Delayed delivery, damaged goods, diffident salesperson, delayed repair, combative area manager.

On 3 December, I ordered a couch that was in stock, to be delivered that week. First, the stock was damaged, so I had to wait for more to be delivered. Then, the warehouse couldn't locate my address, despite phoning me, so eventually the salesperson organised a private contractor to pick up and deliver the couch on 23 December. (The same salesperson who always promised to call back after my queries, and seldom did.) I realised shortly afterwards that the couch was damaged, but made a mistake, and did not report it immediately to Rochester, because it was just a split seam on a cushion. Later, realising that if I attempted to fix it myself and failed, then I would be unable to go back to Rochester, I reported the fault, on 5 January. Their systems were offline for more than a week at this point, so they could not report the fault. Then there was no stock (which later turned out to be irrelevant). Then the salesperson went on leave without telling me how to proceed. Finally, the store manager arranged for some action to be taken - said action being to get the couch taken away, when all I needed was a cushion to be replaced! I said that I was unhappy and would like a refund (this is now near the end of January), which she was unable to provide. She put me in touch with the area manager, who was mostly concerned that I had damaged the couch myself, and was entirely unhelpful. Finally, after emailing him appropriate sections of the Consumer Protection Act, he was prepared to give me a refund. In the end I refused and repaired the cushion myself - who knows how long I would have waited for the couch to be checked, and for the refund to be made!