A nightmare from start to finish
We have purchased from OFL a number of times over the years and had no problem with the service provided or quality of furniture supplied. Of course, this was prior to OFL being taken over by Davidson Kempner. The company has now clearly lost interest in customer care and their product quality which has drastically declined. So, having ordered 2 settees on 12/11/22 with a 17 week wait time as manufactured in Vietnam, we received them in March only to find half of the recliner settee was a different colour and material. We couldn't believe this but it apparently happens more often than you would think. We also couldn't believe the delivery guys broke our front door threshold and didn't even have the decency to tell us! We were eventually passed to OFL's customer relations team as customer services were not helpful. The settees were reordered and we were assured we would have a smooth journey moving forward as the customer relations team would now oversee the replacement order and this time the settees would go through a rigid quality check to ensure they were not substandard, faulty or a mismatch. When we received the replacement settees 17 weeks later in July (after they went through the quality check) one shoulder of the 2 seater did not slot in properly leaving an unsightly gap and the 3 seater electric recliner settee made an horrendous screeching noise which worsened the more the recliner button was pressed. At least the fabric matched this time! Homeserve were sent out to inspect and advised the motor was operating correctly and the noise was due to the settee being over padded causing the fabric to rub! The technician proved this by separating the two sections and operating the recliners and sure enough, no screeching noise. He said the noise MAY fade through time but could not guarantee this. We could not believe we were in this position, especially when the settees had "allegedly" been quality checked. Turns out the "quality check" was just to ensure the pieces matched – the settees were not fully assembled with recliner mechanism inspection. We therefore cancelled the order. A time slot of between 7pm-10pm was allocated for the collection of the OFL faulty settees. Again, not happy as we didn't want strangers in our house when we were about to go to bed but this is just another example of the disrespect OFL show customers. We shouldn't have had that time slot forced on us. We then discovered the settees would go to landfill, again this is not uncommon. An environmentally responsible business? …. I think not. Regarding customer care, you are not given a specific customer relations team member to deal with your issues which simply adds to the frustration. Every time I sent an email seeking information, I found a missed call on my phone. I repeatedly advised my phone is on silent as it is not convenient for me to take calls and that I want written responses to my emails but this instruction was ignored. I have never experienced a company who respond to emails be telephone, very unprofessional. There was also a great deal of inaccurate information provided that I had to seek clarity on, again frustrating. On the occasions I was forced to call them in response to voice mail messages, I was left on hold for long periods before eventually getting through only to then be bombarded with securing questions before they would discuss what "they" called me about! At the end of this fiasco I was advised as the order was cancelled there is nothing to offset financial compensation to so we were "awarded" an OFL in store voucher (don't laugh). This was to compensate for the months of stress, anxiety, inconvenience, upset, telephone conversations and the vast paper trail of emails. A voucher is of course useless to us as we will never shop with OFL again but guess what …… we can inflict pain on others by giving it to someone else to use! Will NEVER purchase from OFL again.

First off. The information given by the "sales assistant" was very misleading. "Oh every piece of furniture I sell is guaranteed to be the same colour". What she really meant was, "everything I persuade you to buy earns me good commission". Table that was delivered was nothing like the sample in the showroom." We don't do a six foot by three foot in that style " What she really meant was, we don't have one in the showroom at present. "if you're not entirely satisfied you can exchange goods or request a refund". HOWEVER WE WILL CHARGE YOU FOR STUFF YOU RETURN AAAANNDDD YOU MUST KEEP ALL OF THE ORIGINAL PACKAGING IN THE SAME CONDITION THAT IT WAS BEFORE YOU UNPACKED IT. The first table, (5ft x 2ft 6in), was a different style and colour so I ordered and paid for a six foot x three foot and two extra chairs (in the same style... colour not guaranteed). Delivered free of charge as per policy, BUT have to pay the same delivery driver £50 to take away the other one. Given that I'm 73 years old and suffering from heart failure, cancer, arthritis and other numerous age related illnesses, maybe I should have just invested my hard earned savings in a nice solid oak coffin instead. Nb. It took two big guys to carry the boxes into the house. My wife, who is also disabled and myself were left to unpack and assemble the table. Unfortunately we couldn't wait for family to do this due to restrictions on the time allowed to notify OFL of any complaints. Worse still was trying to remove the packaging from the sideboard, which by the way we are very happy with. Try to lift it out from the top. IMPOSSIBLE! Needed to turn upside down, open carton, and then stand the right way up and slide the carton off. Tried reasoning with the monkey on the phone (after being on hold for 22 minutes) could not speak to the organ grinder. REF waiving return fee. I recommend banging you're head against the wall at least you get a result even if it's only a severe headache

Apologies in advance to readers for the length of this review. If you want to learn the truth about this company, read on and don't be fooled by its 'jokey' TV commercials.
We ordered a wardrobe and two chests of drawer (a 7-drawer and a 5-drawer) from Oak Furniture Land (OFL) on 18 August 2015 for delivery on 3 September. I was due to start a new job in a new location and I believed equipping a recently bought flat would be an exciting prospect. I parted with £1407. 40 which included a 5-year warranty with Furniture-Guard. Big mistake.

