Raw Deal: You better sit down… Furniture orders hit by huge delays

Shoppers have been left in limbo as long delays to deliveries of home furniture rumble on.

Before the pandemic the average wait time was between four and 12 weeks but it can now be anything from five to 10 months – especially for customised items.

During lockdowns, demand for furniture rocketed and companies say unique headwinds have caused the delays in getting goods to customers.

These include a combination of Covid-related problems, increased demand for housing, extreme weather and an unexpected foam shortage, a global shipping-container squeeze and a shortage of transport truckers.

Around 40% of the world’s furniture is made in China, and the pandemic added pressure to pinch points in the route that furniture takes from the factory floor to a family living room.

Also, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prices have spiked for commodities that feed into furniture materials – including oil and lumber.

DFS, the UK’s largest sofa retailer, recently reported how supply chain disruption affected their revenues in 2021, and that their customer satisfaction score had plummeted. This year, it says that disruption is still limiting progress.

Likewise, furniture retailer Made.com reported a £31.4 million loss in 2021, with supply chain disruption pushing up the cost of freight and stretching shipping times globally.

Raw Deal has heard in recent weeks from a number of readers struggling to take delivery of furniture that they had ordered months previously.

At the start of April, Russell Miller paid £2,093 for a sofa bed and a two-seater couch from Oak Furnitureland in Dundee. He and wife Audrey bought the furniture for their caravan in Montrose. The order was expected to be delivered by the end of that month. But only one couch showed up and over the next four months, numerous other rearranged slots came and went with no sign of the second sofa.

“I had made arrangements to take delivery on seven separate occasions,” said Miller, from Kettins, Perthshire. He would be told the sofa was on its way, only to later be informed the delivery had been cancelled due to the item being temporarily unavailable.

“I was told various things, including that my sofa was not yet in stock, and another time I was informed that it was currently in a container somewhere. I felt like I was going around in circles.”

In frustration, the couple wrote to Raw Deal. After we contacted the company, it wasn’t long before the sofa was delivered – and they were given £200 as a goodwill payment on top of compensation they had already received for previous delays.

Oak Furnitureland said: “We are very sorry that Mr Miller’s experience did not meet the high standards of customer service we set for ourselves, and for the inconvenience and upset that this caused.”

Miller said he was grateful to Raw Deal for intervening. He added: “Thank you very much for your assistance. We felt like we were just being fobbed off.”

While there is no real way to avoid the effects of price increases and supply chain delays, you can create a plan that takes these problems into account.

Lead times have increased from a few weeks, to several months. The sooner an order for your furniture is placed, the greater likelihood you will receive it on time.

Additionally, as manufacturers raise their prices in response to raw material shortages, the sooner your order is placed decreases the likelihood of experiencing upsurges in cost.

Also, when paying for expensive goods such as furniture it is advisable to do so by credit card as this offers better protection should something go wrong with the order.