Faulty sofa from furniture village.

visidigi

Dante is the same sofa, just done in real leather instead of the Scala farce - They offered me the same if I contributed £200 and returned my Scala sofas.

I refused (FV will send the sofa back to manufacturer for a full refund to them anyway).

I settled for a 50% of original price refund to my card and I keep the sofas - the refund was with me within 72hrs of agreement. Very happy with that

miniemma

Wow, MSE forums are truly amazing. My Furniture Village leather sofa has started peeling, a bit like when you get pva glue on your hands, but I never thought to look into it further because it feels like we bought it so long ago, until I saw this thread!!

I just rang the branch where we bought it and they still have a record of our purchase, August 2006. He said we are just within our 5 years and will send someone out - I realise the 5 year guarantee doesn't cover this specifically but at least it means our query wasn't dismissed straight off.

Mine is an Argo sofa.

visidigi

The key here is the 5 year warranty doesnt apply to this - the Scala range was mis-sold with the real leather kite mark on it between 2006 and 2008 - ours was bought in November 2006 and they just settled, its not about the time you've had it, but about how it was sold to you - if it had the kitemarks on it to say it was real leather then you have a really good case against them - we kept ours and settled, sat on it now, it'll last another 12 months at a guess.

Btw my whole process, no one came to visit me - it was all done over the phone, but I haven't heard about the Argo suite being as affected.

mr_slab

ok went to FV saw the Dante, looks pretty much the same rubbish as the Scala but apparently is leather.... i think its debatable quite how much leather there is... I am fairly certain we are talking a technicality here but anyway it should not peel

was told by two sales people it would be guaranteed for 5 years

agreed to have my 2 Scala plastic things replaced and that they would collect them when they deliver my new sofas.

all hunky dory so agree and sign

this evening i get a complimentary call from the manager to inform me of the progress and that i should expect delivery in june... so far so good

he then adds in passing that the guarantee is for a year and a half...

hang on say I, not what I agreed to at all, therefore not acceptable to me.

he debated for a while but i was having none of it and he said he would have to call central office.

so i await a call tomorrow.... my point is they have missold me rubbish before, so why on earth should anyone trust them again... i want a 5 year guarantee...

might have to call the judge afterall....

Lisa_Darren

Lisa_Darren wrote: »

Just thought I'd let everyone know what great customer service I've had from furniture village. Within a week of my phone call concerning the peeling leather on my Scala three piece suite the store had ordered me a replacement Dante suite.

It was delivered this week and I am over the moon with it.
:j:j:j:j:j:j

I didn't have to pay any money towards the cost it was just a straight exchange. Hope this information helps someone else.

I purchased my suite in 2006. I received fantastic customer service and am still highly delighted with my replacement Dante suite two months on. It is more comfortable and a far superior quality to the Scala suite that I had purchased (and been happy with, until the leather started peeling). I am surprised that there have been various degrees of success when dealing with FV as from my experience they couldn't have been more helpful.

Hope that this helps others
:T:T:T:T

visidigi

mr_slab wrote: »

ok went to FV saw the Dante, looks pretty much the same rubbish as the Scala but apparently is leather.... i think its debatable quite how much leather there is... I am fairly certain we are talking a technicality here but anyway it should not peel

was told by two sales people it would be guaranteed for 5 years

agreed to have my 2 Scala plastic things replaced and that they would collect them when they deliver my new sofas.

all hunky dory so agree and sign

this evening i get a complimentary call from the manager to inform me of the progress and that i should expect delivery in june... so far so good

he then adds in passing that the guarantee is for a year and a half...

hang on say I, not what I agreed to at all, therefore not acceptable to me.

he debated for a while but i was having none of it and he said he would have to call central office.

so i await a call tomorrow.... my point is they have missold me rubbish before, so why on earth should anyone trust them again... i want a 5 year guarantee...

might have to call the judge afterall....

The salesman is wrong - the 5 year guarantee is for the frame and structure, not surface - the same as the Scala sofa you had. This is why its so unusual to have the replacing/refunding sofa's four years on and its only because they were misadvertised - gotta be clear on that, they aren't replacing under warranty here.

