Anyone used www.oakfurnitureland.co.uk?

beanandbean

SO & I had our sofa delivery from them today. Paid for the damage cover and paid the extra delivery fee. Maybe looking back we were talked into both by lovely salesman, but oh well! Live and learn.

Sofa is beautiful and was reasonably priced. Hopefully nothing goes wrong with it :-)

beanandbean

Oh and I should add that the salesman said "Just so you know our prices are going up in X amount of days, and I'm not just saying that. We legally have to sell at a certain price increase for a certain number of days per year in order to maintain our 'Sale now on!!' claims"

Vickylou01

Has anyone got any experience of their mattresses? We are buying a pocket sprung pillow top.

joliotcurie

We were on the hunt for a pair of bedside tables, and found plenty of pleasant examples in Oak Furnitureland’s shop. OK, the “solid wood” was often lots of small pieces of timber, glued together, but the prices were very reasonable. We were even offered a cup of coffee.

Our experience started to deteriorate at the sales desk. The company advertises free delivery, but we were told that if we wanted a specific time slot, or to have the furniture put in a particular room, we would have to pay £39 for express delivery. Neither could we collect the items from the shop, because no stock was held there. We were told that we were not actually in a shop, but a showroom, despite it being described as a “store” on the web-site. Being retired, and thrifty, we decided that we were prepared to hang around the house for a day and chose the free delivery. Extended warranties are often poor value for money, and we always decline them, so the moment that the sales rep. started on the spiel, we said: “Please don’t continue, we don’t want the extended warranty”. No chance. She told us that she was going to tell us about it anyway and insisted on reading out her script, which we ignored as best we could, saying “No” when it was finished. Would we like a tin of beeswax? £15 and we must apply it twice a year in order to maintain our furniture. No, we had beeswax at home.

Finally, after what had seemed like a long and complex negotiation we concluded the sale. I put my debit card into the card reader, a receipt was printed out, and we prepared to leave. At this point, almost as an afterthought, we were presented with an “Owner’s Manual”, a booklet containing care instructions and also the company’s terms and conditions. I was asked to sign a form, agreeing to read the manual within two working days. But the sale had completed, why should I sign anything afterwards? When I refused, the sales assistant called in her boss. He agreed to let us off the signature, but we did have a long discussion in which we complained about how delivery information was only disclosed at the point of sale, and how it was wrong to ask us to sign up to terms and conditions after the sale.
We came home, pleased to have our new bedside tables on order, but disappointed at our treatment, feeling that we had had far too much “hard sell” and feeling rather patronised by the staff.

The next day, the store manager rang us up and cancelled the sale. His attitude was “No signature, no furniture”. We were outraged and very disappointed.

Legal advice confirmed that Oak Furnitureland was indeed in breach of contract, and that they should have supplied us with the goods. Wondering if our experience was unusual, I started searching the Web for customer feedback on Oak Furnitureland, and came across this thread. Having read the comments here, and seeing how many are about poor after-sales service I am now wondering if Oak Furnitureland has saved us from ourselves!

Poppy9

joliotcurie wrote: »

We were on the hunt for a pair of bedside tables, and found plenty of pleasant examples in Oak Furnitureland’s shop. OK, the “solid wood” was often lots of small pieces of timber, glued together, but the prices were very reasonable. We were even offered a cup of coffee.

Our experience started to deteriorate at the sales desk. The company advertises free delivery, but we were told that if we wanted a specific time slot, or to have the furniture put in a particular room, we would have to pay £39 for express delivery. Neither could we collect the items from the shop, because no stock was held there. We were told that we were not actually in a shop, but a showroom, despite it being described as a “store” on the web-site. Being retired, and thrifty, we decided that we were prepared to hang around the house for a day and chose the free delivery. Extended warranties are often poor value for money, and we always decline them, so the moment that the sales rep. started on the spiel, we said: “Please don’t continue, we don’t want the extended warranty”. No chance. She told us that she was going to tell us about it anyway and insisted on reading out her script, which we ignored as best we could, saying “No” when it was finished. Would we like a tin of beeswax? £15 and we must apply it twice a year in order to maintain our furniture. No, we had beeswax at home.

