The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Where’s my money?

I need your assistance. In 2018 we engaged a company/individual. He was supposed to provide us with a backdrop and carpet at our wedding on the 17th December 2018 both a cost of P2,500. He did not honour his promise. We informed him that since he didn’t provide the service he should refund us since we had paid up front. He agreed. We have been chasing him the whole of 2019 and even up to now he has not given us the refund. He keeps on saying he is expecting some money and he will give us our refund. We believe we have been patient enough with him and we now think it’s time to take action. We believe he is deliberately not honouring his promise as on his Facebook page he posted up recent deliveries he made to clients. He is surely making money. We need your intervention in the matter.

I know I’ve said this many times before, but I’m constantly surprised by how badly many people in the wedding industry behave. They don’t seem to understand, or perhaps they just don’t care, that the work they do is for once-in-a-lifetime events. They have been hired to deliver products and services for extremely special occasions. Sometimes it’s people like your supplier who are offering to supply material things, other times it’s caterers, sometimes cakemakers, most often it’s photographers and videographers. Either way, on the big day, they frequently leave their customers with a key part of their occasion missing, forcing them either to go without completely, or spend even more money finding an alternative supplier at the last minute.

I suggest that you email or message this guy making it very clear to him that he owes you P2,500 and that you are absolutely NOT going to let him get away without refunding you. I’d tell him that he has seven days to repay you or you’ll be going to the Small Claims Court for an order against him. I’ll also get in touch with him and make sure he understands that you’re serious about this. Maybe between us we can force him to do the decent thing?

My house is a mess!

Please I need your help or advice. I bought a lounge suit in 2015 and when i bought it I told the shop assistant I need a leather lounge sofa and she showed me a sofa costing P27,000 in black and told me and my hubby it was leather. With the description she gave us about how to identify leather we paid P20,000 that very day. I told the lady shop assistant that I want to take it to my new house and its has to stay new. Mr Richard I moved my tv to the bedrooms to save my lounge. We have never sat In that lounge as family because we were saving it so only visitors will sit on it. Last year we realized it was peeling off so we just thought maybe the kids are not cleaning it properly. Towards the end of year I told the lady who sold it to me the problem I have and she told me a lot of people who bought were complaining and she said she will come and see it. I later went to see the complaints manager who sent people to come and see it. Still no help. I went to the manager who also came to see it and its now 2 weeks since they said they will get back to me. Please help me because its killing me and my house is in a mess.

There are several lessons to learn here. Firstly, you need to be very careful when you spend a lot of money on furniture. Very often furniture stores sell vastly over-priced but poorly produced products. Here’s a tip I suggest everyone tries. Before you purchase any item of furniture, ask the staff in the showroom to turn it upside down so you can inspect the quality of the materials and the workmanship. You’ll be surprised how poorly some items have been made. You don’t need to be an expert carpenter to spot poor quality materials and assembly.

The second lesson is always to ask for advice on how to maintain products that are made of leather. My limited understanding is that it’s not a material you can just ignore and hope it will stay in perfect condition. It probably needs regular love and attention to keep it at its best.

Thirdly, you can infer a lot from the length of a warranty. If an item has a one-year warranty, and almost all furniture sold by furniture stores does, that’s how long you can be confident it will last. Unfortunately, in your case you are now way beyond the warranty period and the store has no obligation to assist you any longer.

Realistically, I think the best you can hope for from this store is advice on how you can repair the damage or “wear and tear” that your sofa has experienced.