Habitat - www.habitat.co.uk

AVOID this company....sold three me three beds with a design fault (which only materialises over time). When you discover it they then try and and take the majority of your refund by “wear and tear” even though you can’t use them! Awful customer service

We purchased a Chester 200 cm sofa in leather 3 and a half years ago for our London flat. Given we are in London 5 months a year it has been used for about 18 months. About 6 months ago I noticed it was sagging on one side. I wrote to Habitat who never responded. I rang a few days ago to be told it had only a one year warranty and no warranty for the frame beyond that. A friend who used to build furniture showed me the frame had cracked. Given neither my husband nor I are overweight and hsve no children the sofa has never had hard use. Habitat would require we have an expert to decide whether it is a manufacturer defect af our expense. No expert could at this point say this. I checked other shops and found most reputable shops gave 5-10 year warranties on the frame. The sofa was £2,000, not terribly expensive but not cheap. I have been a Habitat customer for more than 40 years. Never again. It will be Heals or Boconcept for the new sofa and we hope with a simple repair a refuge may be able to make use of this sofa.

> We ordered a sofa bed on 27th July and paid for it in full. The delivery time was 12-14 weeks so we expected delivery by 2nd November at the latest.

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> On 19th September we were contacted by email by Panther Group to confirm that the sofa was ready and to select a date when it could be delivered. We scheduled delivery for 6th October and I arranged to be available at home that day. On 5th October I received a text message to confirm our 2 hour delivery slot for the next day.

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> However on 6th October I received an email from Panther Group confirming that the sofa was not available for delivery after all and inviting me to select another date for delivery. This was annoying and my wife sent an email to Panther Group requesting an explanation. To date We have not received a response from them.

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> I selected another date for delivery, as instructed, and arranged for it to be delivered the following Thursday (12th October). We again arranged to keep the day free (my wife took a days leave from work) so that we could be in to take delivery.

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> Again I received a text message to confirm the 2 hour delivery slot the evening before. However on the morning of 12th again I received an email from Panther to inform me that the sofa was not available for delivery and again inviting me to select a new date for delivery.

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> At this point my wife rang Habitat to find out what was going on. She was informed that the sofa could not be delivered as it was not even in the country as yet! After several telephone calls that week they confirmed that they were not expecting the sofa until 19th November. This was of course over two weeks after the latest original delivery date.

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> We were told that someone would call us on 19th November to let us know whether the sofa had arrived. No one did. My wife rang Habitat on 20th November and at this point she was told that the sofa was now due in on 3rd December. Again she was told that someone would call us to confirm. The 3rd December came and went and we did not receive a phone call.

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> Again we chased Habitat and we were finally told that the sofa was now in the country and available for delivery. Given our previous experience with Panther Group we asked Habitat to confirm the delivery date with them directly for us and they booked us a new delivery date of 14th December. We had friends staying with us on 16th December and I was assured that the sofa bed would be with us in time for us to use it that weekend.

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> Again we arranged to be available all day on 14th December and I waited for a text message from Panther the evening before to confirm the 2 hour delivery slot. By 7.30pm none had arrived so my wife rang Habitat. She was assured that the sofa would delivered the following day and that sometimes the text message did not arrive until 9pm. However 9pm came and went and no text message arrived. By this time however Habitats office was closed. My wife therefore waited until 8am the following day to contact Habitat once more. Initially she was told that yes the sofa was being delivered and she was even given a 2 hour time slot. When she asked Habitat to double check this with Panther Group however she was told that actually Panther Group had no record of delivering the sofa that day and it transpired that they had a delivery date down of 14th November!

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> Habitat apologised and rearranged the delivery date to the next available date which was 19th December. This however meant that we had to make other arrangements for our guests as we did not have a bed for them to sleep in over the weekend.

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> The sofa bed was eventually delivered on 19th December, over six weeks after the last expected original delivery date. The delivery men from Panther Group did not inspire confidence. They had no tools with them and had to borrow a pair of scissors in order to take some of the packaging off. They took the sofa apart to get it through the front door but still managed to scratch and cause damage to the front door. We had to put it back together again ourselves (without instructions). They also left most of the packaging on which we had to remove and dispose of ourselves.

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I will never be ordering furniture from Habitat again!

Products - good, ordering and delivery - awful

We have placed 4 orders, only 1 of which the first for a shelving unit went to plan.

2nd - sideboard. Delivery time confirmed, informed it was on its way. Delivery driver turned up after confirmed time slot but with no sideboard. Told it had been lost so had to reorder. Second turned up damaged kept as it had taken so long to come and could stand the thought of waiting in to no avail again.

