Harveys Soft furnishings

...we've ever set foot in. Harveys won simply because it had the product we were looking for at the right price.

THE COMPANY AND ITS CLAIMS

Harveys describe themselves as 'Britain's most exciting home furniture retailer…offering collections that will fire your imagination'. I think I'd agree with the fact that they have good collections, but I'm not so sure about the exciting and inspirational part! They offer affordable ...
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Harveys offer various finance options on their products including interest free credit and pay nothing until next year schemes. As you would imagine, their stores are big places, and they have over 170 of them in the UK. The Harveys website suggests that they consider their staff to be 'warm' and 'helpful' and that their customer service is second to none. They also guarantee that 'you will be astounded by quality and price'.
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THE PROBLEM

When we sold our house, we agreed to leave the sofa behind, thinking it would save us the hassle of either going to the tip with it (it was still functional but past its best), or transporting it to our new home only to throw it out soon after. After all, it's dead easy to buy a new sofa these days isn't it? Well, that's what we thought at the time. Little did we know we'd escaped one small problem to run headfirst into another rather sizeable one.

WHY WE CHOSE HARVEYS

We moved into our new home and immediately set about doing some research into sofa companies for different styles and prices. We thought we'd hit lucky because, even though everyone knows that most sofa companies have a sale on every day, most suites in all the stores were half price in the January sales. Having said that, they are still half price at DFS now, so perhaps it wasn't that great after all! We trudged around all the usual places - DFS, Land of Leather, SCS etc. etc. and did the sit down test on just about everything. We suffered the stereotypical dodgy salesmen spiels and were just about to give up when we spotted the perfect corner sofa in the window of Harveys. At £799, the Cleo corner group leather sofa was just what we were looking for, and almost half the price of some of the other similar sofas we had seen elsewhere.

Having been through the whole sales pitch with just about every furniture salesman in Leeds, we weren't really interested in listening to another one, but it seems to be obligatory in these places unless you immediately tell them you know what you want. Even then, you may find yourself listening to them trying to sell you something you've already agreed to buy! They don't seem able to help themselves! To be honest, I've never felt loyal to any one furniture store because I hate being badgered into purchases by pushy sales people and it seems to have been our experience in every shop we've ever set foot in. Harveys won simply because it had the product we were looking for at the right price.

THE COMPANY AND ITS CLAIMS

Harveys describe themselves as 'Britain's most exciting home furniture retailer…offering collections that will fire your imagination'. I think I'd agree with the fact that they have good collections, but I'm not so sure about the exciting and inspirational part! They offer affordable furnishings for all your lounge, dining-room and bedroom needs and pride themselves on always being one step ahead of their competitors in terms of style. Now, there is something to be said about the style factor here. The products do seem well made and there is no doubting that they are stylish and contemporary, but the one step ahead remark should certainly not be taken too literally if my experience is anything to go by.

Harveys offer various finance options on their products including interest free credit and pay nothing until next year schemes. As you would imagine, their stores are big places, and they have over 170 of them in the UK. The Harveys website suggests that they consider their staff to be 'warm' and 'helpful' and that their customer service is second to none. They also guarantee that 'you will be astounded by quality and price'.
They basically promise the following: -

~ Free friendly advice
~ Free ideas for your home
~ Free coffee too in our modern and attractive showrooms
~ Nationwide home delivery service - in front of your neighbours !!!
~ Your furniture placed in your chosen room
~ All packaging materials removed
~ EASY flexible payment options

OUR EXPERIENCE

In order to purchase our sofa, we first went to the Leeds branch of Harveys to find the sofa we wanted and then went back to the Huddersfield branch, after sleeping on it, to make the purchase. In neither of these stores did we receive 5 of the above 7 promises, but then our dealings with this company are still far from over, so you never know! Maybe by next Christmas, we might be almost satisfied customers.

Recognising the fact that we already knew what we wanted but weren't sure if we were 100% ready, the salesman in the Leeds branch gave up on trying to sell us the sofa and tried to sell us the miracle stain remover and leather treatment instead, which we immediately refused. His pushy attitude was what made us go to a different branch to make the purchase because he was just plain creepy! I also found his manner aggressive and unsettling. Instead of normal eye contact, his eyes bored into me all the way through the conversation, which was disturbing and resulted in my other half feeling both ignored and annoyed, whilst I tried to look in the other direction to avoid his gaze. In hindsight, it was probably a bizarre sales technique. Perhaps he thought I'd be easier to convince than Mr Tadders, or maybe he thought I would henpeck my poor bloke into agreeing to buy it. Whatever he was trying to do, it ended in us muttering something about coming back later and scuttling out of the door. He most certainly was not 'warm' or 'helpful', but he was quite definitely aggressive and creepy!

When we went to the Huddersfield branch, we spoke to the lovely Jean, who was far more normal! We told her we wanted the Cleo suite in chocolate brown and she offered us a huge discount on the leather treatment and stain remover, which we ended up accepting. This was partly because it was a good deal, but also because it was easier to listen to what was on offer from someone who was sitting on the other side of a desk rather than virtually standing on your toes.

We placed our order for the sofa on January 22nd and were told it would take 10-12 weeks for it to be delivered. I had heard rumours that this was usually the case with sofas, but I've never really understood why it takes so long. Jean told us that the Italian designer suites (still selling it to us obviously), always take a bit longer than the others - especially if we wanted a right-hand corner group as opposed to a left-hand one (!), but she did say they would deliver on a Saturday, which was a bonus. She said she would mark our invoice with an 'earlier rather than later delivery' note (which led me to wonder if there is anyone in the world who would ask for their sofa to arrive as late as possible) and offered us 6 months interest free credit, which we accepted. So far so good. Now we just had to go home and wait for the sofa. 3 months is a long time to wait for something to sit on. Thankfully my sister was doing some building work and needed somewhere to store her sofa and we also had a futon. God only knows what we would have done otherwise!

