DFS legal threat!

griffjenjen

Hi I will try to keep this brief(!)
bought 2 sofas cash £1800 in July from DFS. 

They came in October (!) and 1 was correct colour and other totally wrong colour.  The delivery guy said we had to accept them both and take it from there, so we did. 

Fast forward 2 months (after some emailing back and forth)and they eventually said it was a supplier error. The sofa cost £699.99 so they said we could either take £200 refund and keep the sofa or get another made in the correct colour (didn’t say the one we had had to accept and been using in our 2 kid 2 dog house would need to be returned - you can see where this is going …)

We said we wanted the correct colour making so they set about making it. 

It arrived in feb, 6 months down the line, and the lads who delivered it said ‘drop off only’ so we said ‘sure’ and off they went. 

Was now left with an extra sofa so slid out old one to make room (for £50 in a rush)

We have just now heard from DFS that they want to come pick up the ‘wrong’ one that we’ve been using for last 4 months. It’s stained and all sorts. This was news to me as it was never explicitly said that we were expected to return it… and I got rid of my older sofa from my conservatory to make room for it when the new one came. 

DFS store manager has been in the phone just now saying ‘it goes back to supplier as proof’ and said did I want to purchase it? (I said no as I don’t have spare few hundred quid and I feel the communication has been poor (to be polite about it)
he mentioned the legal team a few times and essentially said that if I didn’t agree to give it back they will be taking legal action against me  ‘do you really want to be taken to court over this?’

I don’t know, maybe I’ve been naive but the service has been next to none existent, terrible communication, no emails or text messages/paperwork saying it was expected we would return the used one. I really didn’t really appreciate the threatening way he was kept referring to the legal team (about 5 times - and I wasn’t impolite) 

I just said in the end ‘yep, take it to court’ as I was sick of the way he vaguely threatening in his approach and I really didn’t appreciate it after being f***ed about for last few months. 

Anyone been in this situation before? I will be putting in a formal complaint, just need to gather all the emails etc. I am honestly fuming! 

[Deleted User]

You'll need to either return the sofa or buy it.  

You can probably argue against any issue regarding the damage, but it'll still need to go back.

knightstyle

slid means sold???

griffjenjen

yeah yeah that was a typo lol . Sold my old sofa for £50 to make space for the one they want back. 🤦‍♀️

powerful_Rogue

Why did you think they would let you keep it for free, if they offered you a £200 discount on it? Sounds like you didn't take reasonable care of it if you allowed it to become 'stained and all sorts' - Unless that's the same for the other new sofas as well.

Saying they will take you to court isn't threatning, it's advising of what will happen if you don't pay.

As you can't return it, you will either have to pay, or go to court and 99% be ordered to pay.

TELLIT01

They don't need to explicitly say they want the 'wrong' sofa back.  It should be obvious that they aren't going to let you keep it at no cost.  From the way its use has been described they would probably be charging you even if it had been returned after 2 months of dogs on it.

griffjenjen

Thanks, well I will return it then. 

They won’t be selling it on, it’ll be, most likely, destroyed, from the way he described it. They don’t expect it to be in a resale condition, they just want it back. 

Aylesbury_Duck

griffjenjen said:

Hi I will try to keep this brief(!)
bought 2 sofas cash £1800 in July from DFS. 

They came in October (!) and 1 was correct colour and other totally wrong colour.  The delivery guy said we had to accept them both and take it from there, so we did. 

Fast forward 2 months (after some emailing back and forth)and they eventually said it was a supplier error. The sofa cost £699.99 so they said we could either take £200 refund and keep the sofa or get another made in the correct colour (didn’t say the one we had had to accept and been using in our 2 kid 2 dog house would need to be returned - you can see where this is going …)

We said we wanted the correct colour making so they set about making it. 

It arrived in feb, 6 months down the line, and the lads who delivered it said ‘drop off only’ so we said ‘sure’ and off they went. 

