We ended up in Demir Leather in Auburn. My Dad has bought a few couches from them and really liked them so we thought we'd check it out. We walked into the showroom and Kristy fell in love with one of their couches.
After a bit of negotiation, we'd come to an agreement. The price was right and they said that they'd deliver the couch to Canberra "before Christmas". So we happily handed over the credit card and charged it $1,000 for the deposit.
A week before Christmas, we got a phone call and were told that the couch was delayed and it would be there in January. No probs for us, money was a bit tight and we didn't need to hand over the balance remaining on the couch.
Mid Jan flies by with not a word.
Mid Feb, we get a phone call from them. Without any apologies for the delay or anything (it was 5 months after we ordered!), they immediately launched into telling us that the couch was there but we'd have to pay the balance before they'd ship it out.
Alarm bells were ringing. What if the couch isn't what we expected? What if it came to us damaged?
What ensued was a very heated conversation from which it was revealed:
- The couch would be shipped with no insurance
- Once the couch left the Demir warehouse, they held no responsibility for what happened to it
This was not acceptible to us (what if the truck was involved in an accident in the 300km journey?), so we told them that we wanted to cancel the order. They said "That's OK, but you won't get our deposit back".
Well, apart from pissing us right off with such dirty (and illegal) tactics, fighting for our deposit via Consumer Affairs wasn't something we wanted to do, so we eventually agreed that they'd discount us $330 and we'd organise the delivery of the couch.
On another note, when we went home and checked the receipt, it said "Bank cheque on delivery", so they were breaking the conditions of the sale.
Anyway, we hired a 3T moving truck in Canberra (cheaper than a one way rental) and drove up to pick up our couch.
When we got there and handed over the credit card to pay off the balance, we were told that there would be a 1.7% surcharge on it for paying via credit card. This is despite:
- Us paying the deposit with not surcharge
- No signage whatsoever indicating that credit purchases would be slugged a surcharge
Long story short, after a lengthy visit to the bank, we had our couch and got it back down to Canberra unharmed. 6 months after we ordered it.
All in all, we're happy to finally have the couch and take solace in the fact that we never have to deal with Demir again. The ownership experience has been dulled quite considerably.
If you're thinking of buying a couch, be forewarned that Demir Leather is a store that didn't honour the conditions of the sale of our couch as well as using tactics such as withholding the deposit when we wanted to cancel the order.
