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

I'm so glad you are fighting this! Please keep us updated... When is the court date?

mycat: just out of interest, why didn't you let the credit card company handle this? It would have been zero hassle for you!

tug, from what mycat has said so far, getting her DH to engage with his CC company might have been as much effort as beginning proceedings against LA

Really hope this ends well (for you), mycat. I ordered a bed last year from LA which has been grand, but your experience has really put me off making more big-ticket purchases from this retailer.

Another one here who won't be buying anything LA. And will definitely tell friends and family about this Fred.

Gosh, this is so exciting!

Wow, shocked that such a well known company trading on its good name could be so horrendous to its customers.

Definitely won't be shopping there in the future.

tugamommy, I'm still waiting for DH to contact the credit card company . I think he's decided to let me run with it - I'm on mat leave so have the time to deal with it at the moment. My patience is wearing thin though!

No court date yet - the next step is to file a directions questionnaire which is used to set the ongoing timetable.

Good luck!

I haven't bought anything from Laura Ashley since they took 5 months to deliver a mirror I ordered from them online. Their customer service is appalling.

Good luck! I've been watching this thread amd I'm really hoping you get restitution for this.

Amazing that LA is prepared to risk reputational damage for such a relatively paltry amount of money.

Sad that a UK company is obviously in such a poor commercial standing that they didnt just give you a replacement and move on.

Best of luck to you!

It's a shame though. We complained about Achica to our cc company and they immediately refunded the money and dealt with it quickly and efficiently. No hassle for us.

Although a good fight is just the thing to perk you up when on mat leave!

mycat
claims (among other things) that the furniture has been "subjected to excessive neglect and mistreatment after purchase".

Extraordinary claim for them to make - based on just your images, no evidence and not even a physical inspection of the furniture. The fact that they haven't examined your furniture must surely count against them. As does the fact that you have other furniture in your room from the same range that is fine, so effectively a control.

If the case does proceed to a hearing, would it be possible to detach the damaged furniture legs and take them along as evidence? Could be quite impactful.

Given the quality of the defence (or lack thereof), was it completed by a legally qualified person? Useful to get an insight into how they're handling this.

I'm nosy curious. What have you claimed for? As you said before, a refund for the faulty furniture won't help you, though you'd definitely get it eventually via the court or credit card company. You need replacement furniture or a (highly improbable) refund for the whole matched set?

WOw, this is shocking! LA will be alienating a core section of their consumer base thanks to this thread. Just what they deserve based on this treatment of their customers!

fascicle, the defence was filed by Laura Ashley's legal dept so whoever completed it has I assume some bad legal training. It's seriously poor though. What any half decent lawyer would have done is simply require me to prove my claim. Instead they've raised this incredible defence which places the burden of proof on them to show that the furniture has indeed been subject to "excessive neglect and mistreatment" as they allege. There's no way they'll be able to do that as it's totally ludicrous. Idiots.

Not only have they not inspected the furniture, they've based their mad claims on three pictures taken on my iPhone! The legs unfortunately don't come off as they're sort of integral to the whole piece of furniture but I can certainly take higher resolution pictures which show the fault more clearly. The fact that the rest of the furniture is fine, and that the faulty furniture came in a separate delivery, has been ignored by them. They're actually claiming it was all delivered together. Someone hasn't checked their facts very thoroughly at all.

tugamommy if I can get DH to call up I'm wondering if the credit card company might take this over. Will see if he can get onto it at the weekend.

StitchWitch I'm just claiming for the cost of the dressing table and stool (i.e. the faulty items) plus court costs. I guess that theoretically would allow me to buy a replacement (not that I'm going to now given I know how awful the quality of their furniture is). Incidentally, I could probably claim for some of the other furniture too as although it isn't cracked and peeling, some of it has developed random yellow patches in the paint (you see how wonderful LA furniture is?!). I think we've decided just to chalk it up to experience though and never buy from them again but there's no way I'm backing down over the peeling paint. We didn't notice the yellowing until after I'd started the claim and just don't have the energy to bother raising this too given the response we know we'll get.

The credit card company would almost certainly sort it, though obviously we'd miss out on the unfolding drama you wouldn't get your courts claim fee refunded.

The yellowing patches could be knots in the wood bleeding through? Sounds like more inadequate word preparation/priming to me.

And duh - of course you could just buy a new one. When I was in a similar position with a faulty set, the line had been discontinued.

It sounds like they arent even reading their own files re: mycats complaint, so even if they know about this, i doubt they have or will read it.

A true error. Ignore MN at your peril. I have an empty flat, having just moved here from overseas. My only knowledge of LA is a vague memory of calico dresses as a child. They have a shop downtown, and i only recently realised the furniture in the window isnt just a display, so they were on my list of places to research. Needless to say, they've been crossed off!

Just popped by to see how this was going. You are fab. I can't wait to hear how you wipe the floor with them. The response is terrible.

Congrats to Laura Ashley for this supreme example of of cruddy customer service, I have taken the 4k I would have spend with them on sofas to Parker Knoll, thanks for the warning. Our bedroom needs updating next year, guess where we won't be shopping?!

Just found this thread and am stunned by the attitude of LA (and the price of their crappy furniture!)
Hope they come to their sense and give you replacement furniture, OP

Aw shucks thewomaninwhite

Quick update: I decided to file an official Reply to their Defence given all the shocking errors and mad allegations it contained. Sent that early last week, along with a suggestion that we attempt to resolve the claim through mediation (as this is strongly encouraged by the Court). Radio silence from Laura Ashley - who have never made any attempt to contact me about this, even after the claim was issued. It's being spectacularly mishandled IMO.

Marking place. Have sofa from la. Cushions you sit on are awful now. We getting them re stuffed ourselves. Not sure id buy from them again. Mil has had her brand new sofa ripped when it was delivered on the can. The cushions are all wrong. They put small in large cases so sofa looks all wrong. I think la in her case has been very good and they sorted it all now.

I was wondering about this thread. Presumably the court will send an Allocations Questionnaire soon - think that also asks about being willing to consider mediation. There is absolutely no way you can lose this twiglets!

Please continue to update, OP.

I've also avoided LA since you started this thread.