Bed doesn’t fit through house!

Kan2020

comeandgo said:

Robin9 said:

I've known houses where windows have to be taken out to get furniture in.

My grans bedroom window was taken out to get the coffin out.
it is your responsibility to check items you order can be fitted up the stairs though I agree with you regarding the bed being second hand, if the plastic is still on the items and they have not left the van then surely the items were not delivered and are not second hand.

Thank you, we did check, and from our measurements we believe it should have fitted. What we can’t recreate is all the different angles it would have needed to pass to get upstairs. We might have gone wrong somewhere the measurements but I’m sure this happens more often than not and there must be something that can be done 🤷🏽‍♀️

davidmcn

If in doubt, shops can make a pre-delivery visit to check everything will fit. I would have said it's otherwise your problem, were it not for the duff advice from the salesperson which has muddied the waters somewhat - I'm guessing that wasn't in writing? 

Kan2020

davidmcn said:

If in doubt, shops can make a pre-delivery visit to check everything will fit. I would have said it's otherwise your problem, were it not for the duff advice from the salesperson which has muddied the waters somewhat - I'm guessing that wasn't in writing? 

No it wasn’t in writing HOWEVER, he admitted what he had said in front of the Sales Manager when we visited last week, about not knowing that super king size bed bases are head to toe rather than left to right. When we spoke to the sales manager on Friday after the second failed delivery he said that was noted on our account so I’m hoping there’s a positive outcome from this 🤞🏾 hope it’s nothing more than losing our deposit of £240 and then just purchase another bed.

Kan2020

pinkshoes said:

As you made it clear to the sales assistant that you lived in a town house and they said that was fine, then you have clearly taken steps to ascertain that the bed would fit. 

They should have then informed you the dimensions of each piece as most general public would not have known how a super kong divan fits together.

This was an error on the sales assistant's behalf. 

Could you not change the order to a slatted bed rather than a divan? Much easier to get up the stairs!!

I think we will have to change to a slatted and also possible a king size bed rather than super king. The only other frustrating thing is we’ve bought all the bedding from John Lewis! One set is still in its packaging so hoping we can return it (bought end of April so pay their return policy days) but let’s see. What a mess!

unforeseen

I had to look up what a townhouse was and even then it wasn't really clear. So it's a narrow house with a small footprint. In which case ANY furniture you buy would need serious research, not just a mention to the sales assistant that it is a townhouse. 
There is no accepted definition of what a town house is apart from rabbit hutch over 3 or more floors

soolin

We have a lot of houses termed townhouse locally , sometimes it refers to older terraces with third floor extensions but mainly to 3 storey properties, new build terraced with the garage on the ground floor. However there is no such thing as a standard townhouse, some are big with plenty of staircase room and some being slightly open plan with stairs not boxed in would easily take a super large bed. Others are quite small with steep stairs and still might take a bed, others though that have a less steep stair but with a turn would be problematic.

The issue is probably that what the salesman considers a townhouse and what you have are two totally different things. My own house is fairly spacious but old and has two turns in the stairs and that makes furniture difficult sometimes. 

Manxman_in_exile

We've lived in the same mid-size terrace house for 25 years (it's 100+ years old) and I have never ceased to be amazed at the size of items of furniture both delivery and removals men manage to get into and manipulate around the house.  Admittedly we have a straight up and down staircase and I presume the OP does not.  The bed must be f'ing huge* and I've thought the OP would have had serious doubts about getting it in the house.

Having said that, however, I don't think it's wholly reasonable of Furniture Village to say it's the customer's responsibility to measure up and confirm that it will fit.  I'm pretty handy with a measuring tape and I certainly wouldn't trust myself to be able to confirm that delivery men could or could not get a really large item of furniture up a staircase with a turn to it.  If I'd been the OP I think I'd have asked for a confirmatory site visit beforehand.  If Furniture Village wouldn't do that, then they'd get no sale.  If FV are selling items this big*, then they really ought to have prominent notices at point of sale saying "It's your responsibility to ensure furniture fits your house".  Did they?

Added to this, if the FV sales assistant (wrongly) said it would go in the house, then I think they ought to be taking full responsibility and I reckon OP should get a full refund.  (I might grudgingly admit to a very small reduction - certainly not 25% or £600).  I'd be bombarding them with complaints including on social media.  And if I had a copy of my file or other evidence saying FV said it would fit, I'd be suing to recover any deposit they kept.

Second thought - does OP have any chance of a successful s75 claim?  Aren't they paying balance on finance?

*I have seen bedroom windows get taken out to deliver wardrobes etc.  (I reckon you could deliver a small car to our bedroom that way).  But looking at modern, "rabbit-hutch" town houses, I'm always surprised by how small the windows and doors look.  All in the interests of energy efficiency no doubt, but I often wonder how large (not unreasonably large) items of furniture get delivered.  Do people consider this when buying these houses?

Kan2020

Manxman_in_exile said:

We've lived in the same mid-size terrace house for 25 years (it's 100+ years old) and I have never ceased to be amazed at the size of items of furniture both delivery and removals men manage to get into and manipulate around the house.  Admittedly we have a straight up and down staircase and I presume the OP does not.  The bed must be f'ing huge* and I've thought the OP would have had serious doubts about getting it in the house.

