IKEA Sofa broken - do I have any claim?

PaulJM

This could be a very stupid question..but I'm going to ask anyway, as it feels wrong!

We bought a sofa from IKEA about 3 years ago.
It's been well looked after, and has been in our front room, so not even used as much as you'd expect.
My wife just sat on the 3 seater, and a cracking noise happened - it's sagged considerably in the middle.
I suspect it's the frame, but it's impossible to tell, I've turned it upside down and can't see what it is.
Do we have any claim against IKEA, or are we definately looking at fixing/replacing?
It feels very wrong that an occasionally used Sofa should break. I've had a good number of Sofa's, one way or another, and never had a problem. I've had some 20 years old in rented accom. where the fabric has worn out but the frame is perfect.
What do you think, and if I can pursue, how shall I go about it?

I'm quite aware that IKEA are not the easiest to deal with!

shaun_from_Africa

You might be able to get something from Ikea, but there are a fair few things to consider before you start.
The Sale of goods act gives you up to 6 years to try to claim for faulty goods, but this doesn't mean that all goods are expected to last this long.

If the Ikea sofa was a fairly cheap model then it wouldn't be expected to last too long, where as a high priced one should have a longer life.

You would also have to prove that the fault was due to a manufacturing defect and didn't occur due to misuse (and this may be hard to do with a 3 year old sofa).

If the fault was proven to have a manufacturing defect then Ikea may offer a repair or they could choose to refund you, but they are legally entitled to make a deduction to cover the 3 years use that you've had from the sofa.

Before going any further you really need to consider the price paid and what is a reasonable expected lifespan for the sofa, and if you feel that you want to pursue it, contact Ikea first to see what they say.

life_in_termoil

If you have the receipt then maybe as most IKEA sofas are guaranteed for 10 years

"Quite a few of our products come with a free guarantee. In order to make a claim under a guarantee your original purchase receipt is required as proof of purchase and must be submitted to IKEA at the time of claiming. The receipt is a vital part of any guarantee with any product as it holds information that allows IKEA to obtain specific details about the product such as batch number and supplier that we will need for our internal investigation. Any product fault will always be fully investigated so that the necessary improvements can be made."

Id get in contact with customer relations and see what they say.

IKEA Ltd

Customer Relations

Kingston Park

Peterborough

PE2 9ET

PaulJM

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

The Sale of goods act gives you up to 6 years to try to claim for faulty goods, but this doesn't mean that all goods are expected to last this long.

If the Ikea sofa was a fairly cheap model then it wouldn't be expected to last too long, where as a high priced one should have a longer life.

Before going any further you really need to consider the price paid and what is a reasonable expected lifespan for the sofa, and if you feel that you want to pursue it, contact Ikea first to see what they say.

I guess that is totally subjective, but I know what you're saying.
It wasn't expensive, but I could have paid much less - it was about £600 for the 3 seater.
I still reckon three years for a very very cheap one wouldn't be reasonable though..

PaulJM

Just to update this one, in case anyone is interested!

Eventually I found out that the Sofa had a 10 yr guarantee with IKEA, and they've offered the money off something else.

So I've got a replacement for nothing. The Sofa we have is discontinued, so I will have 2 different ones in the room - a 2 seater that will be different from the 3 seater. Not that that really matters on the scale of things, just slightly annoying.

So a guy came around from a company called Euromaster, and tried to fix it. After an hour of swearing and sweating, lots of sawing and plenty of glue, he gave up. The supporting wood in the frame was full of knots, so was giving way at those weak points. It is a natural product, so this happens. It doesn't say much for IKEA's quality control, but there you have it.

The end result is good, and I'm grateful to IKEA for this. But it's taken me quite a few hours of effort calling IKEA to get this done. Their customer service is "difficult" to be polite about it.
They're quite hard to get hold of, the staff have an instantly defence manner (some of them anyway) - I'm certainly not rude, I've done that job as a student, so I know what it's like. They tend not to want to look through the records, and they don't really give the impression of wanting to put any effort into your query. They have not yet phoned me back, I've done all the chasing.
That said, when you do get someone good, they are very good, and the general policy of IKEA's has been good.

So it's worked out ok. The 10 year guarantee was a relief, but I was more than ready to go to court about it - luckily it never came to that.

One more thing - we went today to look for a replacement. We asked a member of staff if they could tell us about the one we liked, and this was her sales technique "Well, we're not going to have that one in long. It's only got a year guarantee, cos it's not proven. So we're not sure about it really."
Nice work! Sometimes you're best saying nowt!

halibut2209

A few hours is not that bad considering the time frames. A great result

"I'm certainly not rude, I've done that job as a student, so I know what it's like."

The tone of the rest your post doesn't support that I'm afraid. "ready to go to court"? Sounds like you were itching for action. But you got a good result out of it.

PaulJM

halibut2209 wrote: »

The tone of the rest your post doesn't support that I'm afraid. "ready to go to court"? Sounds like you were itching for action. But you got a good result out of it.

That doesn't indicate I'd be rude does it? Just because I was ready to take further action, and was assertive, doesn't mean I'd be anything other than polite.

It's possible to play your cards in order.
A few hours was a pain actually. That is a fair few quid as a contractor. And I shouldn't have been required to 'persuade' them to do this - it was a written guarantee, not a favour!

But yes, it was a good result.

SuperHan

PaulJM wrote: »

One more thing - we went today to look for a replacement. We asked a member of staff if they could tell us about the one we liked, and this was her sales technique "Well, we're not going to have that one in long. It's only got a year guarantee, cos it's not proven. So we're not sure about it really."
Nice work! Sometimes you're best saying nowt!

Wouldn't you want to know that, considering the problems you've just had?!

PaulJM

SuperHan wrote: »

Wouldn't you want to know that, considering the problems you've just had?!

You're quite right, I shouldn't have pointed it out in irony.