Hi All.

I ordered 2x2 seater sofas around August/September from DFS.

I was advised by their sales team to go for the thicker leather as we have 2 dogs, so we did. We bought the insurance as well.

We took delivery around October.

We noticed a few weeks ago that the Leather has started to peel. On both sofas, in all 4 corners, the paint is peeling. Granted in one corner you can see a few claw marks from the dogs but this goes alot further than that.

I informed DFS and they sent someone over that had 30 years experience in Upholstery.He's inspected the sofas and took some photos. A couple of hours later I received a call from the manager of the DFS store and bluntly said that because the damage was caused by the dogs, I will have to claim on the insurance.

I've argued the point that we were told to by the thicker leather as it was more resilient to pets. Again he said to claim on the insurance.

I mentioned that my Father had been an Upholsterer for 30 years and had a look and he agreed to send another person out.

The other guy has just been. He was nice and polite. Again he seemed more interested in the claw marks than anything else even taking more photos of the claw marks than the other side. He didn't evn really look at the other sofa.

I explained, again, that we had been prompted to buy the thicker leather as it was more resilient to pets to which he replied' Its not actually thicker leather...its a thicker layer of paint they put on'.

Now I wasn't told this when I purchased these sofas. If I had I would probably stuck with the cheaper 'Leather'.

I've the guy that I want the seats recovering as the new paint will not stick properly.

He left on good terms with me. I've received another call from the manager, guess what, this guy has said its down to pet damage and to claim on the insurance.

I've complained to DFS Head Office and am awaiting a reply.

We've had sofas from DFS before and never had a problem.

Any ideas where to go after this?

Thanks for posting this story. It will be helpful if you could introduce more spacing in your stories because it is very difficult for people who would like to help you to read solid blocks of text or almost solid blocks of text.

I'll space this one out for you but maybe you could bear that in mind in future. Also, this JPEG happens to be unusually large so we can read it. However, please would you normally post these things up in PDF format.

Thanks

Have you put any of this in writing to them or have you simply been dealing with it on the telephone? I suggest that you start off by detailing all of the problems in writing and a company the letter with photographs of the area that you are concerned with. Make it clear to them that this has nothing to do with any other marks which might have been left by your dog and that it is in a completely separate area. I think that you must make this very clear in writing and emphasise it every time you communicate with them.