Harveys, the UK's largest furniture specialist, are sponsors of Coronation Street - one of the most popular soaps on television. It is the 50th anniversary of Corrie and viewers are reminded through Harveys sponsorship that they are the place to go if you want to sit down comfortably. In their adverts Harveys claim that they will 'bring your home to life.
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For many customers, however, Harveys has done anything but. Watchdog has received more complaints about Harvey's than any other furniture store in the UK - a total of 374 complaints since January 2009.
Samantha Charlesworth and her husband ordered over £1000 worth of furniture in December 2009. They were moving to Dubai, and the furniture in the Harveys adverts seemed just what they were looking for. Harveys assured Samantha and her husband that the furniture would be with them at the start of February - well in time for their move abroad. Harveys took their money straight away, but couldn't get the furniture delivered on time so Samantha and her husband had to move to Dubai without it. They requested a refund three months ago, which was finally paid at the end of April. "Dealing with Harveys has been like banging your head against a brick wall," Samantha told Watchdog, "It's not been good at all".
Coronation Street fans Jason and Hayley Ikens ordered two sofas from Harveys in January 2009. They arrived the following month, but one of the sofas was faulty. The reclining seat didn't work. Jason and Hayley had to wait an entire year before Harveys delivered a replacement - only to be given a sofa that was worse than the one before. "It didn't even recline and they didn't even attach the sofa together," Hayley told Watchdog, "they just left it like that". Finally, 15 months after first placing their order, the Ikens got a third - undamaged - sofa delivered.
It seems that Harveys hasserious issues with faulty goods and customer service, and it's not as if the furniture we've received complaints about is cheap.
Pam and Geoffrey Benge paid Harvey's £4,200 for their three piece suite, but after only six months the armchair was broken. Harveys took two months to send an inspector round, only to tell them that they had done the damage themselves. As problems had now developed with all of the items in the suite, Pam and Geoffrey forked out for an independent report to be done by the furniture ombudsman. The report concluded that 'all the joints on the backs of the chair and two sofas are defective'. Harveys finally agreed to give Pam and Geoffrey a refund - and to cover the cost of their independent report. That was on the 29th March, but have yet to pay out.
Harveys, it seems, have a habit of keeping their customers waiting. Yvonne Williams ordered two reclining sofas in October 2009. They delivered them in the wrong colour in January, and she has been waiting ever since for the new ones to arrive.
All of this is nothing for Stephen Marshall though. He ordered some bedroom furniture 17 months ago, in November 2008. Harveys have since made six delivery attempts, but have still not managed to provide Stephen with chests of drawers that are not damaged. This week, nearly two months after they delivered the last set of damaged chests of drawers, Harvey's called Stephen to say they would replace them again. Stephen is now hoping he might get lucky with delivery number seven.
Harveys claims to deliver not only quality furniture but the service to go with it. But for the hundreds of customers who have contacted Watchdog, their experience of the company's goods and services is very different to the one we see on TV.
Harveys have explained to Watchdog that:
'Harveys are extremely sorry that in these instances our service levels fell below our usual high standards. Whilst the cases selected are diverse issues of an exceptional nature, we accept the criticism that the issues raised should have been dealt with more effectively and will be redoubling our efforts to ensure that this is the case in the future.
Harveys is the UK's biggest specialist furniture retailer with a national footprint of over 160 stores. Our delivery network is not just the largest but also the most complex in the UK home furniture market as we sell a diverse range of upholstery, fully assembled lounge, dining and bedroom furniture. We would like to point out that nearly 7,000 home deliveries are made every week and the vast majority are on time, in full and without complaint. In the light of this large and complex system, it is perhaps understandable statistically that more issues may be registered with Watchdog although this is not a situation we accept commercially.
Having these specific instances brought to our attention has enabled us to investigate and resolve them. We are very sorry that the problems have occurred and have apologised to all the customers for the difficulties caused. We are also taking the opportunity to review and audit our procedures as part of our continuous improvement programme to see how these types of issue may be eradicated in the future.
