Warning: DFS Anti Stain Insurance MisSelling (any advice?)

Jericho0310

Hi!

I have no idea which forum to use but I want to put this in the hope it stops anyone else getting into the position we're in. We've just bought our first house, and what with the deposit and the £1000 morgage arrangement fee we're pretty skint and the DFS 0% APR finance for a sofa seemed like the best way for us just now with all the other money we need to spend in the next few months on the house.

Anyway!

Went to DFS not realising what kind of shop it it, it's very high pressure sales from the moment you step through the door, but covered well by the couldn't be friendlier staff. We were looking at a sofa and over comes the guy with the contract. We had thought about it a good bit because we'd seen it on the internet so we decide to go for it, we sit down and start going through the paperwork. We were quite happy with the sofa, but then suddenly when the salesman was writing up the prices on the form they jumped from the £400 on the sofa tag to £600, but apparently it's because we've chosen a different much better fabric and a different sofa back. He could have mentioned this without me asking but fine, we're happy, so he goes on, talks us through the rest of the form and intersperses it with chat about his family. He goes through the tick-boxes at the end of the form with us, since we're taking out the loan do we want payment protection insurance? We say no, he doesn't mention it again.

We're in a bit of a hurry, with hindsight if you're signing up to spend £1500 it's not smart to be rushing through the sale. He brings over the contract to me and points to where I need to sign. Thinking he's talked through everything with me and I'm just signing in agreement to what we've discussed, and trust me I'll never ever do this again, I sign where he says and we're out the door in five minutes with our contract.

It's only when I look at it later on the same day I notice there's £167 for '5 year Anti Stain Insurance' added onto the contract I've signed. At no point during the discussion did the salesman mention this. On top of this, he's calculated the amount and written it in, and then when we juggled what we wanted a wee bit he'd recalculated it and put it in a second time, all the while not mentioning a thing about it.

This was Monday, so I phoned DFS thismorning (Tuesday) to say we didn't and don't want the stain insurance, especially since reading other posts it seems like a scam anyway, it protects you as long as your couch isn't stained by something that would stain it. The guy I spoke to was very curt and said since we've signed the contract, tough, it can't be changed, and we need to wait until Thursday until the guy we deal with is back. I think we're really going to have to fight to get is sorted and I hate this kind of thing, probably something the salesman picked up on as soon as he clapped eyes on us.

So I've learnt a very good lesson never ever ever to sign a contract, no matter that the salesman is saying 'just sign here, and date here..' and leaning over me pointing to the boxes all the while. It's not rude to say 'give me 10 minutes to read over it', it's daft not to. I'm angry at the shop and just as angry at myself for being so daft as to sign the thing.

If anyone can help us out I'd really appreciate it. I've already phoned citizens advice and they've said they'll help us draft letters and the like to them but I wrote, emailed and phoned DFS today and I think we're going to be chasing them until we go down to the store and cause hell, something I wouldn't like to have to do. We've signed two contracts, a sales contract, which has the damned 5 year anti stain insurance on it and a finance contract. The terms and conditions of the anti stain thing say in one place the premium is non-refundable, and then three lines later that we have the right to cancel within 30 days and receive a full refund, however the finance agrement we've also signed has the cost of the anti-stain thing on it and has no get out clause whatsoever.

Citizens advice recommended that if DFS they won't cancel the cover then we can claim a 'fundamental breach of contract' since it states clearly in the T&Cs we can cancel in 30 days so we'll start trying to fight it on that but I'd love to hear from someone else who had a similar issue with DFS and got it sorted. Surely it's mis-selling to stick something like the anti-stain thing onto a contract without mentioning it? But then if it's our word against his, and I'd be surprised if his memory doesn't tell him he explained it all in detail, can you really claim to have been mis-sold if the company claim they told you about it?

Would really appreciate any advice at all..

Jenny

maninthestreet

If there were 2 of you there, and just the salesman from DFS, that's 2 people's word against one.

