Habitat/Argos customer service complaint!

bentisdall

I bought a Sidney corner sofa from Habitat about 5 years ago. Unfortunately in the meantime the company went bust and was bought by Home Retail Group who also own Argos.
I then made the stupid mistake (on the advice of an upholstery cleaning expert) of washing the 2 big base cushion covers in a washing machine. They've shrunk to an unusable size.

Habitat still sell exactly the same sofa. However they say they have nothing to do with the previous company and refuse to help me in any way by telling me who their supplier is so I can order some fabric & get the covers made up or by making a special order from their supplier for 2 cushion covers. Although they said they could help me if I'd bought the sofa from them.
I imagine legally they're in the right but it seems incredibly bloody minded and unhelpful!
Any helpful advice? Or can we start a Twitter campaign to make them see reason?

monty-doggy

Was that in store or head office?

earthstorm

The Habitat name and only part of the business was bought by Home Retail Group. unless Home Retail Group bought all warranties and liabilities from the now liquidated Habitat then they have nothing to do with your purchase and as the item is not faulty as you admitted you were informed to place the covers in a washing machine which shrunk them. Also 5 years even i it was the old Habitat what would you expect them to do as after 6 months you would have to prove it was an inherent fault, which i dont think you could claim

can we start a Twitter campaign to make them see reason?

why they have done nothing wrong, they are not the retailer you purchased the item from, so under no obligation to help you.

bentisdall

I contacted head office. Yes I can see they have no legal obligation to help me. I'm must very disappointed that they won't try to help at all. I would of course expect to to pay for the new fabric or new covers.

shaun_from_Africa

Have you had a good look over the entire sofa unit to see if there is any label that might identify the fabric manufacturer or design of the fabric?

Another option would be to go into a Habitat store and ask to look at their fabric samples. If these are in a book, they might state the supplier on there.

bentisdall

After a lot of googling I've managed to find the supplier (Berto Salotti in Italy) so I've emailed them to see if they'll help me. Fingers crossed...