For those of us who love sitting on our bum all day and watching telly, or having friends over for a catch up or curling up in the evening for a film, a good sofa is an absolute necessity.
It’s often an important first purchase for home owners and can even be a make-or-break for renters. But you don’t exactly seek out a sofa (or settee, or couch – let’s not get into it) that’s going to give you a ‘splitting headache’.
And unfortunately for one woman, that’s exactly what she says has happened as she’s entered a row with DFS.
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The woman claims she’s butting heads with the retailer over what colour her sofa actually is after ordering £4,513 worth of furniture in the shade ‘Chocolate Combination’.
The mum ordered it from the store in Paisley, Renfrewshire, back in February, but when it was delivered at the start of April, she told the delivery workers to stop unpacking it.
“I immediately said 'I don't think this is right sofa lads, hold on because it's supposed to be chocolate' they checked the label and they said that it was,” she recalls.
"A metallic sheen? I couldn't believe when they took it out of the packaging how shiny it was, it was like tin foil with a sheen of brown, rather than a chocolate sofa with a metallic sheen.”
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When the 52-year-old had ordered it in store, they only had a cream sample in stock. But she had a look at the chocolate on an iPad and decided it would ‘be fine’, not expecting it to look ‘like the Tin Man’.
“I can't believe anyone has chosen that sofa and not been surprised by how shiny it is,” she adds.
"It's like a 3D shine, it's horrible looking and it also gives me a headache."
DFS say the ‘perceived colour of an object can change depending on the light source within a room' and that the swatch matched her sofa 'perfectly'.
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Veronica’s ‘Chocolate Combination’ sofa is described as being upholstered 'in plush, opulent velvet - a tufted fabric with a soft, smooth feel, a metallic sheen and a subtle grid pattern in the weave'.
She says when she went back to the store to complain, a staff member told her that she’d need to go outside into the natural light to see the true colour of the swatch.
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"I said 'nobody sold me a sofa by telling me to go outside with the colours, if your showroom can't show the colours correctly then how can you have expected me to buy a sofa in good faith?'” she explains.
"I told him 'I can assure you I'm not keeping that sofa, it's like tin foil'."
Veronica has contacted DFS in a hope to cancel the credit agreement and have the sofas taken away.
She claims the company has agreed to remove them, but she’ll need to pay £1,353.
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"I don't think the description is accurate, it's definitely misdescribed,” she slams.
"If you look at the photograph it looks like a chocolate sofa - I like the colour on the website.
"I want them to take away the sofas, I'd love it if they gave me the sofas that are on the internet. I just want what I was sold.”
Veronica is now disputing the 30 percent charge and has done a ‘Section 75 claim through the finance company’, which is used to dispute problems with goods and services bought through a debit card, credit card or finance agreement.
A DFS spokesman said: "At DFS we take customer service extremely seriously and we are sorry to hear of any occasion when a customer is disappointed with the colour of the sofa selected.
"As the perceived colour of an object can change depending on the light source within a room, ranging from direct sunlight through to artificial light, the same sofa will look subtly different in every customer's home.
"It is therefore the customer's responsibility to choose the right colour for their home and fabric swatches can be ordered before purchasing to help with this decision making process.
"The type of fabric selected also plays a role in how the product looks in someone's living space. In this instance, the body fabric of the sofa Ms Byrne chose is advertised as having a metallic sheen, which will reflect light differently depending on the direction of the light source in the room, and therefore affect the colour.
"According to our records, and Ms Byrne's own account, she visited the store to view the sofa in person and she chose the Chocolate combination from the fabric swatch book for this range.
"When she expressed her concern that the wrong colour had been delivered, we visited her home with the same fabric swatch book from the store, and confirmed a perfect match - the colour she ordered is the colour she received.
"There was no manufacturing fault found and we're confident that the product is as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality, therefore it doesn't meet the right to reject criteria. Like Ms Byrne's order, the vast majority of our sofas are made-to-order and not stock based products.
"Occasionally, customers may not like the sofas they have chosen, or have a change of heart once they're delivered, and in these instances we try to work with the customer to find a mutually beneficial resolution as a gesture of goodwill.
"In this instance we have offered a reselection with a fee of 20% of the order cost. This fee covers the cost of picking up the sofa, checking and processing the item back through our central distribution network, and the cost of selling the item at a reduced price within our clearance stock.
"This offer remains open and we would like to work with Ms Byrne to help her find a sofa more suitable for her home."
Topics: Shopping
Jess Battison