Newish sofa badly designed - do I have any rights?

eddiedog

We purchased 2 feather and fibre filled sofas from multiyork last year. We ordered a 3 seater and 2 seater of slightly differing but complimentary designs, they were in the showroom together. The 2 seater size wasn't in the showroom to try before we bought it so we effectively picked it from the brochure. The sofas were delivered in May last year. We immediately phoned the store to tell them we were disappointed with the 2 seater it was uncomfortable but we were basically told there was nothing we could do.
So nearly 1 year on we called multiyork again to tell them we didn't think the sofa was fit for purpose, the cushions are constantly falling forward on the sofa, it effectively tips you out as the cushions won't stay in position. We don't have this problem with the larger slightly differently designed 3 seater. They sent a chap out to check it wasn't faulty, he checked the springs and said it was fine. We got back in touch with multiyork to be told they'd change the cushions to foam for us but we'd have to go halves with them and contribute £70 to the cost. I'm not happy with this as I wanted feather and fibre cushions but I also think if the sofa needed foam to function properly we should've been told that at the time (I wouldn't have picked that style or we would have ordered both sofas with foam fillings.
They've now told us that's all they're prepared to do and said for us to go through the furniture ombudsman if we're not happy.

Do I stand a chance of getting this resolved? Basically I want a different sofa.

Sorry for the long ramble, thanks for reading.

JJ_Egan

<called multiyork again to tell them we didn't think the sofa was fit for purpose>

You are going to have to prove that via an independent report first .
Any restitution will be less 12 months usage .

eddiedog

Thanks for your reply. Do you think that the ombudsman would help or do the report?

LilElvis

..... and even if you can prove that the sofa is inherently faulty it will be up to Multiyork to decide on the remedy - repair, replacement or (possibly partial) refund.

askmeaboutsofas

There's a number of things that can affect how comfortable a sofa feels to you, but it can be very subjective - sofas with shallow seats are not comfortable for tall people, for example, while others find that feather fillings don't provide enough support. Because it's subjective, reporting to Multiyork that you found the 2 seater sofa uncomfortable is not the same as saying it is faulty or not fit for purpose. It may be faulty, the filling may have failed in an unexpected way, or it may just not be right for you.

If you're certain that it is faulty you will need to get a truly independent company in to produce a report stating this. It goes without saying that you don't want to use the same company as the retailer, so check who did their report and check who does their warranties, then make sure you pick a different company. The company who does our warranties charges £108 including VAT for an inspection/report/1 hour of work, to give you an idea - you shouldn't be paying any more than that. EDIT - The furniture ombudsman recommend FIRA, apparently, but according to their Google reviews it can take 3 months plus for them to do anything. I would recommend using somebody else!

Once you have a report, you'll need to contact the retailer again. If you paid with a credit card or finance agreement, a section 75 claim could be your next step if they still won't deal with the issue.

Unfortunately if the report does not say that it is faulty, you will be out of pocket by the cost of the report. Again this probably goes without saying but if the report does not say there's a fault, you will be better off not mentioning that you've had a report done at all!

If you did want to replace the inners with foam, £70 to do so is a pretty good deal. If it bothers you that they wouldn't match the other sofa, perhaps you could ask them to replace all the inners instead of just the one sofa, so they match? It will be easier than trying to get a replacement if you can't prove a fault.

I don't know if this is going to be useful to you and you may already be doing all this, but I thought it might possibly be helpful to anyone with a similar problem:
As it's a feather/fibre mix, the filling will become lumpy and unevenly distributed over time. Assuming the filling or springs haven't failed, it sounds to me like the filling is now mostly at the back of your cushion. The front of the seat cushion is probably looking a bit thin / sad which is why you feel like you're being tipped off the front of the sofa. You can help this by regularly shaking and beating the seat cushions, and turning them once every few days or so, so they wear evenly. You want to turn the inner around inside the cover, so that the front is at the back and vice versa. To redistribute the filling, take the cushion pads out of the covers, hold up one hand and repeatedly smack it hard with the other hand. Then hold the inner up by the fabric covering, so that you're holding the end that normally fits to the back of the sofa seat, and shake it vigorously to distribute the filling more towards the front. If the filling doesn't move over enough, put the cushion inner on a clean floor and "knead" it, working from the back of the seat cushion to the front. Use repeated pushing-foward motions as if you were kneading bread dough. The result should be a cushion that's fuller at the front, with the filling going right to the edge of the front seam of the cushion, less full at the back and hence more comfortable. You will have to repeat this on a regular basis depending on how much use your sofas get.

JJ_Egan

eddiedog wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. Do you think that the ombudsman would help or do the report?

They wont do the report as such but Multiyork may well accept the report .But bear in mind that one guy has already said its acceptable .
If the ombudsman says the same then what are you going to do ??

I would be saying to myself a year gone i have to prove the fault and if proven i am very unlikely to get a new sofa to the same value .

eddiedog

Thank you all for your replies.
The chap that came said he was there to judge whether there was anything broken on the sofa, in effect he only checked the interior springs. He did suggest, off the record, that the style of sofa we have bought would work better with a foam filling but he said it wasn't his job to comment on that.

Not sure what to do now. Whatever happens we won't be keeping the sofa, if we can't get multiyork to do something we'll probably try to sell it, it just makes me angry we've been sold something that is clearly poorly designed - I understand that's my opinion though :-(

mylove4ever

Hello @askmeaboutsofas, please can you give me the name of the company that did your inspection? I am having problem with SCS sofa and need to get independent report. Thanks

askmeaboutsofas

Sure thing, it's Homeserve Furniture Repairs Ltd, their head office is in West Midlands but they serve the whole of the UK. There are a bunch of different companies with similar names though, so make sure you've got the right one - their logo is blue.
Good luck!

mylove4ever

askmeaboutsofas wrote: »

Sure thing, it's Homeserve Furniture Repairs Ltd, their head office is in West Midlands but they serve the whole of the UK. There are a bunch of different companies with similar names though, so make sure you've got the right one - their logo is blue.
Good luck!

Thank You!