Is sofology really that bad???

My son ordered two sofa,s from them,when delivered the stiching was not done correct,the manager/repair man came out to make good but could not,no worries they supplied two new sofa,s and let my son use the original ones till the new ones arrived.
When the new sofa,s arrived they were no better so never came off the lorry and had the originals taken away at the same time,he got his money back and bought else where.

The answer to your question is Yes, Sofology really are that bad! I'd advise your friend or anyone else thinking of buying from them to think very seriously. You could end up wasting an awful lot of money on a poor quality product, with very little chance of ever seeing your problem resolved or your money back.

If you do your research you'll see that there are literally hundreds and hundreds of reviews warning you not to buy from Sofology. If we'd done our research properly, we'd never have gone near them. Ignore the reviews on Trustpilot, they're based on the experience in store which is not where the problem lies. (You may wonder though why so many of these make a point of name-checking the staff and are from people who have never posted reviews on any other company).

Our problem, like so many others, is that we thought we were getting a high quality product and what we actually received was sub-standard. We particularly wanted a suite with firm cushions, offering good support. The online description goes to great lengths to describe how comfortable and supportive it is, the salesman assured us of the same.

Instead, having spent nearly £2,300 on a 3 seater sofa and armchair we had cushions that half collapsed underneath you. After sitting for about 5 or 10 minutes, you start to feel uncomfortable and need to change position. The armchair was awful, the sofa was not so bad if you were lying on it but again really soft in a sitting position. Not what we'd expected or ordered.

The next problem you're going to experience is with Sofology's post-sales "support" and customer service. If you report a problem to the customer services team, they'll give you another number to get a "technician" to come out to you. We had to wait over 3 weeks for an appointment. The technician will basically make a visual inspection and if there isn't actually a part of it falling off or sticking out, they'll tell you there's "no fault". It's not their job to highlight shortfalls in the materials used.

You then go back to customer services who'll repeat what's in the technicians report and state that there's nothing further they can do. You insist that you want to take the matter further and you'll be told, anyone else is going to tell you exactly the same thing. If you persist however, you'll be referred to their "escalations team" also referred to as "priority support".

They'll explain that they can arrange for an independent technician to come out and do a 2nd inspection. It will be a longer, detailed inspection (up to 2 hours), they won't simply sit on the cushions, they'll test the pressure at different points, it sounds like it will be really thorough and scientific. In fact it's anything but.

Although this 2nd technician is employed by a company called Castellan, they're not truly independent as they're contracted by Sofology to do the work. The actual inspection lasted about 20 minutes, again it consisted of a visual inspection plus the technician bouncing up and down a couple of times. He said, yes it is soft but "there's no fault".

When I asked about the foam they use in the cushions (you couldn't access this on ours) he said they have different types but basically it's like the type of foam you might have in your bathroom, say! This was our issue, despite it being a nice looking suite, the interior of the cushions was of such poor quality that it offered no support, was uncomfortable to sit on and caused the leather seating to "puddle" or gather.

We went back to the "priority support" team. At this point, as far as they were concerned, they'd ticked all the boxes they needed to. It was a completely obstructive conversation, they weren't prepared to engage in any discussion, if you're not happy, go to the furniture ombudsman! To be aware, you'e dealing with a call centre here and speaking to a poorly paid call centre operative who is not going to deviate from their script in any way whatsoever. You can't even speak to a manager.

That, for us, has been the Sofology experience to date. Going back to the original poster, if your friend, having read this and the hundreds of other reviews available, is still thinking of buying from Sofology then all I can say is you were warned. I don't think this company is ever going to change, their reputation is increasingly toxic and you'd hope at some point that enough word will get round and people will stop buying from them.

I can't speak for DfS but they absolutely part of the same group. If you look at the list of Sofology's directors on Companies House, you'll see that a couple are also DfS directors so the same warning applies - AVOID AT ALL COST.