VIVENSE — Local services in London

Very Disappointing Experience

I’m not one to leave reviews bad or good, but this experience was so disappointing and ridiculous I feel it needs to be shared.

We visited the Vivense showroom in London and had finally found our dream sofa. The sofa was available for express delivery which was ideal, so we ordered and expected delivery with 2 - 3 weeks. 1.5 weeks later we were delighted to be told that our sofa was out for delivery and would arrive tomorrow. We had a phone call the next day to let us know that the delivery drivers would be with us in 30 mins. It all started off so well…and unfortunately, very quickly turned into the worst shopping experience I’ve ever encountered.

When the delivery drivers and ‘assemblers’ arrived they realised that the company had not sent the screws that fit the legs to the sofa and they had also sent the same half of the sofa twice. The delivery company didn’t provide the best customer service and I was bluntly told that they would be leaving the sofa here (photos attached) and that I needed to contact Vivense directly to resolve the issue.

I called Vivense and reported the problem to customers service who were very apologetic and told me that I would receive a call later that day…no call came through. 5 attempts calling I finally was told that the delivery company would arrive the next day to replace the sofa and screws…this never happened. Fast forward 2 weeks and over 20 phone calls later they finally came to collect the sofa. The delivery company had brought the right sofa, but had not assembled the sofa correctly at all (see photos). One screw was fitted on each leg, when it is meant to have FOUR screws in each…if you sat on it it would have completely collapsed!

We then realised that the leg screw holes did not align at all with the inserts in the sofa frame (so not great quality for the £1250 price tag). We reported to Vivense and were told that this would be resolved and someone would come out to fix the sofa.

Fast forward another 1.5 weeks, we were told the assembly team had reviewed our photos and that the sofa was assembled correctly!?

At this point we gave up, we spent 5 hours fixing the sofa ourselves and got a 15% refund…not sure it was worth the hassle. Clearly by its very poor rating, this is not an isolated incident and is very common amongst its customers.

Some lovely products but in my experience save yourself the hassle, stress and time to resolve logistics issues that should have been resolved before they started...

AVOID! Lovely products, but awful customer service if something goes wrong.

We ordered a Leo Corner sofa from Vivense directly from the showroom. Everything seemed to be in order. They said it'd be shipped in a few weeks and Vivense would deliver and assemble the sofa for us.

After our order, we realised that we may be on holiday when the sofa would be delivered, so we got in touch to let Vivense know. They said it's fine and we'll be contacted to nominate a delivery day anyway.

We then got a text from DX saying our sofa would be delayed, which we weren't expecting, and we'd be on holiday when it was planning to be delivered. I sorted this with DX separately, but it was a lie when Vivense said they'd contact us.

When the sofa was delivered on Friday, DX said that they don't assemble, so I had to get in touch with Vivense, who replied that while they do offer free assembly, but it had to be booked separately because DX didn't offer this service. This was NEVER communicated to us. However, Vivense apologised and said they'd look into getting an assembly team. Meanwhile, the sofa took up the entirety of my living room.

I did not hear anything from Vivense for hours, and then had to try to call them 20 times to get through to a customer service agent, who said that they'd chase their team for an answer on the assembly service. It was nearing the end of the day on Friday so I asked her to please give me a call back in an hour with an update. She assured me she would.

I didn't hear anything. So after an hour lapsed, I started trying to reach Vivense again for an update. I rang for an hour and a half, over 100 times, until someone answered my call. This person wasn't even a customer service agent, just someone manning the showroom who they diverted the calls to. They said they'd gotten back to me with an email, which I'd never received (because they sent it to the wrong person). Then they said that they could only book an assembly team for Monday at 1pm, meaning I'd have to have the unassembled sofa taking up my living room for an entire weekend. Completely unacceptable.

They sent me the instructions to assemble the sofa on my own. My husband and I managed to do it with about two hours work.

Appalling customer service. Will never buy from Vivense again, which is a shame because the sofa itself is lovely. But not if I have to go through this hassle should anything go wrong...

They deliberately lie about free installation on their website. I bought a Washiba wardrobe with free installation only to find out once delivered that free installation is not the case since there is no assembly team to do so. The quality of the product is not the best. Scratches here and there. Do not bother! Update: I received an email in which they gave me an installation date in 2 days time. Update: They lied again. Nobody came in to install my wardrobe in the given time. Their excuse is that they did not have my mobile! I decided to put it up on my own with my wife last weekend and it became clear why there was and will be nobody to install it. COS IS NOT POSSIBLE. The product is faulty. Does not matter how much you will try the doors are overlapping you can not close them! Update: Some woman (with poor English) on their regards called me recently asking about my issues (even though they already had my emails with details of the problem) and told me that somebody else will contact me the following day to arrange the visit so they could ''fix my faulty wardrobe'' (not sure how). Nobody has (what a surprise:)). I will sort it out the legal way. PATHETIC COMPANY WITH PATHETIC SERVICE

REMEMBER You have 30 days from taking ownership of a product (this could be the date of purchase or the date it was delivered to you - whichever is later) to claim a refund if it is faulty After this time you have to give the retailer an opportunity to repair or replace it before you can claim a refund. In the first instance, write to the customer services department politely and objectively, so you have a written record as evidence. Then escalate if you're not happy with the response Quote the relevant laws. Say what you want to happen - refund, repair, or replacement.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 says that if you have purchased a product that is or has become faulty in the first 6 months after purchase, then the retailer must inspect the product to deem whether or not it was the consumer that caused the fault or not. If the retailer cannot prove that a faulty product was caused by a consumer, then the consumer will be entitled to an exchange,...