DFS SCAMS

SUESMITH_2

well have to say our leather dfs sofas lasted 16 years - lots of abuse from us and the kids, we had a problem with a loose bit when they were new and they came out straight away and fixed it. ours weren't in the sale; also had a fantastic table and chairs from the dining room centre - had them 8 years and they still look like new - were we lucky? i don't know but we never fell for the half price guff

codger

trisontana wrote: »

The present DFS sale ends soon, to be replaced by another one on Tuesday !

Hang on, trisontana -- I thought DFS were making great play in their newspaper ads that they DON'T keep having sales????

As for the longevity (or otherwise) of DFS's products, I've no experience and so could never comment. But we do have experience of another sale-after-sale-after-sale retailer: MFI, an outfit we were warned off time and again by people who knew someone who knew someone else who'd had a bad experience.

We wanted to fit out a large-ish ground floor bedroom as a home office, so got quotes from fitted furniture companies and a local furnishing company. It was all quality stuff, or seemed to be, and so were the prices. Fair enough. We then kept an eye on one of MFI's never-ending sales and hung on until it looked like they'd pay us money just to walk in the store. And bought all the furniture from them (and a lot of it, too.)

We had a few problems assembling the units largely because MFI at that time (and for all I know, so today) sources from flat pack manufacturers who compose detailed assembly instructions on A3 pages and then photo-copy 'em onto A4 so that you can't discern what screw is what size, etc etc

Eventually we finished the work and were well pleased: £2,000 saved. Would it last though? Who knew? I mean, it was MFI, after all.

That was 1999. Not long back we ran into the people who bought the house from us and learned that they'd recently recommended MFI to their friends. Why? Because the MFI home office we'd installed was still "absolutely pristine" even after all these years.

Sometimes I wonder if it's just a little too easy to generalise about firms like DFS and MFI.. .

trisontana

I agree. We have had an MFI dining-room suite which was "semi-flat-pack" for about ten years now, and we can't complain about it. The table is sturdy, still with a good polished surface, and the chairs are solid and comfortable.

tomsolomon

tomsolomon wrote: »

Bought a corner unit and lecky recliner from DFS last year, pleased with service, and delivered on time, wow double whammy. (They must be slipping) realy nice sofa, realy happy, realy !!!!!!, Why is that cusion sagging. I know the guy at the shop said it would settle but if I wanted a garden bench I would have gone to homebase. So rang the store, they sent a guy said it was normal, said I wasnt happy, spoke to manager, he sent the guy back put some more foam in everyones happy. realy nice sofa, reasonably happy, realy !!!!!!, Why it that and so on and so forth. Second time its happend realy not impressed and to top it all the arm makes a realy unusual and disturbing cracking noise when you lean on it with your elbow and the recliner mechanism sticks, and the sofa leather is starting to crack and fade.

Corner unit with lecky recliner and foot stool cost almost 2.5 grand over four years intrest free of course. 1 year on, My interest is realy starting to wear thin, like the sofa, and I am definately going to have words with the manager again.

PS spoke to trading standards and as for a refund or an exchange, Well Not In This Life m8.

DFS Dont Forget to Scream :rotfl:
DFS Dodgy Furniture Scam
Im sure you heard em all.

Ok they came out again to fix the sofa third time now They said the webbing had collapsed and the foam had gone through it :eek: They put another piece of foam in and looked at the arm. The guy confirmed it had broken :rolleyes: and put a new piece of board under the inside of the arm :T

All happy right :mad:

There is a huge bulge in the seat where he shoved the foam in and where he put the board in, its sticking out of the side of the arm with a sharp corner poking out into my ribs. And to top all that when I lookin inside my £1800 sofa I found out it is made of chipboard and plywood :eek: :eek: :eek:

I phone DFS again and Gary (on first person speaking terms now ) the manager isnt there till Friday, come to think of it he rarely is there.
Rep says : "Would you like to book another appointment for the repair team?"
I say : "you dont realy want me to answer that"
Gotta wait till Friday for the next enthraling episode Of the great DFS scandal.

liney

DFS are unable to give discounts for cash, because it was ruled that if they did give discounts for cash, that the people taking out interest free credit were not actually getting it interest free, as they could have paid a cheaper price if they had paid cash.

nona85

Please can anyone advise me on this problem?!

We got our DFS corner sofa and armchair from the Aberdeen store in August this year with the 3-years interest free offer. Everything seemed fine, we waited 2 weeks longer than the delivery time we were told, but when I saw the sofa I was really pleased.

Didn't have it in the room long before we noticed the corner cushion looked significantly lower and less plump than the other cushions. Sitting on it, you feel a lot lower too, it feels as though the springs or the framework are damaged. Not only that, the connecting metal spars underneath aren't connected properly, one of the giant metal tacks appears to be missing altogether :mad:

We had a guy come down to look at a stain that was already on it under the shrink wrap, didn't mention the cushion to him as he was the "stain guy", but he went to it, prodded it and looked perplexed. He said it didn't look right and to leave it six weeks and see if it plumped up a bit.

6 weeks went and I called last Monday, got the "stain guy" who was really nice and said he'd send the upholsterer man down, who would fill it up with foam and it'd only take half an hour. He also said the man could put the missing tack in it, and I'd get a call an hour prior to his arrival so I could get up from my work.

Well....this man did NOT call, he showed up when my father was in the house, said that he couldn't fill the cushion with foam as there wasn't enough fabric, and that all he could do was raise the springs and put 1 inch of foam in the top. He did not even fix the missing tack underneath that holds the thing together!

I left it a couple days to see if he would call to talk to me, he didn't. So I phoned today and the front-line customer service person said that as he'd been and given his opinion on the cushion, there was nothing further he could do about this sunken cushion....I am being fobbed off and I am really furious because for everything I say, there's some excuse. Conveniently, the "stain man" is off on holiday, so I can't speak to him. He assured me it'd only take half an hour to fix this cushion, and now I'm being told some other guy said it wasn't possible and it'd affect my warranty.

How does DFS attempting a repair affect my warranty?!
Can anyone shed any light on this?

Where do I stand with this?!! I am so lost and feel like they're not taking me seriously.

vivatifosi

I had problems with a DFS suite that I bought for over a year. My oh and I played good cop bad cop with them for a year until they gave up and made us a replacement suite free of charge. I also told them I expected the warranty to restart from the date of arrival of the new suite which they agreed to.

If you aren't getting the help you want, write to their HQ, the branches HATE head office coming down on them and telling them what to do. Tell them that you are going to write to the credit company and tell them the suite isn't of merchantable quality and that you intend to withhold payments (don't do this, just make the store think you will). Tell them you will take them to small claims. Basically be a pain in the butt until they take you seriously. You should get there eventually.

Also, a word for the service engineers. There are some really good, experienced ones in DFS. Make it perfectly clear you haven't met them yet and you won't put up with being messed around like that! If they have a good upholsterer attached to that store they may well be able to fix your problems and order you another set of cushions. I'm ex-furniture industry (no not DFS or any of the other big names thank goodness) so they weren't able to shake me off very easily.

Good luck

nona85

vivatifosi - thank you for your advice, I will draft out a letter for their HQ tomorrow. They are sending another person down Monday coming to fix the spar underneath the sofa that connects the whole thing, I'm wondering whether to refuse it for the time being?

jess1974

I've just had 2 sofas delivered from DFS and am pleasantly surprised with the quality...

codger

Interesting, the way this thread has itself become a DFS offer.

Buy six pages. Get three free.


Or is it only my computer which is showing a 9-page total for a 6-page thread??