm really disappointed and wouldn't advise anyone to buy from them despite how good their chairs are. Customer service is everything.
 
Last edited:
When I had an issue I found calling and leaving a voicemail got a faster response than email. Might be worth a shot as youve been patient enough so far?
 
When I had an issue I found calling and leaving a voicemail got a faster response than email. Might be worth a shot as youve been patient enough so far?
Still waiting. I sent them a very stern email on Tuesday and still nothing back. Getting on for 2 weeks now. I'm going to leave it until the end of this week and then raise a charge back through my credit card which means they'll have 30 days to sort it or I get all my money back - maybe that will get them to do something.
 
"Our warranty is valid from the day you receive your item, so we advise checking your delivery confirmation email to work out if you're item is still within it's warranty."

Says it all really.:rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
Any update? Im in the market for one and recent reviews have a massive drop in quality and service.
 
Back
Top Bottom