basyx by HON Leather Executive Chair - High-Back Computer Chair for Office Desk, Black (VL151)

Noting feedback from other users, I was careful to face the seat in the right position. That's what I thought. After breezing through assembly, I came to the final 2 bolts, remembering that other users had problems at this point. Sure enough, no matter how much I twisted and heaved, turned the chair upside down to get more leverage, the last holes would not line up, those bolts started cross-threading, then I scraped my right arm pretty bad. Decided I better have someone strong help me. I sat there a few minutes, dabbing my arm and saying a few words about the chair, it's inventor, and his forebearers. Then as I gazed at the chair, I saw the seat was so canted, it would be too uncomfortable to sit in anyway, you would slide out! A dingbat bell finally went off in my mind, and I peered underneath the bottom. The wicked thing had somehow turned and was backward! Yes, I got it together, managed to rethread the 2 bolts correctly, and I'm sitting in it now as I write this. A final note: yes, the chair is very hard to tilt, even with the loosest adjustment, but it is comfortable, a good value.

I'm sitting in it now and it's more than comfortable. Sturdier than our last cloth chair. The lumbar support is fine if you sit all the way back. For the price and easy of assembly, I'd say, "go for it!"

Warning: do not buy this chair. It is a complete pile of crap for anyone looking for long term back and bum care. This chair replaced a similar model that was about 6 years old. The pleather, or whatever it is, on this one is smoother and possibly a little cheaper. This one kind of has a different feel like it cradles you a bit more. A bay window on the back region is not good for the back really, and the lumbar region is poorly filled and designed. My last Hon had a screw coming loose constantly. This one ends up the same way. Hon needs to do major reworking of these chairs if you ask me. Over time that one got lopsided heavily. It also showed a little wear on the leather but to be expected over 6 years. This chair is terrible and will not even last two years. In fact, it barely lasted one and I have been suffering since. I am now trying their 161 model, which looks like a direct upgrade from this POS, but there is no telling if it actually is better. How F'ing hard is it to afford some decent cushioning in a chair? The quality of all these computer/desk chairs has seen a gigantic plunge as they all have switched to completely inferior Chinese junk product. The seats do not hold up past 1.5 years for basically anyone in the 200 pound range. There is cracking on badly stitched and designed sidearm pleather, which is two tone. This WILL happen to you it just depends when. This one flaw alone is reason enough to never buy this chair. Ever. The lumbar support is basically nothing on this thing as well. Bum support went to nothing over one year of use. NOTHING. A concrete bottom that gives me pain. Overall, this is really just a badly designed chair in just about every respect. From the terrible two tone material stitching of the arms, which is ridiculously inept as it is obvious to anyone it was going to crack over time, to the seats and lumbar and complete lack of sustainable cushioning, you really could not buy yourself anything worse than this. You are paying to harm your back over time. The wheels are decent but you need to get a pad. Do not use this chair on concrete or anything else that like. Everyone including me at the start gives a good review because the chair is nice when it's new. But then slowly it just becomes a huge problem over time and does not hold up to the claimed 5 year warranty, OF WHICH only TWO YEARS are covered for the upholstery. With the leather armrests cracking as they do this chair is as good as dead. I don't have time for shipping costs and returns. I don't ever want to sit or see this chair again. I basically tore it apart and had it sent to the dump. The 161 Hon is a direct upgrade, and all around is just a much better chair.

I liked the look of this chair and after checking out the reviews, I decided to get it. I'm not disappointed at all. I'm used to the old time executive type chairs and this chair is very comfortable and easy to assemble, but it's seat being a bit short from front to back from what I'm used to, and the way it adjusts it's height were drawbacks for me. Other than those two items this chair is really a nice chair. I would suggest that if you have a small office space you consider that it's not a really small chair but a rather large one. It sort of overhelms my bedroom made into a computer room. It's a really comfortable chair and the arms are great as they are soft and a joy to rest your arms on. By the way, also consider the size of the door you are going to have to take the chair thru to get it to where you want it. I haven't considered this and as a result I assembled it in the Living Room and when I got ready to move it into the Computer Room I ran into not being able to get it thru the door. I had to take the bottom off, move the top and bottom into the Computer Room apart then reassemble the chair. No problem but a bit of trouble. Well worth buying.

