Shafted by Retailer on Furniture

overdrawn30

Hi,

I'm feeling a little annoyed at the moment and wondering if there's anything I can do to fight against it....

I purchased a 3 Seater Sofa, Armchair and Footstall from a major High Street retailer 3 years ago and purchased a "Platinum Super Plus" Extended Warranty covering Stains and Accidental Damage for 5 years.

I recently made a claim as a rivet sticking out of a pair of jeans created a 5cm long rip in the arm of the armchair. (There is a similar rip caused by general wear & tear on the other side, but I claimed for the rip that I caused accidentally that is very visible due to the situation of the furniture in the room).

The Insurance Firm (HomeServe) sent an engineer to site who was in the house for a maximum of 10 mins, took some information on model, where purchased, age etc, took a digital photo of the item and said someone would write to me within a week to advise what will happen as it's a loose covered piece of furniture.

Received the letter today stating that they had rejected the claim as they considered it to be wear and tear over a period of time rather than accidental damage.

Retailer have advised that the model has been discontinued and that the manufacturer is no longer trading. I then found the manufacturers details on the Internet who DO still exist, but they said that this model is no longer in production, so can't help.

I'm left with a ripped sofa, an Extended Warranty that cost £150 for 5 years and no remedy or repair without shelling out for custom made covers which would probably cost more than the sofa.

Do I have any right to claim or anything under law as I feel a bit shafted and let down, surely a loose cover sofa should last more than 3 years accidental damage or otherwise?????

McAzrael

The insurance company will have a complaints procedure (they have to) and only after you have attempted to resolve things using the complaints procedure can you ask the ombudsman to help. Ask Homeserve what their complaints procedure is and use it. Make sure that when you make your complaint (as well as all the normal: keep to the point, spell out what you want them to do, don't get personal, etc.) you let them know that you intend to make use of the ombudsman if you can't resolve matters between yourselves.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

Nile

Hello overdrawn30

I'll move your thread to 'The (Consumer) Vent' board.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]!!!!!![/EMAIL].

Regards

Nile