DFS Complaint Result...

harryabc

bifold wrote: »

I worked at DFS in 2006 ,It sounds like the salesman lied and missold you a five year stain warranty.The standard free furniture warranty was two years and you could not extend it.Worth contacting DFS though.

Thanks for the quote bifold :money: You're quite right, the salesman DID lie to us!! :mad:

On our paperwork, the five year stain warranty box is not filled in because we didn't opt for it but the Furniture Warranty box has £233 in it because that's what we agreed and paid for but on looking at the small print at the bottom, it clearly states it's only valid for 2 years when we were told it was for 5 years - although, we were never offered it for free as you state?!?!?
If it was going for free at the time then we should ask for our money back, yes?

In the small print, there's also some other blurb about what they don't cover and rips at the seam are not and there is no mention of deflated seating and backrests. The salesman did tell us to rip it ourselves nearer the end of the 5 years (which is this July) so they could come and look at it. He also said they never really fix tears but DO replace the whole sofa - yeah right!!

Maybe, we should just look at buying new sofa's (albeit NOT from DFS) and just put this down to the fact the sofas have worn away naturally...

Anyone have any suggestions where we can buy decent leather sofas from on interest free credit?

righter

take photographs,write out and print the tale of your furniture...stand outside the store on the public highway....works very quickly.

these furniture stores are relying on the percentage of people who will just put up with their lousy goods.

perhaps because people often buy on credit,they feel they have no redress...but the op shows it can work in your favour.

shropshirelady

I had a similar problem some years ago with DFS. I'd only had the suite a couple of months and the seats were sagging so badly it was making my back really painful. The seams were also starting to split.

When the manager came to look he said the seats flattening were due to the fire resistant foam and didn't see any problem with the seams. Even letters to head office got me nowhere.

Worse still though was when I decided to re-upholster it. When I took the upholstery off, the timber was more like fire kindling. At the time I was working for a garden fencing company and, quite honestly, they would have rejected this timber even for fence panels.

I was very tempted to take the frame and sit outside DFS on one of their 'special' sale Saturdays to show people exactly what they could be spending their money on.

sirmarcus

Can also try escalating or complaining to Ian Filby, DFS Chief Executive, via sending an email to [EMAIL="ifilby@dfs.co.uk"]ifilby@dfs.co.uk[/EMAIL] and/or to Keith Baker, DFS Operations director at [EMAIL="keith.baker@dfs.co.uk"]keith.baker@dfs.co.uk[/EMAIL].

MrsGiggles_2

We received our long awaited Caluso 3 seater, leather recliner a few weeks ago, and had problems from the start. One hole in the front left seam and some badly finished stitching in the right front seam, this was sewn up on Valentines day.

Since the stitching was sewn up we noticed the back cushions looked saggy and didn't feel as full as the showroom model, so I complained to the store once again and a second service rep came out and told me to whack the cushions daily. We tried this but the sofa looked worse and worse everyday. So we wrote a second letter of complaint to their head office and the regional manager came to have a look.

By this time there was a staple sticking up in the leather under one recliner, the same recliner was rubbing the leather finish at the bottom, the stitching which had been done previously was showing signs of loose threads, and the arm rests had gone very flat too. So the regional manager suggested filling the cushions to make them more plump, he also promised to sort out all the other small problems.

It came back yesterday and all the problems have been sorted out, the seats and arm rests are now so full, it is better than the showroom model. Although it has been stressful and annoying to say the least, we now have the sofa we wanted with an upgrade of extra filling...2 bag loads I was told, and we are not surprised at all.

So it looks like DFS will sort out issues for their customers when things go wrong, but perhaps not all customers as I have read some real nightmare stories.

Fingers crossed our sofa doesn’t develop more problems. I wish I could uploads the photos to show you the before and after, but as a new member I can't do this.

Best of luck everyone having problems with their furniture, I hope you get things sorted out swiftly. I
sympathise greatly with those feeling as disappointed as we did, I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

ALIBOBSY

We must have been lucky I reckon. We just wanted a sofa (already have 2 leather chairs). We picked a fairly cheap 3 seater in black leather. It was ordered in August and finally delivered the week before christmas. Now we had a bit of a pain with them keep delaying delivery (they kept blaming snow at the warehouse-which I suppose was possible). We had ordered it early so it was in the house in plenty of time before christmas but hey ho.

The delivery guys were lovely, really nice with the kids-took a door off to get the sofa in without scratching. They unpacked it put the leg things on underrneath and made sure we were happy and had inspected it before they went.

So far it is the best sofa we have had, and with 4 kids and us 2 it has a hard life lol. I guess our expectations were low so we are happy to have our cheapy sofa with so little problems lol.

Of course we had the cr**py saleman treatment at the first, going on about the insurance etc etc and were we sure we didn't want any other parts of the suite, any finance etc. He looked a bit peedoff when we just said no just this and we will pay now thanks.

Hope ev1 gets their problems sorted,keep pushing as a company like this shouldn't get away with it.

ali x

oldoakey

harryabc wrote: »

Anyone have any suggestions where we can buy decent leather sofas from on interest free credit?

And there lies the problem!

This is where these large stores lure in customers by the promise of so called Interest free credit.

If I could have the ability to offer Interest free credit (banks only offer large stores this service now) I would have to raise my prices at least 20% to cover it as there is no such thing as a free lunch. The store pays the bank the finance charge so your actually being charged in the poorer quality pieces that your being sold.

So if I were a customer (who needed finance) I would go to my bank or online for a loan and then to your local quality independent furniture store and buy something from them. You will get at twice if not three times as much pleasure and wear from it with a lot less hassle and it may be worth something when you are ready to buy new again.

