Dfs........

Tonyh167

I purchased 2 armchairs and a 3 seater manual reclining sofa from DFS Slough last year, which was delivered on January 12 this year. Everything was great until we made the mistake of sitting on it.
When standing up, I put my hand on the arm of the sofa for support, and the end seat section came apart/away from the rest of the sofa. 2 little lugs were aparently meant to keep the whole thing together. Delivery crew said they knew of the problem, as they had come across it many times before. I signed the paperwork as not happy with items delivered but it had to stay here until I had spoken to DFS CS, as they could not take it away (?????)
Communications went back and forth to DFS, including a video we made which very clearly showed the fault. Their response was to arrange for an 'Upholstery Specialist' from their Ruislip branch, to come out and have a look. Apparently they deal with the aftersales service.
January 23rd, Ricky comes out, sees the problem, says it is because the sofa is what they call a 'seperates'. No **** sherlock!!!! they certainly do that alright. He said we should have been told about that when discussing the purchase in store, but he recognized that that practice rarely took place and the display model may have been 'adapted' using his words. His solution......pull the sofa out, crawl under from the back and screw in a couple of wood screws. Proper fix that is going to last the life of the furniture.....NOPE. Didn't work.
I put the question to him as to why support rails only went under 2 seats and not the 3rd, as was the case in a similar design 3 seater reclining sofa we had purchased from them a number of years back? I said he would go back and order the full length rails from the manufacturer but as they were in Europe, delivery and fitting would not be until the beginning of April. Not much we could do. We were not happy at what appeared to be mis-selling practices at the Slough branch or DFS's approach overall but gave them the chance to rectify the situation, as they refused to replace of take away the items.
April came and went and eventually got a call in May and a visit on May 18th. Ricky walked in with 2 support rails for a 3 seater sofa.....BUT....not for this sofa. He said he expected he would have to drill some holes in the support rails for fitting (so these were not ever going to be specifically for this sofa then, just robbed from another) but these rails were no good and would have to get back in contact with the manufacturer, who it turns out now, was not in Europe, but DONCASTER. He also noted that a large number of the 'EasyGlide' feet had come off so would need replacing.
I complained to DFS Customer Care (yeah right) and stressed again how unhappy I was about the whole situation, and requested that either the sofa was exchanged or the order taken back and refunded. I had been waiting around and paying for something that was unsafe and unusable for 5 months, and did not relish the prospect of a further long wait.
DFS are now taking the line that they are carrying out a 'Goodwill Gesture' and that are modifying the furniture to suit my individual needs. The service manager, who at every opportunity has NOT contacted me even though DFS Care claim they have requested him to do so, says there is nothing wrong with it. THE FLIPPING THING COMES APART AS SOON AS YOU LEAN ON IT:eek: ITS NOT SAFE OR FIT FOR PURPOSE. My only need, not necessarily an individual one, is to be able to sit on and use the sofa, without fear of it separating, or trapping my baby grandson between the seats.

DFS have today point blank refused to do anything further, will not speak to me, will not refund or exchange, will not tell me when a supposed fix will be done. The only thing they will do....is keep taking money.

What, if any, rights do I have please. Sick and tired of looking at this furniture sitting in my living room that we cannot use, and that DFS claim they will be doing us a favour as and when, or if and when they properly fix it.

Greta_Sharbo

If they are carrying out a repair they need to do this within a reasonable timescale.

If there is a fault within the first 6 months (starting the day after delivery) it is deemed to be an inherent fault until DFS can prove otherwise.


How did you pay?

Tonyh167

The fault was found at point of delivery on Jan 12. Delivery drivers, as the header details, were aware of such problems but because delivery was at about 7am, and they could not take the items away due to refusal, I had to wait to speak to customer services. In the time it has been here since, they have come out, acknowledged the problem, screwed to random screws in as a sort of fix (a bodge job) and 4 months later came out with some random support rails to secure full sofa unit, but the sofa these had been removed from was not like ours so 2 minutes after walking in, the 'specialist' was walking back out and gone. Store/service manager has never spoken to me but according to DFS Customer Care via there twitter account, deems the sofa to have no fault, is as it should be, the sofa is meant to come apart if you lean on it or use the arms as support when standing up from sitting on it. All perfectly normal.
DFS will NOT exchange, refund, or outwardly acknowledge any conversations that may put them or their product in a bad light, brushing it aside as mere hearsay. Any attempt to secure the furniture will be done purely as a gesture of DFS's goodwill to modify/customise the furniture to my individual needs. REALLY!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
No idea when or what they think they will do next but we just have to sit here and look at it, unable to use it.

We paid approximately 25% upfront as deposit on placing order and the rest was finances through Barclays Partners Finance. We don't want to stop payments as a sort of protest, as that will just put us in default and achieve nothing. They paid the money to dfs after DFS told them that we had accepted the goods and that there were no issues. That was a lie as I pointed out to them, stating that I had written my concerns on the delivery drivers paperwork and frequent complaints thereafter but that so far has not helped in any way.
So we are stuck. Paying for something we can't use, that to our face DFS agree is unsafe but behind a keyboard are having none of it.
So depressed over this.

Aylesbury_Duck

Firstly, don't get depressed about it. It's fixable, although I appreciate it's annoying. Contact DFS through their social media channels and make a fuss - most companies don't like being embarrassed on the internet. Speak to the finance company too because they are a stakeholder in this.

For the benefit of others that might be in a similar situation in future: You can refuse to accept delivery and they will have to take the thing back onto the truck.

Greta_Sharbo

What type of finance? Depending on the type Barclays are either jointly, or wholly liable so get on to them and make them sort it out.

May be easier with Barclays as you can then approach the Financial ombudsman. There is a furniture ombudsman to complain about DFS but they are fairly toothless.