Customer Reviews

Boss Black LeatherPlus Executive Chair

5 star:		(86)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I'm in heaven. This chair gets the award for the perfect chair for a very bad back. My back is so bad that I'm disabled. Normally I can't sit for any short period of time. I have been able to work on my crafts today without being so crippled up. I was sooo...HAPPY! The chair has amazing lumbar support built in it and hits me in the proper zone of my back. The LeatherPlus is very buttery soft but seems very durable. I raked it across my texured wall without a rip or scratch on it. I'm loving this chair just after using it in these last 2 days.
It arrived packed in large box intact. My husband was able to put it together in less than 6 minutes. It took him twice as long to remove the chair from it's box due to it is packed in the box tightly with a spongy pad to cushion it in shipping.
The chair is ample in size and very padded. It is like sitting on a cloud! The price was right, too. It was under $225.00 including tax with free shipping with Amazon Prime. I didn't have to pay for one of those over-priced chairs to find relief for my back. I would recommend this chair for anyone that suffers from chronic back pain or just wanting to sit on a cloud in comfort.

This chair arrived well-packaged and protected with a lot of foam insulation around the wheels and metal components. Assembly was quick and simple, as I didn't even need the instructions. All you have to do is put the air lift on the base and place the seat on the air lift, then it's ready to go. The chair has great lumbar support and reaches all the way up to my head, allowing me to rest entirely against it. It's also fairly comfortable, having a few inches of padding, while not being too compliant so as to lack support, making for a pretty good balance that I particularly like. The air lift lever (for raising/lowering the height of the chair) is designed so that when pushed in the chair cannot recline, but if you pull it out slightly, it releases a mechanical lock and allows the chair to recline back about 20-30 degrees.

I got it at a significantly reduced price on Amazon recently and think that it's definitely one of the best designed chairs for the price I got it at (~$150 with free shipping!). I'd recommend this chair personally (this coming from an engineer).

I received my chair today, assembled it and tested it out. My immediate comments are the following:

1. Cosmetics: Very nice looking chair. Does look like a chair costing more.

2. The leather Plus is just that, a cross between leather and vinyl, although it does look like Nappa leather, but the feel is not quite the same.

3. Function: This chair DOES Recline. Past reviews said it did not. Those people need to pull out the lever that operates the height (air cylinder). This will unlock and the chair can recline about 25 degrees or so. Adequate for most people and standard for most chairs.

4. Comfort: The chair is very comfortable with adequate padding in the seat and the back. Also has lumbar support which I like. I could sit in this chair for hours. As a professor I work from home quite a bit, so we will see how the back feels.

5. Chair Height: many reviewers mention the chair height as an issue for certain height people. This chair does sit high. I have it on the lowest setting to sit at my desk which is standard height. ON the highest setting I can not use it, it is too high for my legs to fit under the desk. I am 6 feet and the lowest setting is fine for me, but if you are under 5' 6" it may be a problem.

6. Quality- Remains to be seen. But since it does not look cheap, and all plastic parts are made from a hard structural plastic, I guess the durability of the chair will last as long as my last one, 12 years, maybe. I'll update this in a few months.

Bottom Line: Go for it! Good chair for the money. However, if you are shorter than 5' 6" this chair may not be for you.


UPDATE: 6/10/2011

I now have had this chair for about six months. It is as good as it was when I bought it. I use it everyday and it is a pleasure to sit in it. The only thing it does do, however, is squeak! Just a little WD40 solves the problem.

This chair is nicely built. It looks elegant and cool. It is easy to clean.
The problem for me is that this is too big.
I am male, 170 cm, 56 kg, that is about 5 foot 7 inches and 123 pounds. I don't feel very comfortable in this chair especially due to the armrest. The armrest is just a few centimeters too high, it pushes my elbow up, and that's annoying.
The part where you sit on is very large, and I seem to "sink" inside it, which worsens the armrest problem.
But I think if you are taller, this should be good. It will be even better if you are both taller and fatter. Maybe if I were 180cm(5 foot 11 inches) 85kg(188 pounds), this chair would be perfect.

The chair leans back which is nice. Doesn't seem to have too much lean which i don't really like but it's enough to put my feet up on my sub woofer. The leather is very nice quality and it has a built-in lumbar support which feels nice. My only issue with the chair was the first chair i sat in it and a bolt sheered off. But i told amazon and they had my new chair their the next day (same as what i paid for to ship it originally) and they had a ups man there the next day to pick up the broken chair. After that the chair has been flawless and very comfortable. The leather feels less cheap then the leather on my old chair.

This chair seems to be put together well and the leather seems alright. A couple problems i noticed immediately with this chair are that it sit at almost a 90 degree angle, so if you don't like sitting perfectly vertical it may be a problem. Another issue that i have, but others may not is that the chair is designed for someone who is probably 5'10" or under and the cushions hit in weird places if you are tall. Not sure if I like it yet or not, but it the padding is about 1" of firm foam padding. This may be since the chair is new, but it seems a bit firm as you can feel the transitions between the pads while sitting in the chair.