Here's the deal with office chairs... Most will die a death of a broken base, cylinder, or torn surface area within a few years of normal use. The user's size obviously affects lifespan as well. As such, I don't buy $300 chairs because in my experience, they break too. I bought this chair 25 months ago. Today I was at work and wasn't even moving... just sitting still, and the chair sank to the bottom as if I pulled the height adjustment lever. I'm about 225lbs right now so I'm well under the 250lb rating for this chair. But the thing is, the surface on this chair after two years of daily use, isn't even cracked, let alone torn! I've never seen this before on a fake leather chair after years of use. The base and wheels are in great shape still too. I was going to buy a universal replacement cylinder to keep using the chair, so I flipped it over and found a 1-800 number and a model number. I looked up my order on Amazon and saw the order date and the beautiful "5 year warranty" image. I called the 1-800 number and (THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD BUY THIS CHAIR) after a brief recording disclaimer I went straight to a person (no phone maze) who spoke in perfect English without any hard to understand accent, and she was very friendly. Within 3 minutes, we had exchanged my serial number and shipping address and a replacement cylinder will be on its way within a week, for free. Don't fool yourself, this is a budget chair. But, at just over a Benjamin, you don't normally get such a long warranty, such great customer service if you DO have an issue, such a quick resolution. 25 months in, yes, the seat cushion could be more padded as 500+ days of sitting on it for 8 hours at a time have flattened it, but frankly I don't notice it. There are no screws poking through or other issues. I STILL get compliments on the chair looking nice. Which is kind of weird because I don't do anything special to make it stand out. But I guess that's a hallmark of good design. So 5 stars Hon. Great service. Great chair at a fair price. I'll be a return customer in the future!

I bought this chair mostly because of the great reviews and the reasonable price. I was looking for a chair for my fiance's computer room and I was buying it as a birthday present. Amazon said that I could have free two day shipping and have it delivered by Tuesday but I paid an extra couple bucks to have it by Monday. It ended up not coming until late Tuesday even though I paid for the extra shipping. Once it was delivered I took a look at the box and noticed it has been completely destroyed and it looked like a dog had torn it apart. The bottom was basically completely ripped apart and only had one little strand of tape keeping it from busting open. Her birthday was the next day so I wrapped it without checking to make sure everything was inside because I have never had a problem with anything from amazon before. Her birthday came and she was so excited. We started to put it together and quickly noticed that HALF OF THE PARTS WERE NOT IN THE BOX! I have never had this happen before with any other product that I've bought on amazon so I was really shocked. The chair itself looks like it would be a good chair if everything was put together and arrived undamaged but that's wasn't my experience and also is my reason for the two star rating. My suggestion is to not risk the chance of this happening to you and to go to staples and just buy one for the same price there. You can also test out other chairs before buying them which you obviously can't do online. Overall I got a complete refund and took my own advice and bought a similar chair a staples.

Pros: Very comfortable. Im sitting in it right now and it fits me perfect (5'8 176lbs). My butt is nicely padded and its providing good back support. Leather feels nice. Looks great. Arm rests are at perfect height. Cons: Whoever the lunatic was that designed the assembly for this chair needs a good smack up side the head. The first few steps are easy. It's the final 2 screws attaching the upper back of the chair to the arm rests. For the screws to go in the holes need to be aligned perfectly, which is extremely difficult given the construction of the chair. By time i figured out that putting the chair completely upside down while at the same time using all my strength to pull the arm rest backwards made the holes appear to align, the 3 screws i had left were stripped due to my folly attempts to due what the directions said. Not to mention I had no free hand to screw the damn things in. So i jammed 2 slighter smaller screws inside and its serving the same purpose. You either need 3 arms, or someone helping you out. VERY FRUSTRATING!

It took me 20 mins to assemble the whole chair. The product arrives on good condition without a scratch or damage. Assembly is simple, although I did have trouble with one screw because my right side-arm is slightly crooked, in the end, I had to to use a power drill to finish the job. It's soft leather, fairly comfortable. This chair can't be reclined and not tall enough to provide head support. It does roll on the wooden floor quite easily. Fairly sturdy but it does wobble a bit. I still think it's a bit pricy though.