I had been trawling through the various furniture stores and dedicated sofa shop since last summer and out of desperation even looked at the Argos catalogue. As I could only afford to pay a set amount of money I was limited to where I could ultimately shop. Also, I live in a modern flat which means small rooms and not a lot of room to place large pieces of furniture.

In the end I made several trips to two DFS stores, the one in Watford and the other one in Brent Cross. The company, as annoying as they are for their adverts on radio and television, must be doing something right as they are currently celebrating their 40th anniversary. And whenever I went to check out their latest sale items and new stock, there were plenty of people in the stores happy to order and buy new sofas. There was no sign of recession there. And it is worth checking out more than one store if you have the luxury of a few of them around as their selection is always slightly different from each other and if you don’t find what you are looking for in one, you may be able to find it displayed in another.

When I was ready to buy I went to the Brent Cross store. The only reason was that the first 142 bus pulling into the bus station was heading there. It could easily have been the Watford end of the line.

DFS stores in my area are on single floors with a central sales personnel hub. The outside is no different to other large stores in the often dedicated furniture superstore area where you will find the likes of MFI, Paul Simon Curtain Superstore and Allied Carpets to name but a few.

The Brent Cross one is actually opposite the shopping centre in an area known as Brent Cross Shopping Park, easily accessible on foot from the main centre by taking the footbridge over the North Circular (or your car or a bus – just remember there are not that many car parking space on that side. It may be easier to park at Brent Cross and walk over the footbridge.) You will also find Lakeland, Mamas & Papas, Borders and TK Maxx there.

Upon entering I was offered a glass of either sparking wine, fruit juice or water to celebrate the 40th anniversary (I think that’s what they said when I asked). For the next hour or so I kept wandering round and round and round the store floor trial sitting the odd sofa or two (from the 100 or so on offer).

I had looked online and checked out their website before I set off every time to see if I could narrow it down to what I actually wanted. I had a few models in mind and was hoping that they were on display in the Brent Cross branch – as I said, not all stores have the same selection.

After what appeared hours I finally homed in on the model I had liked best online. Still carrying my glass of bubbly I grabbed the book of fabric samples, kicked off my shoes and had a quick lie down, with the fabric protected by placing the samples under my feet. If I was to buy a settee it had to withstand the ‘comfortable when falling asleep on it’ test. The model I had picked passed with flying colours. It was comfortable when sitting down on it and even more comfortable when lying down.

To make your decision easier, all showroom items come in at least two sizes with fabric samples to show you what other colours are available. There is also a chart telling you what sizes models are available in, including armchairs and foot stools.

Ordering made easy

There was plenty of staff on the sale floor but at no time did I feel pressured. In fact, the only time I was approached was after I made eye contact with a member of staff.

By the time I called the assistant over, I was ready to order. I had made up my mind what I wanted, size and colour. Talking to the assistant was easy. I told him the size of the sofa – three seater with cushion back (was £50.00 cheaper than formal back) in black. The store’s sample was in grey and although it was nice as the back of the side and front applications looked great, I had to think about what I already had in my living room (I have very light furniture all through the flat) and grey would not have been the right colour. The black I had chosen was not a really dark black, it was more a charcoal colour with black and grey swirly cushions.

At the time I ordered that particular model was reduce and showing as half price. I had seen it months before when it was on full price and it had caught my eye so when I had a chance to get it at what DFS are calling ‘half price’ I knew I wanted it.

However, you will not be able to get anything extra with it. Their prices are calculated so that you are only getting the piece of furniture you ordered in the colours they can offer, that is the only free extra you are likely to get. And always remember that they are trying to upsell their products including stain protection and insurance. But remember that they also give you a 10 year warrantee on the springs and normally a 5 year warrantee on fabrics or leather. But there is one item you won’t be able to get them to drop and that seems to be the £30.00 delivery charge (or £50.00 if the items is so big that it has to be disassembled and re-assembled in your home just to get it in.)

I had wanted to buy a foot stool with it but at a price that was half of that of the settee and in the end I only ordered one sofa. After all, I only have a small sitting room and even an armchair would have been too overwhelmingly big. I did see a one off piece that was not from the same range but still nice and once I can convince my live out partner to drive down I will buy it and bring it home. It’s too big for me to take it on public transport.