When the order was unpacked in September the wardrobe and 7-drawer were both badly damaged. I was heart-broken. The 5-drawer, whilst not damaged, did not look as well made as the furniture on display in the showroom, but we decided to stick with it. Bigger mistake. OFL agreed to replace both damaged items. Close inspection of the wardrobe showed less than professional workmanship, again not up to the expected quality of a £500 item of furniture and we opted not to replace it. A very fortunate choice, it turned out.

The replacement 7-drawer when unpacked two weeks later was more damaged than the first with cracks in one corner so wide I could slip a £1 coin into it! Despite cubic metres of polystyrene padding it had clearly been dropped and there were stress fractures in several places. Turns out our furniture was handmade in India and shipped here in containers. OFL offered us £100 in compensation if we agreed to keep it. Alarms bells were now ringing.

With the 5-drawer packed tightly with our clothes and the remainder scattered around our new flat we were becoming increasingly frustrated with the attitude of OFL 'after sales' staff. We wanted to return the 5-drawer and we wanted our money back so that we could buy near identical, better made and less expensive furniture from a local furniture store. OFL claimed that because the 5-drawer had been in our possession for 7 days we had no choice but to keep it. We argued that we would not be able to find matching furniture with the same shade of cream paint. OFL showed no sympathy and the company's ruthless streak came to the fore. Despite accepting the fault was with OFL for delivering damaged furniture they insisted we could not return the unbroken item. We were forced into a corner and had no option but to accept a second replacement 7-drawer (third delivery).
When the third delivery (7-drawer) was unpacked on 8 October it was not broken, but it did have black marks on the oak top which had to be removed by a professional from Furniture-Guard (who did an excellent job) and the drawers were ill-fitting. Two of the three top drawers had tiny gaps between the drawer and the surround, the third middle drawer had much bigger gaps on both sides and looked unsightly - not what you would expect to pay £400 for! But as the man from Furniture-Guard pointed out to me OFL accept workmanship within a 10% tolerance. For those unfamiliar with this term it means that a 30 cm wide drawer (such as ours) would be deemed acceptable by OFL if it had a 3cm wide gap around it! That's well over the width - not the depth - of a 10 pence piece! It beggars belief, but it's true.

We asked for compensation and were told, "OFL doesn't offer compensation, we prefer to resolve issues." I replied by saying, "But you're not resolving our issues, you're only making them worse!" The girl at the other end of the telephone did not have an answer to this in her manual and remained silent for an eternity. Eventually after many hours of complaint we were offered a miserly £30 compensation.

Following up the compensation, reimbursement for the wardrobe and insurance for the latter became an issue in itself. I was so cross, upset and frustrated after 9 weeks of dealing with OFL I finally demanded on 22 October if we didn't receive compensation that very day we would use the Small Claims Court to retrieve the money which OFL owed us. I asked for clarification three times and was categorically promised the money had been paid into my credit card account that same day. Of course there is no way of proving it because it takes up to 3 days 'to clear'. The following day I received a call from the finance dept. of OFL asking for my bank details to make a payment. "That was done yesterday," I said. "No it wasn't," came the reply. You guessed it, the girl I spoke to the previous day had clearly been very liberal with the truth... not once, not twice but on three occasions!

We now find we're stuck with expensive handmade furniture which we don't want. It's clear that once some companies have your money in their possession you cease to be a customer.

Of course you might order from OFL and be one of the lucky ones! If you do insist on buying from OFL, be sure to ask what percentage of deliveries arrive undamaged and remember, the best quality furniture is reserved for the showrooms.

Ps we did buy furniture from our local supplier for the living room and learned that many of its customers use the same local supplier's services to repair damaged/poorly made OFL furniture. That says it all.

Pps I tried to post this on the OFL website, but after a week it didn't appear... I wonder why? I also wonder why every review on the OFL website is glowing when reviews elsewhere are damning?