Does anyone have any thoughts on Amart's SmartCare, specifically the fabric protection? Has anyone had any experience with claiming?
Terms here.
It does look quite expensive, but perhaps it could provide some peace of mind from accidental staining.
Thoughts on Amart's SmartCare Plan?
ShortyX on 02/03/2020 - 10:02
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if you have kids or pets, i would get the cover. We get ours cleaned every year when the kids dirty them
with Freedom, you need to send them an email with all the pictures, and then a contractor will call you to arrange a time.
We get ours cleaned every year when the kids dirty them
As in you claim for the couches to be cleaned, or you pay for a professional clean each year?
Claim professional cleaning
Hmm, the Freedom protection sounds different to Amart's.
As per the terms, "Accumulated or multiple stains. (Note: This Fabric Protection Plan is for accidental stains and damage only. Such stains or damage must be reported to SMARTCARE within 5 days of their occurrence. Accumulated or multiple stains are regarded as general wear and tear and not covered by The Fabric Protection Plan)" so Amart's seem to apply to specific staining rather than general staining from wear and tear.
How much are they charging for the service?
I see. To try and help can I ask another few Q’s;
Which package would you be considering, and how much are you spending on the furniture item from Amart?
Also, are you aware of what specific professional cleaning products are required to be used by a professional cleaner under the T&C’s of the cover, and how much each cleaning will cost you per year?
Which package would you be considering, and how much are you spending on the furniture item from Amart?
The 5-8 seater for $200 on a $1,000 sofa pair (3 seater + 2 seater).
Also, are you aware of what specific professional cleaning products are required to be used by a professional cleaner under the T&C’s of the cover, and how much each cleaning will cost you per year?
Nope, not sure. Any idea how much a professional clean would be? And since this is in the terms - "Your fabric furniture should be professionally cleaned every 12 months.", does this mean that the furniture must be cleaned professionally every 12 months for the warranty to be valid or is it simply recommended?
@ShortyX: From memory, and this is vague but I recollect dry cleaning a microfibre couch was $120 for two seats and then $80 for each additional thereafter; I’d definitely recommend ringing the company providing the coverage to find out what they mean by ‘professional clean’, and then ringing some companies in your area that can provide the service.
As for whether every ‘12 months’, I’d again suggest ringing the company providing the service of cover, but in lack of that information I would absolutely expect that they are stipulating that you as the customer must have your covered furniture items professionally cleaned to their ‘professional standard’ and using appropriate ‘professional chemicals’, every 12 months, and that if you do not do this you will forfeit your coverage.
Before we know exactly how much each 12 monthly clean will cost it’s hard to determine the actual cost of the coverage, because the actual cost is going to $200 plus mandatory professional cleanings every 12 months. I personally cannot see a professional dry/steam cleaner charging less than around $200 for what could 5 seats, I’d actually wager it would likely be more than $200, but again we don’t know what standard the company covering requires.
So, let’s assume that you make a claim within the 1st year, you will pay at least, I would expect, $400 for the coverage. But you will likely have covered your cost because the couch is maybe worth 80% at that stage, so it’s worth $800 but you’ve only paid $400 to ensure it’s not permanently damaged.
If you are really careful with your couch and you make no claims you will likely end up paying more than the couch is actually worth (bearing in mind a couch after a couple years is probably going to depreciate, so might actually be worth around 60% of the cost of initial purchase to you at market value). But 5 years would be $1200, for the $1000 initial cost. At that point you might want a new couch, where you spend another $1000 but have a brand new couch.
So, if you buy the coverage, but make no claims, you will very likely, in my estimation, be losing money, unless you absolutely need the couch to be cleaned every 12 months.
It’s like every insurance policy, the house is betting that they will make more money out of you than they will ever need to pay out, and of course they have the upper hand in their strict terms to not cover you; for instance how do you prove an accidental stain or Mark was made within 5 days? Or did you have the couch cleaned to their requirements every year?
What I’m getting at is that you don’t want to end up paying $200 a year to clean a couch that’s only worth $200 just to satisfy the demands of the cover.
Avoid, not worth the money. We Purchased the smartcare addon ($199 for 5 seats) thinking it would be worth it with a 1 year old at the time.
We were very wrong, it is very scam-like. You have to pay out of your own pocket for professional cleaning for the "cover" to be valid. This includes damage that has nothing to do with the cleanliness of the furniture.
So in our case, we used their products to spot clean some food, and raised a claim for it because it left a (much) lighter coloured spot. They rejected the claim, saying that that is the original colour of the couch, which it very much isn't. (i.e. the parts of the couch that no one touches are not that colour)
They then used that, as the basis to reject the claim when the seam of a cushion got caught on one of the hinges of the couch, under the clause that the couch was not well maintained. This would otherwise have, in theory, been covered by the accidental damage clause. I'd be willing to bet money that if they couldn't claim the couch was poorly maintained, they would reject it claiming it is a manufacturing issue and force you to go through the warranty process with Amart.
Really, they make you jump through a lot of hoops to make a claim and it is extremely unlikely that they will actually fix anything, unless you are willing to spend more money on professional cleaning.
My advice: don't waste your money, save it for professional cleaning and some better cleaning products. Their terms give them the ability to reject any and all claims if they so choose, and a scummy company like this will indeed choose to.
Thanks mate. I just bought this today but will be returning it after your advice and other negative reviews online (store have confirmed I can return as I haven't opened the cleaning products yet). I too have a young one so thought it would be a good investment but I just read the T&Cs. They're very restrictive and skewed in their favour.
Not sure about Amarts option, but I did look into Harvey Norman's. To be eligible you had to have immediately called their Stain hotline and followed the advice and then if it didn't work then you got a free professional clean but no entitlement to replacement/reupholster. In the end we decided against it and bought a couple of bottles of scotchgard and budgeted to get a professional clean and more scotchgard in the future for the same price.