DFS catalogue of woes sorted after Streetwise steps in

Jayne, who is married to Dave, explained that her mum had been quite poorly and as they live in a one-bedroom flat putting up visitors was a bit of a problem.

‘My parents live up north,’ she said. ‘And my mum has been quite poorly. We had a big day out planned for them.

‘As they were going to London, and then coming to stay with us we decided to buy furniture that had a sofa bed to go with it so they didn’t have to stay at a hotel which they normally did and we could all spend as much time together as we could with them.

‘Our furniture had lasted us over 12 years. There was nothing wrong with it, not a single mark on it, no damage no tears, just that it didn’t suit the situation.

‘We needed sofa beds suitable for the flat, which with an additional cushion, when the three-seater chaise sofa bed was out we could make the two-seater sofa bed shorter to give us more room in the lounge.

‘DFS were the only company that had suitable furniture so after visiting the Hedge End store at the beginning of February we placed an order, signed up a credit agreement, and paid them a deposit of £1,288 by credit card.

‘It perhaps should have rung alarm bells when they initially said delivery would be six weeks, and then within three weeks the furniture was being delivered. I thought that’s very quick.

‘I was at work that day, so my husband sent me photographs, and straight away it became obvious none of it looked right.

‘When I got home the very same evening I noticed numerous things wrong with it, so as promised at the point of sale I rang and emailed Hedge End to get it sorted.

‘They didn’t respond the following day to my two emails, so then I phoned customer services, and explained the issues.

‘The footstool was all out of kilter, the cushions were different sizes, the piping on the arms was going in different directions. There was just fault, after fault, after fault. It was every single item.

‘Straight away they said don’t worry, we’ll get somebody out. However, when their technician attended he wanted to know what the problem was.

‘He completely denied any of the faults, he insisted there was nothing wrong with the furniture and nothing he could remedy or fix, he couldn’t understand the problems I was pointing out to him.

‘He was looking at me like an idiotic woman and I felt trying to bully me into thinking there wasn’t a problem and because he was a professional upholsterer his word was final.

‘When he asked me what I wanted, I insisted on a refund because the way I was being treated left me with no confidence in accepting a replacement.’

Jayne’s says her dressing down culminated in being referred back to the DFS Waterlooville branch manager for a second opinion, and two weeks later another upholsterer turned up.

He gave the sofas and footstool the once-over, acknowledged there were issues to be resolved, but stressed any refund decision wasn’t down to him but the branch manager.

When Jayne protested that she’d rejected the furniture as sub-standard within the statutory 30-day deadline and wasn’t prepared to take no for an answer, she claims things started to turn ugly.

The upholsterer said she must have bought the furniture because she liked it, and DFS were only prepared to get the issues resolved - take it or leave it.

A furious Jayne repeatedly stressed the firm had broken the law by supplying her with goods which didn’t comply with legal quality standards, and she’d accept nothing less than an unconditional refund.

The 54-year-old sales co-ordinator was adamant the overall appearance of all the furniture was shoddy and cheap. When she tried to explain she had a legal right to a refund no-one was listening.

She was so annoyed with the way she was being treated she was unable to sleep, concentrate at work, or cope with the escalating stress.

On turning to Streetwise for help we first asked her for evidence in support of her claim. We were subsequently impressed with her text book record of contemporaneous notes of conversations with store staff and customer relations, together with a precise description of the defects, all of which were confirmed by back-up photographs.

We got onto DFS and set about taking them to task for what she had told us was the shameless way managers had first denied, then side-lined her concerns, leaving her angry and sickened by the experience..

It didn’t remotely resonate with the firm’s claim to treat customers as if they were part of the family, always kept at the forefront of the corporate mind, so we asked them to investigate.

Following our intervention DFS moved quickly to resolve the situation.

The Waterlooville branch manager emailed her to say he’d like to get the matter sorted. He said he could have it repaired, but if she wanted to cancel the order he’d arrange to collect the furniture as soon as possible. It was also agreed in the interim to put any payments due to the finance company on hold.

A spokesperson said: ‘At DFS we’re committed to providing our customers with high quality products.

‘In light of the customer's concerns, we arranged for one of our experienced service managers to visit the property to assess the sofas, and agreed they did not meet our high quality standards.

‘We are pleased to have been able to work with the customer to find a resolution and apologise for any inconvenience caused during this process.’

Jayne told Streetwise: ‘It was amazing, I could hardly believe it because they wouldn’t admit to me I was entitled to a refund. On the first visit it was very clear they were in denial, and the call I had with second guy was bullying.

‘They knew I was right and had a legal right to refund. That’s why I was so upset - a stressed little person being ignored and bullied by the big boys. There was no need for the two weeks of stress and upset.

‘I can’t thank you enough. I genuinely believe without your involvement they’d still be giving me the run-around.’