flakey sofa complaint

[hairyben]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

So bought two couches last year, paid for in september and delivered in december.

One panel of one sofa is flaking in several places - now twice as bad as pics above and getting worse daily. Every other panel fine. Light use in pet/child free home. Every other panel perfect; obviously some kind of fault with the finish (paint?) On the bit of leather used.

Retailer - major chain - have ignored my fairly polite email with attached pics asking them to contact me.

Next step? Credit card chargeback? Really dont have time to faff about being made to jump through hoops and ignoring my mail makes we want to go ballistic at them already.

[Mercky]

Ring them up, or go into the nearest branch and complain..

I'm not surprised you don't have time to faff about though ,the amount of time you've spent on here

Edited by Mercky on Thursday 30th June 20:21

[surveyor_101]

If it's dfs good luck. Never again

[SteveR1979]

Think you're too late for a CC charge back

[Jonno02]

SteveR1979 said:

Think you're too late for a CC charge back

You are. Around 4 months I think is average. However, my dad noticed he had been getting charged for 3 years, every quarter, for phone insurance which he never signed up to. Phoned his CC company, they did a chargeback on every single transaction. So...worth a punt.

[anonymous-user]

The email could easily have been blocked by a spam filter or similar, you can't rely on them receiving it unless you've had an acknowledgement back.

Just phone them.

[surveyor_101]

if it is DFS they have 'engineers, phone the store you got it from.

They have so called engineers (bodge jobbers) who spend all their time gluing, stapling and sewing their sofas back together, the have repaired my interal cushion covers with patches and taken apart and re-stapled, glued my foot stool back together. It fell apart again and I have tipped it after the 3rd time. They replaced my covers after a battle within the two years cover after I threatened to park outside the store with my sofa on show to customers walking in. Mine is not leather but would never buy from them again.

[Pickled Piper]

Do they have a Facebook page? alternatively Tweet them with pictures.

Sadly, it's the way of the world now. Polite letters of complaint just get ignored.

[hairyben]

Not DFS, heard poor things about them so went elsewhere. Namings probably foul of name+shame forum policy i suspect.

[hairyben]

Pickled Piper said:

Do they have a Facebook page? alternatively Tweet them with pictures.

Sadly, it's the way of the world now. Polite letters of complaint just get ignored.

Mrs is on twitter so a polite request asking how to inform them about a 6 month old flaking sofa as their email seems defective is already imminent. facebook too. Or shall i go in with both barrels giving them what for? Too often people see initial politeness as weakness and write you down and you make more work for yourself than if you arrive in a hail of abuse i think.

[hairyben]

Facebooked and tweeted. They really dont seem to care, not even to remove the facebook comment of 9 hours ago.

Big man having a massive tanty in their store i guess it has to be then. Cant think of what else I can do. Whats the busiest time for these sort of places?

Any help or pointers on exactly what are my "rights" at this point?

[hairyben]

Can i get it repaired if they continue to do nothing and go small claims for the cost? What would the proper procedure here be?

[Bristol spark]

If you pad on a CC, surely you can start a section 75 claim?

I know MBNA told me there is no time limit for a claim, as long as you can prove the claim.

[beautifulbusso]

I had the same issue. At 1st they really didn't give a fk, after going into the store and kicking up an issue.

Eventually the sofas were replaced under warranty, unfortanly they didn't have the sofa which was fked. So was told to choose a sofa which comes to the same value

[surveyor_101]

Bristol spark said:

If you pad on a CC, surely you can start a section 75 claim?


I know MBNA told me there is no time limit for a claim, as long as you can prove the claim.

Will they even if you say you haven't even tried phoning of visiting the store to discuss this issue?

[anonymous-user]

You've not even spoken to them yet and we're talking small claims court? Kicking off in the store? I'm glad I don't work in retail.

Just pick up the phone or go and visit, talk to them like you'd want to be talked to if you were in their shoes. It's under a year old, it's not an area that suffers wear, why wouldn't they fix it?

If for some reason you do have an issue with getting them to fix it then, sure, kick off. Going off on one pre-emptively is just pointless.

[hairyben]

Shop have already shown a lack of interest in aftersales by way of polite conduct, or we wouldnt be having this conversation.

I find when dealing with this type that having an air of readyness to kick off can often make them think twice before spinning a yarn, and if they're still too stupid/arrogant to take note, that knowing exactly what your legal rights and their obligations are before entering the discussion is also usefull.

[Fermit The Krog and Sarah Sexy]

hairyben said:

Can i get it repaired if they continue to do nothing and go small claims for the cost? What would the proper procedure here be?

I own a leather restoration company (not in your neck of the woods unfortunately) and depending how many cushions are affected I would charge £100-£150 to restore that. A few things to check, which could have caused that, exonerating DFS: A flea treated dog being on the sofa, baby wipes, a too strong cleaner (eg containing alcohol) or magic erasers. All of these things can damage leather finish, whatever the quality.

If they offer a repair insist on said repair having evidence of a guarantee. I correct many a such failed repair. I was approached by a consortium who manage such jobs, and the expectation was that they undertake around 10 jobs a day. For comparison the smallest job I can undertake (to the correct standard) is around 90 minutes before travel time.

The law is quite clear, goods should last a reasonable period, and if not you are entitled to make a claim. It only costs around £30, I'd go for it.

[valiant]

Is it a chain store?

They must have a central customer care phone number for this sort of thing. Go through their proper complaints procedure step by step. Most large retail companies get confused and stuff lost if not done through the proper channels.

The store was poor for not pointing this out.

If that fails get the CEO details and badger his/her office directly.

[SickAsAParrot]

We had an issue with a major chain (think Gogglebox) a few years back, sofa was faulty as delivered, had nicks and scratches in the leather, after several arguments (they just didn't want to know) and 2 botched repairs which only made things worse, got Trading Standards involved (I had to write a fairly detailed report with photos and everything) and they eventually got us a replacement.

It still only lasted about 3 years before the leather had totally had it, cut our losses and bought a new one from someone else which has been fine.

Funnily enough my Mrs put a post on Facebook when we got our new ones saying 'finally got rid of the *** junk', and got a reply from *** customer support saying 'we're sorry you had a bad experience with our company would you like to tell us all about it?'

'No, **** off.'