Amazon Basics Mesh Mid-Back Adjustable-Height 360-Degree Swivel Office Desk Chair with Armrests, Lumbar Support and Easy to Assemble, Black

I'm generally a big fan of Amazon, I've been a Prime member forever, and I buy, well, almost everything from them. I've often been impressed with their AmazonBasics line, and this chair is no exception.Since many questions come up about comfort and support, I'll mention that I'm 5' 7", 215 lbs, 48, male. Not huge, but definitely overweight. I've gone through many chairs - some just wearing out, and some I've had to get rid of. Most "normal" chairs tend to bend, wear out, or come apart in some way, after a while, and while I tend to prefer "heavy duty" chairs, those chairs tend to be so uncomfortable after a time that it's like sitting on wood.So I admit I was hesitant about this chair - but two things caught my attention: the fantastic price (compared to other chairs), and the AmazonBasics name.While it is true that "Basics" implies... well... "BASICS".... this is BY FAR the most comfortable chair I've ever owned. The part you sit on has a perfect and generous amount of cushioning that has stood up to repeated use, and still remained soft. I frequently have pain at the base of my spine, and I *notice* when a chair is uncomfortable. With other chairs, I"ve had to use pillows or extra padding, but this chair is absolutely amazingly comfortable, even after 7 months of constant use (purchased this in February 2016).The seatback is also awesome - it's made of a kind of nylon mesh netting - not metal (as you'd think from the pictures) but soft material. This stuff is so much more comfortable to lean back into than any normal chair back I've tried, that I find myself leaning back into OFTEN - whereas with other chairs I would avoid leaning back at all. So... bottom, back, lumbar support - all there, and really amazingly nice.Of course... BASICS. So the armrests don't adjust and are not adjustable even during assembly - and the same for the back. The back does "go back" a little, and there is a "push to lock" option on the control arm - but that's it. Up/down, lock/unlock, that's all you get. (There's some kind of knob on the front that I suspect controls tension, but I never mess with it, it doesn't seem to make a difference to me.)Assembly was easy. The screws take an alan wrench (hex key) tool, which comes with the chair. I've seen people commenting on screw holes not lining up, causing the back plate to overlap the bottom plate. Here's the thing: IT'S SUPPOSED TO. Just follow the instructions, assemble the chair in order, and tighten it down. The chair will come out fine, and perfect, and you'll love it. Assembly was typical for an office chair - but I was able to do it myself. This chair is lighter than most, which makes assembly quite easy.Now... not all is sweetness and light here. About 7 months in, the cylinder in this chair started to fail. I'd be sitting on the chair, and it would suddenly JERK downwards about half an inch. Then it would wait about 30 minutes, and JERK down again. UGH! It was not fun! But here's where the AmazonBasics (and Amazon!) really shines: Since this is an "Amazon Product", there is a one-year warranty noted right on the product page... and it's administered... BY AMAZON! YAY! They didn't even make me call some other number or company or anything. I just went to MY ORDERS, hit the "Return or Replace" button - this was 7 months later, mind you! - and sent a message. Within a few hours, I heard back from an agent asking if I'd like a refund, or a new chair? WOW! Really? Awesome! I mean... I was a little sad that they couldn't just send me a new cylinder and bottom part or something, but, hey, a whole new chair, okay. They sent it free, with free overnight shipping, and i had it the next day.And let me just amplify on this: I kind of wanted to try to fix this myself. I saw on Amazon where they have replacement cylinders you can buy. And if you have a big hammer, you can apparently "bang out" the old cylinder and replace it with a new one. Not so for this chair: The bottom piece which bolts onto the bottom of the seat cushion, and into which the cylinder fits, is a CLOSED assembly. You can remove it from the chair, but you cannot disassemble it further in order to bang the cylinder out. So don't even try. If you have a cylinder problem within the warranty period (a year), just let Amazon handle it for you. If it's post-warranty, you'll either need some kind of special clamp-on tool (Amazon has these - some of the cylinders come with them) to force the cylinder out from the outside (too much for me, I didn't try that), or you'll just need to buy a new chair. Which, knowing how great this chair is, I'd do in a heartbeat.So, again, a really great product from AmazonBasics, with the absolute top-tier support that you'd come to expect from Amazon. Buy this chair with confidence, it will serve you well!

Ease of assembly

Great chair for the price. Didn’t last long. My son used it for his gaming chair. Leaning back in it too much I guess cause the hole top fell off. Had it maybe 3 months. 7/10

Comfy

The woman assembled it by herselfIt's easy to assembleThere are tools in the product, so you don't need additional tools.

The chair seemed great when it arrived 2.4 years ago, but then it failed!On arrival, the chair required maybe 30-60 minutes of assembly--screwing lots of bolts to attach parts (e.g. the seat, left armrest, right armrest, back, height control lever).For the first year or so, the chair functioned as expected--a great chair at a great price! I was the only user of the chair at a weight ranging between 200-260 lbs, which--although in retrospect my height may have led to more leverage than most users--was well under the rated weight specification of 275 lbs.Unfortunately, after the first year, the cheap plywood seat bottom started bending/folding causing the seat back to lean too far away from the occupant so as not to offer support. What does this mean? If the seat occupant leaned back against the back, the center of mass would cause the chair to tip. Familiar with this concern, I used the chair without leaning against the back, but last week, my parent visited, sat in the chair, and despite my warning not to lean back, in some way tipped out of the chair. I have since removed the seat back and now just have an adjustable-height seat cushion on a rolling base to sit on, which is the rolling stool I am sitting on now while typing this review. Happily nothing happened when my parent fell, but what if your loved one fell and hit their head on a desk corner or the floor or broke a bone?Although the chair worked well for one year, it failed faster than any chair I have ever known when operated well under the rated weight. This makes me question the credibility of the claimed BIFMA certification, ostensibly for safety and durability. Maybe I should have replaced the chair sooner, but I also should not have had to. This chair's rapid failure is not normal and much below expectation.When I followed the product user manual PDF in contacting Amazon support "if you need help with your Amazon Basics product" to try to get a replacement seat part, three Amazon support agents claimed they could do nothing because it was out of warranty. They were polite but not helpful when I just wanted to know where to find a replacement seat part. And the Amazon customer support thread kept pausing due to time-outs, rather than the agents completing the task and following up reaching out to me. Ultimately, Amazon support management made the situation right, but I had to be persistent.Amazon could fix this problem in the future by making the chair seat more substantial (with thicker plywood, plastic, or fiberglass), by selling replacement parts, and by better training customer support on more options than just "replace and refund" within the warranty time window.So here is my rating:- Chair for the first year: 5 stars (fully functional, good price, including shipping)- Chair for the second year: 2 stars (no usable seat back to lean against)- Risk of chair to parents or friends: 1 star (risk to loved ones is more important than a low price)- Amazon support: 2 stars, 2 stars, 2 stars, and then 4 stars (polite but useless until finally helpful)Overall rating: 3 stars of 5 (charitably)

This is my sewing and quilting chair. Nice and comfy and light enough to carry to retreats so my back doesn't punish me. This one is much better than the heavy one I had from the office. I would buy this again.