Finally, after what had seemed like a long and complex negotiation we concluded the sale. I put my debit card into the card reader, a receipt was printed out, and we prepared to leave. At this point, almost as an afterthought, we were presented with an “Owner’s Manual”, a booklet containing care instructions and also the company’s terms and conditions. I was asked to sign a form, agreeing to read the manual within two working days. But the sale had completed, why should I sign anything afterwards? When I refused, the sales assistant called in her boss. He agreed to let us off the signature, but we did have a long discussion in which we complained about how delivery information was only disclosed at the point of sale, and how it was wrong to ask us to sign up to terms and conditions after the sale.
We came home, pleased to have our new bedside tables on order, but disappointed at our treatment, feeling that we had had far too much “hard sell” and feeling rather patronised by the staff.

The next day, the store manager rang us up and cancelled the sale. His attitude was “No signature, no furniture”. We were outraged and very disappointed.

Legal advice confirmed that Oak Furnitureland was indeed in breach of contract, and that they should have supplied us with the goods. Wondering if our experience was unusual, I started searching the Web for customer feedback on Oak Furnitureland, and came across this thread. Having read the comments here, and seeing how many are about poor after-sales service I am now wondering if Oak Furnitureland has saved us from ourselves!

If you really want the bedside tables buy online. No hard sales and free delivery. Else look for a small independent locally who will often make to order and for similar price. We have TV cabinet from Oakland and its fine. Considering getting small sideboard to match as it's the only one we've found that fits in our alcove and misses the gas pipe which we can't remove or move as it's fitted in our original solid oak floor.

seast91

Our sales experience was good, we advised the salesman that our lounge was on the first floor but he told us that the delivery men would ensure all furniture was delivered to it's room. Upon arrival one of the delivery men advised he had sciatica and couldn't possibly get the sideboard up any stairs. I asked them to take the delivery back as obviously we couldn't just have it dropped in the hallway but they advised that we would have to pay for them to take it away. In the end it was left in out garage and we had to arrange for someone else to get it up to the lounge for us. This was topped off by the mirror which admittedly was okay until we dropped it. Luckily we took out their insurance so a replacement was sent out. The replacement was in pieces in the box! We sent it back along with the original mirror and awaiting a second replacement, this delivered with scratched glass and was also returned. The third replacement arrived having been "quality checked"...as soon as we opened the box we saw a chip in the top of the frame. Now they claim based on photos I provided that the chip is not a chip but a "variance" and are refusing to replace it. The attitude is absolutely disgusting, to inconvenience a customer to this extent (having spent £1600 with them) and to then argue that an obvious impact damage is a "variance" and acceptable, I mean you but these things to make your home look nice! The furniture, when it is undamaged is quite good but beware if things go wrong!

Lioness_Twinkletoes

TBeckett100 wrote: »

I can't see why anyone would buy their shoddy goods. Went in at the weekend, horrendous stuff, through it was superseded by a visit to SCS. One guy was showing council housed people a 'delightful' black sofa and another tried to flog us another sofa. I politely thanked him and said it was very kind of the firm to employ blind designers but we aren't his target market.

How rude! 1) How do you know they were 'council house people' (perhaps they were wearing a sign?) and 2) what has that got to do with anything? Are you seriously suggesting that people who live in social housing are lesser human beings? They have no taste or class?

What a revolting person you are. This entire post shows you in the worst possible light. Do you realise this?

beanandbean

Lioness_Twinkletoes wrote: »

How rude! 1) How do you know they were 'council house people' (perhaps they were wearing a sign?) and 2) what has that got to do with anything? Are you seriously suggesting that people who live in social housing are lesser human beings? They have no taste or class?

