DFS Sucks
Posted by KaySquirrel on June 1st, 2008
Think you want to be lied to? Think DFS
In early March 2008, we purchased a chocolate-coloured fabric 3 seater manual recliner sofa from DFS sofas in Glasgow, and were told that the delivery would be in about 12 weeks or so.
On May 27 2008 I received a voicemail from 01316575403. It was Karen at the DFS sofas office in Edinburgh calling to let us know that our sofa would be delivered on May 29. When I called her back to confirm, she said that even though we’d bought it at the Glasgow branch, the Edinburgh branch would be taking care of the delivery. It’s all the same to me, as long as we get our sofa!
On May 29 2008 The DFS furniture delivery men arrived. As they bring in and start unpacking the first part of the sofa, I realize that it’s not the chocolate colour we’d ordered, but green. When the delivery men come in with the 2nd part of the sofa, I explain to the one who seemed to be in charge that I have to refuse delivery of the sofa because it is not the colour we’d ordered.
His response? “Well, we’ll have to leave this here and you can call the shop to sort it out.”
Lie number one.
I think it’s so cute when people assume that just because I tend to be friendly and polite that they can afford to underestimate my tolerance for bullshit. I always get such a kick out of the look on their faces when someone gives me due cause to get, as my husband so diplomatically puts it, more confrontational than one would expect.
I told the deliveryman that since this was not a chocolate sofa, it was not MY sofa, and would not be left in my livingroom but removed from my house.
The deliveryman called the DFS shop in Edinburgh, and I got a call back from the same Karen who’d left the voicemail 2 days ago. She said that on the paperwork that had been sent to them by the DFS Glasgow office, the colour option said “Zoe Fern”.
I told her my paperwork said no such thing. She played the Yes It Does No It Doesn’t Game with me for a bit, until I told her that I was looking at the original order form and it did not have the word “Fern” anywhere on there.
It reads: Beaumont group, 3 seater manual double recliner, Zoe.
Her response? “Oh, well Zoe MEANS fern, so it wouldn’t SAY fern.”
Lie number two.
Zoe is the type of fabric we selected, NOT the name of the colour. The colour options are Bark, Chocolate, Cream, and Fern.
How very strange that after chanting Zoe Fern Zoe Fern at me for several minutes, and telling me those two words are on the paperwork, she now decided that she only sees the word Zoe on there, same as I did. I told Karen that I was refusing delivery of the wrong colour sofa, and that my husband would be visiting the Glasgow branch at lunchtime to sort things out.
As the deliverymen are taking the sofa away again, I heard one comment to the other “I betcha the brown one’s in the back of the truck!” So funny!
At lunctime, when hubby dropped by the Glasgow office, it turned out that the word “fern” had been written in pen on the carbon copy of our order form. Well done, DFS!
Remember when Karen said that the paperwork “wouldn’t actually say fern because zoe means fern”?
That was lie number three.
After explaining the whole issue to the DFS sales representative in the shop, he went away to investigate, and came back offering hubby a few options. They could arrange loan furniture for us while we waited for the chocolate one we’d ordered, or he could have a Bark (lighter brown) coloured one delivered to us in a week.
Given the shining example of customer service provided by both the DFS sofa deliverymen and then by Karen in the Edinburgh office, hubby and I felt it best to request a full refund of our money, and to get a sofa elsewhere.
Apparently the DFS representative at the Glasgow store told hubby that they would be investigating to see why the word fern was added to their copy of the order form after we’d left the shop. It seems that the salesman didn’t fill out the order form correctly, and apparently when this happens they will go back to the saleman to ask if he remembers what colour he sold. In this case, the salesman obviously didn’t remember — which can happen when you are selling several sofas a day, right? The more logical approach would have been to contact us to confirm our colour choice, because we would certainly know what colour sofa we’d ordered. Instead of taking a few minutes to contact the customer, they asked the salesman to try to remember what colour we wanted. Really sensible approach to order processing, DFS!
The DFS rep said they are also investigating why the delivery guy said they had to leave the wrong sofa with us. I know exactly why he said that: He didn’t want to have to lift it again. It’s not his job to care about whether the customer gets the right colour, it’s only his job to deliver sofas.
While sat in the Glasgow shop, ordering the sofa, the sales rep explained to us that since DFS knew that their delivery people were often the “last contact” the customer had with the company, they were trained in customer service, to ensure that customers were left with a good parting impression of DFS. While that didn’t exactly happen in our case, I can absolutely confirm that my experience in dealing with the DFS deliverymen was just as difficult and frustrating as having to deal with the DFS office in Edinburgh by telephone.
Unfortunately for DFS, consistency is not an acceptable substitute for competence. I’m almost thankful that they managed to make such a mess of things right from the start that we just decided to get a refund of our money and go elsewhere. Since they thought nothing of modifying an original contract without the customer’s consent and lying to me on the phone before they’d even managed to get the right colour sofa into my livingroom, I can only imagine what kind of nonsense and lies they’d have told us if we’d had to contact them to make a warranty claim at some point in the future.
What does ‘DFS’ stand for, anyway? Dodgy … service? Dreadful … sofas?