Furniture warranties

LisaOx

Could anyone please help me. I bought a 2 and a 3 seater sofa from the land of leather in January 2007. This cost me £1000. I also paid another £200 for a 5 year warranty which covers everything from accidental damage to (and the reason for my claim) excessive loss of resiliency of webbing, springs, foam or fibre filled interiors. I am aware that the land of leather has now gone in administration. However the warranty was taken out with Homeserve which has now been bought by Castlelan They no longer offer insurance with this included, but I bought the sofa while this was still being offered in the warranty. The cushions on my 3 seater have sunk almost to the base of the sofa. Despite it being used just as much as the 2 seater. I called Castelan to put in a claim. They finally called me back almost 2 weeks later to make an appointment for somebody to come out. The man that came out took photos of the sofa, agreed it was excessive loss of resiliency, but said "it's difficult to explain to a customer what excessive loss of resiliency is" I told him what the salesman had told me when I bought the sofa, that if somebody sat in the same seat all the time then that seat cushion would decline (the cushions are not removable). The sofa was not even used for 2 years while we were away travelling. But the insurance guy said I cannot prove that. I offered to show him my passport! Anyway I've now received a letter saying "The policy which you hold is designed to provide cover for specific manufacturing/structural defects, of which a full breakdown can be found on the reverse of your certificate schedule document. The report from the assessor confirms that none of the manufacturing/structural defects which fall under the scope of cover provided by your warranty van be found with the goods, and therefore we will be unable to take any further action with your claim." On the back of my certificate it specifically states what IS covered, under the title manufacturing/structural defects the subject for which I put in a claim 'excessive loss of resiliency of webbing, springs, foam or fibre filled interiors' along with a long list of other things this policy does cover. Under things it does not cover there is nothing relating to my reason to claim it is things like sun, weather, radiation, smoke damage. Please help!!!!

browneyedbazzi

Complain to them, stating that their response is not acceptable as your policy clearly states that the problem is covered - include a copy with the relevant section hi-lighted.

I think some companies send fob-off letters out to all claimants in hopes that people will just go away because a lot of people will. If you complain they may realise you're not the roll over and die type and change their decision. If they don't and you are still not satisfied after pursuing their own complaints procedure you can complain to the financial ombudsman.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/extended-warranties.html