Also, I was looking into one of those online/phone retailers such as Lexington Furniture or Alan Ferguson. However, I'm worried that since they're not a local company, it would be a lot harder for them to send someone to fix the furniture if something should break.

I'm willing to pay a little more for piece of mine, especially since my stuff probably isn't expensive enough where buying online or over the phone would save that much.

Also, I guess the big question is how useful is upholstery warranty? Is it like buying electronics where there's a good chance the manufacture will fix or replace it or like a mattress where it's basically useless?

I do a lot of pre- and post-delivery, "warranty" and/or "protection plan" work.

For any warranty, "The Warranty is as good as the people standing behind it."

Some of the retailers I deal with will pay out of their own pocket for a repair that should be factory warranted or is even customer-caused damage.

In general, the manufacturers are getting pretty strict on covering repairs (must be clearly documented with photos as a materials or workmanship issue and not just preventable incident). There are a lot of workmanship and materials issues coming from Asian furniture. So you can see where this is going. I do regular work for a delivery company that gets paid to be the penultimate QA on their stuff, and a lot of it needs work.

Last week, I did a job for a woman that just had a new sectional delivered. The delivery company's contract was a basic "carry in and unwrap." That is, they do not do an inspection, deluxing, and repair in the warehouse prior to delivery. The arm on the sectional was falling off (bolts had come undone). The footrest was mis-aligned and had rubbed spots in the leather. The company that sold her the furniture argued with the woman for half an hour on the phone, basically telling her it was now her problem.

You also have a risk that the retailer or manufacturer might be out of business anytime soon.

On the other hand, I also see abuse by customers that they expect should be repaired for free.