Country to Home Upholstery

Country to Home Upholstery

I entrusted four items of furniture to this upholsterer: three chairs for reupholstery and one ottoman for a slipcover. For the sake of fairness, I have no complaint whatsoever about the ottoman slipcover, and my Granny chair was beautifully upholstered — I am delighted with how it looks and feels. Unfortunately, my experience with the two tub chairs has been completely different. Both tub chairs were in excellent structural condition when they left my home. Even their original upholstery was spotless. They were sent for reupholstery, not structural repairs. Lack of collection/delivery service was only disclosed after I had paid my deposit When I visited the upholsterer’s premises to choose my fabric and subsequently paid the required deposit, I was not informed that they did not provide their own transport. Had I known this before paying the deposit, I would not have used their services. Approximately a week later, after I had already paid and committed to the work, I received a message saying, “We’re ready to receive your furniture.” I explained that I had no means of delivering the furniture myself. It was only then that the transport issue became apparent, and the upholsterer arranged for a third-party transporter to collect the furniture from my home. The transporter was therefore not selected or arranged by me. This has subsequently become particularly relevant because one of my structurally sound tub chairs was returned to me damaged. Whether that damage occurred during transportation or at the upholsterer’s premises is something I cannot establish. What I can establish is that the chair was undamaged when it left my home and damaged when it was returned. Damaged tub chair The furniture was ultimately delivered back to me three days later than expected. One tub chair was returned with a serious structural problem. The chair sits skew and uneven and I cannot properly use it. Even more astonishingly, the chair was delivered with the glue used on the leg repair STILL WET. Inevitably, the glue transferred onto other surfaces, and I had to clean it off myself. When I looked underneath the chair, I discovered that the leg had been attached using two large *****s, approximately ten nail-gun nails and glue. The original *****-in flange was no longer fitted as it had been previously. I immediately raised the problem and explained that there appeared to be considerably more wrong with the chair than simply a damaged *****-in flange. I specifically asked whether the chair had been dropped. The upholsterer rep****: “Definitely wasn’t dropped. Where the chair is broken, the wood there was chipped so we joined new wood there to be able to put the leg on.” They went on to say: “Either way lets get it 100% sorted out… I’ll come with the team and we will fix it.” This response raised even greater concerns. The chair was NOT broken when it left my home. I was now being told, only after questioning the condition in which it had been returned, that the wood had been chipped/broken and that new wood had been joined to it in order to attach the leg. At no stage while my furniture was in their possession was I contacted and told that my chair had suffered structural damage. I was not shown photographs, given an explanation or consulted about the proposed repair. Instead, the chair was repaired and returned to me skew, with wet glue still on it. I was subsequently told that they would contact me regarding a remedy and arrange for their team to attend to it. No one contacted me. I deliberately waited and gave them every opportunity to do what they said they would do. More than a week has now passed without the promised arrangements being made. The second tub chair There is also an issue with the second tub chair which the upholsterer does not even know about because they never followed up with me as promised. There is a considerable difference between the two chairs. The chair with the damaged leg is very firm, while the other tub chair feels noticeably softer and as though there is insufficient support beneath the new upholstery. I would like to know whether new batting/support was actually fitted beneath the upholstery of BOTH tub chairs and why two chairs that should have received comparable treatment feel so completely different. Claim of “water damage” I was also told that “water damage” had been found. I strongly dispute this. Both tub chairs were in excellent condition when they left my home. If water damage, chipped wood or any other structural damage was genuinely discovered when the chairs were stripped, why was I not informed at the time? Surely the appropriate professional response would have been to stop, photograph the damage, contact the customer and discuss what needed to be done before proceeding with a structural repair. That did not happen. To summarise, I handed over four items of furniture. The ottoman slipcover is satisfactory and my Granny chair is beautiful, and I am more than happy to acknowledge the work that was done well. My complaint is specifically about the two tub chairs and, most seriously, the chair that was structurally sound when it left my home but was returned damaged, skew and with an obviously hurried repair involving new wood, *****s, numerous nail-gun nails and glue that was not even dry when the chair was delivered. I paid for professional reupholstery. I did not expect a structurally sound chair to be damaged while out of my possession, repaired without my knowledge and then returned to me in a condition that makes it effectively unusable. What is perhaps most disappointing is that after acknowledging the problem and assuring me that they would “get it 100% sorted out”, they simply failed to follow through. I gave the company the opportunity to resolve this privately before posting a consumer complaint. I waited for the promised contact and arrangements to be made. That contact never came. I am therefore requesting an appropriate professional remedy for both tub chairs, together with an explanation of how a structurally sound chair came to require the replacement/joining of wood and a substantial leg repair while it was out of my possession.