This will actually save you money and the environment. Add it up new cheap poor quality suite £1,500 lasts 3 to 5 years. Good mid to upper quality suite costs £2,000 to £3,000 lasts 10 to 15 years. Thats before resale value added in.

sasukdcf

Ok so I spent £3200 interest free credit I hasten to add at the start of the year.... Couch has fallen to bits as per everyone else.... Manager came looked agreed to replace the covers and explained fibre filled needs constant plumping......

Next they call and say old fabric colour and type no longer available.

Didn't like the ones they offered and thought ok here comes the battle!!!

To my surprise they called me back again as promised and said best they can offer is to replace it with goods to the value of original purchase.

You can argue that couches may not be the best quality and overpriced but I have to say big respect to the customer service and attentiveness of dfs norwich. Frankie on the phone and Chris goodchild (manager) have been fantastic and fulfilled every promise they have made and to an extent you can't argue with that. The irony is that sofa prices have crashed since my purchase so I have now ordered replacement suite new dining table and chairs and a bed and mattress all for the same money.

I just thought it was only fair to balance the critisism with some positives. As the Internet tends to be a forum for negative views more than positive ones!!!

sindamoo

I brought a corner group from dfs, there are 5 sections and we only have ever used 2 sections as there is only 2 of us in the house. The sofa is coming up to 19 months old and one of the sections we dont use, whilst cleaning it, i noticed that the arm top was not as firm as the other arm on the part we use. dfs came out and when looked, the wood board on top on the arm frame was split. very strange as this has had no use at all and is clearly unused as the cushions on the 2 seats we use have sunk in and the other 3 seats are still as when delivered. They proposed to glue some cardboard over the split and then glue a split of wood across the cardboard. They say this is an acceptable fix. When i said i dont think so, this must of clearly of been a fault when it was made as we have never used the seat, i was told it could of been but i need to prove it and this was the repair method. My problem is it feels like they are just bodging the arm up and it is not what i paid for as the arm was made with wood and not cardboard. The manager rang and refused to do anything other than this cardboard repair, spoke to customer services at head office who was just rude and told me thats all that would be done and tough if i dont like it. How can they get away with such poor repairs and service. what else can i do about it.

In follow up to the previous post above, I had a second visit from the local store manager who now wanted to totally remove the leather cover to repair the arm, would they ever it get it put back the same way. I have since found out from the manager of the stoke store, that the nice Italian leather sofa we brought ( well thats what the sales advisor Jamie Wetton )told us when we order the sofa is infact inported from China and nothing to do with Italy like we were told. How can DFS expect to get away with poor repairs and lying to customers just to get a sale.

Well i have enventually spoken with the area manager of DFS today, Adam Hankingson, Still have not resolved the issue, He claims its acceptable that we can not clean the leather with the leather kit they sold us and that we may of wiped the leather to hard to cause the black marks and the hard circle patterns that happened last time we used them. Never have i had this problem with previous leather sofas i have had and cleaned. On the subject of the faulty arm, they will still do a repair but wont guarentee the work. As they need to remove the entire leather from the sofa, mend the arm and then recover it with the leather. He has refused to cover the work with any guarentee, so if they do not refit the leather proberly, it will be on myself to get it fixed again. How can they get away with this and all he can say is take us to court if you are not happy as the judge will rule in our favour. He also said that you do not use the chair so the leather wont move on it.
The subject of the sales advisor that told us that the sofa was made in italy when actually it was made in china, he basically said that this did not happen and i was lying. Well as i was there and asked this question when i placed the order, i know what was said and as he was not there, how can he say what was said without asking the sales advisor. I said i would go myself and speak with him. When i got to the shop, Adam had rang ahead of me going and told the manager to ring the police if i raised my voice as they did not want a scene in the shop. What does that tell you about them. Jamie Wetton could not recall what he had said despite remembering that we had made a template to get the correct measurements. He sat their quite smuggly and refused to answer the question about why he told me it was made in italy when it was made in china. If you do go to DFS in stoke avoid this sales advisor as he will say anything to get a sale. we would not of paid £3000 for a chines peice of poor quality furniture and would of choosen something else had he of told the truth. I guess the problems will carry on as this is still not resolved. Their customer service is very poor as well as they promise to ring you back and then dont. They seem only too happy to take your money but are not so good when problems arise and how they are sorted out.

shishilala

How disgusting that Britain has come to this
Very sad to read the posts here.
I now live in Australia, but in '87 we brought with us an Englander suite. Back in the day (1978) it cost an absolute fortune, almost 800 pounds, when you could purchase a damned good suite for half that price. The style was called 'The Caliph'.
Guess what... I still have that same suite, granted for the past 20 odd yrs it has been treated like a precious heirloom - which it is!
It is kept in our front room (Lounge)
We have bought & sold several suites since being here in Australia & you know everytime somebody enters our home the suite they want to purchase is our old UK suite!
They stop, feel the material (luxurious) then admire the stylish shape, & always say; "if you ever want to sell that one let me know"
I'm always proud to tell them - 'we shipped that suite out from UK where they make TOP QUALITY furniture'
To think I didn't even want to bring it with us, but there was room in the container we were shipping so on it went.
How sad that this is what furniture buying in UK has been reduced to. Imported overpriced shoddy goods.
Shame on you DFS! My dearest sister is bitterly disappointed with the DFS suite she has bought. Causing no end of problems, seats sinking etc etc
She had an 'Englander' suite back in the good old days too, so knows what quality is about.
Lift your game DFS!