Sofa refund finally brings comfort 

In July 2020, Which? member Christine Gaughran, who lives in West Yorkshire, ordered a custom-made sofa from Anna Morgan London (AML) for £6,953. Christine paid for the sofa on her M&S Bank credit card. Upon the sofa’s delivery, she noticed it had marks on it, which appeared to be fingerprints. When Christine contacted AML, it agreed to send somebody to inspect the sofa but then repeatedly failed to respond to her messages. With no resolution, Christine contacted Which? for advice in January 2021.

The law

The law As Christine paid for the sofa on her credit card, she was protected under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. It allows consumers to treat their credit card company as jointly and severally liable for contracts between £100 and £30,000. This meant M&S Bank was jointly responsible for remedying the sofa not being of satisfactory quality, as is required under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Our advice

We advised Christine to make a Section 75 claim through M&S Bank. Initially, it asked Christine to get the sofa independently inspected. The inspection showed the sofa had substandard fabric and workmanship. Christine issued a claim with the Financial Ombudsman to push for a resolution, and M&S Bank refunded the cost of the sofa and inspection. AML did not respond to our request for comment. M&S Bank said: ‘As the retailer didn’t respond to provide a refund or offer a suitable alternative, the customer’s claim was upheld and we issued a full refund.’