This and the cost of the sofa's was the main reason I took the pro-rata'd refund - I would rather get 12 more months out of this and buy a proper framed, quality leather sofa (with removable cushions no less) for alot less than FV were asking...

mr_slab

ok after some interesting phone calls from FV where everyone contradicted themselves have settled on a one and half yr guarantee.... they denied any of their employees having said there was a 5 year guarantee - despite two employees saying that to our face... then they said we would get a one year guarantee, i explained that the manager had said a one and a half yr guarantee, they said that he couldnt possibly have said that, i explained that he had blah blah blah oh give me strength..... eventually they agreed to one and a half years...

to anyone with a problem, keep going and dont give in....make your own mind up whether you would ever shop with them again and think very carefully about the type of recommendation you might
give them to any friends or family.

if this product is markedly better than my previous one i will be very very surprised....thanks to all whose comments on these pages gave me either evidence or the will to persevere.

i know what i would call FV, i let you make up your own minds...

joannameg

I have had the very same problem with my scala sofas from FV. After less than 2 years I noticed cracking on the arms and thought it was accidental damage( I had had a small child visit the day before and thought it may have been a buckle) so I contacted guardsmen to claim on my warranty. They insisted it was wear and tare. They refused to do anything at all.
My sofa and armchair have since peeled and become patchy everywhere. It was only after seeing an add on ebay with someone selling the same sofa with the same problem that I became suspisious and checked out this forum. I am so glad I did and thank you all!:)
I have since contacted FV today and they have offered like many others of you 50% of my purchase price off a new sofa or to have my old one re-apolstered. They gladly offered over the phone saying they are aware of the fault!
At first I was happy with this and whooped about cheerfully because the state of my sofa and not being able to afford another one was frankly despressing!! Then I read more details about the issues raised here and I particularly that I have been mis-sold a bicast material for leather. Next that even though I made a previous claim I was not contacted, and lastly that now they are offering only 50% because of the length of time (41/2 years) that I have had the sofas. Excuse the punn but I am not going to be 'sat on'. I am going to trading standards on Monday to find out where I stand so... roll on Monday! :mad:

visidigi

dont bother with trading standards, they have already been instructed on the bicast process not being allowed to be advertised as real leather.

Trading standards all said to me that I was being offered the equivalent of what they would do.

You need to perserve here, if you want a new sofa at no cost ask them to replace the set with the Dante set - they should do this - don't be put off if they say at first no, I went through four different offers before I agreed to keeping the sofsa and getting 50% back.

Don't bite at the offer of 50% off a replacement suite - thats basically their markup of the original price and youw ill be on the hook for serious money to replace.

I would either ask them to replace the suite with what you were sold, a real leather sofa, which would be the dante range (point out to the manager that they will be able to claim for the original from the manufacturer) or you want a 50% settlement refund.

You just have to keep going, dont accept the early offers, always push it back till you get one or other of the above.

Like I say, don't wait till Monday, trading standards won't make a material difference - they were only going to call me back if they could get a better offer out of FV than I was being offered - they didn't call me back...

tillybob77

Hi All,

I purchased the Scala 2 & 3 seater sofas in December 2005 (5 1/2 years ago) and they are about 50% peeled! They are currently covered by throws and I am going to replace them but a friend who saw the state of them suggested that i should go back to FV to complain. I was reluctant as they are out of warranty being 5 1/2 years old but I gave it a go anyway!

I spoke to the customer service chap at the store that I purchased them from and he categorically stated that there was nothing they could do because the warranty had expired. As mentioned on this thread, I suggested that they weren't actually made of leather and he confirmed that they were made of bi-cast leather and that it was perfectly acceptable to sell this as leather and that we were not mis sold anything and they are not having any of it!

I would like to pursue it a bit further so I just wanted to know if I do have a chance of any sort of compo especially since the sofas are 5 1/2 years old and out of warranty. If it is worth pursuing, where to go from here really. Would it be best for me to contact my local trading standards to clarify the facts on the selling of leather & bi-cast leather before going back to my local FV?

Any advice would be much appreciate!

Many Thanks