Q) I ORDERED a £1,200 sofa from The Range and paid online with Klarna.
When it arrived, the cover was ripped and the sections didn’t fit together properly. I’ve been chasing a refund for weeks – can you help me?
Jane Owen, Cornwall
A) YOU couldn’t wait for your sofa to arrive in time for Christmas, but you were furious when it turned up.
There was a rip on the back, and you could see stuffing poking out of a number of holes in the seats.
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The middle section seemed to you like it was from a different sofa.
When you put it together it looked wonky and the legs didn’t even touch the ground.
You immediately asked The Range for a refund, expecting it to be a straight-forward process – but it was far from it.
Instead of paying for the sofa upfront, you had used the “buy now, pay later” provider, Klarna, to spread the cost over monthly instalments.
You had already paid the first instalment of £120 and Klarna agreed to freeze any further payments while you battled to get a refund.
The Range told you that you needed to contact its supplier, a firm called Simply Eleganza.
The Range says on its website that if you buy a product that comes from one of its Range Plus Partners – like your sofa – your contract is with that company and it is down to it to issue you with a refund.
But that’s not the case according to the law. Under the Consumer Rights Act, the retailer you bought your goods from is responsible for issuing the money back, not the supplier.
Unaware of this, you duly contacted Simply Eleganza and requested a refund, sending photos of the damage as evidence that the sofa was not fit for purpose.
For weeks, you were chasing the firm, which said there wasn’t a courier in your area that could pick up the sofa.
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It was finally collected at the end of January, but weeks later, after emailing nearly every day, there was no sign of your cash – so you asked me for help.
When I contacted The Range it promised you would be refunded the £120 within a week and confirmed that it would take no further payments via Klarna.
The Range should have taken responsibility for sorting this out from the start instead of sending you on a wild goose chase.