Leaders Furniture of Sarasota — Local services in Siesta Key

Original post 08/27/21 We shopped our outdoor furniture extensively looking at many stores, some less expensive and some more. After weighing style, construction, price and locality, we settled on Leaders.

We ordered our furniture in December 2020 with a projected delivery to our new home in March. Our construction was delayed until May and they kindly kept the furniture until then.

Our first delivery was scheduled mid May but the furniture didn’t arrive and it turns out when we confirmed delivery details, our old address was still on the paperwork: that was on us, not them.

So we rescheduled our delivery for a week later. They have a nifty tool where you can see how many stops are before yours. I think we were #10. I checked around 4pm and it said they were at stop 9 so I was excited to get the furniture. Several hours passed and it still said 9. No one called. I called the store about 15 minutes before closing. TJ/CJ referred me to the Clearwater office and told me they closed at 7….of course this was a Friday. I asked her if she could call on our behalf and she said no! So I called at about 650 and no answer. I called her back and she said they’d have to sort it out in the morning.

On Saturday morning Jim D. (our salesman) called us and said the delivery GPS took the drivers to Tampa on Friday. We live in Venice and ordered the furniture from Sarasota so why no one questioned that right away is beyond us. If the driver had simply called all of this could have been avoided. No one called. Of course there are no deliveries on Saturdays so we were assured ours would be “the first” delivery on Monday. Now two full weekends in May have gone by without our furniture. We did finally receive it on Monday around noon.

The furniture is great. The two custom pillows I ordered were not the correct style even though a photo/illustration of them is right on the invoice. When I pursued getting those replaced with the correct ones, that too was a fiasco. We finally received them when we had to go pick them up on August 21st (yes 3 months to make two throw pillows that THEY made improperly). They insisted we return the incorrect pillows that have been out in the elements. Not sure what they will do with them but that’s their prerogative.

Lastly Jim promised to refund our delivery fee back in May once delivery had been made. That did not happen. I called him about ten days ago and he said he would take care of it. When we picked up the new pillows I asked again and they said it would take up to ten days. It’s been about that and no refund yet.

Bottom line: Fair price for nice quality furniture. The rest was sub par, the left hand does not talk to the right hand and no one wants to be accountable. If you can tolerate the customer service issues, the goods are well made. I waited to write this review until the transaction was completely finished to see how they would react at each step. Disappointed in the customer experience but happy with our furniture. If I could I’d give it 3.5 overall but since it’s whole stars we will give a 4.

09/03/21 update: I emailed the store again on 08/31 about our refund and nothing. I am going to remove one star every seven days until this is resolved. I see the “owner” promptly replies to most posts and I was completely fair. There has been no reply and no refund. So I have removed a star and they are now at 3.

09/15/2021 update: Still nothing. It is not my responsibility to chase this refund any further. Now two stars.

Later 09/15/21 update: My husband decided to call Jim one more time and he has now issued the delivery charge refund so I will restore to 3 stars. Because we put so much psychic energy into this we cannot reasonably assign a 4...

We were shopping around for a new patio set for our lanai and visited every Patio super center/factory direct warehouse/ Home Depot/Lowe's/ Carl's Patio and rand into the same problem. Not many "hands on" selections. Meaning if I am in the market for a patio set, I would like to see it, feel it, sit in it and visualize the contribution it will make to the rest of the decor. I certainly do not want to shop from a catalog, look at color swatches. This is what I found to be the case of countless visits to all these places. We were driving down US 41 on a Sunday and noticed Leaders was still open.

We were quickly greeted by a salesman. I think his name was John. Told him what we were looking for and he invited us to browse around and he would be there. No one pressured us and told us why all the reasons we should shop with them. This store had wonderful selections. Awesome plants, paintings, decor, metal art.

We settled on a 4 piece outdoor wicker set called the Kokomo. We selected the seat covers. They have a nice selection of colors. Told us they would call and set up delivery. Received a call within two weeks as promised. Set up a delivery time between 4:30-6:30 pm. Got a call from Bruce, who has been with them for 17 years at 2:15 asking if he could come by at 2:45. I explained that owning my own business, I had scheduled my hours around the delivery time and could not. He offered to move my existing furniture, leave the invoice and call me when everything was done so that I would not have to rush home.

Within 1/2 hour he called, confirmed everything and was soooo polite. When I got home everything was as promised. The thing is I totally forgot that my parents has bought a set from another Leaders location way over 20 years ago and I remember how pleased they were with it and when I mentioned it to the sales guy, he went to his color swatches and pulled out the color that my parents had. I thought to myself this guy knows his stuff.

Wish I had went here first. The other places advertised factory direct and it was well over 3000.00 for sets. Here I got better quality for 1/2 the price. I highly recommend the...

We had a great sales experience, and initial pickup of 2 chaise lounges was timely. 2 staff members loaded my order into my car, and I didn’t really have a chance to inspect the chairs before they were loaded into my vehicle. Upon returning home (less than a 5 minute drive), I noticed a large scratch down the arm rest of one of the 2 chairs, as well as scuffs on some of the legs. I called the store right away to see if they could offer touch up paint, because this was an expensive purchase for us. The store offered to replace the chair. I thought that was great customer service, and I was grateful.

However, when I went to pick up the replacement chair today, I was basically accused of damaging the chair. I was told by the employee there that they would have never loaded the chair with that large a scratch, and he would replace it this time but there’s no way it happened at the store. Well first of all, this isn’t the way to get a repeat customer. Secondly, I did not load the chairs into my vehicle and did not have a chance to even inspect them before they were loaded. I noticed the scratch as soon as I (very carefully) unloaded the chairs from my vehicle, and seriously doubt the damage happened at my hands. I understand this is just 1 employee and the rest of the staff we dealt with were great, but it really left a sour taste in my mouth. Fortunately I haven’t found any issues with the replacement chair. And at the end of the day, they made it right. But, we will not be returning to this store for more patio furniture...