Furniture Village has failed to deliver after the customer had paid. Photograph: Justin Kase z12z/Alamy Consumer champions Furniture Village has had my money for months, but where’s my order? There’s no delivery and no communication, so I can’t find out what’s happened

We are having a nightmare with Furniture Village, and, looking online, it seems there are many others in the same boat.

In July we ordered a table and chairs from the store’s website, paying £1,170. At the time, we were told delivery would be in mid-October.

After placing the order, we decided we wanted to buy additional chairs and bar stools. We called several times but were left on hold for an hour each time and eventually gave up. Now we are trying to get the original order delivered. The company emailed us on 19 October saying it was having problems, and the order would be delivered in mid-November.

By 21 November, there was been no communication and no delivery. I requested callbacks but have had no response.

Furniture Village has had £1,170 of our money for more than four-and-a-half months, and we have no product and no way of communicating with the company.

CH, Walthamstow

Ouch! The online reviews do not make great reading, with many reporting similarly long waits for their orders. The retailer isn’t alone – the whole furniture sector is having problems.

I asked the company about your case, and it quickly looked into it and has just delivered your items. To apologise, it has refunded your delivery fee and offered a 10% discount on the extra chairs – should you still wish to buy them.

“Soaring demand for raw materials and shipping containers, combined with port congestion, depleted workforces and reduced factory capacity, is creating a perfect logistical storm, which has resulted in delays to a number of our customers’ orders,” it says. It also said it has since beefed up its customer care team to address the lack of communication you experienced.

I called up this week and did get through after waiting for about 14 minutes, so maybe things are improving.

In the meantime, those trying to buy furniture and other similar items may want to stick to what is actually in stock. Right now, a promise that a bed or sofa will be delivered on time appears to be a bit of a guess, and probably should be treated as such.

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Source: The Guardian

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