marylsommers: Complaint about new furniture? Expect a bed of nails

When you complain about new furniture, the big retailers send an independent expert to adjudicate. But are they 'independent'?

It is your first night sleeping in your new bed delivered by a top retailer. But you wake up next morning tired and exhausted ? and the sleepless nights continue for weeks. Can you demand your money back ? or, at the very least, force the retailer to send you a new bed?

Many of Britain's big furniture retailers are members of an independent industry-wide scheme that promises to handle disputes. Typically, an independent expert is despatched to assess whether your claim has merit, and chances are you will be sent a technician from FIRA, which says it is "the world's leading independent furniture technology centre".

This fast-growing, �20m-turnover organisation, based in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, operates the "Furniture Ombudsman" ? described as offering impartial dispute resolution ? on the industry's behalf, and a separate division, FIRA Service Technicians, which sends out its experts when customers complain.

The Technicians service is marketed to retailers and furniture-makers across the UK on the basis that it improves customer service and cuts the cost of having to replace items.

FIRA boasts on its website that its staff have a "90% success rate of 'kept in home' results ? because, if it isn't kept in the home, there is a direct cost to the business". In other words, it is able to make sure the customer keeps the item in the overwhelming number of cases. Of course, in many instances, items can be repaired to the customer's satisfaction.

FIRA acknowledges that in many cases it does not charge the retailer or furniture manufacturer if the job is "unsuccessful" ? ie, where the item has to be sent back. Some would argue that this represents a conflict of interest that may encourage the independent expert to find in favour of the company rather than the customer.

Sheila Burke (not her real name) had expected that when she complained about her new �1,600 bed ? bought from a small local furniture store ? the independent expert sent by the manufacturer would turn up with an open mind. Instead, she says he took one look at it and told her that, given the make, "there can't be anything wrong with it". After that, she claims, he didn't want to hear what she was saying. "The mattress was really uncomfortable, which is why I complained. But the man who turned up didn't appear to be interested in hearing my complaint at all," says Burke.

Katy Burton tells a similar story after she complained about a Silentnight mattress bought from a high street retailer. Staff there had, again, arranged for an independent inspector to go to her home. She claims: "He lay on it for maybe 10 seconds, agreed he could feel the problem, but made no notes or took no actions that seemed to assess the problem. He then rotated the mattress, chatted to me about his dog, and left." When she contacted the store she was told he had found nothing wrong.

In both cases the stores declined to replace or refund the mattress, citing the findings of the independent expert.

Burton, who lives in Manchester, was left nonplussed. "I couldn't believe a man lying on a mattress for 10 seconds, taking no notes and chatting about his dog qualified as a professional assessment. I was told his decision was final," she says.

After Guardian Money intervened the store gave Burton a generous discount on a better mattress, and she is now a happy customer. Burke, however, is still embroiled in a messy legal dispute which will be heard in the small claims court next week.

Last year, BBC's Watchdog reported on the case of Pam and Geoffrey Benge, who had paid a big-name store �4,200 for a three-piece suite. After only six months the armchair was broken.

An inspector sent by the store/manufacturer ? it is not known whether they were from FIRA or not ? concluded they had done the damage themselves. They then paid for an independent report by the Furniture Ombudsman. That concluded that "all the joints on the backs of the chair and two sofas were defective", and only then did the store agree to refund the couple and pay for the report.

Guardian Money this week rang FIRA posing as a small bed retailer who was experiencing a high level of mattress returns. The person we spoke to recommended FIRA's Service Technicians, and gave us the impression that if we signed up this would enable us to put a greater proportion of customer complaints down to "wear and tear".

FIRA's chief operating officer, Jonny Westbrooke, told Money that consumers can be "absolutely confident" of its technicians' independence. He refuted the idea that the 90% claim was to the consumer's detriment. "The 90% success rate is made up of an average of a widespread number of inspections. Some clients [typically in the area of bedding] only achieve 60%, some achieve as high as 99.6%. This demonstrates our independence and fairness.

"FIRA Service Technicians incentivises its team to get it right first time and repair to the customer's satisfaction. We have a rigorous audit process to ensure technicians are taking the correct action.

"In order to make the service transparent, customers receive a copy of the technician's report, which is signed by the consumer. This states what the technician's findings were, and what action he took. There is a second section provided to the client which describes the assessment of the root cause of the problem."

He says questions of comfort are "highly subjective" and not always a sign of a malfunction. He also says the technicians have no financial incentive to side with the retailer as they are paid irrespective of what they find. The Furniture Ombudsman service, he adds, is completely independent.

"FIRA Service Technicians do not have members; they have clients who can walk away at any time if they are unhappy ? our values, particularly independence, drive our business, and therefore, if our staff were to behave contrary to these values it would affect our entire business model."

? Have you had an independent expert assess your complaint? Let us know at money@guardian.co.uk

Miles Brignall