Tim M.

When I purchased a leather 3 piece recliner suite from the "Furniture Village" Brighton store I was told that if I took out the additional 3 year insurance with Guardsman, I would have complete peace of mind.

I was told that everything, including the reclining mechanisms and the electric motors, yes everything, everything including staining and damage such as rips and tears to the covers caused by pets, would be covered for a full five year period.

Three years later I noticed a mechanical problem with the reclining mechanism. I phoned Guardsman and they said that they would send out a claim form, adding that l needn't worry as it would be covered under their warranty.

All good so far. I then told the nice lady that there was also a problem with the seat cushion (the bit you sit on) and arm rest (the bit you rest your arm on) on the same unit. I explained that I could feel the framework through the leather and that the padding appeared to have collapsed.

She told me that this was not covered by the Guardsman warranty but that if I phoned Furniture Village they would be able to help me as their 10 year warranty covered this sort of thing.

So I phoned the Furniture Village store in Brighton and selected Option Two (to talk about an item already delivered). It went to answerphone as no one was apparently available to take my call.

I was however invited to leave a message with an assurance that someone would call me back. (Yeah right!). I immediately redialled and selected Option One (to talk about a new order).

Imagine my surprise when within two rings the call was answered by John (strange that no one was available for Option Two but was available for a possible commission call - how cynical of me).

I explained the situation and John told me that the warranty does not cover seat or arm cushions only structural defects i. E. the framework. He added that I should have plumped the cushions.

So the framework and the motors and the electrics and even the leather covering the furniture are all covered, but not the padding.

Given that the padding is an integral part of the furniture and therefore part of the structure of the furniture I was somewhat bemused.

I could understand that there would be no cover for acts of God, nor fire, flood or famine. No cover in the event of a nuclear holocaust or plane crashing into my house. No cover during civil unrest, or a military coup or if the government was being usurped. No cover for using it for a purpose that it wasn't intended to be used for... but no cover for sitting on it?

At this point I did wonder how John had managed to transfer the blame onto me in such a short space of time. I asked him how I could plump the cushions that you sit on when they are fixed to the frame.

He told me that when I was buying the furniture I would have been shown. He wasn't there when I bought it but I was and I know I wasn't shown. Further, despite a search on the internet, I have not yet been able to find any instructions on how to carry out this task.

I informed John that when I purchased the suite I had been assured that I would have complete piece of mind as everything would be covered.

He told me that yes, the warranty covered stains and rips or tears caused by pets, studs in jeans etc but, no it didn't cover damage caused to a chair or settee because you sat on it.

So, my advice is as follows:-

1. Don't believe the salesman when he/she tells you that their furniture is only constructed from the finest materials.

2. Don't believe the salesman when he/she tells you that the extended guarantees cover everything so you can have that extra peace of mind.

3. Don't expect the furniture you buy to be fit for purpose... i. e. Don't expect to lie on a bed or sit on a chair without having something go wrong with it which isn't their fault.

4. Do expect to be fobbed off with explanations that is your fault because you haven't looked after it properly when they haven't even bothered to examine the defect.

5. Do expect whoever you speak to say they can't comment on any point you are trying to make as they did not personally sell you the item in question.

The person I spoke to had no idea who I was, where I lived, what the invoice or order number was but said that he couldn't comment on the problem as he hadn't sold the item to me. How did he know?

Learn from the mistakes of others. Do your homework and avoid companies who mislead you about their guarantees and have non existent after sales customer support.

Thanks John I wont be going back.

Update 1.

Following this review I was asked to contact the customer care team and received this response...

Good afternoon

Thank you for taking the time to contact us as we requested, I am sorry to hear of your concerns. I have taken a look into this and can see what you have reported has been done via the phone call, I have forwarded over your concerns to the general manager of the store for this to be looked into further for you.

I have requested that you are contacted with regards to your review.

Update 2.

I received the following response from the branch manager...

Dear xxxxx

I have been sent a copy of your Trustpilot review and whilst John was correct in stating that the interiors are only covered for the first year and that the other components are only covered for 2 years unless you extend the recliner cover with Guardsman as you have done, he could have offered you a different option.

Any repairs outside of our guarantee would obviously be chargeable to yourself but if you wanted to look into doing this you could contact xxxxxxx who is a local upholsterer that could inspect the furniture to see if there is anything that he can do to resolve your concerns. His number is xxxxx xxxxxx.

Kind Regards

General Manager

Update 3.

My reply to the General Manager...

Dear xxxxx.

As I stated in my review I expect goods purchased to be of merchantable quality and do not consider it to be unreasonable to expect that a chair can be sat on without it falling apart.

Given that another review identified the use of inferior materials (cheap foam - as identified by a freelance upholsterer) in the construction of your furniture, it would appear that mine is not an isolated case.

Good customer relations relies upon trust and goodwill. Given your inflexible attitude there is clearly no after sales goodwill and any trust that may have once existed has since been broken.

In your email you gave me the name of an upholsterer whom you recommend and state that I can pay for his services myself.

I find your attitude quite astonishing. Are there any other services that I can pay for which you would recommend?

Perhaps I should give you open access to my bank account and grant you free rein over any future buying decisions that you might wish to make on my behalf.

It would appear that not only are the products sold of inferior quality but the level of customer service from the Furniture Village brand struggles to meet the low standards which appear to be acceptable at Head Office.

As I said in my original post, in future I will go elsewhere. As for my review, I will let your "potential" future customers make their own decisions...

One final point to ponder...

Why do Furniture Village call it a Customer Care Team?