Or is John Lewis

[hawai40]

Having a sense of humour failure here. We bought two expensive (for us !) chairs from John Lewis last year. They are different but part of the same range. The leg/dowl unexpectedly broke on one about 6 weeks ago. Contacted John Lewis who accepted the case and put me in touch with their inspectors/ repairers. I've spent 6 weeks trying to contact them but to no avail and they are now apparently entirely closed.

The chair is heavy and I have three small children, we are constantly moving it to prevent them scratched by it or hurt if it falls over.

I have suggested:

We repair it temporarily ourselves and take a video and they can asses it via that and repair in full when possible.

We put the chair in our garden out of the way of children and they asses it when they can (not ideal as it will be ruined and they will have to replace).

They get their repair company do come, asses and take away for repair. We can leave the chair outside at an agreed time so no infringement or social distancing.

Apparently none of those options are acceptable. They have now agreed to take away the chair and issue a refund but for only one chair. I love the chairs and want to keep them if repaired, but I have no desire to be stuck with one chair which I can't find a replacement for when we need two chairs.

What next ! I am so fed up of moving the chair, but we just don't have anywhere to put it and we are in the house all of the time now.

You expect a refund for a chair that isn’t broken???

Surely with the refund you can go anywhere and search out a chair compatable with the one you are keeping there are huge amounts of Companies supplying single chairs in all designs to compliment each other,or have you suffered buyers remorse since your chair broke and want all new again.

Why should they refund you for an unbroken chair?

Exactly. It's not like they can do anything with the non broken chair if they took it back?

If you don't want to buy another non matching chair then why not sell the one you have left and use the money from that and from the refunded chair to buy 2 new chairs?

Get the refund for one chair. Sell the other one. Buy two new. Or as past posters said a local carpenter may be able to help with the broken chair. Also do you not have a garage or a shed or a room you could tell the kids don’t go in to put it in rather than just the garden?

If you had bought a full dining set, a table and eight chairs, would you expect them to replace everything for the sake one broken chair?

You cannot expect a refund for something which is not broken.

Accept the refund for the broken one. Then either sell the non-broken one and buy a set of who more, or just live with having non-matching chairs. Personally I'm really not a fan of having everything matching and coordinated.

If the refund doesn’t work for you, then why not get it repaired yourself at your own cost?

Is it a JL own brand - or someone elses?
If not exclusive to John Lewis, you might still be able to source one elsewhere.

You cannot expect a refund for something which is not broken.

Not quite the same, but when I had a flood a few years ago, the insurers accepted the sofa and chair from the same range as part of a set, and included them both in the claim.

Actually if I had bought a dining set and a component part broke through no fault of my own and it was now discontinued I would expect them to replace the set.

One other option is to have the remaining chair covered in the same fabric as the replacement chair that you do buy?

They are offering to refund one of two chairs.

Very reasonable of them.

They have told me the chair is now discontinued, so I can't get a replacement.

Unfortunate, but that’s life.

So we will be left with one chair, from a set of two. They won't refund the second chair. I need two chairs.

Of course they won’t refund the second chair; there’s nothing wrong with it. Don’t be so silly.

You needing two apparently matching chairs is not their problem, that’s yours to sort out and deal with. They have held up their end of the bargain and will refund the faulty chair.

John Lewis has done nothing wrong here.

YABU - they've offered a refund on the FAULTY chair.

This is why John Lewis are struggling ; unrealistic customer expectations.

If matching is trop priority for you then have it repaired.

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@camelsandcaramel that's a great idea. They have baulked at DP fixing it. I'm just frustrated at not being able to find a way forward. I doubt JL want to refund a chair (or two) that will be useless to them, and I like the chairs. But my suggestions seem to be a no go.

They aren’t a pair of chairs. They are two separate chairs so of course they will only refund the broken item!

If they have offered to refund both chairs I would let them and just buy two more

I should have clarified my post, I got a partial refund (Not a full one) from next, kept the chair and got it repaired. Suggest that to them.

YABU

Just pay to get it repaired.

Of course they won't refund the second chair I'm baffled that you don't understand this.
And "they baulked at dp fixing it" makes no sense to me. Unless you tried to get them to agree to you fixing it yourself whilst still getting a full refund??

@KrisAkabusi this is what I am trying to figure out. But if I flip it the other way I bought two chairs from the same range in the same fabric (the fabric comes as standard we didn't choose) in the same order. If I take a refund I am left with one. We need two and a completely different chair from a different range would look odd.

Btw, if your dp can fix it himself, why the hell hasn't he done so already?

I don't understand why you haven't just repaired it?

We need two and a completely different chair from a different range would look odd

No, it wouldn’t, if it was the same or a toning colour, it would look fine.

Ring round some local carpenters, especially ones that specialise in furniture & get some quotes.
I would then get back to john lewis & see if they are willing to offer a partial refund to cover repair costs, if the costs are reasonable.