Credit - It may seem like a good deal, but is it?

The vast majority of the great British public must surely be aware of the current effort by furniture stores to persuade us all to rush out and buy new furniture, which is supposedly on Special Offer - at never to be repeated prices and one cannot deny being impressed by some of the deals on offer. However, I am concerned that many of the items on "Special Offer" may fail in use before the first payment is made. Imagine for a minute, a situation where you have purchased your dream suite in the January sales and that you are not due to start paying until six or twelve months later, the suite wears prematurely, the castors break, the cushions appear to flatten to 10% of their original size and you have trouble with the springs. Being dissatisfied you contact the shop only to be told that they will take the matter up with the manufacturer, meanwhile the months are going by and you are due to start paying, how would you feel about this, you’ve had the suite over twelve months, it collapses, and now you start paying. Not very satisfactory is it. This scenario may seem unlikely, but alas this example is based on actual complaints received by our office.

I have no wish to be unfair to furniture retailers, the majority of whom are reputable, but it must be borne in mind that if you deal with a disreputable “Pile them high, shift them quick” firm, who appears one day and disappears the next, you will be asking for trouble.

Members of The Association of Master Upholsterers & Soft Furnishers are specialists, they offer a very personal service and a truly magnificent choice of materials and fillings that the average retailer cannot hope to match. Your Upholsterer or Soft Furnisher will spend many hours advising on colour, style and durability, sourcing a specific fabric or trim. This will be offered as part of the service and will assist you in making the right choice - his or her many years of experience will be available to you, the client, without any obligation at all. "Look how thick this fabric is George, this will last" - "Yes madam, it’s very thick and will last at least ten years". But will it? If a cloth is "Thick" it does not necessarily mean that it will last, and this is where the expert comes in, take his advice, he will only sell you a product which he is confident will perform well.

A new one is cheaper

"I can buy a new one cheaper than that" - Another common statement which I’ve heard when submitting an estimate, but on what basis is the statement made and is the comparison fair. If you think about it, re-upholstery is far more labour intensive than manufacturing. When you manufacture you develop your design prototype and iron out any production problems as you begin to mass manufacture. But when you reupholster, not only do you have to remove all the old materials and make good the frame and fillings, but you only have one chance to get the covering process right; very often you will be using extremely expensive material, where a mistake will cost a fortune. So the responsibility on your specialist Upholsterer or Soft Furnisher is very great indeed.

The Specialist Service

The specialist service of the skilled craftsman is to be valued, and some will say that bespoke Upholstery or Soft Furnishing is expensive. But when you consider the aforementioned points, the service, the superior quality material, the magnificent choice and the personal service, the specialist really is very competitive. British Furniture is, I believe, the best in the World and British craftsmanship still lives despite of the march of the microchip and mass production and Craftsmanship is what you can expect from a Member of The Association of Master Upholsterers and Soft Furnishers. But if things do go wrong and you do have a complaint, you will find that the vast majority of Members will want to deal with it immediately and without a fuss.

Craftsmanship at its best and it's British.

Mike Spencer,
Chief Executive.

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