returning sofa to Harvey Norman

Newgirl2012

Hi, I've recently bought a leather sofa from Harvey Norman. I fell in love with it in the showroom as it was so comfortable. The sofa I received feels completely different. It looks the same as the display model but feelstotally uncomfortable. I get a sore back after sitting on it for more than half an hour. My partner and friends and family have had the same complaint with it. Does anyone know where I'd stand for attempting to return it. It's now 2 months old-I kept it this long as I was hoping it might just need to be broken in but can't stick it anymore. It cost 1900Euro so can't stand the fact that it feels so different to the one I fell in love with in the shop!

japq41

Hello

Could you possibly let me know if you have had any luck with this. My Mam - she's 83 - bought a brown leather sofa in Harvey Normans just prior to Christmas and less than 2 months later she's having the same problem as you. The gap between the cushion has sagged so badly that you can feel the metal frame underneath. She's a very slight woman so it's not as if there has been a lot of weight on the sofa. When dealing with Harvey Norman here in Dublin the Manager has been rude and completely dismissive. She's quite upset at this stage so if you had any luck or names to contact i would really appreciate if you could pass them on. Hope you got your own issue sorted, it was an expensive sofa for 2 months.
Thanks, James

Bepolite

Small Claims Procedure

japq41

Bepolite wrote: »

Small Claims Procedure

Thanks my Mam is considering that for her next step

Newgirl2012

japq41 wrote: »

Hello

Could you possibly let me know if you have had any luck with this. My Mam - she's 83 - bought a brown leather sofa in Harvey Normans just prior to Christmas and less than 2 months later she's having the same problem as you. The gap between the cushion has sagged so badly that you can feel the metal frame underneath. She's a very slight woman so it's not as if there has been a lot of weight on the sofa. When dealing with Harvey Norman here in Dublin the Manager has been rude and completely dismissive. She's quite upset at this stage so if you had any luck or names to contact i would really appreciate if you could pass them on. Hope you got your own issue sorted, it was an expensive sofa for 2 months.
Thanks, James[/quote

Hi,

We are still dealing with Harvey Norman nearly a year later. My advice is to be persistent and ensure that all your calls or visits to the store are recorded or documented.
Insist that they send an assessor out to view the sofa, they use independent companies that have no ties to Harvey Norman and are quite good. Keep ringing and following up after you have sofa assessed and tell them you are not happy with outcome of assessment if it is not in your favour. The next step would be to go to the manufactures of the sofa and they send out another assessor, they should then offer to repair or replace it.

So far we've had 3 assessors out the final one being from the manufacturer's. He said there would be nothing he could do to fix it so I'm hoping they'll suggest a replacement, I plan to refuse this and get a refund as I want nothing more to do with Harvey Norman.
We were dealing with Harvey Norman in blanchardstown, the initial guy we were dealing with took no record of my complaints or calls so ensure you only speak to a manager or someone from their customer complaints team. Don't give up, you have rights so just keep hassling them and you should get some where. Ring every day if needed, I did that and it's starting to work now.

Good luck

japq41

Newgirl2012 wrote: »

japq41 wrote: »

Hello

Could you possibly let me know if you have had any luck with this. My Mam - she's 83 - bought a brown leather sofa in Harvey Normans just prior to Christmas and less than 2 months later she's having the same problem as you. The gap between the cushion has sagged so badly that you can feel the metal frame underneath. She's a very slight woman so it's not as if there has been a lot of weight on the sofa. When dealing with Harvey Norman here in Dublin the Manager has been rude and completely dismissive. She's quite upset at this stage so if you had any luck or names to contact i would really appreciate if you could pass them on. Hope you got your own issue sorted, it was an expensive sofa for 2 months.
Thanks, James[/quote

Hi,

We are still dealing with Harvey Norman nearly a year later. My advice is to be persistent and ensure that all your calls or visits to the store are recorded or documented.
Insist that they send an assessor out to view the sofa, they use independent companies that have no ties to Harvey Norman and are quite good. Keep ringing and following up after you have sofa assessed and tell them you are not happy with outcome of assessment if it is not in your favour. The next step would be to go to the manufactures of the sofa and they send out another assessor, they should then offer to repair or replace it.

