Sofa Quality & Fit for Purpose

Bryno

Corner sofa purchased £2,800 using 0% interest free credit/loan offered through the store at the point of sale  

Sofa delivered 30/3/2024. 

The X Company Installer explained that the seat cushions may take some time to expand fully to fill any gaps between adjacent cushions and the rear of the sofa, and that if this doesn’t happen to contact X Company. I clarified this including a reasonable waiting period for this expansion to happen e.g 4 months. He said I had up to a year under warranty. Again I clarified this problem if it occurs is covered by the 1 year warranty. Yes. 

The issues - Foam Seat Cushions of a corner sofa with terminal chase edge (3 x 1.5 seats) are not sufficiently firm or fitted in the sofa to offer reasonably expected stability or fill gaps between the adjacent cushions and rear of the sofa. 

Our expectation was the foam seat cushions would be firm as we opted for the upgrade to a "firm and supportive seat thanks to optional foam seat interior upgrades, ensuring that you can choose sofas that best meet your needs".  Additionally we had expected similar to the look and feel in the showroom 'snuggler/cuddler' which had a foam filled seat cushion.

Our corner sofa has 1 of the 4 seat cushions feeling firm while the rest a very soft and springy in comparison.  The 1 firm cushion of our sofa is the corner cushion.  

The seat cushions do not stay in place on the sofa and slip off approx. 5-7cm.

The seat cushions have not expanded to fit snuggly against each other, leaving gaps and ongoing instability.  The gaps between the cushions are obviously much worse when sitting on the sofa, and is very uncomfortable given you 'roll' to the edge of the cushion into the gap.  

Overall the sofa cushions are not as expected, described, comfortable or practical.

X Company sent out their Technician to assess our concerns.  

The Technician explained during his visit the reason the showroom snuggler/cuddler foam seat cushion and the corner seat cushion of our sofa may feel firmer is because of the side support offered by the arms of the snuggler/cuddler and the adjacent cushions of the corner sofa. The technician demonstrated that when the corner seat cushion was swapped with another cushion it was also soft and springy like the others.  This only served to reiterate the importance of side support to foam cushions for their stability and sense of firmness.

We were not advised in the showroom or elsewhere to expect variation in the firmness of the foam filled cushions.  Our concern remains that that we expected firm seat cushions that feel the same/uniform and don't slip off the sofa, and this is not the case for the sofa we have.

The Technician also explained and demonstrated that you need to sit in the middle of the seat cushions to avoid the roll into the gaps between cushions.  Our concern with this is that we expected the purpose of a home sofa was to relax and enjoy freely, and not maintain a semi-ridged posture strictly in the very middle of a seat cushions.  We believe this is a ridiculous requirement.

When explaining what Installer had advised about the cushion foam needing a bit of time to fully expand, the Technician advised this was incorrect information. 

All in all X Company Technician found not fault and the performance was satisfactory. It’s mind blowing.

X Company are doubling down that as there is no manufacturing fault they will not consider our complaint at all and even if we got an independent evaluation they may still not offer any refund or exchange. 

Any suggestions??? 

There may not be a manufacturing fault but quality and fit for purpose is concerning. 

Help!

sonearandyetsofa

A few things stand out from what you've said here, the first one being that I've never heard anyone say that foam filled cushions will expand to fill a gap before. That is not a thing that foam does over time - it will shrink/flatten up to 30% in height over the first 6 - 12 months, and it will soften as well, but I've never seen it spread. To the best of my knowledge only fibre or feather will do that. I would be surprised if the difference between seats and corner cushion isn't largely because the corner cushion has not been sat on as much. Most manufacturers will tell you to sit only on the middle of the cushion left to right with your back against the back, but we all know that people will generally sit however they please As long as you're not sitting on your feet, lying on it all of the time, perching on the very end of the seat cushion or sitting on the back or arms it shouldn't cause any major issues.

There's no way that a sofa that cost you £2800 should be built like that.

If you have any of their odd statements in writing please make sure you keep a copy. If I were you I would tell them in writing that you are taking further action. You're not claiming under their warranty, you're claiming it's not fit for purpose and has not been fit for purpose this entire time due to the poor quality manufacture and defects that you raised as an issue shortly after it was delivered. 

It will probably save you time to get a report of your own done now. Make sure you use a different company to the one they used to do your own report - I've worked with Emmiera/Homeserve, but if they used them you will want to use a different one. Alternatively you can find anyone running a professional company local to you who does repairs and is capable of writing a report. Emmiera used to charge £90+vat, it has probably gone up a little now. Assuming the report agrees with you you'll be adding the cost of that report on to your claim.

You'll be making the claim against the finance company they're working with. Your paperwork will tell you who the finance is with (look for the small print that references the FCA). Raise your company there, the finance company is jointly liable with the supplier to ensure you're provided with suitable goods. If they do their own finance (ie not as a broker) you can complain directly to the FCA and/or take them to small claims court.

In terms of the fault, it's primarily the gap between the cushions, the cushions sliding off, and the seats not being firm. The "rolling into the seams" problem may not be recognised as a fault unless you can prove that the display model in store was not like that.