5 year old sofa - repaired twice before - broken again

panthony

Hi everyone,

Would I be entitled to any sofa repairs this time around or anything else such as partial refund for example?

I ordered a £550 sofa from Kays&Co in December 2010, it was delivered in January 2011 and I made the first payment in February 2011.

In May 2012, just outside of warranty, some of the springs broke and I had to practically beg the company to repair it, I made a good argument citing my consumer rights and they eventually agreed to repair the broken springs free of charge using their own repairs company Homeserve.

Then, September 2012 some other springs broke, I had a lengthy argument with the company about my consumer rights and eventually they agreed to fix the other broken springs free of charge using their own upholsterer repairers Homeserve.

Now, in April 2015, some 30 months since that last repair took place, some of the sofa springs have broken yet again! I have called Kays&co to get them to put things right, but I ambeing fobbed off by them at the moment. According to them, they have done all they can by previously repairing the item on two occasions, and telling me that I need to complain to the manufacturer now to get any sort of resolution. Or to get my own damage report done to prove that they are at fault, and send it on to their head office for them to consider. Is this correct? Surely my contract is with the supplier NOT the manufacturer?

I emailed some pictures of the recent damage to a local repairer and he feels that the repair must not have been carried out correctly by the Kays&Co repairers Homeserve on the previous two occasions. The local tradesman's opinion is that ALL of the springs should have been replaced in 2012 not just the broken ones only. He quotes £50 callout and £100+VAT to do the job for me.

Should I give Kays&co another chance to do the repairs? or get it repaired myself and bill them for it? or should I get a refund or partial refund instead from them?

I just want a sofa that you can sit on without fear of falling into it! Before anyone asks, yes my two kids, four and seven, DO sometimes walk or jump on the sofa, but the local tradesman opinion was that this is irrelevant, that it should not come under accidental damage or wear and tear, because his opinion is that the sofa springs should be strong enough and of good enough quality to safely withstand such usage.

I would appreciate some sage advice on how I should proceed with this issue please

k3lvc

panthony wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Would I be entitled to any sofa repairs this time around or anything else such as partial refund for example?

I ordered a £550 sofa from Kays&Co in December 2010, it was delivered in January 2012 and I made the first payment in February 2011.

In May 2012 some of the springs broke and I had to practically beg the company to repair it, I made a good argument citing my consumer rights and they eventually agreed to repair the broken springs free of charge using their own repairs company Homeserve.


Then, September 2012 some other springs broke, I had a lengthy argument with the company about my consumer rights and eventually they agreed to fix the other broken springs free of charge using their own upholsterer repairers Homeserve.

Now, in April 2015, some 30 months since that last repair took place, some of the sofa springs have broken yet again! I have called Kays&co to get them to put things right, but I ambeing fobbed off by them at the moment. According to them, they have done all they can by previously repairing the item on two occasions, and telling me that I need to complain to the manufacturer now to get any sort of resolution. Or to get my own damage report done to prove that they are at fault, and send it on to their head office for them to consider. Is this correct?

I emailed some pictures of the recent damage to a local repairer and he feels that the repair must not have been carried out correctly by the Kays&Co repairers Homeserve on the previous two occasions. The local tradesman's opinion is that ALL of the springs should have been replaced in 2012 not just the broken ones only. He quotes £50 callout and £10+VAT to do the job for me.

Should I give Kays&co another chance to do the repairs? or get it repaired myself and bill them for it? or should I get a refund or partial refund instead from them?

I just want a sofa that you can sit on without fear of falling into it! PS, my two kids, four and seven, do sometimes walk or jump on the sofa, but the local tradesman opinion was that this is irrelevant (not accidental damage or wear and tear) because the sofa springs should be strong enough and of good enough quality to safely withstand such activity.

I would appreciate some sage advice on how I should proceed with this issue please

For a 5yo £550 sofa that has kids running/jumping on it I'd either snap up the £60 offer from your local repairer or go out and buy a new sofa

IMHO your chances of getting anything better from Kays or the manufacturer are on the zero end of slim

neilmcl

panthony wrote: »

Now, in April 2015, some 30 months since that last repair took place, some of the sofa springs have broken yet again! I have called Kays&co to get them to put things right, but I ambeing fobbed off by them at the moment. According to them, they have done all they can by previously repairing the item on two occasions, and telling me that I need to complain to the manufacturer now to get any sort of resolution. Or to get my own damage report done to prove that they are at fault, and send it on to their head office for them to consider. Is this correct?

Yes, absolutely. The law states that after 6 months the onus is on the consumer to prove that any fault is inherent to manufacture. Until you do this the retailer is under no obligation to provide you with a remedy.

panthony

k3lvc wrote: »

For a 5yo £550 sofa that has kids running/jumping on it I'd either snap up the £60 offer from your local repairer or go out and buy a new sofa

IMHO your chances of getting anything better from Kays or the manufacturer are on the zero end of slim

sorry, that was a typo, I have now corrected it £50callout and £100+vat NOT £10+vat, sorry for the confusion!

Also, I thought my contract is with the supplier and NOT the manufacturer? Therefore, I should not have deal with any manufacturers at all, as they did not sell me the thing! That is a job for my supplier not for me...

panthony

neilmcl wrote: »

Yes, absolutely. The law states that after 6 months the onus is on the consumer to prove that any fault is inherent to manufacture. Until you do this the retailer is under no obligation to provide you with a remedy.

