Faulty sofa from furniture village.

judyb

Can you send me the link fir where it is being advertised as Full Grain Aniline Leather - unless it has been changed recently I can only see it described as Semi Aniline which although not correct would be an acceptable term (very misused in the retail world I'm afraid).

It certainly is not an Aniline Leather but cannot see here it is described as such.

Regards
Judyb

fairdealfairy

I cannot post the link as a new user. If you go to Ronson pages then choose a product. Product Description tab - scroll down page to "Read more about this product" in light blue writing. Shows as Full Aniline.
Product Details tab shows Semi Aniline.

So mixed descriptions.

judyb

Seems to be a bit of mixed information going on. This leather is definitely not Full Grain Aniline so could not be sold as such.
Judyb

fairdealfairy

FV adamant they won't improve their offer. Considering my other options including Court.

Interestingly though..................... they have now changed the product description for the Ronson, on their website from Aniline and Semi-Aniline to "Corrected Grain Leather". I wonder who or what brought that about??? Good job I made sure to copy and save all the old details

smartbear1

oldoakey wrote: »

Once again a large out of town furniture retailer is found to be stuffing customers with untruths and basically lying in their advertising.
Unfortunately this always seems to be at the cost of the consumer in time, effort and stress if not money.

I hope that in future you all look a little further to find a reputable local independent furniture store to buy from and dig into the specifications of the piece that your buying rather than just the headline interest free offer remember the truth is there is no free lunch.

This is good advice. I have issues with Furniture Village and I won't ever buy from them again. I'm not sure if I want to create a post about it at this stage. However, I will say I fully agree that what is offered by them in terms of assurances never seems to pan out. The website and instore advice and assurances were completely different once the product developed a fault.

FV mostly find no fault with products with inspections, or ignore in some way if a fault is found and use delay tactics. I had a finance company telling me I had to co-operate with them as I couldn't stand their telephone lies and stress anymore.

Write, write, write - insist everything in writing and push. Don't go away. Don't leave it and if they ask you to go instore to reach resolution then take someone with you. Don't be fooled by come in store and discuss. It won't be a helpful discussion. It is just for the finance companies benefit. You went in, you disagreed, you walked out - see how that works? I went in to visit the store manager by appointment and the sales team who sold me the product put heads down and were red faced. Manager also denied any knowledge of complaint but he was the one who invited me in to resolve? Says it all really.

Keep it in writing, tell finance companies it is stressful to contact them and have dealings with them. Ask finance companies to arrange things on your behalf. Ask them to be present. Try everything you can to throw back at them.

I really don't understand how furniture retailers in general get away with things. Maybe its because we let them? Fight like your life depends on it. Give them a good run for your money and then approach a company with sensible returns policy like John Lewis. I won't every buy from FV again or any such companies.

I would rather spend money on stuff that I know will flatten and settle, e.g. ikea, but it didn't cost me the earth and someone always wants ikea stuff on ebay when yer done with it.

Finding and paying over the odds for comfort is non-existent these days. Always leads to disappointment in my humble opinion.

bod1467

Probably better to PM the person, and edit your post to remove your email address.

Odd that you joined the forum 22 months ago yet this is your first post ....
And the email address is in no way similar to your forum name ....

steviealan

sorry not very good with computers but need help finding any advertising for scala sofas at furniture village now have a 5 1/2 year old sofas that have to covered as they are a mess and would like to try to get some recompence,

bod1467

Please remove the email address from your posts. (It's against forum rules. Click the EDIT button below your posts to edit them). You're obviously looking at this thread ... if it's not done shortly I'll report your posts whereby forum admins will edit them (or delete them).

KayakJim

Some useful information for those battling with Furniture Village over misrepresentation of their Scala Sofa range. This is based on my experiences and is no substitute for professional legal advice.

I purchased 3 Scala range items in 2008 from Furniture Village and after discovering the surface layer degrading in 2014, had them examined by a friend who is a professional leather grader. The leather expert confirmed they were ‘bicast’ leather and not 100% leather as had been described to me by the sales person and provided in Furniture Villages sales leaflet at time of purchase. I subsequently wrote to Furniture Village explaining the problem and requesting a refund based on the fact that they had mis-represented the product. I used a template letter from the Which consumer website to assist with this. I also contacted the Citizens Advice Service, who based on my evidence referred the matter to Trading Standards.

