To warn you all that Laura Ashley painted furniture is total crap and the company couldn't give a shit

[mycatlikestwiglets]

I bought nearly £3k of bedroom furniture from Laura Ashley last year (the "Clifton" range). We researched carefully what to buy and as we have loads of LA stuff we thought we were buying quality and the huge outlay would be worth it. After a debacle over damaged furniture being delivered the last items, a dressing table and stool, were finally delivered last September. So far so ok, until I noticed last week that the paint was cracking and peeling on the legs of the dressing table and stool.

I sent pictures to Laura Ashley last week after notifying them over the telephone of the issue (and surprise surprise, they tried to make up reasons immediately as to why it might have happened, asking if the furniture was near a heat source or a window - which it isn't). I received an email earlier this week saying the pictures had been referred to their "technicians" for analysis, and today I had the following message:

"I am now in receipt of our Technicians findings following the
inspection of the photographs that you have submitted.

I have been advised that they consider the issues that you have raised
as treatment after purchase and the legs look like they have been
saturated and this has resulted in the wood and paint cracking.
Whilst I do sympathise, unfortunately, Laura Ashley is unable to accept
responsibility on this occasion, as your furniture is not considered to
be at fault."

I am utterly fuming. The furniture has been sitting on my bedroom carpet, the wood is not split in any way and it certainly hasn't had a sniff of water. I'll be taking this to court if necessary because there's no way they're getting away with this. DO NOT BUY THIS FURNITURE

Arf at ailing Floral twats

You lot are bloody lovely, you know that? all round

LA have a strange way of handling their PR problems.

Told DM all about the problems you've been having and she's going to tell my auntie, who is about to redecorate and might otherwise have considered LA. Probably not so much now, though. I love the consumer ripple effect.

I was looking at LA for a new sofa - having read the thread I'll be looking elsewhere, and I've taken myself off their email list. Consumer power.

I don't understand their attitude.

They can't delete the tweets, as you can only delete your own. But they don't have to respond. For comparison, I tweeted to Premier Inn about an issue with a booking and someone responded asking me to email them and they would sort it, which they did. Good service, happy to use them again.

Many thanks for the heads-up about LA:s attitude to customers. I will avoid them in future.

Another one avoiding LA from now on.
We bought our bedroom stuff from M&S, rest of the shop quality is awful but they're getting their furniture right!

Hope the OP gets some satisfaction with LA this week.

Thanks holly, no news yet.

My mum ordered several rooms worth of LA stuff last year and was really pleased with it all. My SIL also shops there semi constantly and doesn't seem to have had trouble. Having said that, this is really putting me off them! Hope you get some resolution soon OP

NOT read thread but I have always found their CS to be shocking. Another company where you scratch a bit under surface and there is nothing there.

In terms of customer care at all.

Was just going to order bed for spare room from LaurAsh sale!
Going to get John Lewis one instead. Not quite as pretty but I trust them.

I didn't see anything about bad customer service on their twitter site.

UPDATE: Laura Ashley haven't bothered responding to or acknowledging my pre-action letter (in breach of Court protocol I might add) by today's deadline so I'll be launching my claim against them this week. Wish me luck!

good luck!

Wishing you luck Op. I am truly astounded at LA's behaviour. Appalling customer service, truly. They have done a lot of damage by their lack of action. I hope that you get a satisfactory result.

Claim now issued. Immensely annoyed and frustrated it has come to this though

When you win and get all your money back and keep reposting it/tweeting it then it will put loads of people off

They are being very short sighted

Good on you - make sure you keep us posted

Please keep us updated - I really hope you get this resolved

They've branched out into fitted kitchens now, just seen a promo ad in Country Living. Promising the same quality craftsmanship you can expect from their furniture.

So I'll be getting my new kitchen from Howdens then. Excellent customer service, and their stuff doesn't fall apart.

I have been following this thread from the beginning. When we moved into our house 44 years go we purchased a painted chest of drawers and a dressing table. It is still in a very good condition after all these years only slight chipping on dressing table legs and I am not that careful with the vacuum cleaner. The only real damage done was to my toe 6 weeks ago when I bashed my foot into it and fractured it. I remember on purchase included was a brochure from the company which said they use a special paint which should last for years.

It seems to me that LA or whoever manufactured the furniture didn't prepare the wood correctly as paint shouldn't peel off in large pieces like it has or they could have stored it in damp conditions in their warehouse.

I was just wondering about this thread earlier.

We are looking for two arm chairs, a TV unit and a coffee table. This's thread reminded me that I had an much smaller issue with Laura Ashley a couple of years ago and I found their customer service to be dreadful.

Good luck.