Have they not already accepted that it is their responsibility, simply by their act of agreeing to repair it twice for free while being out of warranty?

Why do I only need to get an independent report on this 3rd occasion, when it was not required for the 2 previous occasions?

Also, I remember now that their own repairer did actually do some kind of an inspection report for them back in October 2012 which according to them then did show that the springs should have not been breaking so easily and so soon after purchase as they had done at that time.

I would argue that hey have already accepted liability so why do i now have to prove that liability now?

A good quality sofa should last between 10 and 15 years not just 3 or 4 years!

k3lvc

No - they've drawn the line - their 'goodwill' has run out and it's time for you to decide whether to spend time/energy fighting with the manufacturer or accepting that it now needs to go to sofa heaven

panthony

k3lvc wrote: »

No - they've drawn the line - their 'goodwill' has run out and it's time for you to decide whether to spend time/energy fighting with the manufacturer or accepting that it now needs to go to sofa heaven

It was never repaired out of 'good will' though.
BUT, it was repaired by them under their legal obligations due toThe Sale of Goods Act 1979 (not satisfactory quality and not fit for purpose) and The Limitation Act 1980 (claim for up to 6 years after the date of sale!)

Surely, my contract was with the supplier KaysandCo? I made no contract with any manufacturer, so why are they fobbing me off by telling me to contact the manufacturer? It is THEIR legal responsibility to deal with my complaints and not the manufacturer, isnt it?

So they accepted liablity, didn't they?
My position is that the subsequent repairs they carried out have also failed their contract with me, the repairs carried out were not of satisfactory quality and not fit for purpose; the repairs failed after just 5 months and then again after another 30 months.

I am today being told by a local repairer that when this repair issue was first raised with KaysandCo, that they should have actually replaced ALL the sofa's springs, not just the broken ones, this is because when two or three springs fail the remaining springs deal with excess strain than they should do, hence they should ALL be replaced at the same time to maintain srtuctural integrity

GreatBeyond

panthony wrote: »

Have they not already accepted that it is their responsibility, simply by their act of agreeing to repair it twice for free while being out of warranty?

Why do I only need to get an independent report on this 3rd occasion, when it was not required for the 2 previous occasions?

Also, I remember now that their own repairer did actually do some kind of an inspection report for them back in October 2012 which according to them then did show that the springs should have not been breaking so easily and so soon after purchase as they had done at that time.

I would argue that hey have already accepted liability so why do i now have to prove that liability now?

A good quality sofa should last between 10 and 15 years not just 3 or 4 years!

The company could have asked you to get a report before taking any action the first time it has been due to their goodwill that they havent.

You seem to be under the impression that because they have acted out of goodwill and just got the repair sorted previously this somehow makes them responsible for any future issues - this is not how it works.

If you are confident that its a manufacturing issue just get the report done and they will repair it. You said previously that you told them of your consumer rights to get the original repairs done, your consumer rights clearly state after 6 months you have to prove its a manufacturing defect. You can't pick and choose which consumer rights apply to you.

daveyjp

Unfortunately in the land of sofas you get what you pay for and whilst £550 is not a small amount of money, it is at the low end of what you have to pay to get anything of good quality.

Of the £550, about 50% is the VAT and retailer markup, so you actually have a sofa which cost £225 - not a lot money for quality materials, even if they are put together very well and there are no manufacturing defects.

Rather than argue with posters you would now be far better using your time preparing a letter of complaint with notice of what you want putting right.

If they don't act have it repaired at your expense and take them to small claims court.

GreatBeyond

panthony wrote: »

It was never repaired out of 'good will' though.
BUT, it was repaired by them under their legal obligations due toThe Sale of Goods Act 1979 (not satisfactory quality and not fit for purpose) and The Limitation Act 1980 (claim for up to 6 years after the date of sale!)

Surely, my contract was with the supplier KaysandCo? I made no contract with any manufacturer, so why are they fobbing me off by telling me to contact the manufacturer? It is THEIR legal responsibility to deal with my complaints and not the manufacturer, isnt it?

So they accepted liablity, didn't they?
My position is that the subsequent repairs they carried out have also failed their contract with me, the repairs carried out were not of satisfactory quality and not fit for purpose; the repairs failed after just 5 months and then again after another 30 months.

I am today being told by a local repairer that when this repair issue was first raised with KaysandCo, that they should have actually replaced ALL the sofa's springs, not just the broken ones, this is because when two or three springs fail the remaining springs deal with excess strain than they should do, hence they should ALL be replaced at the same time to maintain srtuctural integrity

The fact that they never made you obtain an independent report to show the issue was a manufacturing defect was an act of goodwill.

panthony

daveyjp wrote: »

Unfortunately in the land of sofas you get what you pay for and whilst £550 is not a small amount of money, it is at the low end of what you have to pay to get anything of good quality.

Of the £550, about 50% is the VAT and retailer markup, so you actually have a sofa which cost £225 - not a lot money for quality materials, even if they are put together very well and there are no manufacturing defects.

Rather than argue with posters you would now be far better using your time preparing a letter of complaint with notice of what you want putting right.

If they don't act have it repaired at your expense and take them to small claims court.

Hi everyone, I appreciate the input here, so please do not feel that I am making arguments with your opinions,

Rather, I am trying to form a sound legal argument, with your help I might add, that I can put to the company in question, versus what they might say was a goodwill gesture.

Giving a goodwill gesture does not necessarily mean that the company can waive its legal obligations construed under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 ,or does it?