A couple of very expensive G-Plan reclining sofas. We previously had G-Plan for around 30 years and the quality was excellent, removable covers for washing, smooth/silent reclining, very well built and sturdy. Just automatically went to a G-Plan retailer and quickly bought new ones, basically just choosing a pattern/colour we liked. Just assumed the quality is still the same, so didn't do any research, online reviews etc. What a massive disappointment. They're absolute crap. One creaks and groans when activating the recliner. There are flaws in the fabric in several places. The frame on the other creaks and groans when you sit on it. None of the covers are removable, so we won't be able to wash them. We reported the faults to the retailer, who in turn reported it to G-Plan, several times, but they keep sending the same "freelance" upholstery guy who comes out to have a look, but seems incapable of doing anything. He upturned the noisy reclining one, bashed the mechanism a bit with a hammer and now it's worse than ever. We did persuade him to replace the cover on one of the arms with several fabric flaws, but he just referred us to the "instruction" book for the other flaws where it says that minor flaws are normal! We'll never buy G-Plan again, the quality is crap and the after sales service is abysmal! Yet another long standing reputable manufacturer whose quality has gone down the toilet!
The other "big ticket" item was a brand new car. We had a second hand one with pretty high mileage when we bought it at around 18 months old, really liked it, but it was a bit "rough". We just wanted "like for like" - same model, but newer and lower mileage. Dealership gave us an offer we couldn't refuse for a brand new one. We kept repeating to them that we wanted like for like, same features, etc., but when the new one arrived, it was the same model, but completely different. Our old one had sliding drawers under all seats (front and back) but new one only had drawer under drivers' seat. In old one, there were footwell compartments front and back, in new one, only at the front. Old one had fold down tables on seat backs, new one didn't. It sounds petty, but it was storage and tables that was why we liked the model in the first place and they're things very hard to find! The other big thing was that the old car had automatic fold-in door mirrors and all round sensors - new one had manual door mirrors and only rear sensors. Dealership not remotely interested and just fobbed us off saying they were trivial matters and just pointed us to the back of the car where it showed the model. OH was really annoyed so he did a load of research and found that there were different options under the same model, and that the previous car was a top end version of the model, but the one they sold us was bottom end. We threatened going legal on them, and then they offered a refund of the difference between the cost of the top end and the cost of the bottom end, but what we wanted was the car we wanted, not a bit of money. Then they tried to suggest swapping it for an ex-demo car they had of the top model, but it was six months old, different colour, obviously a few thousand miles on the clock - they refused to refund the difference between cost when new and the cost of an ex-demo. They refused point blank to swap it for a new one of the right spec, so we were stuck with it. Still have it today, and it's still annoying that it's not the spec we told them we wanted!! I wish we'd taken them to court, but we backed off because of the stress and hassle!