John Lewis not honouring sofa guarantee due to sale

Gantaeno

I’m wondering if anyone could help me with an issue I’m having with John Lewis. I bought a sofa from them on sale in 2017, right when I needed to furnish a new home after breaking up with my longtime partner. Although the sofa was a bargain, I had to pay to have a window taken out of my house in January in order to get it in. I only did this because I knew the sofa had a 10 year frame guarantee included, even though it was on sale, so it seems like it was worth the extra money as I knew it would last a long time.

I am within that 10 year guarantee, and it is clearly stated on my receipt that is applied to my purchase. My sofas frame has broken as of August of this year, when you sit down on the seat there’s a dent in it that you fall into, and then you can feel a spring sticking up. I pointed this out to John Lewis in August, who checked my receipt and agreed with me that my sofa was within the guarantee period. They then agreed to send an engineer out to check the sofa, although this was not done until the end of October. After checking, the engineer reported back that the sofa could not be fixed, and therefore the sofa should be replaced by John Lewis instead. John Lewis then contacted me to say that, as my model is no longer in stock, they would not be replacing the sofa at all.

They have also decided that, because I bought it in the sale, they will only offer me £199 which was the purchase price, rather than honouring the terms of their guarantee (can’t link, but on the JL website).

I am well aware that I paid a very low price for the sofa, but when I bought it it was brand-new and had only been rejected by the customer because of the colour. The issue I have is that it clearly states in their guarantee that if my sofa cannot be repaired, it will be replaced with the same model, or an equivalent sofa model, or the value of that equivalent if it isn’t available. What they have offered me is not a replacement for my sofa, but a refund of the price that I paid, which are two different things. In addition they have said they will only refund me the £199 if they collect the sofa, which means again having to have my window taken out of my house, and actually leaves me with a cost for having owned the sofa.

I have been back and forth with John Lewis about this issue for weeks now, and they won’t listen to me at all. I’m feeling quite betrayed, as although I appreciate that £199 was a very cheap price to them, at the time of purchase that was a huge amount of money to me. I made that commitment to buy because I believed I would be looked after by their after sales team and I have instead been fobbed off. The excuses have ranged from “it’s not the frame that has broken” to “it doesn’t count as it’s the foam in the sofa that caused the frame to break”, to trying to tell me that I don’t actually have the guarantee applied to my purchase, even though it’s clearly on the receipt, and John Lewis are doing me a favour by offering me £199 refund.

I have most of these comments in writing, and I have my receipt and a photo of the original sofa and the condition that it’s in now.

I would really appreciate any help you can offer me. 

Thank you for your time

TimSynths

Wow £199 for a sofa, 4 years use and you get the money back, bite their hand off.

Thrugelmir

Break the sofa up yourself. There's not actually much to them once the covering material is removed. 

theonlywayisup

TimSynths said:

Wow £199 for a sofa, 4 years use and you get the money back, bite their hand off.

This ^ a million times over. 

You should not be feeling 'betrayed' but you should be feeling overjoyed.  Why would you expect anything more than the full purchase price?  This is a very generous offer. 

Olinda99

breaking up a sofa is possible but don't john lewis want it back ? I assume in one piece? 

try and see if they will give you the £199 and accept a broken up sofa they will only dump it anyway

marcia_

 If the OP has to pay to get the window removed in order to give the sofa back to JL its not such a great offer imo 

PragmaticMoneySaver

marcia_ said:

 If the OP has to pay to get the window removed in order to give the sofa back to JL its not such a great offer imo 

I'd consider taking them up on their refund offer, and tell them the sofa is available for collection at their convenience, they being responsible for the logistics of removal...

You are willing to return it, but it is their problem how that happens...

shiraz99

PragmaticMoneySaver said:

marcia_ said:

 If the OP has to pay to get the window removed in order to give the sofa back to JL its not such a great offer imo 

I'd consider taking them up on their refund offer, and tell them the sofa is available for collection at their convenience, they being responsible for the logistics of removal...

You are willing to return it, but it is their problem how that happens...

But it isn't available for collection if they can't reasonably get it out of the property. This is the OPs problem, 100%.

Diamandis

It says 

"

• If your product cannot be repaired, we will replace it with the same model or, if this is no longer available, substitute an equivalent specification or value "

It doesn't specifically say "value of the equivalent". It seems they are using the value of the original.

pinkshoes

Usually, your redund would be proportional depending on the use you have had, so in your case perhaps 60% of what you paid, so £120.

Therefore the £200 is very generous. 

It's not their fault you bought a sofa that required a window removing to get it in.

It might be worth saying no thanks to JL then getting an independent person to repair it at your expense.

JL are going above what they have to do.

shiraz99

Diamandis said:

It says 

"

• If your product cannot be repaired, we will replace it with the same model or, if this is no longer available, substitute an equivalent specification or value "

It doesn't specifically say "value of the equivalent". It seems they are using the value of the original.

That's my understanding of it too.