update on 24 September 2002

DFS have contacted Mrs Sumner. "Oh Good" you say? Not so fast..Mrs Sumner's email speaks for its self:

"Dear Jon,
After receiving your e-mail on 5th September, we were asked by DFS to contact them. We phoned Customer Services, who were very helpful. We were subsequently contacted by one of the Preston Managers, Mr G (apparently there are 2 managers Mr. S being the other one - he was the one who claimed the 'damage' was caused by a pet - and that was without even seeing the suite!)

"Mr. G came last Wednesday and admitted that he was horrified at the deterioration of the suite. He had come expecting to find a hole in the fabric (despite being told on the phone by me that the chair now consisted of white wadding). He was most sympathetic, but could offer no help. He said that the material had been discontinued and there was not enough 'good' fabric on the back of the settee to carry out the repair, and basically, he could not help us. He did say that he would take if further back at DFS. He asked me if Mr. S had been to look at the suite and told us that, if he had been Manager at the time, he would have taken it further. He seemed both genuine and courteous, we even thought we might get some kind of satisfaction. I did inform him that we have a new suite on order and will never buy from DFS again, for which he apologised, and suggested that we had been unlucky.

"I phoned Mr. G today to ask him if there had been any developments, as I was wanting to let Clik 2 know the outcome. I was completely taken aback by his change in attitude, so much so, that I asked him if he was the same person that I saw last week. He said it was obvious that the 'damage' was caused by a combination of the suite never being professionally cleaned, wear and tear, and our dog (despite him admitting when he was here that our dog was extremely well behaved and we obviously weren't letting her jump all over the furniture). I put it to him that we would not have paid for an Independant Consultants Report if we knew the 'damage' was caused by our dog. He replied by saying that the Consultant would not 'blame' the dog as we were paying him! He said that DFS advise customers to have their suites professionally cleaned every two years, which we had not done (why would we pay to have a suite cleaned that is falling to bits!) His demeanour on the phone today was completely opposite to that when he visited us.

"In my opinion, he has been 'primed' by Mr. S as to what to say to us. I told him that I was sorry that DFS had contacted us again, as they are obviously not prepared to make any effort to make amends. We gave up the fight with them over a year ago - I don't know what made us think they had changed. I hope people seeing your web site will think twice before they buy furniture from DFS - we certainly won't be recommending them!

Regards, Sheena Sumner
PS DFS should consider sending their staff on a PR course, or change their slogan to 'the customer is never right'!! "

Not surprised about a report on DFS. I call it Damaged Furniture Store. We ordered two prints from the shop in Beckton and paid for them up front. They were not cheap but were just what we were looking for. They told us they had to ship them from somewhere else and it would be 4 weeks.

10 weeks later after numerous calls and threats to cancel the order they "arrived." Not trusting them I opened the box in the store only to discover that they were the store's display models and one had a badly gouged and scratched frame. We waited 10 weeks for something they had pulled off the walls, damage and all. We argued with them and refused to take the damaged one, which they kept claiming they would send to a French polisher for repair.

That was almost two years ago. I went into their store on Saturday just to see if it was there and the damaged print is still hanging on the wall for sale. What a crap company. I would never buy anything from them or their susidiaries again! Jane from London... 12 January 2003
------------------------------------------------------------
I am writing to inform you of the numerous incidents my partner and I experienced whilst purchasing a suite from your Croydon depot. Click here to read details ....
James Turner .. 6 September 2003
------------------------------------------------
Purchased a suite a DFS costing £2500. It is uncomfortable, shrunk, ten shades lighter. All the zips broke, the seams split open, I had to have more fibre filling put in the cushions to make it more comfortable. the last visit was August 03 from one of the Upholsters who agreed the suite was a disgrace and promised to sort things out for me.

He took one of the cushion covers away for testing and promised to re-fill the seating with foam instead of fibre. After 3 weeks on not hearing from DFS I contacted them. I was told as the suite was nearly 3 years old there wasn't anything DFS could do to help. The facts are my complaints have been for the period of 3 years and each time I get my intelligence insulted by staff at DFS. I have had to date 7 upholsters and 2 managers out during 2 years and still nothing has been done.
Joanne Hayden ... 9 September 2003
-----------------------------------------------
3 years ago my husband and myself purchased a suite from DFS in Poole Dorset which cost over 1800. In the last week one the bottom of one of the armchairs has completely collapsed. On contacting the branch I have been advised that as it is outside the 2year guarantee then any work required would have to be paid for. Now considering the last suite we had lasted well over 3 years before we replaced it with our lovely new one( I use these words very loosely) surely I am not expecting anything out of the ordinary to expect this suite to have lasted longer than 3 years!!!!
Mrs H Jeans ... 22 December 2003
------------------------------------------------
I too am having trouble with DFS. We ordered a Sofa and Sofabed on 17/5/03, which was deliverd on 13/08/03. When it came, it was marked, and being cream this was not on. The delivery men also took a chunk out of my wall when they delivered it. The delivery men suggested that they take the covers off for me, so I could wash them!! when I declined they offered me some baby wipes from the van, can you believe that.

I signed the delivery note as not acceptable and damaged and contacted the store, they sent someone out. It was agreed I should get a repacement set of covers The store manager suggested I might like the replacement set in a different colour and that I could buy the damged ones at a reduced price, which at the time seemed like a reasonable idea.

We chose a different colour and placed the order for the replacements which arrived in October. When I got round to putting these on they were too looses and and made incorrectly, there was elastic where velcro should be and vice-versa. I contacted the store on the 20/10/03 and again they sent someone out.

Eventually it was agreed that these should be replaced and a set was ordered, with one of the cushion covers being sent for colour matching. Despite this when the replacement covers arrived, on 02/12/03, they were the wrong colour, they had been ordered in the original cream!

These have been re-ordered and i am waiting for the man as we speak to deliver the new and hopefully correct covers, 8 months on from my original order. i have said i want the money back i paid for the damaged covers as a gesture of goodwill for all the inconvenience, but they are not interested and offered me 50, not the 225 I paid. i am contacting head office, but do not hold out much hope. i was a returning customer too, but i will never recommend them to anyone now. Mrs R L Pettitt ... 13 January 2004
-----------------------------------------------
We bought a 4 seater and a three seater leather settee from DFS delivered mid November 2003. Within two days we noticed that one of the two cushions on the larger settee was settled very badly, it had a large dip where it was sat on. We told children to sit on the other seats in case we were over using the one cushion. But the other cushions are fine. When we reported this to DFS an upholsterer came out and very rudely told us we had to plump it up every day. He gave a quite elaborate demonstration of how we should take the whole thing apart and bash the cushions about - takes about an hour to do them all - probably good for losing a few pounds. Doesn't work though, the offending cushion is sub standard to the others. Well they have a fight on their hands. When I spend 2k on a suite I expect it to look good for at least a little longer than 2 days. Will let everyone know the outcome. And we will not be purchasing the bed settee we want from DFS.
Margo Webb ... 15 January 2004