THE BRICK ( HUNT CLUB RD. OTTAWA, ONT. )

In February 2005, my husband and I purchased our first ever new set of furniture from the Hunt Club Brick in Ottawa. At the time we were highly pressured to purchase the extended warranty, which we did. Our brown leather sofa now has a significant tear extending from the seam in the upper corner. When we called to report this, it took three weeks for someone to call us back. After the technician came to assess it on a Thursday, we were told someone from the store would get back to us on Monday. Two weeks later after our many messages were unanswered, we went in to the store where we purchased the furniture. We stood for over 40 minutes at the customer service desk where we were completely ignored as the employee repeatedly raised her finger to us as she attended to phone calls. We left upset at the disgraceful level of service. Two further weeks later and many more unanswered messages, my husband returned to the store where he was told we allowed our dogs to "abuse" the sofa and therefore our warranty was void. Was anyone planning to inform us of this? What constitutes "abuse"? The salesperson at the time of sale was aware we had dogs and this was one of the reasons we didn't wish to purchase the extended warranty. We were told at the time unless the dogs actually chewed the furniture-damage would be covered. I strongly disagree with the technicians evaluation that the damage was caused by the dogs! While there is some wear on the seats--the dogs are never on the back of the sofa and we are only concerned with the tear at the seam as we don't want it extending any further. I also take great offense at being told it was "filthy" as none of my furniture is filthy and is regularly cleaned. I feel The Brick is looking for excuses not to honour the warranty they pressured us to purchase. We still have many requirements for new furniture. I will soon be purchasing a bedroom set, a dining room suite and a family room set and I can assure you none of these purchases will be made at a Brick location. I also have many friends and family members furnishing new homes who will be informed of my experience with a complete lack of customer service. I feel due to the salesperson's unreasonable pressure and false assurances of what was covered, at a minimum, our warranty fee should be refunded as it was obviously never intended to be honoured. I would also at least appreciate a response to this letter as I am considering making my opinions public. The Brick has gone to considersable effort and will be losing a substantial amount of business to avoid placing a patch on a sofa. What can be gained by that??

Ken and Lori Andrews

Dissatisfied ex-customers.