I worked out that, at the very latest, our sofa would be due on April 14th. We were having a party that night so we wanted it to arrive earlier so that we could show it off. I'm not sure why, but I was already pessimistic about the service we would receive.

Two weeks before the sofa was due to arrive, I decided to phone the store to check on its progress. I spoke to a couple of people, neither of whom had a clue what was happening, but after mumbling about delays and problems with that particular make of suite, they took my mobile number and offered to call me back once they'd found out what was happening.

True to their word, I received a call about half an hour later from possibly the most rude and sarcastic man I have ever spoken to. First of all, he asked to speak to my partner. I explained that I had placed the original call as we had bought the sofa together and my other half was busy at work, but he wasn't happy about it. He told me he'd rather speak to him since it was his sofa as his name was on the invoice. I tried to explain that Jean had only asked for one of our names and since we had used his card to place the deposit, it seemed logical that his name should go on the invoice. When he was still funny with me, I asked him how he thought he had obtained my mobile number if it wasn't me who had called.

I have to say it was an extremely frustrating call. I could understand his reluctance to part with information if it was either delivery information or if we were discussing payment, but why on earth would I have the order number or even care about someone else's sofa unless it was mine?

Eventually he agreed to tell me what was happening but, as expected, it was bad news. He apologised very insincerely and explained that they had experienced a few problems with delays on this particular suite due to a high demand for it. He tried to convince me that this wasn't a cop-out and that they were genuinely sorry for all the delays, but that we would receive the sofa at the end of April and at least we had the reassurance that it was a designer Italian suite. I told him that we knew that when we bought it, but that didn't help us much without the sofa!

As the conversation progressed, the end of April turned into early May and I was having difficulty keeping my cool. I told him it would disrupt plans as we were having a party and needed somewhere for our guests to sit, to which he said very sarcastically, 'I guess I'm not invited anymore then?'
I think he was trying to be funny, but all he was succeeding in doing was irritating the hell out of me. I told him that I found this completely unacceptable and he eventually agreed to send us £80 compensation on the arrival of our sofa. I have no idea why they settled on £80, but I felt it was the least they could do. All we had to do was phone them up and ask for money (nice and humiliating for us) once our sofa had been delivered and we would be given £80 to buy whatever we wanted. It reminded me of my mother giving me pocket money as a child and saying, 'Don't spend it all at once!'

To add insult to injury, at the end of the conversation he said, 'You will be sure to pass on this information to your partner and tell him to contact us if he needs any more information about HIS sofa won't you?' GRRRRRRR. I swear he was winding me up.

The end of April was looming and I asked Mr Tadders to phone them about HIS sofa, because if Tadders had to speak to that nasty, chauvinistic man again, she couldn't be held responsible for her actions and the big vein in her head was likely to explode. Thankfully, Mr Tadders is a much more good natured, patient and tolerant man than his future wife and is better equipped to deal with the bad news, which we knew was coming again. He phoned them and this time we were offered £180 compensation as the sofa would not be with us until the end of May.

Despite the fact that the man he spoke to was still a bit arrogant, I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for him. It must be pretty rubbish to spend your days disappointing people and listening to endless complaints when all you have is bad news and a lousy sense of humour. My other half politely asked that they phone him back in two weeks to let us know if we were likely to experience further delays instead of waiting a further month for more bad news. That was over two weeks ago and we are still waiting for a call. However, they have now sent us a cheque for the first £80 they promised, probably to try and calm us down!

SO WHAT DO I THINK OF HARVEYS?

Well, I have to say I'm pretty unimpressed and I'd have difficulty recommending their service to anyone I liked. I feel that they have failed to deliver what they promise on both a small and a large scale. It is true that we received free friendly advice and easy flexible payment options, but I have yet to see any evidence of the other 5 promises stated previously. We also have a further problem because our year's insurance for our sofa began on April 16th and we haven't even received it yet!

We've had a bad experience with every member of their staff apart from Jean and I dread to think how much money they have lost handing out large chunks of compensation to people, though at least they acknowledge their faults. I really like the sofa we have bought and I would have no hesitation in recommending their stylish products, if I could guarantee that you would ever receive them. I was going to wait and write a more objective review of the store once we had received our merchandise, but since the wait may take us to Christmas, I can't see any reason to be kind to them.

In short, they really need to get their act together and deliver what they promise. The only upside to this situation is that if the wait does take us to Christmas, the sofa will probably be free!

UPDATE 17 MAY 2006

Well...would you believe it? Mr Tadders has just received a call to say that our sofa will be delivered this Saturday. Funny that, because when we phoned Harveys 2 days ago, they told us we'd be waiting until the end of May at least. Maybe shouting at people does speed things up. I'm not going to hold my breath until I'm actually sitting on my new sofa, but maybe, just maybe this is the end of the saga....

UPDATE 24 MAY 2006

Well our sofa was due to arrive between 9am and 12pm on Saturday and it arrived at approximately 3 minutes to 12 according to Mr Tadders. They forgot to include the leather treatment too so, having waited in all morning, Mr Tadders then had to go back to the store to get it. All in all, it has been a nightmare, but our new sofa is fantastic. It's comfy and stylish and there is enough room for both of us to lie on it, which isn't bad considering Mr Tadders is 6' 2" and I'm 5' 8". My opinion hasn't changed about their appalling service, but I do have to hand it to Harveys for making decent furniture. Oh, and they've promised us the remaining compensation money within the next two weeks, so all's well that ends well.

Thanks for reading!

 

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