My fiancee and I were due to move into our newly built home
at the end of May 2002. In December 2001 we order a Ascari sofa
and chair from Marks and Spencer as we had always believed it
to provide quality furnishings. The sofa and chair were delivered
on 31 May 2002.
At the time of delivery, Marks and Spencer provided a guide called
"Care for your upholstery". One of the pieces of advice
which we were told to follow in order to "maximise the enjoyment
and life span of our upholstery" was to avoid habitually
sitting on the arms. Advice that we followed.
Unfortunately, one evening we had guests to our new home who leant
against one of the arms to the chair. Some time later, we discovered
that the wood beneath the fabric had snapped and that caused the
fabric to "sag" and look awful. Over time, the wood
could protrude and rip the fabric.
We made contact with customer services at M & S and explained
the problem. They offered to send out a service engineer to inspect
- who came to see the furniture on 19.9.02.
He asked me how the rail had snapped and I explained that a friend
had leant against the arm. At no time, did the engineer explain
that this revelation may cause M & S to avoid resolving the
situation by stating that the problem did not come under the warranty
scheme. In fact, the engineer recommended repair or replacement.
A letter was sent on 3 October 2002 to my old address nothwithstanding
that I had already told them we had moved. It explained that the
engineer could not find any evidence of a "confirmed manufacturing
fault". Whatever that means.
I wrote to M & S once I eventually received a copy of this
letter to state my argument that of course, there must be a fault
with furniture that cannot withstand one incident of leaning against
the arm. In any event, the engineer had not peeled pack the fabric
to examine the wood underneath. He merely ran his hand against
the wood. Further, the guidance had said avoid habitually sitting
on the arms - not avoid sitting on the arms at all.
My letter prompted a response on 25 November 2002 which I could
not believe. It contained many inconsistencies and rudeness. Firstly,
it stated that the report said no manufacturing defects were found.
My copy of the report does not say that. Further, the letter stated
that M & S will not meet my request in replacing the furniture.
I had always maintained that I would be happy for the furniture
to be repaired.
The rudeness was spelled out in the fourth paragraph of the letter
"The problems you are now experiencing are due to the mis-use
of your sofa". Infact, it was the chair that I was complaining
about and I would hardly categorise leaning against the arm of
the chair once to be mis-use!
Finally, the letter stated that any further correspondence
about this issue will not be entered into. I have complained
once by telephone following this letter but to no avail.
To add insult to injury, a couple of months ago my partner and
I decided that enough was enough. In order to get our chair repaired
we decided we would foot the cost even though we did not believe
we were at fault. I called the M & S customer services helpline.
I explained that after a long running dispute - my partner and
I would pay to have the chair repaired if M & S could assist
by having their authorised repairer come and deal with the problem.
I was told this was not possible as their repairers could not
deal with repairs which did not come under the warranty scheme.
I was told to open up the yellow pages and dial an upholsterer!!
HOW FRUSTRATING...
