DFS sofa poor quality thread bare!!!

DFS_representative

Hi it's Lauren at DFS,


I am very sorry that you are unhappy with your sofa.


I can see from your comments that you have already had a visit from one of our service managers and I am disappointed that he was unable to resolve the issues for you.


If you would like to give me a call at head office on 01302 330365 with your customer details I would be more than happy to discuss this matter further with you.


Many thanks


Lauren
DFS Customer Service

Jules_Thompson

I have had an issue with the 'leather' of one chair of my suite. A technician came out - and explained that the cream colour was not in fact impregnated into the leather, but was a sprayed coating and as we had not cleaned our sofa weekly, he could not help. He made the peeling of this coating a lot worse - so the chair is now completely unsightly and left - he was really unhelpful!
I have since been emailing the store and now head office again and have had no response for another week - I feel like I am being ignored and am really fed up.


What can I do?

unholyangel

Jules_Thompson wrote: »

I have had an issue with the 'leather' of one chair of my suite. A technician came out - and explained that the cream colour was not in fact impregnated into the leather, but was a sprayed coating and as we had not cleaned our sofa weekly, he could not help. He made the peeling of this coating a lot worse - so the chair is now completely unsightly and left - he was really unhelpful!
I have since been emailing the store and now head office again and have had no response for another week - I feel like I am being ignored and am really fed up.


What can I do?

I believe this is a known issue with "leather coated" suites instead of leather suites (although I'm not anywhere near an expert so don't take it as gospel). Perhaps googling "leather suite dfs peeling" would give you a better picture on that.

How old is your suite? How did you pay for it?

You may be able to use section 75 if you paid by credit card. If not, it may be a case of obtaining a report to state its inherently faulty and (if DFS refuse to remedy) contact the furniture ombudsman.

http://www.thefurnitureombudsman.org/

oldoakey

Jules_Thompson wrote: »

I have had an issue with the 'leather' of one chair of my suite. A technician came out - and explained that the cream colour was not in fact impregnated into the leather, but was a sprayed coating and as we had not cleaned our sofa weekly, he could not help. He made the peeling of this coating a lot worse - so the chair is now completely unsightly and left - he was really unhelpful!
I have since been emailing the store and now head office again and have had no response for another week - I feel like I am being ignored and am really fed up.


What can I do?

Firstly its not leather at all but what they call Bycast or Bonded leather which is sub standard covering that they often pass off as leather. The norm for this is that it peels within the first few years of use and there is no way I know of to do any kind of lasting repair.

I would Google the retailer and add peeling I am sure you will find many other people who have been misinformed in the same manner who have the same problem as your having now. Read through as few to try and find out what they have managed to do. I would also put everything in writing including what they say to you, this may come in handy at a later date.

For the repair guy who came out to look to try and blame you for not cleaning your sofa every week is a red herring in my view he is just trying to get out of their responsibilities.

judyb

Just because it is peeling does not automatically make it Bicast or Bonded leather and does not mean that it s not real leather.

When leather is created some hides are too damaged (insect bites, scars etc) to use as a dyed leather (aniline) so the surface is buffed and corrected and then pigment coated followed by a clear coat finish.
This is still leather.
it is often called - Finished, Corrected, Top Grain and lots of other names. The finish can peel and crack if not correctly looked after but it can also be fixed as long as there are no body oils present.
How old was your leather furniture and how was it looked after?

Bicast Leather is a 'split' leather with a polyurethane coating bonded to it, it cannot be called leather in the UK due to the thickness of the coating.

Bonded Leather uses ground up fragments of leather as a backing fabric which then has a coating of some sort attached to the top surface. These are often imprinted with grain patterns. Ths cannot be called leather because the leather part itself has been fragmented (a bit like the MDF of the leather world)

Hope this helps
Judyb

Jules_Thompson

Thanks to all those who have posted a response.


I think the suite is real leather - the technician said the colour was sprayed on.


We have had the suite for over 3 years, and I know it is past it's warranty, but I do not think a suite which costs what we paid for it is fit for purpose if this happens so quickly.


The sofa is cleaned properly about 3 or 4 times a year with the special kit supplied by dfs and given intermittent wipes down with a damp cloth now and again when needed.


What I also find poor is that you are not clearly told that the colour is a coating, I was definitely not told to 'clean it every week' as suggested by the technician and now no-one seems to be picking up on my complaint.


I note that a dfs representative has posted on other MSE user threads so may try her on Monday.


It would be good to know if this has resulted in any positive outcomes for anyone else?


regards
Jules

unholyangel

Jules_Thompson wrote: »

Thanks to all those who have posted a response.


I think the suite is real leather - the technician said the colour was sprayed on.


We have had the suite for over 3 years, and I know it is past it's warranty, but I do not think a suite which costs what we paid for it is fit for purpose if this happens so quickly.


The sofa is cleaned properly about 3 or 4 times a year with the special kit supplied by dfs and given intermittent wipes down with a damp cloth now and again when needed.


What I also find poor is that you are not clearly told that the colour is a coating, I was definitely not told to 'clean it every week' as suggested by the technician and now no-one seems to be picking up on my complaint.


I note that a dfs representative has posted on other MSE user threads so may try her on Monday.


It would be good to know if this has resulted in any positive outcomes for anyone else?


regards
Jules

How did you pay for it?

Jules_Thompson

We paid monthly through a credit agreement with Santander - do you think that increases or decreases my rights?

unholyangel

Jules_Thompson wrote: »

We paid monthly through a credit agreement with Santander - do you think that increases or decreases my rights?

Increases. It makes the credit provider jointly liable with the retailer (meaning you have the same rights with them as you do the retailer).

One thing to note is that I believe it only applies where the credit provided was for the contract in particular (ie specifically for the purchase of the suite and not a 10k "home improvements" loan with part of it being spent on the suite).

JS1981

I bought a sofa from DFS last year and it was delivered in September lastyear. It arrived faulty in that the frame squeaks and the leather is notsmooth, it has lines on it from where it was sat in transit.

We contacted the Reading store who sent out someone to fix it. It went back intothe store also to be fixed (4 separate occasions). The issue is still notresolved.

I am basically paying for a product that is faulty which clearly cannot befixed.

I have contacted Head Office customer services who passed me onto a storemanager in Farnborough. Although he was pleasant to speak to he said he wouldcall me back by Wednesday 4 June, he has still not called me back despite me leavingseveral messages.

I took in store credit with Barclays sofa, doe anyone know what else I cando?!

This is causing me so much stress, sleepless nights and upset. Why are sofa companies allowed to get awaywith this. They keep saying they have aten year guarantee on frames! This doesn’thelp when the guarantee does not fix the issue on 4 separate occasions!!!