Woman struggles with La-Z-Boy tilting recliner

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Maybe you know someone who has a favorite chair. Unfortunately, for one San Jose woman, her favorite chair was also a pain in the rear. The chair had a lot of sentimental value attached to it, but all sentiment aside, for this cancer patient, it just wasn't worth keeping.

By itself, the recliner doesn't seem like anything special. Tamra Mabanag of San Jose bought it at La-Z-Boy almost a year ago.

"This chair does have special meaning to me," said Mabanag. "It was a gift. I have to go through chemo last fall for cancer and a relative gave me the money to go and buy myself a chair to be comfortable in."

The chair helped Mabanag get through some hard times, but look closely and you can see staples protruding through the fabric.

"I could feel the staples poking me. And that's what we called in about," said Mabanag.

La-Z-Boy sent someone over to repair the chair and ended up replacing the entire seat base because the footrest was not level, but six months later the same problems reoccurred.

"Right here you can see the bubble is all the way over to the right. So it shows how unlevel this chair is," said Mabanag.

La-Z-Boy sent another technician. Tamra told him she feared the problems with the chair were a sign of bigger problems to come.

"We were more worried we wouldn't be able to recline within six months. If it was already starting to tilt," said Mabanag.

Another month went by and the store refused to replace the chair. 7 On Your Side was able to elevate her complaint to the corporate level and La-Z-Boy acted quickly, agreeing to let her return the chair and get a sofa instead. La-Z-Boy told us, "Our comfort team was able to contact the local service team... to get the issue resolved... We're delighted she's pleased."

For this cancer survivor, the resolution is bitter sweet. She said, "I have gone through a lot with this chair. Yes, it will be a little sad to see it go. It's helped me."

A few minutes later a delivery team arrived to take her chair and replace it with a brand new sofa. The kid's quickly broke the sofa in and the smiles on everyone's face tell the story.

"It's been a long battle. It's finally over and we are so relieved," said Mabanag.

We were glad to help. If you have a consumer issue you can't get resolved, contact me here.

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san jose, 7 on your side, michael finney

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