3rd - table and chairs - only 3 out of 4 required chairs were in stock. We were informed fourth would be back in stock before Xmas by 17 Dec it's now 8 January still not in stock with no date for when it will be. Delivery team dropped table in packaging on our stone hall floor and damaged it. Poorly packed and even more poorly handled. We kept it as we wanted it for Xmas and had given away our previous table, but are not happy. 3 chairs instead of 4 not ideal

4th - chair. Ordered a different chair as the one we wanted as mentioned above still not in stock. Really need 4 not 3 chairs and by this time we were worried we would never get 4 chairs as concerned co may go bust - how on earth can it keep going when its so inefficient? Paid before Xmas and agreed delivery date. Delivery window confirmed day before. On the day received e mail saying it wasn't on van. Habitat said they would come back to us next working day with info, but didn't. Chased and informed it's been lost ( again!!!!). It's now out of stock so we have no idea when the (second choice ) chair we have paid for will arrive.

We like the products but after 3 months are still left with a table and only 3 chairs. Also the packaging, self assembly and value for money is no where need as good as IKEA's. We would never have bought from Habitat had we known how appalling the experience would be. Will certainly never buy from them again.

AVOID

Fredd Bed purchased from Habitat. Order No. ******591.

Terrible design in my view with legs that buckle easily.

I simply ask for replacement legs from online Cust Services; a seemingly small and reasonable enquiry.

Weeks and weeks of delaying tactics from a number of different Cust Serv employees; obviously an under-staffed dept with incompetent people who care little about longstanding and (now former) customer.

All my emails were replied to with an apologetic auto reply stating the depts high work-load (I am not surprised); then replies from array of different ill-informed agents.

Then followed a catalogue of irritating incremental requests from Cust Serv for order details, product label details, photos; and then finally an actual inspection by their (misnamed) Quality Assurance team. Really poor.

Just to replace some bed legs.

Very idea of customer goodwill or service is absent.

Bad product in my view, let down further by a chaotic and incompetent (mis-named) Customer Services team.

Get one star not zero as at least their emails were polite; though an actual resolution is preferred.

(former) customer. London

Ordered a Hendricks sofa in the sale. Was given a delivery date by Panther. Morning of the delivery they advised they would not deliver ditto with a second date two weeks later. On the third attempt and one month late they delivered but about 8 hours outside the delivery window they gave. Lovely sofa but they cannot deliver the products reliably. Avoid.

It took four failed attempts at delivery and 8 fruitless hours waiting at home before I got my goods. To his credit the director of their delivery company, Panther, did ring me at home when I sent a registered letter of complaint, and Chantelle from the director's office at Habitat was lovely and eventually sorted it.

But really, to keep using the same failed software delivery notification technology long after it had failed when it was clearly obvious they should have reverted to a manual system does neither company credit and damages their brand. I've been a big ticket Habitat customer since the 1980s, but never again - there goes the sofa I'd planned to purchase - and would heartily recommend other prospective customers to look elsewhere

Just a really shocking service all round , in store was fine , we ordered a sofa we were told it would take 6-8 weeks and 2 days later got a text message saying it was ready , all this seemed strange , on enquiry we were told maybe they had one in stock already . Then we decided not to take the order that week because of work commitments, so we took it today the 12/5/17 between .9.30-11.30 . Having re-arranged the whole house and cleared the driveway for the van and took days of at great loss of earnings we received a text 30 mins before the product was due saying they could not deliver due to the warehouse being moved !!! As you can imagine we are fuming !! I am sure they must have known on the Friday before the on the 9th this would be the case WHY DID THEY NOT LET US KNOW ??? Having tried to talk to management all we are faced with is a call centre girl who can't or will not put us through to management all that is happening is the Buck is being passed around , we are still waiting for someone to get back to us but getting nowhere and more and more frustrated !!! Looking at the reviews for habitat most of them are 1 star only !! I would not recommend that anyone purchases anything from this store EVER. We now realise that the sofa is not been made.

Just a really shocking service all round , in store was fine , we ordered a sofa we were told it would take 6-8 weeks and 2 days later got a text message saying it was ready , all this seemed strange , on enquiry we were told maybe they had one in stock already . Then we decided not to take the order that week because of work commitments, so we took it today the 12/5/17 between .9.30-11.30 . Having re-arranged the whole house and cleared the driveway for the van and took days of at great loss of earnings we received a text 30 mins before the product was due saying they could not deliver due to the warehouse being moved !!! As you can imagine we are fuming !! I am sure they must have known on the Friday before the on the 9th this would be the case WHY DID THEY NOT LET US KNOW ??? Having tried to talk to management all we are faced with is a call centre girl who can't or will not put us through to management all that is happening is the Buck is being passed around , we are still waiting for someone to get back to us but getting nowhere and more and more frustrated !!! Looking at the reviews for habitat most of them are 1 star only !! I would not recommend that anyone purchases anything from this store EVER. We now realise that the sofa is not been made.

Simply terrible service from Habitat. Ordered the Coniston Garden table set in April. Habitat have had 4 missed delivery dates now (two of which with absolutely no notice - just no shows), with no end in sight, or sign that the customer service team is able to fix the situation.

My personal recommendation would be to avoid shopping at Habitat, as i really wouldn't want other people to experience the level of customer service we have received.