Having said that, however, I don't think it's wholly reasonable of Furniture Village to say it's the customer's responsibility to measure up and confirm that it will fit.  I'm pretty handy with a measuring tape and I certainly wouldn't trust myself to be able to confirm that delivery men could or could not get a really large item of furniture up a staircase with a turn to it.  If I'd been the OP I think I'd have asked for a confirmatory site visit beforehand.  If Furniture Village wouldn't do that, then they'd get no sale.  If FV are selling items this big*, then they really ought to have prominent notices at point of sale saying "It's your responsibility to ensure furniture fits your house".  Did they?

Added to this, if the FV sales assistant (wrongly) said it would go in the house, then I think they ought to be taking full responsibility and I reckon OP should get a full refund.  (I might grudgingly admit to a very small reduction - certainly not 25% or £600).  I'd be bombarding them with complaints including on social media.  And if I had a copy of my file or other evidence saying FV said it would fit, I'd be suing to recover any deposit they kept.

Second thought - does OP have any chance of a successful s75 claim?  Aren't they paying balance on finance?

*I have seen bedroom windows get taken out to deliver wardrobes etc.  (I reckon you could deliver a small car to our bedroom that way).  But looking at modern, "rabbit-hutch" town houses, I'm always surprised by how small the windows and doors look.  All in the interests of energy efficiency no doubt, but I often wonder how large (not unreasonably large) items of furniture get delivered.  Do people consider this when buying these houses?

We’ve never bought a large piece of furniture like this before so I wasn’t aware that you could ask for a confirmatory visit, something I’ll definitely bare in mind next time. 

They didn’t have a sign at point of sale, but as the sales manager unhelpfully pointed out to us, it was in the T&Cs given to us after the sale, which states it’s our responsibility to ensure it will fit through the house etc. 

If we don’t get a satisfactory outcome, then I will definitely be complaining as you’ve said, especially if we end up losing £625 (Worst case scenario), with a baby on the way that’s not the kind of money we can afford to be losing out on for nothing.

I’ll have a look at s75.

My one concern is if we manage to get the bed in via a window etc, when we move in a few years time, we’ll be going through this with the removals people all over again!!!

DCFC79

Kan2020 said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

My one concern is if we manage to get the bed in via a window etc, when we move in a few years time, we’ll be going through this with the removals people all over again!!!

Maybe a slatted bed would be an option then, cheaper than removing a window twice surely.

When you do move in the future use this as a learning experience.

soolin

Kan2020 said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

We've lived in the same mid-size terrace house for 25 years (it's 100+ years old) and I have never ceased to be amazed at the size of items of furniture both delivery and removals men manage to get into and manipulate around the house.  Admittedly we have a straight up and down staircase and I presume the OP does not.  The bed must be f'ing huge* and I've thought the OP would have had serious doubts about getting it in the house.

Having said that, however, I don't think it's wholly reasonable of Furniture Village to say it's the customer's responsibility to measure up and confirm that it will fit.  I'm pretty handy with a measuring tape and I certainly wouldn't trust myself to be able to confirm that delivery men could or could not get a really large item of furniture up a staircase with a turn to it.  If I'd been the OP I think I'd have asked for a confirmatory site visit beforehand.  If Furniture Village wouldn't do that, then they'd get no sale.  If FV are selling items this big*, then they really ought to have prominent notices at point of sale saying "It's your responsibility to ensure furniture fits your house".  Did they?

Added to this, if the FV sales assistant (wrongly) said it would go in the house, then I think they ought to be taking full responsibility and I reckon OP should get a full refund.  (I might grudgingly admit to a very small reduction - certainly not 25% or £600).  I'd be bombarding them with complaints including on social media.  And if I had a copy of my file or other evidence saying FV said it would fit, I'd be suing to recover any deposit they kept.

Second thought - does OP have any chance of a successful s75 claim?  Aren't they paying balance on finance?

*I have seen bedroom windows get taken out to deliver wardrobes etc.  (I reckon you could deliver a small car to our bedroom that way).  But looking at modern, "rabbit-hutch" town houses, I'm always surprised by how small the windows and doors look.  All in the interests of energy efficiency no doubt, but I often wonder how large (not unreasonably large) items of furniture get delivered.  Do people consider this when buying these houses?

We’ve never bought a large piece of furniture like this before so I wasn’t aware that you could ask for a confirmatory visit, something I’ll definitely bare in mind next time. 

They didn’t have a sign at point of sale, but as the sales manager unhelpfully pointed out to us, it was in the T&Cs given to us after the sale, which states it’s our responsibility to ensure it will fit through the house etc. 

If we don’t get a satisfactory outcome, then I will definitely be complaining as you’ve said, especially if we end up losing £625 (Worst case scenario), with a baby on the way that’s not the kind of money we can afford to be losing out on for nothing.

I’ll have a look at s75.

My one concern is if we manage to get the bed in via a window etc, when we move in a few years time, we’ll be going through this with the removals people all over again!!!

We have had a townhouse - one of the 1980 types with enclosed stairs and had to have our wardrobes built in as nothing pre built would go past the turn in the stairs. When we moved out we sold the property complete with built in wardrobes. When we bought it the previous owners were less than pleasant and tried to sell us their tatty old furniture that had been bought in one piece but sawed into pieces and rebuilt in situ. When we declined to buy the stuff they had to smash it up with sledgehammers as they couldn't get it back out- and they left the pile of wood in a top bedroom and we had to pay to get it all shifted and dumped. 

As for beds we had to have framed beds where all the parts came apart and could be rebuilt . we did get one double divan in but even that wasn't easy and each half had to be twisted and shuffled past the turn and damaged the wallpaper and paintwork