So far we've had 3 assessors out the final one being from the manufacturer's. He said there would be nothing he could do to fix it so I'm hoping they'll suggest a replacement, I plan to refuse this and get a refund as I want nothing more to do with Harvey Norman.
We were dealing with Harvey Norman in blanchardstown, the initial guy we were dealing with took no record of my complaints or calls so ensure you only speak to a manager or someone from their customer complaints team. Don't give up, you have rights so just keep hassling them and you should get some where. Ring every day if needed, I did that and it's starting to work now.

Good luck

Hi thanks for the reply, my mam had an assessor out who agreed with her about the damage. Not sure which HN she went too so ill ask and pass on the advice about recording all contacts. Big companies really don't care in the end but we'll keep plugging away.
Best of luck with your own case, ill pass on any news about ours.
James

kennM

Have you tried talking to Harvey Norman.... you can outline that you bought the sofa on the basis of the way the one looked and felt in the showroom however your sofa differs and as such you'd like a replacement?

I'd be pretty confident that there is some aspect of the sale of goods and supply of services act that would be applicable here.

Q102 have a great session a 6pm every Monday with Dermot Jool (probably spelt his surname wrong).... he's the CEO of the CAI (Consumer association of Ireland) and the show centers around dealing with consumers issues of this type of nature.

Hope this helps...

Step 1 would be talk to Harvey Norman

234

kennM wrote: »

Q102 have a great session a 6pm every Monday with Dermot Jool (probably spelt his surname wrong).... he's the CEO of the CAI (Consumer association of Ireland) and the show centers around dealing with consumers issues of this type of nature.

Beware of so called consumer rights organisations and activists though. As often as not they are completely wrong.

They start from the position that the consumer is always right rather than actually looking at how the law might apply. They are also frequently startlingly ignorant of the basics of contract law.

kennM

234 wrote: »

Beware of so called consumer rights organisations and activists though. As often as not they are completely wrong.

They start from the position that the consumer is always right rather than actually looking at how the law might apply. They are also frequently startlingly ignorant of the basics of contract law.

From listening to the show on a Monday for quite some time I'd be pretty confident that the CEO of the Consumers Association of Ireland is 100% up to speed on the legal aspects of things.

I'd suspect a huge majority of customer issues are resolved without the need to go down the legal route. In this situation you have a sofa that feels completely different between showroom and delivered article.

Drop into them/give them a call and have a chat and see where it goes from there. Drop an email to Q102 or the CAI to get advice perhaps... either way I suspect they'll all advise you to have a chat first and foremost.

234

kennM wrote: »

From listening to the show on a Monday for quite some time I'd be pretty confident that the CEO of the Consumers Association of Ireland is 100% up to speed on the legal aspects of things.

I'd suspect a huge majority of customer issues are resolved without the need to go down the legal route. In this situation you have a sofa that feels completely different between showroom and delivered article.

Drop into them/give them a call and have a chat and see where it goes from there. Drop an email to Q102 or the CAI to get advice perhaps... either way I suspect they'll all advise you to have a chat first and foremost.

Oh I'm fully confident in their ability to resolve matters practically. The majority of the success of consumer shows that act as advocates is based on the fact that they will publicise the outcome on the show. So the seller has a choice between being named and shamed or giving in.

However, when they start talking about what consumers are entitled to, they often start on flights of fancy.

kennM

234 wrote: »

Oh I'm fully confident in their ability to resolve matters practically. The majority of the success of consumer shows that act as advocates is based on the fact that they will publicise the outcome on the show. So the seller has a choice between being named and shamed or giving in.

However, when they start talking about what consumers are entitled to, they often start on flights of fancy.

Depending on whether your viewpoint is that of a consumer of business will differ quite a bit

Either way I've found in the past that a customer who has an issue resolved helpfully (whether in the right or wrong at the outset) can become a strong advocate for that business. I personally had HUGE TROUBLE with a business before, service cancelled by accident when trying to downgrade (which was just the tip of the iceberg). Arrangements were put in place, things were resolved and I'd now recommend them....

Customer loyalty and satisfaction isn't always just black and white by the letter of the law...