Faux Harvey Faux
Kieran O’Hare from Drogheda got in touch with a complaint about Harvey Norman. He and his girlfriend were in the market for six leather dining chairs, and a set on display in the aforementioned shop caught their eye.
“As there was no mention of what material the chair covers were made of I asked the salesman if the chairs were leather and he said they were,” he writes. Delighted to have found what they were looking for so quickly and at a price they considered reasonable the couple put down a deposit and left.
A couple of days later our reader was looking at the Harvey Norman receipt when he noticed, much to his dismay, that it described his chairs as “faux leather”. As he most certainly did not want fake, faux or imitation leather he rang the store and asked to speak to the chap who had sold him the chairs. He was reassured that the chairs were actually leather “and this must have been a mistake in the way the item was entered in the system”.
His girlfriend subsequently called to the store to pick the chairs up but before she paid the balance checked with staff once again to make sure that the chairs were actually leather. Once more she was reassured that they were. She paid the balance but, on the way to the pick-up point, looked underneath one of the chairs on display and saw a label reading “PVC cover”. This was “a huge surprise”, O’Hare says, so she returned to the salesman with this information, who then went to speak to his manager who also said he thought they were leather. It wasn’t until the label which said PVC cover was pointed out to him that he apologised and offered a refund.
“The episode caused great inconvenience for us as we had essentially wasted six weeks and were still without chairs. I wonder how many customers do not check the labels like we did until they have taken delivery of furniture from Harvey Norman?”
We contacted the store last week to see if it could explain the confusion but, despite a number of calls to the store’s Dublin head office, no one was in a position to shed any light on the issue.
This is the kind of outrageous treatment Irish consumers continue to receive at the hands of retailers and service providers. The shop obviously knew the chairs were not leather - the customers had asked enough times for someone to have actually checked - but the utter contempt which the shop has for its customers is confirmed by their failure to respond to Pricewatch’s phone calls. Consumers who read this story should boycott the store, but will they? I doubt it. Sadly, our greed for “bargains” is greater than our self-respect.
Comment by Paul | October 19, 2007 at 10:02 pmBut surely if you want leather chairs, you can tell leather from other materials without needing to read a label ? Otherwise what’s the point in having leather ?
Comment by jane | November 3, 2007 at 2:46 pmTheir returns policy sukcs. Most items overpriced. Poor service (no knowledge or else it’s pure ignorance I was told that they are busy no time to service few times). Do you need more reasons not to go there? I don’t! Very shortsighted business approach
Comment by Sandra | November 22, 2007 at 1:34 pmToday is the 23rd of December 1828p.m. and was told 30 minutes ago that the couch that I had purchased on the 6th of October and had been guaranteed to be delivered before christmas, will not be arriving now till after christmas. I am so angry that Harvey Norman can do this and get away with it. I have demanded my money back and told them they have not heard the end of this. I won’t be shopping there again!!
Comment by Natasha Craig | December 22, 2007 at 6:34 pmI went into the new one in Carrickmines yesterday. The quality of their stuff is awful and overpriced. They had a suite for €4500 which was the only half decent one. then went into classic furniture, they had the same suite for €2500. ridiculous!!!
Comment by Rose | April 7, 2008 at 8:31 amwent into harvey norman in carrickmines and their only semi decent suite was €4500. then went into classic furniture and they had the same suite for €2500. rip off?????
Comment by rose | April 7, 2008 at 8:33 amWent to Harvey Norman in Naas to avail of their 50% off LCD and Plasma TV’s sale. Couldn’t find any myself so aksed the assistant manager (Manager was not available)if he could point out at least one of these tv’s, was told there wasn’t one and couldn’t offer me any explanation on the advertising (as per the adverts on tv or their in store brochure). Best he could do was get the manager to ring me when he became available. Still waiting. I did lodge a complaint with the National Consumer Agency. Can’t believe more people haven’t objected to this false advertising.
Comment by Michelle Martin | May 2, 2008 at 9:39 pm