Unhappy with sofa purchased from charity shop

1977dave

Hi everyone, just after a bit of advice.

I bought a sofa from a charity shop, it's an Ikea Kivik sofa, bought for £100 and thought I was getting a bargain, it looked ok and I know with these sofas the covers can be removed and cleaned.


The sofa was delivered today and I took the covers off and dismantled the sofa into its parts and stuck the covers in the wash. However the 2 back cushions and the padding that is attached to the armrests have massive yellow patches that absolutely stink of ammonia.

I've already spent £10 on some upholstery cleaner, a few boxes of bicarbonate of soda and a few bottles of white vinegar

I've used the cleaner on the cushions and arms, let it dry, then hoovered it up, and now I've sprayed a lot of the white vinegar and the covered in bicarb to see if I can lift the smells. If this doesn't work, what are my rights? I'm on Universal credit and can't afford to lose £100 on a sofa, especially when I donated my old sofa at the same time as this one was delivered, I've been quoted £40 to £45 to get the sofa professionally cleaned.

I feel very tight for asking, but could I ask the shop to pay this or for them to arrange for someone to come and clean it? I'm currently jobhunting and if I was working, I wouldn't hesitate in paying myself to have it cleaned, but it's money I can't afford to lose.

I only bought this sofa because the cushions are really firm to the point of being hard and would help so much with my osteoarthritis, where my old sofa was extremely uncomfortable for my back

Hoping to get some advice, before I ring the shop in the morning

Many thanks

Aylesbury_Duck

Depending on how it was advertised and sold, you may be able to reject it.  If that's the case, it gives you some leverage to push for a contribution to the cost of having it cleaned.

How did you order it?  In the shop or online?  How was it advertised?

1977dave

Hi

Thanks for the reply. It was just there in the shop it wasn't on the floor so couldn't sit on it, but was on some sort of frame stacked above another sofa.

I saw it in the shop and just paid for it and delivery, it didn't have a price or any signs on it, I just asked the price and bought it

I didn't ask about if it had been cleaned (I know BHF clean theirs) because of the removable covers, I didn't think about the padding underneath

sheramber

Did yu not smell the ammonia before you took the covers off and dismantled it?

You may have made a donation for the sofa rather than buying it.

Laz123

Can you afford dry cleaning? So launderettes have a machine.

oldagetraveller1

"So launderettes have a machine."

Big enough to accomodate a sofa in order to clean the fixed arm padding?

jon81uk

Probably should have asked the shop before you started spraying it with vinegar etc.

I expect most would have taken it back, although you may still have needed to pay for the collection.

BHF say you have 30 days, but must be in same condition as when you bought it, so you spraying vinegar onto it might have made it unreturnable.

How big is the sofa? A three seater Kivik is £495 new, so spending too much on cleaning just won't be worth it. Seems pointless spending £100 on a sofa and £100 on cleaning which is then getting on for half the cost.

born_again

Might be cheaper just to buy some foam for new padding.

pbartlett

I wouldn't want a sofa with massive ammonia-smelling yellow patches anywhere near my house, cleaned or not.

In fairness, the charity shop were probably not aware of the patches either.

Contact the shop, see what they say, and get rid of the sofa down the dump asp - it is a health hazard.

1977dave

Hi everyone

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I've spoken to the shop, sent them photos of the sofa, told them what I've done so far to clean it.

I woke up this morning and the smell was overpowering, even with the windows open all night and the smell has given me a banging headache.

The shop have asked me to give it another clean and to ring back on Monday if I'm still not happy and they'll either give me a discount or a refund

It's not the shops fault, because to get the covers off you have to dismantle the sofa, so they wouldn't have known

So I've made a solution of laundry detergent, white vinegar and gave it a clean, used Plenty to soak up the excess and then mixed a kilo of bicarb with lavender oil and sprinkled it all over, so will wait for it to dry.

I've done all I can do, my arthritis has flared up, my arms are in agony with the cleaning, as I have muscle wastage in my arms, so I've taken a couple of tramadol to help the pain and I'll hoover everything on Sunday


On the plus side, my house smells of lavender now, better than stale pee

Laz123

oldagetraveller1 said:

"So launderettes have a machine."

Big enough to accomodate a sofa in order to clean the fixed arm padding?

Okay. I assumed the cushions would fit in, plus I also assumed as the sofa had been dismantled and the armrests would too. And there I was thinking you would contribute something to the OP's post in keeping with the spirit of the forums. But I was wrong.