An aggrieved Gauteng customer is demanding an online furniture shop to refund her after the couches she bought for R9,000 broke within a year and she had to spend another R7,500 to fix them.
Lesego Mabona of Centurion had been waiting for more than a year for Lifestyle Home, a Midrand-based furniture, to collect and fix her three-seater leather couch and ottoman after one of the firm’s managers accepted blame and promised to fetch the items in September 2023. However, that did not happen.
“The company contacted me after I took my frustrations to social media to warn people against buying from Lifestyle Home because of their shoddy business ethics. One of their managers WhatsApped me and he acknowledged that the fault was on their side. He then promised that the couches will be collected and exchanged.”
The company contacted me after I took my frustrations to social media to warn people against buying from Lifestyle Home because of their shoddy business ethics.
— Lesego Mabona
Sowetan reached out to the shop via their customer services email two weeks ago for comment, but nobody responded. Their WhatsApp number was also unresponsive despite messages Sowetan Consumer sent to it.
Sowetan Consumer has seen text messages between Mabona and the manager dating back to September 2023 in which the employee promises to “sort this out with immediate effect” and by December of the same year he said was organising transport but still nothing happened. Mabona also visited the shop but found it closed.
After months of not hearing from the shop, Mabona decided to take the matter into her own hands.
“The one corner of the couch was sunken and part of the frame had broken so I took it to another workshop recently to have it fixed and upholstered to a different colour and that cost me R7,500.
“I want a full refund or at least some form of compensation from them but I doubt that will happen considering the long wait for them to fix this problem. I think the awareness will be enough; they have probably rebranded as something else by now. People need to be more vigilant with online/Instagram boutiques. I thought I could trust them because they had a physical store and warehouse, but the outcome was still bad.”
According to the Consumer Protection Act, customers can within six months of delivery of any goods return those goods to the supplier without any penalty and at the supplier’s risk and expense.
Lifestyle Home policy on their website also states that customers are within their rights to return defective goods with original receipts of sale which Mabona already sent to the shop’s manager.
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