Broken dining room chair leg - what are my rights?

warmhands.coldheart

Sorry Primrose, but at the minute I'm with Keystone and some of the others on here. Legs of chairs don't "Just Snap Off".... something has happened to it to damage or weaken it. If it's lasted 3 years and has only happened now, I can't imagine you'll get much of a response from the shop or the manufacturer. You would have to be able to prove it was a product defect and from what you've said that it snapped off leaving a jagged edge, that does sound like it's down to undue stress on the leg rather than the failure of a joint or a fixing. do you have any pictures of it you could post on here? It would be very helpful in assessing the damage and it's possible cause?

macman

You can politely explain the circumstances and just maybe they'll replace it-what do you have to lose by trying? But you don't have any rights to a replacement or compensation after 3 years. You'd have to prove a pre-existing fault at your expense..

keystone

Primrose wrote: »

Keystone, I find that comment rather impolite.

Sorry about that but I tell it as I see it. Sometimes bluntness is far more efficacious than the "there there wrap you up in cotton wool" approach.

I am not blaming the retailer but have to start somewhere with my complaint.

The crux of the matter is do you actually have a complaint. Although posters here can only base their judgement on what you have written nobody here apart from you seems to think you do. That either says something about the nature of the "complaint" or about the way you have expressed it.

It was an expensive dining room suite and I am upset because I was simply reaching across the table to get the salt when the leg snapped.

I'm sure it was and I'm sure you are.

I don't lean back on chairs on two legs and treat good furniture with disrespect.

I didn't suggest that YOU did but how can you be sure that during three years SOMEONE didn't?

I was simply trying to find out how best to deal with the problem to get a satisfactory conclusion, ie hopefully to get a replacement chair.

Thats the key - your satisfactory conclusion is a replacement chair which is understandable but your use of the word "hopefully" suggests you already recognise the chances are slim. The question is whether you ask your insurer to pay for it or you pay for it or the supplier pays for it. After three years in truth the likelyhood of the latter doing so is slim because they will argue you have little case and they would be correct. You can't prove there is/was a defect and you can't prove they haven't been mistreated. Saying so doesn't make it so and whether you like it or not that is the reality. Three weeks old would almost certainly be a different story.

You don't want to pay which is also understandable. So that leaves your insurance unless your excess is greater than the cost of a new chair in which case its cheque book time. Perhaps and its very much a perhaps you might be able to rely on "goodwill" to get you a new one from the supplier BUT the chances of that will be directly proportional to the way you approach it. The long face, fluttering eyelids and "purrlease help me out" approach laced with a generous dose of humility might work. The "it is clearly defective and I know my rights" in your face aggressive one won't.

I don't think a good quality teak chair leg should suddenly snap like that after only three years of use, especially when it hasn't been mistreated. Our previous teak chairs lasted for 30 years!

Unfortunately subjective opinions and experience with other products which may or may not be similar have no bearing on this sort of matter. Sorry.

Cheers

mart.vader

Posted by Keystone ; "The long face, fluttering eyelids and "purrlease help me out" approach laced with a generous dose of humility might work."

That only works for Melinda Messenger, and then only when she's on TV !

I saw on Watchdog the other night, they say that there is no six months, or any other time limit, it just has to last a "reasonable" period of time. Here's the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74

If the break is, say, at a knot in the wood, or a thin part of the chair leg, you might have a better case. If the supplier won't play ball, and they may not, after three years, maybe a furniture repairer/ restorer ?

jellie

mart.vader wrote: »

I saw on Watchdog the other night, they say that there is no six months, or any other time limit, it just has to last a "reasonable" period of time. Here's the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74

During the first six months, the onus is on the supplier/manufacturer to prove the item wasn't faulty. After six months, the onus shifts to the complainant to prove it was defective when it was sold to them.

What is a reasonable length of time for any item is very subjective. Personally I would expect dining chairs to last a lot longer than three years, however unless there is a very clear manufacturing fault the supplier would be within their rights to say that they have been mis-used.

OP - as has been suggested you will be better off starting your conversation with the retailer by asking for their help, not by accusing them of supplying shoddy goods however tempting that might be.

tired_dad

IMHO, hiding to nothing. Start getting used to one less chair, or try eBay to source a second hand one (remote possibility) or start saving for new chairs unless a carpenter says its repairable (which I doubt)