Consumer rights help on brand new sofa.

seanfos

I had exactly the same issue but with a different sofa company. They also wanted to send a technician to look at it and I agreed to this. The guy arrived and was fantastic, took one look at the sofa then told me it wasn’t right and they have been having issues with their supplier.  He asked what I would like to do and then fed back to the company that I wanted to return everything (sofa, armchair and footstool). They collected a few days later and I had the refund a few after that. Just follow their process and be clear you want a refund and all should be fine

Sean

macman

If you ordered both together as a pair, and they're now unable to fulfill that order in it's entirety, then I think you should be able to reject the order on the basis that they have not supplied it: i.e. they are in breach of contract by only supplying one.
This then avoids entirely any dispute about quality issues.

bikingbarney

Just to update,

I had a call from the manager at the store we bought the sofas from and he again told me that head office want to send a technician to look at the sofa.

They have also found the other sofa too and tried to arrange delivery but we stood our ground and reinforced that we would like to exercise our rights to a refund due to the quality not being the same.

I also had to say that my contract is with the store and not Natuzzi UK and that it was up to them to deal with Natuzzi UK. 

I think I may have to get the credit card company involved as they are not acknowledging my request for a refund and instead keep pushing for an engineers visit.

alidai

Why are you getting your card company involved?!
you’ve been told above that it’s reasonable they should be allowed to send an engineer / inspector to check out the sofa and advise if your concerns are valid. From the photos it looks that way certainly, however they need to confirm that in person.

JetpackVelociraptor

When you use your 30 day right to reject, it's your responsibility as the consumer to prove that the fault was present when the product arrived. So you could, for example, spend your own money to get an independent upholsterer's report to prove that the product arrived faulty. But it is going to be cheaper and easier for you if you just let them send their own technician/engineer out to inspect the sofa. The retailer is not working against you yet.

If you open a claim with your card company now you could lose it because you're not allowing the retailer to inspect the goods. Or the card company may just tell you to let the retailer inspect the sofa. After they've inspected the sofa, if their report states that it's not faulty, then you can get your own report done and then go to a card claim if they won't cooperate.

Imagine a hypothetical scenario with a dishonest customer that I'm going to call Bob. Bob buys a sofa from Ye Olde Sofae Shoppe. When it arrives, Bob decides to use it as a trampoline for an hour or so and manages to break the frame. The sofa is ruined, and it's definitely not Ye Olde Sofae Shoppe's fault. Naturally Ye Olde Sofae Shoppe wants to inspect the sofa before they accept a return and give Bob his money back, as far as they know it wasn't broken when they sent it out. If the retailer was legally required to give Bob his money back without inspecting it, they'll lose money even though it isn't their fault. If they encounter too many Bobs, they could go out of business without ever having done anything wrong.

Please note I am not at all trying to suggest that you broke the sofa yourself, but the law is set up this way for a reason. Basically to try and be as fair as possible to both parties.

bikingbarney

alidai said:

Why are you getting your card company involved?!
you’ve been told above that it’s reasonable they should be allowed to send an engineer / inspector to check out the sofa and advise if your concerns are valid. From the photos it looks that way certainly, however they need to confirm that in person.

We havent got the CC involved yet. I can just imagine that the engineer comes and says there is no fault, we have previous history of this happening so thats where our caution/concern comes from.

Ill let them come out, no issues with that. Just dont want to have to fight.

bikingbarney

Just to update:

Engineer came to inspect the sofa and did as the shop had suggested and tried to dress the cushions, as expected this just pushed all the loose material to the sides and looked rubbish. 

Long and short of it is that he said there is too much material and has been manufactured wrong. He then said he would feed his report into the shop. 

This was Wednesday last week and I've heard nothing since. I've even emailed twice to try and arrange the collection as its now taking up room in our lounge and we are now having to sit on our garden furniture.

Any ideas what my next step is? Do I visit store or .....

sheramber

Visit the store  and make sure other customers hear your complaint.

My friend did that with a furniture store and the store quickly sorted the problem out.

photome

Have you called the store?  If you have and they are ignoring calls and emails I would visit the store

bikingbarney

Still having no joy with this and I'm not sure which way to go now. 

All emails are going unanswered, I visited the store we bought it from and the store manager told me it was with head office and that I would get an answer by Friday. This never happened.

I phoned the head office on Friday morning and asked to speak with the person dealing with it to be told he was out all day and that they would get him to call me. I explained that we just want to get our money back and the sofa collected. 

I received a random phone call from someone claiming to be from Natuzzi regional office on Friday afternoon and he said they could offer a repair or replacement. When I said that I had sent in a letter over a week ago rejecting the sofa and that we wanted our money back he said he didn't know anything about that, promised to call me back and hung up.

Its now been over two weeks since we rejected the sofa and asked for our money back and we are no further forward.

My wife is upset, she thinks Christmas is ruined as we were meant to be hosting her family but now cant as have no where for them to sit.