What a revolting person you are. This entire post shows you in the worst possible light. Do you realise this?

I have nothing to add, just quoting for emphasis.
What a horrible berk.

cher007

Read your terms and conditions before buying! I had to pay £125 return fee on a dining set that arrived in the WRONG colour!

I went into my local OFL on the ‘last day of the sale’ knowing full well what I wanted to order but the saleslady in there was so pushy, literally forcing me to add things I didn’t need or want to my order and also when I said I’d return in an hour or so with my husband so he could see what we’re ordering, she said ‘just order and we can always change it to something else if he doesn’t like it.’ Not liking that sort of pressure I walked right out and ordered what I needed online so she missed out on her commission thanks to her aggressive sales technique. I ordered the Baku Light (mango) small and large sideboards, console table, a large mango mirror and then separately, a few days later, ordered the dining table (same range) and 6 cream leather chairs - so a large order.

Apart from the aggressive sales lady, the service (by phone) and delivery for my first set of goods was good, I had no complaints there. Console table arrived damaged though (both bolts couldn’t go into one of the legs) so I returned it for another. In the meantime my dining table and 6 cream leather chairs arrived. Big mistake I made was not looking at the cream leather chairs instore first, assuming cream leather is cream leather. Well they arrived LIGHT GREEN. I thought perhaps it was just me but several people said ‘ah, mint chairs?’ I went instore to see if it was just my batch that looked like this and to see if there was any alternative I could change them for. Well the ‘cream’ leather chairs instore looked lime green! When I asked the saleslady (yes the same pushy one) she said ‘yes they’re a lovely pistachio cream’ PISTACHIO cream? Another salesman I asked said it’s the lighting. I couldn’t find a suitable alternative as I specifically wanted cream leather chairs and so I requested them to be returned.

I was told a return would cost me £125. £125!!!!! I called and spoke to several people because as far as I was concerned I ordered CREAM leather chairs and received GREEN leather chairs and that was not my fault! I sent through pictures (as requested) taken next to cream pieces of furniture showing that the cream leather was NOT cream, I took pictures indoors and outdoors. Staff were not interested and probably didn’t even look at the pictures and insisted I pay the £125. I had to pay it as my returns period was now coming to an end and then I’d be stuck with the lot.

Then my replacement console table arrived – one bolt wouldn’t go in AGAIN plus it had a massive dent in the table. By this time I was fuming and sick of all the returns business. I was offered a discount off the console table which I had no choice but to take in order to balance the whopping return fee they charged me for the dining set. So now I have a wobbly console table (one bolt went into the leg but the second won’t – I’m sure I can perhaps get someone to fix it) with a huge dent in it plus I’m £125 worse off. I've tried inserting pics here of the light green chairs but it's not working unfortunately.

I am seriously disappointed (and livid) with their poor treatment of customers. £125 is a complete and utter rip off. It appears to me their pre sales services is good but after sales is poor (after all they have your money now). Generally I really like the Baku Light furniture (thankfully) although there are signs of poor craftsmanship here and there which I’ve overlooked (as mostly inside rather than outside e.g. shelving doesn’t quite fit snug). I shall be sending an email off to their CEO/ MD and will post on every social media site I can get my hands on. That is not the way to run a business. Not in this day and age.

With hindsight I shouldn’t have gone running blindly to OFL, and should have looked at the cream leather chairs instore before ordering so hey that was an expensive lesson learnt. There are other great suppliers out there that treat their customers well. I’ve since ordered another mango dining table at a quarter of the price from Trade Furniture Company who provide fantastic customer service and FREE returns and 6 PROPER CREAM dining chairs from the Cotswold Company, again who treat customers like human beings.

Would I use OFL again? Hell no. Expensive lesson learnt. Grrrr. :mad::mad:

bod1467

tl;dr

Did you get your money back? If not then send them an LBA for the missing monies, then follow up with a court claim. If goods do not conform to contract then they CANNOT charge a returns fee.