Jericho0310

If there were 2 of you there, and just the salesman from DFS, that's 2 people's word against one.

True, would this hold up though if we did have to drag these ratbags into the small claims court? It was me and my fiance so he's quite motivated to back me up.

Next time I'll be taking a dictaphone.

milliemonster

We bought a sofa from DFS a couple of months ago (but paid cash for it) and they offered us this but I declined it, as I was buying a white leather sofa the sales guy did keep trying to tell me that it would stain easy and not to sit on it in jeans etc etc trying to get us to buy it but for gods sake I've bought a sofa to SIT ON not look at as a piece of art, I think this must be how they get their commission

Colin2511

we got caught out and got the anti stain guarentee a couple of years ago , chuffed but thought as we had a cream suite it might help

we had the suite about 12 months, when we realised we had knocked a cup of tea over that was on the carpet (did not realise until next morning) the tea had stained and was dry and would not come out in the wash (washable covers), ...chap came out and said he could not remove that as it would have to be bleached and would not match the rest of the suite...I said you are not leaving me with a settee white compared to soft cream..

he said tuff..I kicked one hell of a fuss up and got my money back (we paid £250 for the insurance)

I then decided that nothing lost and soaked the bottom in diluted bleach - all nice and clean and matched (only noticed the difference if you had your nose on the floor looking)

so.....if they won't cancel :rolleyes:

hollydays

you could try the angle that you were miss-sold the finance as you did not require the product they added on? You would need to take it up with the finance company.You do have general rights in law not to be ripped-off with finance,and I am sure the cab route is corrrect.It needs to go in writing.Wait to see what the original salesman says today- he may admit his mistake(!)

Riggsy1367

Hi. Just taken delivery of a sofa in September 2008. We paid quite alot of money and thought we had paid to have it protected with anti-stain resistance - DFS equivalent to scotchguard. Had discussed merits of said treatment with salesguy and at no point was told it was only an insuarnce policy only and sofa would not actually be treated.

2 weeks after received sofa, 2 year old spilt milk on sofa and it did not clean away as one would expect if there was protective resistance. At that point realised, we had been duped.

Was going to complain directly to DFS customer service and ask for my £172 back & new cushions and threaten contacting trading standards. Before I do so, has anyone got any further advice to add.

Cheers!!!

hollydays

So are you saying someone has been out to try and remove the stain?

denise38

Same old story with these buch of bandits. They have tried this one everyone I know who ever bought from them. They tried it with us few years ago with the sickness accident insurance. He never asked if we wanted it and just put it on the agreement . The copy we got we couldn't read as he hadn't pressed firmly enough but I did the sums myself and new the figures didn't add so called them to query the figures. I informed them that as we had never been offeredit and never asked for it how could they just add it on. I did rant about how illegal and immoral it was and they backed down. I would never use them again and now read every thing before we sign.

Jonny_B_3

Did you ever get this cancelled?

I bought a sofa yesterday with the stain cover but decided now I don't need it.

Theres 30 day cooling off period so I'm waiting for a call back to cancel it.

Freddie_Snowbits

Every DFS Store I see has glass doors!

Jericho0310 wrote: »

This was Monday, so I phoned DFS thismorning (Tuesday) to say we didn't and don't want the stain insurance, especially since reading other posts it seems like a scam anyway

One assumes they blindfold people and imply excessive waterboard torture to get your signature! Scam is a confidence trick. What you actuall want to say is my Bingo lights did no go off when this happened

Jericho0310 wrote: »

Hi!
then suddenly when the salesman was writing up the prices on the form they jumped from the £400 on the sofa tag to £600

Eh
Then suddenly I have spent lots of money.

Jericho0310 wrote: »

We're in a bit of a hurry, with hindsight if you're signing up to spend £1500

Can I have your address please for when the skip comes round and the bailiffs turn up. I still live off hand downs and pass ons. As I do fostering I an quite adept at collecting old toys, clothes and other cats offs. This includes furniture and other bits.