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We have listed a few facts below to
help you make your mind up in deciding where to purchase an oak
dining table set from. All online retailers are not the same!
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1. China
The majority of our oak tables are made in
Lithuania from high grade oak. Why you may ask? Because Lithuania offers
some of the best quality oak in the world with a nice even grain and the
European manufacturers have far better quality control and machinery meaning
that the finished dining table is of a far higher quality. Most dining
tables that you will find on the internet are made in China where volumes are
more important than quality. Much of the oak that is used to make Chinese
tables hasn't been dried out properly in kilns meaning that when it arrives in a
nice warm centrally heated UK home the remaining moisture in the wood finally
escapes from the wood leaving it prone to splitting after a few months. We
have never had a single complaint about on of our European made tables
splitting, that's a fact. Most of the Chinese tables also use a technique
called lamination which is where small sections of wood are glued together to
make up larger parts of the tables. This technique would be fine if the
pieces of oak that were used were of a uniform grain and colour but
unfortunately this is rarely the case and you will often find unsightly light
and dark pieces of wood side by side and the contrasting appearance will only
get worse over time as sunlight mellows the wood. The high level of
quality control within Europe mean that only the best hand selected oak is used
and lower grade light and dark strips are not used meaning that the finished
table is beautiful in appearance. We haven't mentioned the poor conditions
that many Chinese workers are subjected to or the forests that are getting
stripped bare with no regard for the environment or future generations but I'm
sure that you get the point. Chinese tables are cheap and you get what you
pay for. If you want a top quality dining table buy from a European
factory, better still a Lithuanian factory. |
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2. Environment
Many of our extending oak tables are
made by a manufacturer in Lithuania that is applying for some certification
which means that it has to source oak from forests that are properly managed
meaning that they are doing what they can to reduce the environmental impact of
taking the wood from the land. We feel very strongly about this and are
striving to source over 80% of the oak that we use in our furniture from
sustainable forests by 2010. We hope to announce in the next few months
that the oak used for our European Oak Minsk tables is fully certified to allow
it to meet the strict guidelines of FSC certification as the
manufacturer is currently going through the application process for this accreditation
at the moment. |
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3.
Price
The
reason that most internet retailers offer Chinese tables is simple.
They are far cheaper to buy which means that retailers can make a
higher margin and more profits. We have avoided Chinese made
tables until now as we feel quality is more important and our
margins are lower than our competitors as we buy and sell in larger
volumes and run the business very efficiently with low overheads.
Prices for our European made tables are still competitively priced
compared to any similar Chinese designs as we are not greedy and
don't add silly margins unlike the small number of other retailers
offering higher quality European tables. Our
?139 Solid Oak Minsk Table
is proof that European oak tables don't have to be very expensive. |
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4.
Quality
We source
all of our oak backed dining chairs from Europe for all the reason
stated above. The quality is exceptional and we refuse to use
laminated oak within the contemporary slatted and ladder back
designs that we offer as we think its worth paying a few euros'
extra to the extra quality and we feel that our customers agree with
us. Returns and faulty furniture are a rarity and we want to
keep it that way by sourcing the best quality we can find. |
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5.
Service
Over the
past couple of years it has become clear to us that the customer
service that some of our competitors offer is very poor. We
have had numerous sales from customers who had previously ordered
elsewhere and had then requested a refund after receiving poor
quality or on many occasions they were still waiting for their order
to be delivered. Service is our number one priority along with
the quality of our products at Top Furniture Ltd. By sourcing
from the same factories that have supplied the likes of BHS & Laura Ashley the quality is as good as it gets. We wont give you the
run around like many others do. If we say an item will be
delivered within 1 - 2 weeks then this will happen. On the odd
occasion that a customer has a problem we will sort this out for
them, often on the same day and you can easily get hold of us by
phone during the day and by email until very late into the evening.
By offering top quality service and the best quality furniture we
can source we are steadily building a very good reputation across
the UK with our customers and this shows in the increasing numbers
of recommendations that lead to new sales. |
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6.
Trust
We
realise that during these worrying economic times that some
customers may be a little concerned about buying online from a
company that they know little about. Many of our suppliers and
competitors have been unable to weather the economic storm of the
past 6 months or so and are no longer trading. I want to re
assure all potential customers that we will be around when the next
recession bites as the business has never been in better shape and
as a result we have recently moved to a much larger new warehouse with all
our stock, showroom and
offices under one roof. We are
selling more furniture today than we were 12 months ago which is a
testament to the business model that we use of specialising in high
quality oak dining furniture and controlling costs very carefully to
enable us to keep our prices low which helps us drive much larger
volumes of sales than our competitors. |
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7.
Great Online Feedback
We are
proud of the great feedback that our customers write about us.
This isn't often the case with many of our competitors so we urge
customer to do a bit of online research about any other company that
they are considering buying from before purchasing. A quick
Google search of the name of the company that you are considering
along with the word review should bring up some unbiased online
reviews if they are a business of any substance. Try it with
us under the names Top Furniture Ltd and oakdiningsets. We
want our next potential customers to read what past customers think
about us as we have nothing to hide. We don't wish to dirty
the names of any of our competitors but we cant stress enough
how important it is to research the company you choose to buy from.
This is more important than ever if you want to take delivery of a
dining set prior to Christmas as we get many desperate please for
help from people who have been let down with pre Christmas delivery
despite being told that this wouldn't be a problem prior to
ordering. |
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View our wide selection of Oak Dining
Tables
and Oak Dining Chairs
Download an Oak Dining Table Price List
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We are very proud of the quality of the
furniture that we offer so we show it off in our new warehouse
showroom in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. Please pop in, ST14 8AX. |
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If you would require further information and pricing on any of the items listed
on this page please email
sales@oakdiningsets.co.uk or telephone 07702 852564
(7 days) / 01889 560999.
Click on any of the oak dining table set image links below to view further
images, prices or to
place an order
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Looking for matching
Solid
Oak Sideboards or Display Units?
Click images below to view details.
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