Furniture Village cannot repair sofa - how much should we accept?

snuggywumple

We purchased a 3 seater (£899) and a 2 seater (£879) recliner sofa in autumn 2007 and the 3 seater is now faulty but there is a full 5 year structural guarantee.

The technician came out and identified that the frame was bent but as it was an unusual frame said it could be up to 12 weeks delivery.

We have now had a letter from Furniture Village saying that they are unable to source the parts but they will offer us a reselection of the complete suite to resolve the situation and offering us a partial credit of £818 (taking depreciation into account).

This is less than half the cost we originally paid and the cheapest replacement suite on their website is £1,599 and we do not have a spare £800 to spend on a new sofa at the moment.

I am sure that the original sofa we bought was not the cheapest one available and would like to be able to get a like for like replacement, and if we had to could find a of hundred quid to cover depreciation.

All we want is a sofa that works but cannot afford to accept their current offer and pay them a further £800 for the privilege!

What can we realistically expect to get from FV?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

neilmcl

What does the warranty T&Cs state. Does it say anything about new for old replacements, I'd suspect not. If not, then I'd say the offer is fairly generous.

neilmcl

As I suspected - "This may involve rectifying the problem, arranging for the unsatisfactory component to be replaced or refunding part of the original purchase price."

snuggywumple

That is what the guarantee says but i have seen other posts on here saying £50 per year is fair for depreciation.

Our only realistic affordable options seem to be
1) Buy a new 3 seater with the credit offer (+ an additional £121 as the cheapest reclining 3 seater on their website is £939) and end up with 2 sofas that don't match
2) Live with a broken sofa

Both of which seem a little unreasonable due to a structural fault which is covered by guarantee.

arcon5

I'd consider this to be a very good offer indeed!! Especially considering they are also accepting the non-faulty one back so you can replace them with a matching set.

snuggywumple

But we cant replace them without spending a minimum of £800 which we don't have

wealdroam

snuggywumple wrote: »

But we cant replace them without spending a minimum of £800 which we don't have

But you have had nearly five years use from them.
If you assume they are halfway through their life, is it not reasonable to pay half the cost for that use?
And as depreciation is higher during the earlier years, I too think their offer is generous.

What do you consider the life of these products?
Your "£50 per year" figure gives a projected life of around thirty six years (assuming linear depreciation).
Is that right?

Here's another question... how much would you pay for two five year old sofas?

Remember, that £818 figure is their first offer.
Maybe suggest that you would accept £900 if they offered it, and settle somewhere in between.

snuggywumple

I fully understand all the logic here - I agree that 10 years seems to be a reasonable life span and to depreciate the cost of that time is one way to look at it.

If they were to offer us 50% of the original purchase price + inflation (or preferably the cost of new sofas of equivalent standard which looking at their website is probably higher) in cash we would potentially consider it (and go elsewhere to buy a sofa).


If they had been able to fix it, it would have been at no cost to us and we would have been perfectly happy but the parts are not available so this is not possible.

If they were able to replace the sofa, it would have been at no cost to us and we would have been perfectly happy but that design is no longer available to this is not possible.

However, we are not willing (or able) to pay them an additional £800+ now to get a working sofa that is still currently under guarantee.

We are not trying to get 2 brand new sofas, we are trying to get 2 matching working sofas!

somethingcorporate

Where did you read that £50 per year depreciation was right?

Would you pay £50 less than full price for a 1-year old used sofa? thought not.

I'd say 50% depreciation for 5 years was on the generous side.

wealdroam

snuggywumple wrote: »

We are not trying to get 2 brand new sofas, we are trying to get 2 matching working sofas!

If that's the case then take the money.

Armed with £800, you will easily be able to get two five year old sofas, and have change.

snuggywumple

they are not offering cash - they are offering store credit.

The only way to get too matching working sofas would be put the credit they are offering and another £800+ towards it. Ok, that way gets us two new sofas for £800 quid but we don't have the £800 and weren't planning to buy new sofas for another 5 years!

Doesn't anyone else see this as unfair?

We paid £1800 for two sofas which we expected to work for 5+ years (hopefully 10).

This hasn't happened - and the company is telling us that the only way to achieve this is to spend another £800!

As for the £50 per year, I am only quoting what i read elsewhere on this forum!