faulty sofa replaced, replacement also faulty! what are my rights?

[lisamcd1979]

We bought a sofa in march 2013 from Sofaland in warrington.

The stitching came away at the seams after a couple of months. It was a manufacturing fault and It took them 8 months to replace it.

We had to pick another sofa as the original one was no longer stocked. We picked another style as the assistant advised this wouldnt happen again as they had changed suppliers.

New sofa arrived in December. We complained again in january as the stitching had come away again on the two seater. They advised last week they will replace it however the stitching has now come away on the 3 seater!

They have reluctantly agreed to replace this sofa and I have asked for a refund which they have refused. They have said that they technically dont have to replace the 3 seater as its out of warranty. It only got delivered in December but sofaland have advised that the warranty is one year from the original purchase not the delivery date of the new sofa. Is this right?

They are offering to replace the sofas but with no warranty.

I want a refund as if its happened twice already I am not convinced it wont happen again. Especially if they refuse to give a warranty with the replacement.

Any ideas where I stand with this?

Looks like the Sale of Goods Act applies anyway if they won't stand by the warranty www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/sale-of-goods-act

Agree with pp, look at the sale of goods act - it would absolutely apply to you. Tell them you will report them to trading standards if they don't give you a refund.

I said this to them today and they said it was a grey area! They even sent me links to show this "grey area"

Just furious with them. I think refusing to provide warranty on a replacement just smacks of they expect it to happen again.

It's not a grey area - the sofas are obviously not of satisfactory quality as the stitching keeps coming out.

Should have said warranty normally starts the day you take delivery of the item - how can a warranty start from date of order when the product hasn't even been produced yet? Iirc warranty on any replaced item starts from day1 on the day you receive the new item, it's not backdated to the day you ordered original item.

peggy is right, the warranty starts from the day you take delivery of the new item.

Say you bought an item of clothing and within a month the stitching comes away. You return it for an exchange & the cashier gives you a piece of paper to sign along with a new receipt. The returns period on the new receipt (in the case of your sofa, your delivery note) is not backdated to the original purchase.

There is no "grey area", they're trying to weasel out of dealing with it.

They're full of shit. The law says that goods should have a reasonable lifespan. Warranties have no bearing on statutory rights, and you are entitled to more than 13 month fault-free use of a sofa! You've done your bit of the deal, by giving them plenty of opportunity to repair or replace he item "within a reasonable time, and without significant inconvenience to you". They've failed on every count, so now you need to ask for that refund "according to my statutory rights under the Sale of Goods Act 1979". Tell them you expect to refund you in full, and collect the faulty sofa, within 28 days of the date of your letter, otherwise you'll be taking the matter to the Small claims court. Send by recorded delivery.

If they don't refund the money within the stated time, register with Money Claims Online (it's a .gov.uk site, so watch out for unofficial mirror sites trying to com you out of money). It costs £25 to register a claim, which you'll get back when you win the case. Chances are, the moment they get notice that you're claiming, they'll settle in full without it going to court.

I had a sofa that split the second time I sat on it so I cancelled the other two matching sofas which were on order. 3 months later, no refund and they are still trying to deliver the cancelled sofas.

It seems that this kind of complaint about quality and customer service is quite common and I would be interested to see how many Ebay purchasers would still give it 5 starts after the initial happiness of a new sofa has worn off and a 'reasonable time' has passed for the splits to show.
Michael Savva, the Sofaland Director, could be well versed in small complaints courts procedures, so I'm opting to do it through my home insurance legal cover which means far higher solicitor costs to him.