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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be furious with Habitat

45 replies

viktoria · 01/05/2018 18:52

After having lived with our easy to care for cheap, very comfortable, but now slightly worn sofa for 17 years, we decided to splash out on a new sofa. This was last year in December to take advantage of the Christmas sales. We decided on the Habitat Opollo sofa - very large, with a chaise, and quite expensive. We were told it was in stock and could be delivered in 2 weeks. We paid for it in full.
Fast forward to 5 months later and we still haven't received it.
I spare you all the boring details of what happened in these 5 months, but briefly, we were given various delivery dates (3 in total, on 2 of the days I took the day off work), all of which were cancelled on the day as the delivery company either had no parts of the sofa or just one part.
I have made numerous phone calls to Habitat and have always spoken with very nice, but totally ineffective employees.
Today, finally, I had enough - again, a promised delivery, but when the delivery person came he said they forgot to load our sofa on the truck, and I would need to arrange a re-delivery.
So I called Habitat to cancel and was told that I had to pay 20% of the purchase price as it was made to order (I wasn't made aware that this was made to order, when I paid for it, I was told it was in stock and ready to be delivered)
So I basically entered a contract with Habitat - I pay, you deliver. They don't fulfil their part of the deal, have my money and then I'm being penalised for their ineptitude!
I'm actually in touch with them and they are "trying" to waiver the 20% charge. But I'm still furious. And also a bit sad because Habitat used to be such a good shop.
But mainly furious!

OP posts:
fearfultrill · 01/05/2018 18:56

That's ridiculous.

Seems to be only one way to get worthwhile responses and that's to go public on their social media. I wouldn't normally recommend it but this is utterly ludicrous and you definitely should not be charged!!

Sonders · 01/05/2018 19:08

The fuckers. YANBU.

SlightlyTired · 01/05/2018 19:13

Write to their legal department. That has worked for us in the past.

DottyBlue2 · 01/05/2018 19:13

You need the Daily Fail and a sad face.

anonymousbird · 01/05/2018 19:15

OMG and Habitat ain't cheap either! Crap crap service and they need to try a bit bloody harder - should be refunded before you've drawn breath. They aren't made to order, what utter crap, currently showing delivery in ten days so that's just a lie.

Good luck, let us know!

wowfudge · 01/05/2018 19:15

Email their CEO - that is utterly ridiculous of them

W0rriedMum · 01/05/2018 19:21

The same happened me with Next. They take your order saying that it's in stock and it can be delivered in 2 weeks which turns out to be utterly nonsense. In the end it was longer than the max number of weeks they needed for made-to-order furniture.

Laura Ashley promised nothing - they said it'd be the full 16 weeks and it was. I had no issue with that.

Once I ordered a sofa from Furniture World that had to be ordered by X date to be delivered by Christmas and we barely made the deadline. I actually wasn't very bothered about Christmas.. In the event, I got a text to say they'd be delivering on Christmas Eve. At 5pm they arrived and I had a nice sofa to sit on for Christmas!

It's the blatant lying from staff very keen to make a sale that drives people mad, not the wait itself.

viktoria · 01/05/2018 19:31

I did get a call back that I won't have to pay the 20% (how generous!) but they couldn't refund me today, and somebody would call me tomorrow to take my details for the refund.
So far (sofa?) so good. But then I have heard countless times that somebody will call me back tomorrow and nobody ever does. I wish you could deal with one person and that's my contact person. Instead I have been dealing with the sales assistant, the branch manager and countless "customer care assistants". And the delivery company.
Thanks for listening to my rant.
Yes, I think I will send a letter to the CEO.

OP posts:
myrtleWilson · 01/05/2018 19:33

We had a minor issue (compared with you) with Habitat but found their twitter feed very helpful (not sure whether it is because it is public so more accountability)? Hope you get the call back and refund sorted....

myrtleWilson · 01/05/2018 19:34

oh and ours was the same issue about the delivery company not loading our office chair. Maybe there is an issue about their outsourcing of delivery??

hodgeheg92 · 01/05/2018 19:37

Had a very similar experience with Harvey's. If you check their Facebook, it's a wonder they're still in business!

PickAChew · 01/05/2018 19:40

Well this has made my mind up about the wardrobe I was contemplating!

JontyDoggle37 · 01/05/2018 19:43

Don’t send a letter. Tweet them. In a series. With your own hashtag #5monthsnosofa. If you send enough individual tweets explaining the situation in a series of short sentences, you’ll probably end up trending. And they will fix your situation sooner than you can say tweet....

myrtleWilson · 01/05/2018 19:50

The OP will have to send a whole heap of tweets to be trending but twitter can be useful route to resolution.

viktoria · 01/05/2018 20:14

I hadn't thought about Twitter, never really use it, but I might give it a try.
Thanks for that suggestion.

OP posts:
ajandjjmum · 01/05/2018 20:16

Tweet - always.

viktoria · 03/05/2018 00:35

I did tweet - and got immediate responses. Thank you, you wise mumsnetters!
I will receive my refund in the next 3-4 working days.
Habitat also offered me a £40 voucher. But I think I want to be difficult and tell them that that's not acceptable.

OP posts:
Aridane · 03/05/2018 00:38

Well done you!

Hotpinkparade · 03/05/2018 00:49

Oh god, I had this problem with a bed. Several different deliveries, all or part of the order not loaded on the van. The couriers told me this happened every day to at least one person. Think the courier firm was called Cougar? It was wildly frustrating, we were sleeping on a mattress on the floor for much longer than necessary because of their ineptitude.

Charliecatpaws · 03/05/2018 01:12

This is why I use a reputable local company who always delivers on time, I didn’t even know that HabiTAT still existed, thought it was an 80s/90s company ?

Bramble71 · 03/05/2018 02:06

How about using their social media feeds to try hurrying them along?

HannahHut · 03/05/2018 02:20

I know someone who used to work in the call centre. Its madness there. They warned me against applying and have now left with the offer of a better job.

When they left there were 6 people off on sickness for stress. The team is only a few over 20 people.

AwkwardSquad · 03/05/2018 05:35

Infuriating. We bought an inexpensive Habitat sofa a good few years ago. We were told it would take x weeks, which was a bit of a problem as we had no sofa at the time, so the store we were dealing with actually loaned us a sofa and had it delivered.

AwkwardSquad · 03/05/2018 05:37

Excellent customer service, and also very funny because the loan sofa was a lovely big one but our living room was very small. So we had to open the front door then basically throw ourselves onto the sofa.

lill72 · 03/05/2018 06:17

Can I suggest sofa.com. amazing customer service and sofas. I had a problem, dealt with one person and they gave me new covers free.

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