DFS Sofa wrong size

Aylesbury_Duck

photome said:

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

Just to put this into perspective, 270 cm is 9' - which in sofa terms is enormous; almost as wide as two double beds and is likely to be a four seater.  The sofa is allegedly 9 cm, or approximately 3 5/8" too big, thus does not fit into the gap the OP wishes it to fit into.  That means the gap intended to take the 9' sofa is, in all likelihood, slightly less than 9'3" wide.  
Discounting the manufacturing issue, then, I wonder if it's reasonable to expect a 9' sofa to fit properly into a gap of 9'1" to 9'2 1/2".  It just feels like the tolerance, the gap or the room, is too small for such a large piece of furniture regardless of whether it's 9', or 9'3 5/8" wide.  Perhaps a degree of caveat emptor applies?  Even if it did fit, at 9', it would almost be touching the walls and would make cleaning entirely impractical.  I'd have thought it would be more sensible to buy a modestly sized sofa, say 7' wide. 

I get what you are saying, I hadn’t really thought about the size . It is very big and only 3 inches bigger as you say, so shouldn’t really be much of an issue.

but I dont think you or I have any right to tell the OP it would be more sensible to buy a 7’ sofa

anyway doesnt look like the OP is returning

 give them time, they've got to clamber over a nine foot sofa to get to the PC!

Manxman_in_exile

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

...  That means the gap intended to take the 9' sofa is, in all likelihood, slightly less than 9'3" wide.  
...

I wonder if you may be crediting the OP with too much foresight here?  They've said it doesn't fit in the lounge, not that it doesn't fit in the intended space!  That's why I asked where it is.

I suppose it doesn't need to fit in a space - it could just go against a wall or in front of a fire.

Hold on!  Cripes!  I've just measured it out.  That's a very big setee.  It would fit in our lounge but I don't think it would go through the lounge door - there's not enough room in the hall to manipulate it.  And it's too big to leave in the hall...

JetpackVelociraptor

I run a furniture business. 10% margin of error for measurements is ridiculous. You can't accidentally miss-measure something to the tune of nearly a whole foot unless you are very, very bad at your job. The usual tolerance would be plus or minus 2cm either way, which is generous enough to still cause the occasional problem. Over a large modular suite you could have 2cm margin on each piece, so if it were a 4 piece you might gain an extra 8cm overall. I will always remember the chap who dug a channel in the plaster on his walls so that his new sofa would fit into an alcove that was just 2cm too small!

That suggests to me that DFS have had the sofa made somewhere other than their usual suppliers. Either way, OP should raise hell until it's sorted - the UK has laws against unfair contracts and I think telling you that there's a 10% margin of error on a sofa is very unreasonable indeed.

mattyprice4004

Anyone defending a 10% margin of error on something that'll be precision made time after time is just as barmy as DFS in this instance - 10% either way means they could vary in size by nearly 2 feet! 

Ditzy_Mitzy

Manxman_in_exile said:

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

...  That means the gap intended to take the 9' sofa is, in all likelihood, slightly less than 9'3" wide.  
...

I wonder if you may be crediting the OP with too much foresight here?  They've said it doesn't fit in the lounge, not that it doesn't fit in the intended space!  That's why I asked where it is.

I suppose it doesn't need to fit in a space - it could just go against a wall or in front of a fire.

Hold on!  Cripes!  I've just measured it out.  That's a very big setee.  It would fit in our lounge but I don't think it would go through the lounge door - there's not enough room in the hall to manipulate it.  And it's too big to leave in the hall...

I've had a look at the DFS website and the only things on there that are, or are in excess of, 9' wide are corner settee units.  9' wide straight settees don't seem to be very popular, owing to, I assume, the fact that they are too big to be manoeuvred into position in the typical British house.  DFS does not list a 9' wide straight settee.  The corner group type doesn't tend to have this issue as most designs are made up of various pieces, none individually bigger than a normal two or three seater.
If this thing is a corner settee then, depending on the specification, there are likely to be legitimate reasons why the size isn't exact.  DFS list various optional extras such as better upholstery padding, cover materials and motorization of any reclining seats within the group.  All of these are going to slightly alter the dimensions of the finished product.  I assume the measurements quoted are for the 'basic' model.  

Grumpy_chap

Is the oversize between the sofa and data sheet, or between the sofa and whatever the OP measured in store?

Ectophile

Can I just point out that the difference between 270cm and 279cm is nowhere near 10%.  It's actually more like 3.3%

If they said it's approximately 270cm, then is 279cm really wrong?

DoaM

Ectophile said:

Can I just point out that the difference between 270cm and 279cm is nowhere near 10%.  It's actually more like 3.3%

If they said it's approximately 270cm, then is 279cm really wrong?

Nobody was saying that it was 10% ... the comment was that DFS said that the actual dimensions could be up to 10% tolerance. 3.3% is within the up to 10% tolerance.  

The_Rainmaker

I have spent long enough on here to know that you don't buy from DFS and their ilk unless you are the type thta buys a sofa every 5 years. Cheap tat.

Silver_Shark

The_Rainmaker said:

I have spent long enough on here to know that you don't buy from DFS and their ilk unless you are the type thta buys a sofa every 5 years. Cheap tat.

Tat but not cheap. The biggest problem is dealing with them when things go wrong. Just read the bad reviews.