Getting a refund on furniture that arrived damaged.

August 30, 2015 12:49 PM

My sister bought a couch several months ago that arrived with a tear. The store sent a replacement which was also in terrible condition and which they refused to accept. Now the store is offering a partial refund, but my sister and her husband just want their money back at this point. Is this realistic?

My sister and her husband live in Chicago and bought a couch and chair several months ago (floor models). When the furniture arrived the couch had a rather sizable tear in the arm, which they are confident was not there in the store. After a lot of hassle, the store agreed to replace the couch, but sent a replacement with even more tearing in the back. This was fixed, but barely. The work was obvious and clearly would not hold up, so my sister did not accept the replacement delivery. So now they just want their money back. They paid $1100 all together, and figure 300 for the chair and 800 for the couch. The store is offering $400. Do they stand a chance of getting a full refund at this point? How can they achieve this?

posted by anonymous to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

Did they pay for it with their credit card? Many credit card companies have some consumer protection to cover these types of situations.
posted by desjardins at 12:55 PM on August 30, 2015

Does the store have social media / yelp presence? If yes, maybe they can contact them via a public post to either their facebook or twitter account, or leave a negative review on yelp, explaining everything above (without getting too dramatic or emotional). There is more pressure to respond to a public post than to help someone in private. Businesses definitely do try to address the negative reviews on yelp. I've also heard of social media accounts responding more positive to friends' complaints than the customer service center, and putting them in touch with someone from customer service who knew about the problem through the social media post and their job was to help resolve the issue, as opposed to disgruntled customer service reps whose job it is to not give up the company's money no matter how much it upsets the customer.
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 1:18 PM on August 30, 2015

Small claims.
posted by jon1270 at 1:41 PM on August 30, 2015

I am a fan of the chargeback.
posted by jbenben at 2:02 PM on August 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

Chargeback rights expire at about 90 days from date of purchase. Your friend is out of luck if it's past that time frame.
posted by Verdandi at 2:22 PM on August 30, 2015

That depends on the card issuer, the amount, and the reason for the chargeback. It can go as high as six months in some cases, so it's definitely looking in to. If nothing else, threatening a chargeback could get the store moving, since they're really bad for stores.
posted by Itaxpica at 2:25 PM on August 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

If it was a floor sample, with a bill of sale explaining that it is a floor sample and "as is" but not explicitly describing the condition, small claims court might be way more trouble than it's worth. Might not, but there is that to consider.
posted by crush-onastick at 2:33 PM on August 30, 2015

If it's too late for the chargeback, yes, small claims. I've been through small claims (and won) and it's just not very hard at all. Totally worth it.
posted by BlahLaLa at 4:45 PM on August 30, 2015

Nthing looking into a chargeback. I have Capital One Visa card and they are amazing for situations like this with shady retailers. All I have to do is click a button and confirm what I've done to resolve the matter and the charge is taken off my statement. They've confirmed my accounting of events for a few of these but always ruled in my favor (and even as they investigate they take it off your statement and if you've paid interest on it, they'll refund you that too.)

I've never noticed a time limit on mine (I'm fairly certain I've done them quite a few months later). Hopefully this gives your sister some leverage.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 11:13 PM on August 30, 2015 [1 favorite]