I recently went to visit EQ3 in the Byward Market and was pleasantly surprised with the changes they've made since I was there last time. The current color scheme for the first floor uses a lot of red accents in various places which catches your eyes as you come in. I love the new red lamps above the cash counter. They moved the beds to the first floor and the brick wall in the back is exposed. There's a much nicer flow to the space and you can really see the neat architectural features of the building such as the hardwood, the brick wall on the first floor or the large windows on the second floor. 
It's always neat to see stores constantly changing things around to keep things interesting. It allows customers to discover or rediscover items they would otherwise miss. I'm looking forward to see what they do on the third floor as they are still undergoing some changes.
I was there recently and the store does look great. I really like their products. A sure step up from IKEA. That's what keeps me coming back DESPITE their terrible service.
ReplyDeleteA Designers review of EQ3: What you get is not what you paid for!
ReplyDeleteTo start all of EQ3’s non upholstery items except the magnolia line (pieces of this line are only partly made with solid wood) are not solid wood or even high quality veneer for that matter. It’s shocking that they charge so much for something so low grade and so low quality. I have never liked this sote because of its quality, as I designer I spend a great deal of time furniture shopping and nothing in this store is high enough quality for me to put in someone’s home!
The quality of this product is very poor, quite easily lower then IKEAS (which in all honesty is all over the place, some is terrible some is quite good)
You have to assemble it yourself, which you have to do at IKEA. (At least IKEA does it to save your money) flat packing cased goods is the lowest cost way to ship and sell them and generally only used on lower quality products. For the price of EQ3’s product I would expect MUCH better quality.
If you want delivery you have to pay for it, just like IKEA!
All this non upholstered products are made in China, Malaysia or Thai Land, similar to IKEA except at IKEA there is a guarantee that no slave labour or child labour is used!
As of the upholstered items in the store MOST of them are made in Canada, however the quality is still very poor. Again as a designer I spend a lot of time looking for couches chairs ottomans, etc and there is nothing I would be able to stand behind and put in someone’s home or office, without giving myself a bad name.
Looking at the over 100 fabric samples EQ3 offers, reading the fabric descriptions and fibre contents there was only two types of fabric that I would expect to hold shape and color for over two years.
As for the leather, most is good quality top grain with not leather match but split grain match instead which is fine. But where they lose MAJOR points is that all there leather pieces use very small pieces of leather so they have many many seams because the smaller the piece of leather you used the cheaper it is, this also causes a problem because the high number of seam lower the overall durability or any product and the seam work at EQ3 always looks very poor every time I go in.
Which brings me to my next point, many clients insist we go to this store to look because they want something Canadian or they think that since they make some product here it will be better quality or they see the prices they assume it must be good if they charge that much. Although after going in and explaining the product I have never walked out with a client being even slightly interested.
I’m sorry this is so long and I’m sorry if it seems like a rant but I am truly frustrated with people being misinformed and misled by furniture sales people and deceptive advertising. Furniture shopping can be very overwhelming and for most people it’s not an everyday activity so they don’t know what to look for, so many times they walk into a store that’s set up to look higher end and priced the same and just assume the quality will match.
This is untrue for a lot of places and VERY untrue for EQ3, please keep this in mind and don’t be pressured by sales people!
The style looks just like IKEA, the quality they is similar, so why pay easily six times more?
Higher price does not always mean better quality (despite what sales people might tell you) over all the product at EQ3 is in no way priced appropriately! I’m very sorry for anyone who has bought from here!
IMPOTANT NOTE! Watch out for fake reviews done by sales people, large number of sales people in furniture stores are encouraged to do whatever it takes to get sales so t is not uncommon for sales people to write reviews to try and make their store and product look more positive. Watch out its more common they most people think!
A Designers review of EQ3: What you get is not what you paid for!
ReplyDeleteTo start all of EQ3’s non upholstery items except the magnolia line (pieces of this line are only partly made with solid wood) are not solid wood or even high quality veneer for that matter. It’s shocking that they charge so much for something so low grade and so low quality. I have never liked this sote because of its quality, as I designer I spend a great deal of time furniture shopping and nothing in this store is high enough quality for me to put in someone’s home!
The quality of this product is very poor, quite easily lower then IKEAS (which in all honesty is all over the place, some is terrible some is quite good)
You have to assemble it yourself, which you have to do at IKEA. (At least IKEA does it to save your money) flat packing cased goods is the lowest cost way to ship and sell them and generally only used on lower quality products. For the price of EQ3’s product I would expect MUCH better quality.
If you want delivery you have to pay for it, just like IKEA!
All this non upholstered products are made in China, Malaysia or Thai Land, similar to IKEA except at IKEA there is a guarantee that no slave labour or child labour is used!
EQ3 produces an inferior, garbage product... and they know it. Don't be fooled by the way things look in the showroom. Things look this way because they've NEVER BEEN USED! Once they receive any use, they begin to age faster than Benjamin Button! Ordered sofa, paid in full, and took 17 weeks to finally arrive. 17 weeks!!!! by the time it had arrived, the design had had time to go out of style and then come back in style again! THE WORSTcustomer service department i've ever dealt with. After several dealings with them, I'm on to their wee trick... which is to tell you what ever the *** you want to hear over the telephone and then to hang up and forget that you ever called in the first place. This little technique isn't easy to handle and can cause fire to come out of ones ears. IF YOU'RE THINKING OF BUYING ANYTHING FROM EQ3, DO YOURSELF (and me) A FAVOUR AND DON'T DO IT!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWe bought a sofa from EQ3 two years ago. Within a year the fabric looked like it was ten years old. It was pilling, and frayed. EQ3 replaced it, saying that our fabric choice had turned out to be a faulty fabric they no longer carried. We got our replacement sofa, and in a year it looked even worse than the first one. Again we were told that they have discontinued using that fabric and will pay for a replacement, but we need to pay if we want better fabric. Ridiculous. We had a sofa from Ikea that last ten years at a half the cost. I would definitely never buy from EQ3 again.
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