Furniture Village Sofa

justry4n

I recently bought a sofa from Furniture Village (FV) - the 'Carrara Fabric 3 Seater, scatter back + foot stall' costing in the region of £1.3k with Guardsprotect on finance for 2 years.

We've had the sofa since end of March, however, because the house wasn't ready to live in, the sofa remained in the packaging and unused till the start of May. At the beginning of June I called up Furniture Village to report an issue regarding the scatter back cushions going completely flat, even though they have regular plumping as per the care guidelines also the foot-stall cushion has gone out of shape.

FV sent out a technician mid June to have a look at these problems, and agreed, in front of my partner that these issues shouldn't be happening and would go back and report these problems. I just called up FV today to see the progress and the technician has reported there's no issue with the sofa, even though agreeing with me at the meeting!

Where do I stand with this?
The sofa gets barely used - i'm always away with work, and so is my partner.. I think we've both used it a grand total of 15 times for 2 hours max a time, and followed the care instructions before and after!!

FV won't help me anymore, and just fogging me off!

Please help!!

justry4n

Anybody ??

hollydays

https://www.thefurnitureombudsman.org/membership/our-retail-members/#members

justry4n

Thanks Holly - but what is this link?

askmeaboutsofas

Where do I stand with this?

That link Holly's given you goes to the Furniture Ombudsman website, an 'independent' 3rd party who arbitrate complains. If you go here:
https://portal.furnitureombudsman.org/
It will take you directly to the page where you can put together an application for them to arbitrate your complaint with Furniture Village. Basically, they will act as a kind of go-between to help you and Furniture Village come to an agreement. It's entirely voluntary on Furniture Village's part, so even if the ombudsman says they should decide in your favour Furniture Village could decide to ignore the decision. That said, I can't imagine it would look good for them if they did.
If you're struggling to prove to Furniture Village or the Ombudsman that it's a defect, I would recommend getting a properly independent report from an upholsterer who is not affiliated with Furniture Village. The big companies are Castellan and Homeserve Furniture Repairs, but your local upholsterer may be able to do a report for less.
If you're unable to come to an agreement with Furniture Village through the Ombudsman, you still have the option to take it up with your finance company under a section 75 complaint.

unholyangel

askmeaboutsofas wrote: »

That link Holly's given you goes to the Furniture Ombudsman website, an 'independent' 3rd party who arbitrate complains. If you go here:
https://portal.furnitureombudsman.org/
It will take you directly to the page where you can put together an application for them to arbitrate your complaint with Furniture Village. Basically, they will act as a kind of go-between to help you and Furniture Village come to an agreement. It's entirely voluntary on Furniture Village's part, so even if the ombudsman says they should decide in your favour Furniture Village could decide to ignore the decision. That said, I can't imagine it would look good for them if they did.
If you're struggling to prove to Furniture Village or the Ombudsman that it's a defect, I would recommend getting a properly independent report from an upholsterer who is not affiliated with Furniture Village. The big companies are Castellan and Homeserve Furniture Repairs, but your local upholsterer may be able to do a report for less.
If you're unable to come to an agreement with Furniture Village through the Ombudsman, you still have the option to take it up with your finance company under a section 75 complaint.

Its voluntary to be a member - but if they're a member they agree to be bound by their decisions. Therefore its not really voluntary, its a contractual requirement (which if they fail to adhere to, could be subject to penalty - not just damages).