Furniture Village - Manufacturing default on bed only offered partial refund

wedonotsow

Hi all - looking for some advise on this. I purchased a mattress just over two years ago from Furniture Village. The sofa started to show significant structural issues and stitching began failing across the entire bed. FV sent someone to do a survey -  they confirmed it was a manufacturing defect. 

FV are now only offering me something like £338 of the £600 it cost me.

I was under the impression that their 20 year guarantee meant they'd replace the item but apparently not. I've just found this statement in their T&Cs:

07. Consistent with meeting its obligations under this guarantee, Furniture Village reserves the right to undertake the least cost option to itself. This may involve rectifying the problem, arranging for the unsatisfactory component to be replaced or refunding part of the original purchase price.

Seems a bit misleading to me and I don't understand what calculation they've used to determine i only get just over 50% of the money back?

Am i being unreasonable to expect a full replacement? Any thoughts appreciated!

Aylesbury_Duck

wedonotsow said:

Hi all - looking for some advise on this. I purchased a mattress just over two years ago from Furniture Village. The sofa started to show significant structural issues and stitching began failing across the entire bed. FV sent someone to do a survey -  they confirmed it was a manufacturing defect. 

FV are now only offering me something like £338 of the £600 it cost me.

I was under the impression that their 20 year guarantee meant they'd replace the item but apparently not. I've just found this statement in their T&Cs:

07. Consistent with meeting its obligations under this guarantee, Furniture Village reserves the right to undertake the least cost option to itself. This may involve rectifying the problem, arranging for the unsatisfactory component to be replaced or refunding part of the original purchase price.

Seems a bit misleading to me and I don't understand what calculation they've used to determine i only get just over 50% of the money back?

Am i being unreasonable to expect a full replacement? Any thoughts appreciated!

Seems reasonable to me, but I've lost track of what's going on.  The title says a fault with a bed, you bought a mattress, had a problem with a sofa and then stitching on the bed began failing.  Are the three things connected?  What cost £600?  All three, the bed and mattress or just the bed?

Reducing a refund to take into account use to date is reasonable.  A reduction of 44% of the original price suggests they think it ought to last about five years.  A bed and mattress totalling £600 is pretty bargain-basement and five years is perhaps not unreasonable.

wedonotsow

Ok thank you i appreciate the alternative viewpoint.

And apologies - there is no sofa i don't know why i typed that! I'll try and edit if it lets me.

And just to clarify its just the mattress which is faulty (this cost £600) the divan base unit is fine and cost a couple hundred i believe.

screech_78

The warranty is above and beyond your statutory rights so it can have any clauses it wishes.
 

However, even claiming on your statutory rights means the retailer can offer a partial refund to account for usage if the cost of a repair or replacement is disproportionate. You might be able to haggle an extra 50 quid but I don’t think their offer is entirely unreasonable. 

Lizzie2995

I think their offer is pretty unreasonable. I would imagine a mattress would have an expected lifespan of around 10 years.  I would ask them to spell out how they reached that calculation. Did you use any form of credit to pay for the mattress ? If you paid on credit card or finance, you can go to them as they are jointly liable for the faulty goods.

PHK

Lizzie2995 said:

I think their offer is pretty unreasonable. I would imagine a mattress would have an expected lifespan of around 10 years.  I would ask them to spell out how they reached that calculation. Did you use any form of credit to pay for the mattress ? If you paid on credit card or finance, you can go to them as they are jointly liable for the faulty goods.

Ten years?

Most advice is that mattress' last around 5 to 8 years depending on the type you get. When you think of the heavy use they get that seems reasonable. Eight hours a day is going to cause wear and tear. 

Grumpy_chap

It is reasonable that the suppliers solution is a refund, less a deduction for the proportion of beneficial use that the OP has received.  The proportion of beneficial use is usually straight line pro-rata for expected life span of the product.

I agree with others that the life span of a mattress would typically be 5 - 8 years.
The OP has had the mattress for 2 (and a bit?) years and offered £338 out of £600, so 56% refund.  That would seem to put the manufacturer's expected life span at the lower end of the 5 - 8 years.
How long is the "just over" two years that the OP referenced?  Roughly, if the 5-year lifespan is used, the refund equates to about 26 months (2 years and 2 months) proportion.

That could be worth challenging, in the absence of anything else, to the 8 year basis rather than 5.  Or even push for 10 year basis.  I would not expect a massive increase in the refund through this process.  The refund may be maximised if tied in to buying the next mattress from the same place.

However, the OP states there is a "20 year guarantee".  If that applies to the mattress, the appropriate pro-rata basis would be 2 years (and a bit?) from 20 years, so just over 10% deduction from the original purchase price.
Has the OP checked the full terms of the "20 year guarantee"?  It seems off to me that this length of guarantee would be offered for soft-furnishings (mattress).  Is the "20 year guarantee" on on the frame (divan)?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Grumpy_chap said:

 If that applies to the mattress, 

At a quick glance it applies to beds but covers springs.

If the problem with the mattress was the springs then I guess you could say they should last 20 years, if it's something else then perhaps the typical 5-8 years. 

I've only had a very quick so not sure if you have to buy a bed + mattress to be covered by the 20 year guarantee.