I bought large and medium sized Urbino sofas from M&S this summer. Less than a month after they were delivered I found two separate problems with them; there is a fault with the piping on the arm of one sofa and the back cushions on the larger sofa are going baggy and loosing shape, despite following the care guidelines. M&S quickly arranged for someone from FIRA to inspect the sofa in my home. FIRA is an independent organization used by the furniture industry. The technician agreed that the piping was puckered and not perfect, he tried to adjust it but was not successful. Said that although it was not perfect, to quote him, “at the end of the day it is a mass produced piece of furniture,” he was only looking for “major manufacturing faults” and this was not a major fault. His written report says he was unable to find piping as a manufacturing fault. Don’t see what else could it be?
Regarding the larger sofa he said that the appearance was typical of this type of filling, checked we were following the maintenance schedule and admitted that “maintenance of this type of furniture is labour intensive.” Once a month it is necessary to remove the filling from the cushion covers and plump up the infill before putting back in the cover; not easy with cushions that are almost 1m x 0.5m. Why do M&S not advise of this at the point of sale? Customers only receive the care instructions when the sofas are delivered. If I had known this before buying I would have chosen something different. The appearance continues to deteriorate after just 2 months.
Received a written response from FIRA a few days later saying they found no evidence of a fault and they are unable to recommend any further action. Have tried contacting M&S a couple of times since, have even gone to the CEO with no resolution. They refuse to answer specific questions a just keep repeating that if I want to pursue this I need to go to the Furniture Ombudsman. My problem with this is that when you look at their website they seem to be part of FIRA. Do any of you have any experience of the Furniture Ombudsman? Are they truly independent? I fear I will just be going round in circles with FIRA reporting on themselves and M&S simply washing their hands of any responsibility.
My advice, don't buy furniture from M&S if you have an expectation that it will be perfect.