Homebase - at end of tether, help!

[mree]

In January I bought 2 2-seater sofas from Homebase to replace my ancient (and enormous!) 3-piece suite, which was WAY too big for my teeny living room! I paid £300 for the pair, as they were reduced, and then as a weekend offer were BOGOF. When they were delivered 3 weeks later, I found that one of them had 2 legs missing. I called Homebase customer services (ha! what a joke!), who assured me that I'd have replacement legs within 7 days. I called up 14 days later, and was told, sorry, they weren't sent, I'll DEFINITELY do it today for you, you should have them within the next week. Again, I allowed longer than a week, then called up again. I was told this time that the legs had NEVER been ordered, and that there were no replacements available, and every single one of that model of sofa in the country had been sold.

 

By now I was furious, and demanded to speak to a manager. I'm sure she could've cared less if she tried, but not by much. She offered no apology for the laziness or dishonesty of her staff, but did offer me a refund. Of course, I can't get another 2 sofas now for £300 now that the sale isn't on (I'm a student nurse, money is EXTREMELY tight!), so I turned this down. She then offered me a replacement suite of a 2-seater and a 3-seater, but these cause the same problem as my original furniture, ie., way too big, and look frankly cheap and nasty.

 

She told me my only option was to arrange for a local carpenter to make 2 matching legs for my sofa, and then 'apply' to Homebase to have the 'reasonable' cost of this refunded. She wouldn't give me any indication of what Homebase would consider reasonable, so basically she expected to throw more money away with no guarantee of reimbursement.

 

IMO, Homebase should be the ones arranging to have replacements made and sent to me, not the other way around! Is anyone clued up on the laws surrounding such purchases that can give me some advice?

 

Thanks!

[rosiecotton]

I would imagine you would be in the better position to arrange for a carpenter to do this work, as long as you get quotes and get the work done for a reasonable price you should have no trouble claiming the cost of this back.

 

As you do not want a refund and instead wish to keep the product, what they are offering is damages to cover the cost of repair since they are not able to repair or replace the goods themselves.

 

I would suggest that you get quotes for the work and then go back to Homebase with the quotes and ask them to pay you up front for the work, and see what they say to that.