The Couch Mystery, Part 2
May. 17th, 2009 07:33 amI spent some time yesterday investigating B&B furniture. Their website (www.bebitalia.it if anybody is interested in spending insane amounts of money for admittedly gorgeous designer pieces) has lots of photos and technical details.
I haven't yet taken the measurements of my couch here, but have discovered that:
1) Charles is a modular couch. There are elements without backrest, chaiselongue elements with half a backrest and an armrest etc.etc. What is most definitely not on offer are corner elements with any other than a 90 degree angle. Or elements with a backrest but no armrest. This is exactly what's in the living room, though: 2 elements with backrest and without armrest, and 2 corner elements with (approximately) a 150° angle. Hm.
2) In none of the pictures (both on the B&B homepage and all over the internet) could I detect a white B&B label sticking out from the vertical corner seams. Hm again.
3) It's impossible -- at least for me -- to find out which fabrics they use. It's quite difficult to compare or identify unpatterned fabrics from photos, especially photos taken from a certain distance. So I'm not quite sure. But I'm going to strip a few cushions and look for labels with details, to compare with the data given on the website.
So today there shall be measuring and stripping.
There are 2 Austrian B&B retailers, whom I'll call on Monday to ask whether
1) B&B put those white lables on their furniture
2) the basic structure is only partly upholstered with fabric (if you lift the large cushion off the seat, there's only about 15 cm of fabric, like a frame, and the rest in the middle is grey, fibre-y looking stuff)
3) there is a way to find out more about fabrics
And if I find out that those bastards tried to con me, there won't be any money at all. (Fortunately I simply deducted the safety deposit from the last rent, so there won't be any funny business with that) I'm not going to sue them, because frankly it's too much trouble, but I'm certainly going to mention the possibility.
If the couch turns out to be genuine after all (which I'm beginning to doubt), well, I'll get in touch with the insurance company.
In hindsight, I must say it's a bit strange that they weren't at all interested in the rest of the apartment but only in the couch. I mean, the white carpet in the master bedroom is theirs, and if I hadn't told them not to step on it with their shoes on, they'd have walked right across it...
And I think I'll have the locks changed, merely as a precaution.