These are strange times indeed. Although massage chair sales have picked up substantially since the initial drop in business back in April due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there are still some other things in our industry that are being affected by this plague.

White glove delivery is one of those things. In case you are wondering what “white glove delivery” is, here is a brief overview of massage chair shipping options:

1. Standard Curbside Delivery – Every chair we sell in the continental United States comes with free standard curbside delivery. That means that the delivery company will bring the chair to your home and drop it off somewhere on the property. That could mean the literal curbside, by your front porch, in your garage, or wherever they can bring a 300-400 lb. pallet with a pallet jack. A pallet jack is a device that shippers use to lift a palletized product on the truck and move it to your property. It can move on flat even surfaces without much trouble. It will not work on grass or sand or gravel surfaces, nor will it go up stairs or steep inclines. Therefore, the driver will typically move the palletized product as close as they can to your abode until they run out of a concrete or asphalt surface. This type of delivery does NOT include delivery across the threshold of your home nor does it include unpacking and assembly of the chair once it is in your home. Curbside delivery usually involves one person, since he/she can let the pallet jack do all the heavy lifting.
2. White Glove Delivery – This is an additional paid service wherein the chair is brought into your home or business, unpacked, and then assembled for you. You do not have to lift a finger during this type of delivery service.  Different companies charge different amounts for this service. Our company charges $199.99, unless it is included free with the chair purchase.

So, in this time of Covid-19, here is the rub…

a. Some delivery companies don’t want the risk of going into someones home or business to do a white glove delivery and set up.

b. Some customers don’t want outsiders coming into their home to do a white glove delivery and set up for fear of Covid-19 transmission.

c. Some County or State governments discourage in-home deliveries.

In the beginning of this pandemic, many areas of the country did not have white glove delivery available. Things calmed down a bit after the initial spiking of the virus, so more white glove deliveries were performed. But, since the new surge hit recently in so called “hot spots”, more shipping companies are holding off on white glove deliveries once again. As a matter of fact, it appears that the white glove option is less available now than it was initially.

You can still get the free curbside delivery anywhere in the country, but if you would like to try to get the white glove in-home set up, let us know your zip code when you order and we can find out if it is available in your area.

We have our own delivery teams in Utah, Southern California, and Arizona so we still provide in-home set up in those areas for you.

Below are the most recent updates from  a couple of our suppliers:

From Furniture For Life (purveyors of OCHO, D.Core, Panasonic, and Positive Posture chairs):

• Remind your customers these are COVID-times, everything is taking longer.
• Verify White Glove (WG) delivery is available before you promise it. Email us with your customer zip code so we can confirm WG service, or arrange for LTL curbside if necessary.
• Tell your customers receiving WG that it may take up to four weeks before they are called to schedule their appointment.

From Luraco:

• If our service partners are still doing residential deliveries and the customer is accepting we are all good.
• If the customer doesn’t want any assemble or inside deliveries we can always deliver to their garage or we can hold it at our local warehouse for storage.
• If our service partners are halting their residential inside home deliveries and we have no other options in that area we would have to hold for storage until further notice.

• Each terminal is updating daily. We will do our best to proactively monitor your shipments for you.
• We are still doing white glove deliveries nationwide, however each agent is slowly implementing changes based on COVID’s progression.
• Each shipment would be put in the garage or we can set up curbside deliveries