I bought $20,000 worth of furniture a few years ago, and they gave me the plan (lots of Guardsman products, not protection). I would never pay for it, personally. Most of your furniture manufacturers should have a decent warranty that would apply. I would check out your fabric sofa's warranty. Some will void them if they have been scotchguarded by another company.

thanks for your sharing. This time, we are placing order for around $25,000 worth of furnitures for living room and bedroom, from two different deals though. This is the first time we are seriously furnishing our house(when we moved into the house three years ago, we just grabbed everything from apartment, didn't buy a single item.)
Our daughter is only 21-month old and we are expecting second one soon. Kind of worry about how we shall protect the wood surface and leather and faric from the kids. We know this maybe a bad timing since kids are still small. Not sure where I can get advice on taking care of the furnitures.

Congrats on your DD and your upcoming DC! When we purchased our Henredon dining room set, a couple chairs were "wobbly" after a few months' time. I called our furniture dealer in VA and they sent out someone local immediately to fix it with no charge. I would be hard-pressed that your furniture dealer will not do the same, should something arise. And, if something should happen down the road (ie., with your DC), there are lots of furniture repair places you could call (via Yellow Pages). Again, my personal opinion, you're just buying a piece of paper for those furniture protection plans. Any good furniture dealer or the furniture manufacturer will back up their pieces.

There was a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (I think) that was about a company in Florida that sold furniture protection plans and that basically it was a scam. They rarely if ever paid a claim and would try to weasel out of paying what the consumer thought was a covered claim. Not worth it. If you are serious check the local BBB where Guardian is based.

I do not sell furniture protection plans in my store, because IMHO they are worthless. These are statistical sales that do nothing more than count on only 8 to 10 % of customers ever invoking a claim. When a customer does make a claim, they simply credit you with a dollar amount to buy a new furniture item as replacement. What they count on is the fact that the vast majority of people will never file a claim.

There is NOTHING you can apply to fabric that does not wear off in short order. Typically any fabric protectant is good for about three months, depending on use of the upholstery. Most water-based fabric "protectants" are worthless.

Scotchguard is the only product that I've ever seen that works, even it has to be re-applied periodically. However, Scotchguard was quietly pulled from industrial use several years ago as a suspected carcogin. 3M did this voluntarily before the government stepped in. Fabric used to be vat-dipped in Scotchguard, and workers exposed to it were developing cancer at higher rates. However, even though it was taken off the market for industrial use, it remains as a consumer product you can buy in a spray can. Apply it yourself and when water droplets no longer stay atop it, respray your fabric.

As for wood, simply wax or polish it for protection.

Hi,
I found this link while looking for the guardsman site online. I purchased the plan and was checking for info on filing a claim.

I did file a claim once before because my daughter wrote with crayon all over my very expensive sectional and although the claim process was strange (I had to mail in a claim and that gives stains time to set I think) they sent someone out and he came and spot cleaned the furniture.
Since my cushion covers are not machine washable I needed someone to do it for me.

All the stains came out and I guess it was worth it. I will say that they only spot clean. I thought they would clean the whole sectional for me, but wishful thinking.

Also, that was two years after I had the furniture. I have a five year plan.

My three year old recently threw up on it due to a stomach virus (sorry, gross I know) so I was looking online to see what they will do about that.

I also am going to check to see if I can have someone come out to clean the entire sectional. I think you have to use one of their registered cleaners for them to still cover the sofa but I don't know if the cleaning is included.

If I remember, I will update this once I get a result. Hope this helps.