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

hmm
i second customer services are crap
bought an ivory ceiling light fitting -13 months later it was turning a lime yellow colour
emailed them and reply was , its not their fault ,the sunlight coming in the window has discoloured it.????
not bought anything since.

I bought a sofa from them which I have had for 5 years and gave just spent £300 having repaired as some of the springs had gone. Utter shite. I will never buy furniture from them again.

Looked at your pic, OP.
I can't see a pale cream (dry) carpet. Looks more like the Thames.

If you bought the items on a credit card or visa debit card you can raise a case with your card provider. Contact their legal department and get the ball rolling.

Under the consumer credit act you could get a full refund

Oooh just remembered my own anti LA stories...
About 10-15 years ago I bought enough curtain material off them to do all the windows in our house.
They managed to mis measure half of the material we chose, which we didn't realise until we took it to my then DPs mum who was making the curtains.
Their cock up meant a 60mile round trip to N Wales to pick up the fabric from her house, return it to store who said it was OUR fault, and then another trip from shop to MiL and back again with the made up curtains.
They gave me a £25 voucher as goodwill.
I ordered a roman blind from their made to measure service. When it arrived it had flaws in material. We rejected it and LA remade it.
Never again.

Uggmum...I paid for my carpets on my visa debit card.
Does that mean I can get the bank onto the shop?

Pics look shocking to me. Hope you give them all you've got OP, don't let them get away with this kind of 'well, you've bought it now' shoulder shrugging piss poor service.

Badvoc 123
It's worth a try, but for the best protection ALWAYS pay by credit card. Especially if you buy stuff on the Internet.

I've said this up there ^. You have to contact the shop first. If they refuse to help you can then contact your bank. As long as you've spent over £100 you're covered by your bank for both credit and debit cards if a product is faulty.

Just called my credit card provider only to realise that we paid on DH's card! He's going to be so happy when he finds out I need him to get his credit card company on to it (he would definitely leave this type of thing to me given the chance)

Oh and I've checked, we paid £2,799 for the furniture in total and £584.50 for the faulty dressing table and chairs. I'd be annoyed whatever it cost but this was pretty darn expensive.

Recently spent over £2,500 on Next's Isabella's bedroom range for my daughter. My DP who put the whole lot together said they are crap too. Compressed cardboard, drill holes in wrong place and bits missing. I thought we were buying quality too, but my son's Ikea furniture is not far behind and cost a lot less. Hope you get somewhere with it mycatlikestwiglets - all we've had so far is a £15 voucher!

Is it possible that they have been knocked with a vacuum cleaner?

Not that it makes much difference, you'd have thought it could withstand that anyway but it was just a thought.

I bought my entire living room frm from LA just like Rachel and Pheobe did from Pottery Barn. TBH I was going to say you were perhaps being a bit U.

Then saw the pics and the super-twattish response. Not good enough. I'd link them this thread to their FB page for starters.

Am also laying flat out on 20 year old Ikea sofa due to extreme illness. Fabulous quality, is as new. Never knock those doughty Swedes.

The state of those legs is shocking.

I have the same dressing table, stool and 2 chest of draws. I've had them for around 8 years and they look as good as new. There's no way the paint should be peeling like that!

I think you mean scummer.

Contact BBC Watchdog.

Yadnbu

Well at least your stool is still standing mine collapsed and split under me.

Pretty sure there's no way the legs have been knocked by a vacuum SistersofPercy, if they were chipped you could see that would be a possibility but the paint is just flaking off. It's clearly a case of the wood not being primed/properly prepared before painting.

Glad to hear yours is still going strong Bakeoffcakes, most of ours is fine but the dressing table and stool came in a separate delivery several weeks later (the original set arrived damaged). I can only assume it was part of a faulty batch. It's so frustrating as we waited months from ordering to get the complete set to finish our bedroom and then this happens

Lucked

The original set was delivered with a leg hanging off tbf so they seem to have some dodgy workmanship

No word from Ryan btw. I suspect he's gone home

mycat I have PM'd you the name of the man responsible for overseeing the furniture buying side.

Thesaurusgirl I used to work for the company that took over Ratners the year after it sank too!

Eek!

Thanks Wally have now sent him an email. It's a multi-pronged attack.