Buying a sofa from CSL

manchester110

Avoid CSL at all costs!!
They are scam artists that will rip you off..
We ordered a sofa from CSL and they delivered a sun damaged sofa with rips, tears, and in a completly different colour. Redish brown instead of black! It was clearly damaged . We refused the delivery and immediatly called the store. They said there was nothing they would do about it and that we need to now pay an extra 124£ for not keeping their fault item.
We took photos of the sofa and emailed it to CSL showing a faulty item. They basically told us its not their problem since we signed a contract and now they want us to pay 1,400 for an item we dont even have!!
Weve wasted so much time calling and complaining getting no where with them because they are the most unhelpful uncaring people. All they want is that contract signed, they dont care about a happy customer.
Now were left with no choice but to take legal action..
Every time we call to speak to a manager they are apparently on a two week vacation!! So it seems there are three managers/ assistant manager/and a cusyomer service lady all on holiday at the same time. What a hoax!! They take their time because they want you to go over the 14 day period.
Now im hearing more and more complaints from other friends/co workers that have gone through CSL in the past and had similar problems such as their so called warrenty not really existing, and sofas being delivered three months late, or sending the wrong items, adding on costs to the final bill without your knowledge.
We are taking our complaint to the news and 60 seconds. So others can be warned before they end up broke without a sofa as well.
We dont want anyone else to go through what weve gone through.

These are true scam artists that have no heart.

Avoid avoid avoid!!!!

manchester110

We are having the same issues with csl. Were taking it to the papers and 60 minutes.
No company should be aloud to rip people off like this, and they are doing it all to often
If you have anything you would like to add for the newspaper story PM me asap! Also if anyone else sees this and wants to be heard PM me immediatly!

mable_2

Thank god I read this, I was about to go and order two sofas from them this afternoon. Way more expensive than I had intended to pay but I fell in love with them and they seemed really comfortable. I figured paying extra would be worth it to get quality but having read this thread it seems that I was very wrong and I was even going to stump up for the insurance to be safe......... Oh:( I really wanted new sofas for christmas.

nads205

I was just about to buy a sofa from CSL. Thanks to this thread I won't now.

Thank you!

Oushka

We're still in a headlock with csl. They dont seem to understand proper legal documents and have so far failed to respond properly twice.
The responses from their complaints manager are full of grammatical and spelling errors and I cant believe they allow her to reply to customers - She at least needs to start using a spellcheck!
I am currently lodging our claim with the small claims court and csl now have a couple of weeks to respond.
Anyone with any complaints dont let csl pass you to the ombudsmen FIRA. They have a minimum of 8 week wiating list and another 8 weeks to reply to your complaint. If youre happy to wait then by all means, but you dont have to use them just because csl tell you to.
You have every right to have your complaint dealt with by csl or take further action yourself via the small claims court.
There are various websites with template letters and they are a great help in dealing with csl yourself.
I will update when we finally have an outcome...
Merry Christmas!

circo

I'll add my experience to this thread. After 2 years of owning a £1300 leather sofa, living alone with little use the colour began to wear off! the sofa had raised seams on each seat all of which where worn down to bare leather. Two proffessionals stated that it was a clear design fault. CSL wont accept independent eports as 'they're not independent!' CLS offered to recolour to areas for £50 but couldn't gaurantee it would last!! or recover at a cost of £700. (£900 would buy me a top quality identical sofa from a reputable manufacturer) Furniture ombudsman offered no solution other than recommend accepting the recolouring!
I've e-mailed the above address and guess what, it doesn't exist.. The measure of a good company is how they deal with problems. CSL are not a good company, AVIOD.

Gaz3394

We ordered 2 x 3 seater leather sofa's and have had them 3 months. About a month ago we noticed a light patch appearing on two small patches on the seats of one of the sofa's, my wife used the leather wipe to clean both sofa's and they seemed to disappear. but they hadn't they had simply gone darker so were not as noticeable. A month later it happened again and seemed to get worse so we contacted CLS, they arranged for an inspector to come out and who turned around and said it was either pet damage (impossible as our dogs aren't allowed on the sofas or that it is caused by excessive wear...(3 months old with my wife and myself who both work shifts ).
I said I was not happy so he said he would let the department look at it and get back to me. a few days later I got a message to ring them, they told me they were going with the inspectors report and if we wanted someone else to come out it would cost £47 to colour and seal the patches and we would have to sign a paper to say that it is our fault and it might happen again. We are fuming. They are basically saying that we are lying and have scrubbed the sofas until the top layer has come off, when actually we have used 2 leather care wipes supplied by them when the sofa's arrived.

Gaz3394

we are having a similar experience, we ordered 2 x 3 seater leather sofa's and have had them 3 months. About a month ago we noticed a light patch appearing on two small patches on the seats, my wife used the leather wipe to clean both sofa's and they seemed to disappear. but they hadn't they had simply gone darker so were not as noticeable. A month later it happened again and seemed to get worse so we contacted CLS, they arranged for an inspector to come out and who turned around and said it was either pet damage (impossible as our dogs aren't allowed on the sofas or that it is caused by excessive wear...(3 months old with my wife and myself who both work shifts ).
I said I was not happy so he said he would let the department look at it and get back to me. a few days later I got a message to ring them, they told me they were going with the inspectors report and if we wanted someone else to come out it would cost £47 to colour and seal the patches and we would have to sign a paper to say that it is our fault and it might happen again. We are fuming. They are basically saying that we are lying and have scrubbed the sofas until the top layer has come off, when actually we have used 2 leather care wipes supplied by them when the sofa's arrived.

Amnon

We ordered a 3 seat black sofa April.2013.
The company told us that it will take three months till it was ready, but demanded
payment of £861 up front.
On the 28/6/2013 they delivered a brown sofa. Their delivery people were very polite and took the sofa away, and asked us to contact the depot.
My wife spent many hours on the phone to them, while their customer services department tried to contact the depot. She was told on numerous occasions that they would call back, but most times did not.
When my wife asked them to return our money, they ignored her request.

I sent them an email on 28/6/2013 demanding our money back. This email was also ignored.

After a three month wait and wasting hours on the phone, we are £861 out of pocket and still without a sofa.

CSL Sofas was the subject of a BBC Watchdog investigation in June.

Gaz3395

Had our two 3 seat sofas less than 3 months and the leather colour started coming off in 3 large areas. Csl send out 2 different inspectors who disagreed with each other. First said excessive use(my wife and myself) or pet damage, definitely not caused by our dogs. I was asked what I wear when I sit on the sofa,!!!. We had to pay £47 for the Second inspector who said its not either and it's something in the house breaking the leather down. Incredible. We refused to have it coloured and patched as it cost £2,000. The seats are now not being used. Watchdog and consumer advice now involved. Disgusted.