Natuzzi damaged sofa

Roxanne_94

Hi All,

I need a bit of advice, I will try to keep this as short as I can. 

I purchased a sofa & chair from Natuzzi on 01/10/22. Christmas delivery was guaranteed and wasn’t met. 

When purchasing the sofa I explained the hallway was slim and gave the dimensions and the manager explained they could take apart the sofa if required. 

I heard nothing from Natuzzi the whole of December and emailed with no correspondence. A delivery date was confirmed in January for 12/01/23. Thesofa arrived and it couldn’t fit into the room due to the narrow hallway. It was classed as a failed delivery. 

Natuzzi never contacted me for redelivery I had to chase them. When finally getting hold of Natuzzi I was informed I would occur an extra fee for redelivery and specialist would need to come to take the sofa apart. 

On 26/01/23 the sofa was redelivered with two young men who weren’t aware the sofa needed dismantling. They stated they had never dismantled this type of sofa and had to phone head office. They also didn’t have the correct tools which I had to supply.

When dismantling the sofa they cut through the bottom liner of sofa and scuffed all the back/sides of the sofa. I have had a Natuzzi technician come to repair the damage but stated it was beyond repair and they had ‘butchered’ the sofa. 

I have sent numerous email/phone calls with Natuzzi with no correspondence. My complaint has been escalated to the area manager and he doesn’t respond to any emails. 

I am now conscious of the 0% finance coming to an end in Jan 24 and need to pay the sofa cost. But I have a damaged item I am not happy with. Can you advise me of what options I have available? 

Thanks 

Doozergirl

There's a consumer rights board for which this would be better suited. I suspect there's also an article written by Martin somewhere that would help. 

I think in these cases that the finance supplier is also liable for the product so you might be able to reject it though them?  

Keep_pedalling

Doozergirl said:

There's a consumer rights board for which this would be better suited. I suspect there's also an article written by Martin somewhere that would help. 

I think in these cases that the finance supplier is also liable for the product so you might be able to reject it though them?  

I have reported this thread need moving.

Okell

Are you saying that the Natuzzi delivery men damaged the sofa on delivery, and that the Natuzzi technician who came to repair it has admitted that it had been "butchered" and was "beyond repair"?

Your legal rights are contained in the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (legislation.gov.uk)

That gives a trader one single opportunity either to repair or to replace goods that do not conform to contract.

If Natuzzi opted to try to repair it but their technician has advised that it cannot be repaired, I'm not sure if that counts as a failed repair attempt or not.

If it does, you are entitled to a refund.

A possible complication is that because you took delivery over 6 months ago, Natuzzi might be able to reduce your refund by an amount to reflect the use you've had of the sofa since last January.  But you could argue that as the damage occurred on delivery and you notified Natuzzi straightaway, then the only reason this has run past 6 months is because of their unreasonable delay.

I think you can legitimately claim a full refund (if that is what you want and if the inspection by the technician counts as a failed attempt to repair), but see what other suggestions come up first.

You will need to inform Natuzzi that you are enforcing your statutory rights under the legislation linked to above, and that as they have had one failed attempt at repair, you are now entitled to a full refund.  (See sections 19, 20 and 24)

Who is the finance with?  Natuzzi or a third party?  You might have a claim against the finance provider if you get nowhere with Natuzzi.

JetpackVelociraptor

Scuffs and a torn liner should be quite easily repairable, did their technician state why it couldn't be repaired?

They shouldn't be able to deduct from your refund for usage as the issue was reported on arrival, meaning they were aware of the fault. The fact that they've taken all this time to do nothing about the problem shouldn't affect your right to a repair or refund.

Did they ask you to sign any kind of waiver regarding the delivery, as they knew it would be difficult? For example did they ask you to sign anything stating delivery was at your own risk? It might complicate things if so.

If not, you should be entitled to get them to repair, replace or refund. If you didn't tell them to cancel and take it away during the first 30 days after delivery then they get one opportunity to attempt to repair. I don't think an inspection with no work done would count, but it has already been longer than anyone would deem reasonable.

I would send them - the shop you bought from, and the departments you've been communicating with - a letter before action stating that you're unhappy and require them to take action to either repair, replace or refund within the 14 days. If they don't, you'll take whatever appropriate methods are required to support you in asserting your consumer rights. There's templates out there that you can use to write an LBA that will be better than anything I can suggest, but the gist is to make them aware that if they don't pull their collective fingers out you'll be getting help from elsewhere.

After that, you wait the period you gave them to see what the response is. If they respond with an offer to repair, replace or refund, make sure you get a reasonable timeframe out of them and let them do so. If they respond by saying that the sofa isn't damaged, you'll need to get an independent inspection done yourself ready to do a section 75 claim with the finance company. If they continue to ignore you, you can just contact the finance company and hand the problem over to them.

Roxanne_94

Thank you for the responses, they are really helpful. 

• The finance is with Novuna - so a third party. How would I go about passing on the complaint to the finance company? 
• Can anyone suggest a link to a good LBA template I could use please? 

Thanks again! 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Okell said:

I think you can legitimately claim a full refund (if that is what you want and if the inspection by the technician counts as a failed attempt to repair), but see what other suggestions come up first.

The 6 months with regards to deduction is based upon when the consumer exercises the final right to reject in relation to when the goods were delivered and the deduction is based upon use.

If you had a lawnmower than was proven to be DOA then a deduction wouldn't be permitted if you rejected after say 8 months as it would be clear the consumer had no use from the goods but unless the OP has good reason for not being able to use the sofa at all a deduction would apply for the use they've had  

born_again

Roxanne_94 said:

Thank you for the responses, they are really helpful. 

• The finance is with Novuna - so a third party. How would I go about passing on the complaint to the finance company? 
• Can anyone suggest a link to a good LBA template I could use please? 

Thanks again! 

Finance company just ring them & mention Section 75 claim.