Was now left with an extra sofa so slid out old one to make room (for £50 in a rush)

We have just now heard from DFS that they want to come pick up the ‘wrong’ one that we’ve been using for last 4 months. It’s stained and all sorts. This was news to me as it was never explicitly said that we were expected to return it… and I got rid of my older sofa from my conservatory to make room for it when the new one came. 

DFS store manager has been in the phone just now saying ‘it goes back to supplier as proof’ and said did I want to purchase it? (I said no as I don’t have spare few hundred quid and I feel the communication has been poor (to be polite about it)
he mentioned the legal team a few times and essentially said that if I didn’t agree to give it back they will be taking legal action against me  ‘do you really want to be taken to court over this?’

I don’t know, maybe I’ve been naive but the service has been next to none existent, terrible communication, no emails or text messages/paperwork saying it was expected we would return the used one. I really didn’t really appreciate the threatening way he was kept referring to the legal team (about 5 times - and I wasn’t impolite) 

I just said in the end ‘yep, take it to court’ as I was sick of the way he vaguely threatening in his approach and I really didn’t appreciate it after being f***ed about for last few months. 

Anyone been in this situation before? I will be putting in a formal complaint, just need to gather all the emails etc. I am honestly fuming! 

You made a heck of an assumption, because this seems a clear implication.  Keep the sofa and have £200, or get a replacement made.  You should really have wrapped up the wrong one and either stored it somewhere or insist they collect it.  Yes they've made an error, but you've had almost six months "free rental" of a sofa whilst you await the correct one, so of course they want it back!

What you chose to do with your own sofa is not their concern.  If you sold it for £50, I suspect you could buy one for a similar price, so either start negotiating with them, to see if you can come to a mutually agreeable price at which to buy the sofa.  Or buy a sofa for your conservatory and wait and see what the court outcome is, but I'd have thought they'll win.

pinkshoes

It seems straightforward. They offered a £200 discount to keep it which you declined so you chose to return it.

Also, you had a duty of care to look after it so should have let kids jump on the other one and not that one! If it is returned in poor condition then they could potentially take further action so I would suggest doing your best to clean it?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

OP there are a few things to consider, firstly their loss is not £699, for starters on the sale price £116 would be VAT which they don't have to pay on a replacement as there's no monetary input, their (non compliant) terms for cancelling your contract state a return fee of up to 20% so so you'd be fair in assuming their cost of collecting the incorrect sofa is up to £140 meaning their direct loss is their net landed price minus collection which is going to be relatively small.   

The other issue is what did they expected you to do with the sofa, if they said you can use the sofa whilst waiting for the new one then it's value is what, £50?

If they expected you to keep a sofa unused in your house for 7 months before collecting I think that would be unacceptable plus they wouldn't be providing a remedy (solving the problem) within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenient.  So it may be reasonable to argue the assumption was the incorrect sofa could be used whilst they spent a considerable amount of time fixing the problem (i.e getting a new sofa to you). 

With this in mind I would write a letter to the store manager and hand it in in person, saying the second hand sofa they allowed you to use in the meantime was sold at market value and offer them the £50 you received for the sale (as you shouldn't benefit from the sale of the incorrect sofa and it's always best to be seen as acting reasonably). 

If they decide to take court action I would suggest you seek professional advice but raise the points above. I can only see that they either expected you to use the incorrect sofa as thus it's value is very little or that they failed to meet their obligations to provide a remedy within the requirements of the Consumer Rights Act. 

Manxman_in_exile

I quite like the_lunatic's argument - although I'm not sure it's a winner.

Yesterday I thought the OP was clearly in the wrong - now I'm not so sure.

I'd also add that when DFS made the offer to the OP they should have made 100% clear to the OP what it meant.  (Yes - I know the OP should have realised it meant returning the original sofa but, equally, DFS should have made that perfectly clear.  I'm believing the OP here that DFS did not make it clear.  DFS may have a different story of course... )

What concerns me though, is that the OP's dates don't make sense, do they?  Purchased in October, DFS agreed error two months later (December?), replacement sofa delivered six months down the line (February?!?!?!?).  Surely six months down the line is either April (from October) or June (from December)?