Faulty sofa from furniture village.

lesleyp118

hethmar wrote: »

Thanks Lesley, yes, wish we had done the same too, we just tried to repair it ourselves, covered it with throws and lastly got in a restorer who told us it was the duff stuff and he couldnt help.

Im surprised at their reaction to you though as the earlier posts on here refer to a ruling made by Trading Standards that it was missold. It does seem odd the varied results people have got, full refunds, new sofa sets or partial repayments. Cant understand why its not a standard response.

Ive pmd, but just to say Ive the original receipt saying the sofas are leather and giving details of caring for "hide" furniture.

We shall see ................

I think there is a difference between our Alexis sofas and the Scalas that most other people in this forum have been talking about. My understanding was that the ruling by Trading Standards related only to Scala? Anyway Trading Standards that I spoke to couldn't find it!!

My receipt does have the bit about caring for "hide" furniture too, but I suspect "hide" doesn't have a British Standards description in the same way as the term "leather". All the best to you....

hethmar

I think hide is the definitive description for genuine leather, Lesley.

Others on this thread have had a full new set of sofas after their Alexis sofas peeled.

BoBo_the_clown

So glad I read this thread..........I only searched the Scala 'leather' sofa to look for repair details/fitted covers on the net.

Purchased a 3 + 2 seater in 2005 and had problems approx a year later in 2006. FV stated they could not do anything as 'leather' was not covered by their 5 year guarantee and was due to general wear and tear. Purchased the suite in good faith as 'leather' and I have all docs and promotional leaflets with real leather advertised......Like a mug I stupidly took their word for it and didnt follow up

Emailed head office last week and was flatly refused assistance of any sort as I had 7 years 'use' of sofa and that I was out of 5 year guarantee period!?! :rotfl:

Have sent a second email to comply with what I would like done and will wait seven (7) days before starting a mis-selling claim in the small claims track.

Will be keeping an eye on this thread......

BoBo

hethmar

Hi BoBo yes keep us up to date as we may well be starting a court action shortly too
We bought ours over 6 years ago but its been a problem for over a year now - had we known it was mis sold we would have complained at that time and been within the 6 year Trading Standards limit FV are now quoting. However, from what I can make out the 6 years refers to faulty goods, not mis sold goods which you can claim for within a "reasonable time" of discovering.

FV first tried to palm us off with the 5 year warranty nonsense, which is clearly only for the structure and we are not claiming for faults in the structure. They are now apparently quoting the 6 year limit but again, that is re faults, not misrepresentation.

Dont give up Im wondering whether it would be worthwhile all of us doing a combined claim against them?

hethmar

Another point - the restorer who came out to look at our sofas said we should never have been told to use the leather cleaners that they had sold us - apparently it makes bicast leather even worse!

BoBo_the_clown

Hi BoBo yes keep us up to date as we may well be starting a court action shortly too
We bought ours over 6 years ago but its been a problem for over a year now - had we known it was mis sold we would have complained at that time and been within the 6 year Trading Standards limit FV are now quoting. However, from what I can make out the 6 years refers to faulty goods, not mis sold goods which you can claim for within a "reasonable time" of discovering.

FV first tried to palm us off with the 5 year warranty nonsense, which is clearly only for the structure and we are not claiming for faults in the structure. They are now apparently quoting the 6 year limit but again, that is re faults, not misrepresentation.

Dont give up Im wondering whether it would be worthwhile all of us doing a combined claim against them?

Small claims form now submitted.....

BoBo_the_clown

Have quite a large (and growing) folder of paperwork to present when the time comes. Dont give up hope!

If anyone still requires the sales brochure with the 'real' leather mis-presentation please feel free to PM me

BoBo

NatPat

Hi All, we too have a peeling Scala settee that we bought believing we were buying real leather. I've spoken to FV at length and they are determined that they cannot be held responsible because they sold the settees at a time when Bi-Cast could legally be sold as leather. Any thoughts would be welcomed!

TheCiscoKid

I've had my day in the Small Claims Court and it was "interesting". The net result was that Furniture Village admitted that they HAD mis-sold the Scala range as leather when they knew it was not. Amazingly, they employed a barrister(!!). So the good news is they were instructed to pay me compensation and all my costs. As I've said before, my Claim was for mis-selling, but strangely the judge was solely focussed on the length of time I'd had the sofas and so limited the compensation accordingly. Point to note - when pressed, the FV manager said that he would have expected Scala to last "6 to 10 years with light use" but that the Scala range "was the cheapest thing in the shop at the time", in other words, what did I expect, real leather?? My argument was that if I had been told it was plastic and not expected to wear well, I would have made a more informed decision (ie not bought it!) but the judge ignored this.

The barrister showed me a letter just before going into court, which said FV were sure that "if you win, the court will only award you £250 at most" and offered me this "to save stress and inconvenience" but denying any wrong-doing. I was awarded £400 and all costs with an admission of guilt by FV so I feel vindicated by that. I would say however that it has dragged on over some months and I am glad that it's over for me at least.

Good luck to everybody who still has the strength to take their case further.

visidigi

Glad to hear you made it through to the end, I am pleased we settled on a £400 refund a year ago - still sat on it now