Furniture Village response to my complaint was very poor, they admitted that the product was not 100% leather and was ‘bicast’ or ‘durable coated’, but denied that it had ever been sold as 100%. This was despite providing them with a copy of their leaflet that was given to me when I purchased the products and which stated:

“ At furniture Village all our sofas are 100% leather”
“In your travels you may come across sofas made from fuax leather or leather match, usually PVC. They’re something you will never see at Furniture Village because they are not real leather”

Furniture Village offered me a £50 refund for a £1600 original purchase. I wrote to them again laying out the facts, but they refused to accept this and advised me that they considered the matter closed. At this point I had a couple of options open to me.

1) Refer the matter to the furniture ombudsman scheme, of which Furniture Village are full members and ask them to evaluate and make a ruling- this can take some time reading their website and is not guaranteed.
2) Refer the matter to small claims court – unlikely to be looked on favourably until an ombudsman has been involved and also has a fee.
3) Pursue my credit card company for a refund as I had paid the deposit for the items via this method and they have joint liability under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974

After due consideration I decided that option 3 was the starting point as this did not cost any money unlike option 2 and was more likely to result in a rapid resolution. I supplied my credit card company with all the communications I had with Furniture Village previously including the original leaflet stating that all their sofas were 100% leather and the Furniture Village letter confirming that the product was not 100% leather. Again I used a template letter from the Which site to help me with this. After an initial standard response from the credit card company advising that they were unable to assist as Furniture Village had not accepted liability, I wrote to them requesting a letter of deadlock so that I could refer the matter to the Financial Services Ombudsman, within a few days I had a call from the credit card company offering me a 50% refund on purchase price. They based this on the fact that I had derived benefit from the products over the 6 years that I had them. I doubt if I would have got any better offer via options 1 and 2 above so accepted this offer.

So a few things worth noting as a result of my experiences.

1) Be aware of your rights under the Sales of Goods Act. I found the Which consumer site very helpful for advice and template letters.
2) Be aware that you have a limit of 6 years from purchase date to make a claim. I was just within these timescales.
3) Any refund or compensation will very much depend on the amount of time you have had use from the product(s). However, at the very least given the fact that 100% leather products should last at least 10-12 years then at least a 50% refund is likely to be reasonable.
4) Do contact Furniture Village first, but don’t hold your breath with their customer service and make sure you set clear deadlines in your communication for when you expect a response (usually 14 days)
5) Use signed for delivery on all written communications. I also found it speeded things up by e-mailing copies of letters and advising they had also been sent via signed for delivery.
6) Many people will have paid a deposit on a Credit Card. You don’t have to have paid the full amount for the Credit Card Company to potentially be liable under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. However, they will only really look favourably on disputes if you have exhausted routes with Furniture Village first. Do contact your Credit Card Company if engagement with Furniture Village fails.
7) Be persistent, both Furniture Village and the Credit Card Company have standard responses to initial complaints in the hope that consumers will not have the time or energy to pursue further. Sadly this is the nature of the society we live in. You may have to write 4 or 5 letters before you get anywhere.
8) Stick to facts in your communication, using templates letters is a good way of removing any emotion from your wording. You are bound to be upset, but don’t let his take hold of the situation.
9) Don’t give up and make sure that you ask Citizens Advise Service to refer to Trading Standards. This is important if Furniture Village are to be challenged on their sales techniques. Trading Standards won’t progress any enquiries or action unless they receive a substantial number of complaints. Having said that there are things you can do to get recompense if you believe you have been a victim of mis-representation.
10) In my case having the original sales brochure and the letter from Furniture Village confirming that the products were Bicast leather, were key to successfully pursuing my case with the Credit Card company.

Hope the above will be helpful to others. Needless to say I will not be shopping with Furniture Village again, although from their responses they don’t appear to be worried about this! I very much hope that Trading Standards will receive enough complaints about this issue to investigate and pursue prosecution in the future as it is important that we has consumers are protected.

Gary1969

Hi,
I have just stumbled on this thread. It explains so much why there is hardly any leather left on my Scala leather sofa. Purchased it in Jan 2008 and it's that bad now I need to replace it.

Having seen this thread I am soo angry that they sold me it as 100% leather which it's not. I am going to send in complaint bug now I can't find the leaflet re the scala which said it was 100% leather.

Has any one got a copy they can email?

It explains so much why it's flaked away.. It's not leather.