Ordering means that you enter into a legally binding contract. Payment is either by credit agreement (up to 4 years interest free) or payment of deposit and the rest on delivery. I had the money in my account so I paid the deposit with the rest to be paid when the sofa arrived. I was given a 7 week delivery period (which I thought was rather long), however, I was also told that once the sofa arrived at my local DFS store, I would receive a call and a delivery date within 48 hours. This is because the stores do not have large storage areas. All this is explained during the sales consultation.

Fast forward 4 weeks

I was at work on the phone when my mobile phone went off. I couldn’t answer but the caller had left a message. It was DFS Watford (not the Brent Cross branch I had expected) telling me my sofa had arrive and they wanted to arrange delivery.

I was a little taken aback in particular as I hadn’t expected them to call me for another couple of weeks. Delivery was arranged for two days later, which meant I had to arrange time off work at short notice to get home from work during the day to take delivery – not the thing you really want to do if it’s the last invoicing day of the month and you have only just come back from a week off anyway. But my manager was flexible and even allowed me to use his car to nip home and take delivery of the sofa.

While they were not able to give me a precise time, they gave me a 4 hour window plus a promise to call me an hour before they were due.

Delivery

The night before I had dismantled my student sofa and put away and cleaned the corner where I wanted my new sofa. I had paid for delivery so I expected them to be almost on time.

The lorry arrived about 20 minutes later than expected but that was due to traffic and roadworks around my area. Luckily I live in a ground floor flat so getting the sofa into my flat. The only problem was that the front door was slightly lower than the sofa’s dimensions so they had to tilt it and rotate it around a sharp corner to get it into the living room. One of the guys took the rest of the payment due and phoned it through to the store to confirm

that I had actually enough money in the account to pay for it. He was a complaining a little that it was a bit of a tight squeeze when I told him that it could be worse and I could be living on the second or third floor without lift.

The two delivery guys were very fast and professional putting the legs on the sofa, add extra support under the middle part, plumped up the cushions and left after I had checked that the item was ok and in perfect condition.

Everyday use

It was a big change for me to have a huge new sofa in the room. The one I had before was small and dainty and this was is rather huge and voluminous. It is also much higher than my old one which means I felt I was going to topple over when trying to put something on my coffee table. (Note to myself – buy new, slightly higher coffee table)

The first few days the sofa was very stiff and it needed a lot of gentle ups and downs to mould the cushions and everything else to settle. Once a week I use my vacuum cleaner to suck off the dust and plump the back cushions. I’m still wondering if a formal back wouldn’t have been easier but I’m sure it will all settle down once the sofa is a number of months old and worn in.

I decided to buy new cushion covers on the scatter cushion I had on my old sofa to fit better with the new one as it still looks a little empty. I will also have to change the colour of the fleece I keep from blue to black or charcoal but it will happen in good time.

Customer satisfaction

So far I am very happy with the sofa. I am using it every day and currently it still has a total ‘no food, no drink’ ban on it but I’m sure I will soon lift it. There’s nothing nicer than snuggling up on a comfy sofa with a nice glass of wine or coffee, a good book or cheesy movie on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

The service I received at DFS was very good. Despite the trying to oversell on items you don’t need, the sales person was never pushy. He explained everything in detail in particular the 48 hour delivery period. They called and updated me on the day of delivery, even told me that they would be arriving earlier after encountering roadworks and having to change the rota altogether that day.

The price I paid is what I expected for this kind of product. I feel it looks more expensive than what I actually paid and I hope I will have a lot of joy out of it. If not, DFS will certainly be the first to know about it.

If you are not prepared to pay John Lewis or Marks & Spencer prices than you should be prepared to lower your expectation but still expect a good product.

What I received is what I ordered and I am very happy about it. Next stop, buy the footstool I had seen, upgrade the coffee table to a larger one, decorate the rest of the room around it, kick off the shoes and enjoy the newly found comfort.

©Tempus_Fugit/Teena2003