Watford Furniture Village sofa row grumbles on for year

Melanie and Shaun Dempsey, from Croxley Green, said they were left “frustrated and upset” after they were forced to argue over broken furniture from the Watford branch.

The couple, both 54, claimed they paid £3,000 for a sofa and armchair but were sent the wrong ones in August last year, before having to “fork out extra money for the correct headrests”.

A Furniture Village spokesperson said the customer ordered an Elixir2 three-seater double power sofa and Elixir2 1.5 armless power unit. After being told the products should have headrests, the store reordered it with the customer paying the difference in costs.  

When the replacements arrived in January, piping was missing – which led to an agreed £500 partial refund, the spokesperson said.

But then in July, problems resurfaced. The couple said they noticed the “hinge had snapped off the back” of the headrest and was causing a stiffness issue. Furniture Village then sent an engineer to determine if there was a manufacturing fault.

Mr Dempsey said: “He came over and took plenty of pictures, which showed the weak joint and poorly made sofa, then he told me that it definitely wasn’t our fault as the sofa had no other wear and tear.

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“When we received the report of the visit, it stated that it was our fault and we have been going round in circles trying to resolve this.”

The Furniture Village spokesperson said: “The technician concluded that there was no manufacturing fault and the damage had been caused by excessive force which the customer was advised of.

“The customer later requested a copy of the report to seek external advice and they told us that the Guardsman had concluded there was a fault with the item.  

“The Customer Care Team requested the report stating this from the customer, but this has not been supplied.”

The broken hinge (Image: Shaun Dempsey)

“The Customer Care Team requested the report stating this from the customer, but this has not been supplied.”

They added: "However, to bring this to a resolution for the customer and as a gesture of goodwill, we will look to resolve this issue for the customer and supply replacement parts.

"Customer satisfaction is extremely important to us at Furniture Village so we hope that this will successfully conclude the matter."