Before I consider the chair itself please permit a few words about customer service and packing.
Packing: The chair arrived in a heavy duty box that had several gorillas handling it along the way. In spite of their rough handling as evidenced by the interior cardboard damages the chair was fully protected by its wrapping and therefore no issues. How nice it is to open a box and find a fully perfect product.
Customer Service: We often encounter a customer service rep who has had a bad day or just does not care or any of the negative phrases that make us some reps. This is absolutely NOT the case with the folks at BOSS. After opening the box and putting it together (a feat accomplished by anyone who can lift a sack of potatoes) I could not get the gas cylinder to raise the seat level. One of us is 5'6" and the other is 6'3" and the seat is either too high or too low unless the gas cylinder works. It did not. It was too late to call and it was Thanksgiving eve. Even if anyone had been home I would have waited until Frantic Friday to call. So I emailed my concern and expected no reply until today or maybe tomorrow. On Friday, the 26th, the height adjustment absence was just too much to endure. A call was placed to BOSS and a woman told me exactly what to do and I did. Closed case. Wow! I did suggest that the instructions would benefit from her advice in future iterations. Regardless, my problem was settled in seconds and when I finally got to reviewing my email I saw a response from BOSS saying the same thing. Let's all give a big shout to BOSS for fantastic service.
The Chair itself: I was not prepared for the comfort and wow appeal of this chair. After spending many hours in the old desk chair and literally wearing it out in one of the weak points of the mechanism I had to buy a new one and chose the perfect chair for our use. The soft arm rests make getting up and down easier than the old one with hard rests. The seat is firm enough to hold a chuncky old man and a much lighter youngun spouse. The lumbar support fits the small of the back perfectly and adds sufficient support to make long sits easier. The seat goes up and down with ease and makes designing the perfect height easy to do. The testing of duration will take place over what will, with hope, take years in the same manner as the old one. It would delight me to revisit this chair 10 years from now explaining that the seat finally gave way or the mechanism just gave out from all the weight or whatever. By then chairs will be an anachronism of the first order because it's been rumored that we will be sitting on air. Right! I am so glad we bought this chair and would do it again in a nanosecond. Thanks BOSS!

This chair could have been as great a deal as the other reviewers have mentioned if it wasn't crippled by obvious corner cutting.

First the positives:

* This is the easiest chair I've ever put together. Simply unfold the chair back and the seat, which come pre-attached along with the arms, until they lock together. Next, place the gas cylinder firmly into the chair base and snap the 5 wheels onto the bottom. Finally, slide the gas cylinder/base into the seat bottom. It's completely tool-less and takes minutes.

* The chair itself is pretty comfortable. It fit my back perfectly and was firm enough to give support while being soft enough to sit for extended periods.

* Contrary to what other reviewers say, this chair can lean back. Just slide the height adjustment lever in towards the chair to lock the back in place, or slide it out to allow the chair to lean backwards.

Now the bad stuff:

* The gas cylinder is flimsy and insufficient for anyone over 150 lbs much less 250 (I'm 221). The first time that I got up from the chair after a few hours of work, it came up with me to its full height. Curious about this strange behavior, I sat down again and it proceeded to sink down as far down as it could go. The height adjustment capability had completely broken in less than a day.

* In addition to the above, the gas cylinder/base/seat bottom were ill fitting to the point that the chair could never seem to stay level. Mine had a fairly annoying and unfixable bias to the right.

* At 6'1, my elbows barely touched the unadjustable arms of the chair which caused intermittent shoulder pain if sitting for long periods. The arm height had obviously been designed for someone smaller.

* The 'LeatherPlus' upholstery had a strong scent of rubber in addition to an odd rubbery texture. It was like the finish they put on remotes or mice to enhance your grip, but a bit more slick and cheap feeling.

In conclusion, this chair isn't a great deal unless you're 5'8, 160 lbs, and lucky enough to get parts that actually work and/or fit together. Everyone else will most likely experience the joy taking it apart and trying to get things to fit back into the box to send back. I only gave it two stars due to the ease of assembly, which other manufacturers need to take note of.

It has good look, enough space and reasonable price. But look at the seat height. (Many people usually miss it.) Its minimum height is 20inch!!! Most regular chairs are 17~18in. I'm about 5.9ft(180cm) tall and feel comfortable sitting at 17~ 19in. Unless you are taller than 6.1ft(185cm), you better not choose this one.

I had high expectations based on the reviews I read, and at the time the price seemed right given those reviews. However, now I feel that the appropriate price for this chair is closer to $80 than to $160. Other reviews have focused on the positives, so let me highlight some of the negatives:
1. The chair is quite wobbly. The base is solid but the chair itself is not stable.
2. The structure of the back cushioning might be good for some people, but I find it uncomfortable (I am an average bodied 5'11'' male)
3. Perhaps most annoying: the chair has a slight tilt to one side! It is subtle and yet unmistakable. Imagine yourself sitting on a surface that leans to the right hand side by, say, 2-3 degrees. The angle is subtle but the effect on your back at the end of the day is huge. It makes my back and neck ache!
Quite disappointing. In hindsight, I shouldn't have bought a chair online (the reviews totally led me astray).