S C S Furniture

Devonian_Rodders

A Cautionary Tale.

In September 2009 I took delivery of a 3 pce suite from SCS. The reason for the purchase was my wife had become disabled and required chairs which she good get out of with ease. All these facts were disclosed at the time of sale when we selected the suite.
Some 14 months later it became apparent the suite was no longer suitable since the seats had sunk. I contacted SCS and a 'Technician' arrived, and stated the suite was in no way faulty, and the problems were related to wear and tear.
A copy of the subsequent report forwarded by SCS states:-

" INVALID CLAIM/WEAR AND TEAR.
Suite is now 14 months old. Both customers sit on the chairs most of the time and are not on the small size. I feel that over time the seat cushion have gone flat due to wear0. The inside backs have gone flat as well. This to is the cause of wear to thye chairs. I do feel this is not a fault but normal wear to the suite.

ACTION TAKEN
None at the moment. If to carry out repairs to the chairs, then I will require 2 seat cushions and Dacron for the inside backs which I can refill. This is only as a good will gesture. "

The accompanying letter states " We do understand that you may not be entirely happy with the decision but assure you that we do believe this to be correct. "

As stated above, both my wife and I were at the store at the time of purchase, and obviously they should have pointed out 9if necessary) the suite was not suitable for customers 'who are not on the small size' However, I have to add my wife and I are of average build and just over 15 stone each, which in reality is not oversize. In addition we are of pension age and do not have children or grandchildren living at home.

Obviously if the Company will not put things right, then their 'Guardsman Insurance policy' will not address the problem.

The above begs the question, When buying furniture is it meant for viewing only ??

Googlewhacker

Your only hope is to get someone independant to come and assess the situation and hope they state that the fault is inherent and not through wear and tear.

I have to say I'm not holding out much hope though.

aheaton46

There are really two questions here:

1) Is the damage to the furniture wear and tear? It sounds like it is. The seats have sunk, but this does happen to most suites over time. If you want to try and ake a claim you're really gonig to need an independent report saying it has sunk more than would be expected, but this will cost you to get and there's no hope of success. It may depend on the cost of the suite; the more expensive it is the less you'd expect it to sink.

2) Were you mis-sold the suite? You sound like you took a salesmans advice, and bought this suite on that basis. If it's normal for this suite to sink after time, then really you should never have been sold it. However, there's almost no way you can prove what you said and what the salesman said at the time of buying.

The store won't help and my guess would be you'll have limited chance of success making a small claims court claim, plus the expense of getting a report etc. You could try an alternative route, local paper, disabled woman ripped off by store etc. Worth a try?

bifold

SCS technicians never ever put their hands up and admit their furniture is at fault.
If your seats are sagging after just 14 months you have faulty furniture.(Ihave over thirty years inspecting sofas and chairs)
When they fit scales at the entrance of Scs stores and they weigh customers before selling furniture is when your size would matter.
I had a customer who had two SCS chairs the seats were saggin slightly,they were told because they the customers were slightly built this caused the sagging as all their weight went in to the centre of the seat.and If they were larger people had bigger bottoms the weight would be spread over a larger area resulting in no problem.LOL
SCS customer service are just trying to wear you down and hoping you will go away.
Dont please keep on fighting

Devonian_Rodders

One thing I omitted from original message. At the point of sale i asked the salesperson the life expectancy of the suite, and was advised Ten years. Only thing is I do not have this in writing.

Devonian_Rodders

bifold wrote: »

SCS technicians never ever put their hands up and admit their furniture is at fault.
If your seats are sagging after just 14 months you have faulty furniture.(Ihave over thirty years inspecting sofas and chairs)
When they fit scales at the entrance of Scs stores and they weigh customers before selling furniture is when your size would matter.
I had a customer who had two SCS chairs the seats were saggin slightly,they were told because they the customers were slightly built this caused the sagging as all their weight went in to the centre of the seat.and If they were larger people had bigger bottoms the weight would be spread over a larger area resulting in no problem.LOL
SCS customer service are just trying to wear you down and hoping you will go away.
Dont please keep on fighting

The sequel to the "saga" was Guardsman Insurance sent an independent 'technician' who immediately stated there was a structural fault, and the cushions were also defective.
Repairs were carried out and the cushions were replaced with extremely dense foam. I understand from my T S D manufacturers are restricted as to the density of foam they can supply. Obviously does not apply to subsequent repairs etc.

I am advised S C S will fight to the bitter end any claim brought against them, and subsequent letters to them have produced empty promises. Had I NOT had the insurance, then the matter would have been pursued through the courts.

Thank you for your comment, although I am not one to give up without a fight.