We would like to encourage any customer who feels our service has fallen short of what they should expect from us to e-mail and let us know on Watchdog@Harveys-Furnishing.co.uk so that we may provide them with a rapid resolution to any outstanding issue.'
Harveys - are you sitting comfortably?
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
For many customers, however, Harveys has done anything but. Watchdog has received more complaints about Harvey's than any other furniture store in the UK - a total of 374 complaints since January 2009.
Samantha Charlesworth and her husband ordered over £1000 worth of furniture in December 2009. They were moving to Dubai, and the furniture in the Harveys adverts seemed just what they were looking for. Harveys assured Samantha and her husband that the furniture would be with them at the start of February - well in time for their move abroad. Harveys took their money straight away, but couldn't get the furniture delivered on time so Samantha and her husband had to move to Dubai without it. They requested a refund three months ago, which was finally paid at the end of April. "Dealing with Harveys has been like banging your head against a brick wall," Samantha told Watchdog, "It's not been good at all".
Coronation Street fans Jason and Hayley Ikens ordered two sofas from Harveys in January 2009. They arrived the following month, but one of the sofas was faulty. The reclining seat didn't work. Jason and Hayley had to wait an entire year before Harveys delivered a replacement - only to be given a sofa that was worse than the one before. "It didn't even recline and they didn't even attach the sofa together," Hayley told Watchdog, "they just left it like that". Finally, 15 months after first placing their order, the Ikens got a third - undamaged - sofa delivered.
It seems that Harveys hasserious issues with faulty goods and customer service, and it's not as if the furniture we've received complaints about is cheap.
Pam and Geoffrey Benge paid Harvey's £4,200 for their three piece suite, but after only six months the armchair was broken. Harveys took two months to send an inspector round, only to tell them that they had done the damage themselves. As problems had now developed with all of the items in the suite, Pam and Geoffrey forked out for an independent report to be done by the furniture ombudsman. The report concluded that 'all the joints on the backs of the chair and two sofas are defective'. Harveys finally agreed to give Pam and Geoffrey a refund - and to cover the cost of their independent report. That was on the 29th March, but have yet to pay out.
Harveys, it seems, have a habit of keeping their customers waiting. Yvonne Williams ordered two reclining sofas in October 2009. They delivered them in the wrong colour in January, and she has been waiting ever since for the new ones to arrive.
All of this is nothing for Stephen Marshall though. He ordered some bedroom furniture 17 months ago, in November 2008. Harveys have since made six delivery attempts, but have still not managed to provide Stephen with chests of drawers that are not damaged. This week, nearly two months after they delivered the last set of damaged chests of drawers, Harvey's called Stephen to say they would replace them again. Stephen is now hoping he might get lucky with delivery number seven.
Harveys claims to deliver not only quality furniture but the service to go with it. But for the hundreds of customers who have contacted Watchdog, their experience of the company's goods and services is very different to the one we see on TV.
Harveys have explained to Watchdog that:
'Harveys are extremely sorry that in these instances our service levels fell below our usual high standards. Whilst the cases selected are diverse issues of an exceptional nature, we accept the criticism that the issues raised should have been dealt with more effectively and will be redoubling our efforts to ensure that this is the case in the future.
Harveys is the UK's biggest specialist furniture retailer with a national footprint of over 160 stores. Our delivery network is not just the largest but also the most complex in the UK home furniture market as we sell a diverse range of upholstery, fully assembled lounge, dining and bedroom furniture. We would like to point out that nearly 7,000 home deliveries are made every week and the vast majority are on time, in full and without complaint. In the light of this large and complex system, it is perhaps understandable statistically that more issues may be registered with Watchdog although this is not a situation we accept commercially.
Having these specific instances brought to our attention has enabled us to investigate and resolve them. We are very sorry that the problems have occurred and have apologised to all the customers for the difficulties caused. We are also taking the opportunity to review and audit our procedures as part of our continuous improvement programme to see how these types of issue may be eradicated in the future.
We would like to encourage any customer who feels our service has fallen short of what they should expect from us to e-mail and let us know on Watchdog@Harveys-Furnishing.co.uk so that we may provide them with a rapid resolution to any outstanding issue.'
Harveys - are you sitting comfortably?