Creation Finance

Bobby0113

First post here but hoping for some advice! We purchased a sofa last year through Sofology and at the time as we were ongoing with a bit of a ‘project’ house we decided to take advantage of the 0% finance option through Creation to take the pressure off a little at the time. The initial order was amended so we had to go back into store to amend the amount and complete and sign again our finance agreement. Upon completion of this we verbally confirmed with the store assistant the final payment date upon which we needed to pay the amount in full so as not to incur interest, this was 24/9/19 so I made a note of this in my diary so as not to forget!

I was also emailed a copy of the contract and checked the date of payment was correct which it stated the same date we had been told in store. With the payment date approaching, last week I logged on to my account to complete the full payment for our purchase and to clear the finance, I was shocked to see that it had jumped up by £1300! Thinking there must be a mistake as both myself and my husband had read the contract and the store had clarified our payment date I rang Creation. Shockingly it seems that our ‘special offer rate’ ran out on 31/8/19 so they had therefore applied 6 months interest to our bill! I advised I was more than willing to pay the original finance amount off in full but was told that they couldn’t remove the additional interest and that if I’d spoken to them in the first two weeks then it could have been removed at their discretion but now being into three weeks after that time, it wasn’t an option?!

I asked why no reminders had been sent out advising that this ‘special rate’ date (which I wasn’t even aware of) was about to expire, apparently the Creation Sofology accounts are the only ones they don’t do text/email reminders for yet for all their other accounts they do! They said they had sent a letter out in the post advising us of this cut off date yet we never received a letter!! I’m lost as to what to do, I’ve put in a complaint stating how appalling and misleading their contract has been and that their lack of correspondence has resulted in an unfair and unreasonable amount of interest. I actually cannot believe this has happened to two normally intelligent people and how such critical information could have been missed by three adults who all looked at the account! This is the second time I have done 0% finance for a sofa yet the first time was most definitely not this confusing!!

I am scared now that the complaint procedure is going to only delay and add even more interest to something we simply want to clear, we have saved all year to pay this off but simply can not afford the additional extortionate interest! I’m wondering if anyone else has been in this situation and what the outcome was?

[Deleted User]

I doubt you'll get any joy with your complaint, as the terms will be in the agreement you signed.

You may get a goodwill gesture, but pay as much of it off as you can in the meantime.

Willing2Learn

If it were me, I would make an official written complaint by Royal Mail. In your second paragraph you said "I was also emailed a copy of the contract and checked the date of payment was correct which it stated the same date we had been told in store. "Does that mean you have it in writing that the final payment date was 24/09/2019?

Bobby0113

It states that the “first payment date” was 24/9/19, because I asked in store what the date was to pay in full without incurring interest, this was the date we were told, it seems that was wrong, not only did they read the contract wrong, so did we! It seems the ‘first payment date’ means the first date of monthly instalments not the date to lay the balance in full. Our online account has always stated the payment date was 24/9/19 also but the small print on the initial contract has it there in the very small print that to avoid the interest, the payment was to be made by 31/8/19. I cannot believe they can get away with such a misleading contract with no correspondence, very bad practise by today’s standards.

Bobby0113

Thankyou, I think I’ll lay the full amount we have and then have to pursue our complaint whilst chipping away at the interest in the meantime otherwise I’m scared the amount is going to spiral.

Willing2Learn

In that case I have to agree with zx81 in that your best chance is for the interest to be written off on a goodwill basis. It does seem harsh, but the small-print should have been read at the beginning of your contractual agreement.


I would still make the written complaint, on the basis that you were verbally given incorrect information about the duration of interest-free period. I agree with you, and would make the payment due (including interest), whilst your complaint is investigated.

Bobby0113

Ok Thankyou, I’m going to ring them again tomorrow and finalise payment for the initially amount to at least try and save incurring too much interest!