Massage Chairs Co UK - We sell, rent and hire massage chairs throughout the UK

A word of warning

After many deaths resulting from cheap foam filled furniture (not Massage Chairs) being accidentally set alight, the UK introduced draconian new regulations. Cynically it might be said that these regulations were as much about protecting British furniture manufacturers from increasing cheap imports as they were about protecting the lives of the British public

The effect of the regulations was that foam and upholstery used in furniture (including Massage Chairs) sold in the UK had to be different from that allowed by even other members of the EEC or America. Most massage chairs that can be legally sold in France, Germany or America are simply illegal in the UK and offering them for sale here is a serious criminal offence that can result in a five year jail sentence!

Foam and upholstery on British massage chairs must in effect be self extinguishing - leather is not necessarily the best upholstery for a massage chair but it is usually self extinguishing, whereas most other suitable upholstery fabrics, especially PVC and polyurethane or so called 'PU' Leather are certainly not.

What does this mean - it means that a massage chair purchased from a reputable and knowlegible supplier in the UK may look identical to one available in America but it isn't. It will have been specially made and tested in the UK to comply with the UK regulations. Because the UK massage chair market is so undeveloped, many of the large manufacturers such as Panasonic are simply not prepared to do the work and carry out the tests necessary to sell their chairs in the UK, so the choice of massage chairs available here is very limited and is likely to remain so.

As the massage chair market expands more people are importing chairs from China and elsewhere in the hope of breaking into what they see as a rapidly expanding market. They falsely believe that all they have to do is to cut the price and they will sell hundreds of chairs - would it were that easy! Unfortunately they usually know little or nothing of the market or various statutory regulations. The chairs they import may be cheap, offering a good profit margin, but they are usually unreliable and can be a serious fire hazard. The problems usually start when a chair breaks down and the customer expects his guarantee to be honoured. Often the dealer is simply incapable of repairing the chair or has simply made no allowance for the cost involved. When Trading Standards begin to investigate they soon realise that the chair is a fire hazard and demand a recall… The dealer goes out of business or simply disappears. Never, ever, buy a chair from a website that does not publish recognisable address that you can confirm.

Del boy is out there and he has half a container load of cheap shoddy massage chairs, you however may only have his 'mobile' phone number - not much use when your chair goes wrong! Always make sure you have an address and landline telephone number and if possible visit the address to see that the 'claimed' showroom or warehouse actually exists. There are many professional looking sites that have been set up in the hope of selling massage chairs that have never sold a single chair.
Even some of the big names have come and gone, JetForm, PCL, Osim and Sanyo (Sanyo no longer import chairs into the UK). The latest to fail - Usave.tv - were going to be major players in the market, but the chairs they sold were illegal and they have now conveniently gone bust. Your guarantee won't be honoured but we can fix your Otron massage chair when it fails.

It's simple, look on the back of the chair and you should see 'permanently attached' a label giving the name and address of the importer, the date of manufacture and a batch number. If this 'Statutory Label' is missing it is a criminal offence to sell the chair, even when second hand and it should be reported immediately to the local Trading Standards Department. Trading Standards admit that they have been lax in investigating new dealers coming into the market and that this is beginning to cause problems. However they state that they are now making efforts to find and track down sellers of illegal chairs and dealers selling them will be put out of business.
Be careful, there are some chairs out there with bogus labels on them. Needless to say Trading Standards view this sort of deception much more seriously than the sale of chairs imported in ignorance of the regulations.
Some otherwise quite reputable dealers have been duped into buying Del Boy's chairs - they may mean well, but could they afford a recall?

It is not an offence to import the chairs for personal use, but it is a serious offence to sell them (even second hand). Our service engineers are being increasingly asked to service chairs that have been bought innocently from overseas suppliers or rogue dealers. Whilst we will always do our best, we are not always able to obtain spares and can only guarantee the work we have done! So beware......