To expect to have a brand new chair without a wobbly leg? Genuine question!

[Doryzurich]

Have just purchased two chairs that come as a pair from a company in London - they are the type of company where you buy the frame with a calico cover and then you send them material and they cover it.

Chairs arrived on Friday - both are well upholstered - but one of the chairs has one leg shorter then the others (by 1.5cm).

Spoken to the company today and my two options are - return the chairs and get a refund on the frames (but I lose out on the material which was actually half the cost) or put an extra plastic spacer on the chair that has the short leg so that it stops wobbling.

AIBU to expect that the chair should be fit for purpose and, if it's not, then the company should replace it with a decent frame and stump up the cost of the extra fabric? Putting an extra spacer on the back leg is going to look pretty crap.

It's a genuine question as I'm not sure what is a 'reasonable' request.

That's ridiculous. They should send you an upholstered replacement at no charge.

Or make an invisible repair on the faulty leg ie not glue a piece of plastic to it.

Can they not just replace the leg?

But no, YANBU, you shouldn't have to put up with that.

They are pretty much standing their ground - and I can't believe they're being like this. Surely they should have quality controlled the chair BEFORE upholstering? Problem is - not sure where I stand legally - can I start throwing 'Trading Standards' at them if they don't budge? I'd be happy with an invisible repair, but I get the impression that the frames come in from Indonesia / China, etc so they don't have expertise 'in house'. The frame is such that they can't whip off the leg and replace it unfortunately.

Any idea of any legal phrases I can throw at them if they refuse to budge??

Dont they have other chairs that can be upholstered in your fabric? I would think someone with a bit of expertise could remove the upholstery from the wobbly chair and put it onto an unwobbly one with not much trouble.

If they will not do this name and shame them ,the option of a plastic spacer is pretty rubbish so maybe you could press for them to do the job properly with matching wood.

I don't know if there is anything you can do about it because they have offered a refund on the goods they supplied. if they valued their customers they should supply a new chair in the same fabric. tell them you will out them on mumsnet and plaster it over their facebook page and you will trash their public name, that normally works better than legal action :)

peggyundercrackers - I like your thinking!!