[Tom Molloy]

Hi All,

I was called out by a customer to give my opinion on a Sofa that they had purchased from SCS in October last year.
The salesman at SCS not only sold them a sofa that he described as chenille, but also sold them a product called Greenguard (stain remover) for an outrageous £70! The sofa cost £2,700 so not exactly cheap.

After a month or so the sofa had started to mark up. The customer spoke to SCS who fobbed them off saying it was natural "wear and tear". Then at Xmas time a relative was leaning against the arm of the sofa and a large patch appeared ( I will enclose some pics)

The customer again contacted SCS who sent out their contracted cleaner. The cleaner come out and extraction cleaned the pouffe. To say it was a poor job is an understatement. It was full of stains and I realised something was wrong.

I remember going on a course with Derek Bolton who had mentioned a material called Viscose Rayon. This is a dry clean only material and in my view is not fit for purpose as a sofa material. I mentioned this to the customer. On the sofa labelling there was no mention of the name of the material or manufacture.

I asked the customer to contact the manufacturer.  A couple of days later the customer contacted me and stated the indeed the sofa was 50% vellose rayon and 50% polyester! Therefore, in my opinon both SCS and the cleaner were at fault.

1) The SCS sales man should have disclosed that the product was dry clean only. He didn't and the proceded to sell them a wet clean stain removal product. Clearly no understanding of the composition of the material.
2) Surely a trained upholstery cleaner should have spotted the marks on the sofa where sweat water marks had bleached the in various places. The evidence that this had happened was overwhelming. He then proceeded to wet clean the pouffe.

I have written a report on behalf of the customer. However, SCS are stating that they will not offer the customer a refund and they they sold the sofa in good faith with a claim of "buyer beware".  The customer has threatened them with trading standards and watchdog etc, but SCS are standing firm. They don't want to know.

I am therefore drawing on the knowledge of any guidance on here. Anyone got an opinion on where she can go next?

Thanks Tom

[Simon Gerrard]

Tom,
50/50 viscose / polyester can be wet cleaned - with caution, so I wouldn't say it was uncleanable, though I tend to avoid them.
If I were you I wouldn't get too involved in this one as you could end up fanning the flames of discontent with the customer and SCS, when at the end of the day a deal will be done and your involvement is probably going  to make that less likely, but I understand your motives in trying to help.

Simon

[Tom Molloy]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for the advice. The pouffe has been wet cleaned.  On principal I avoid wet cleaning viscose as the results are usually very poor and the finished clean looks nothing like the original purchase. The customer purchased a light brown colour. However, the wet effect had turned this to a dirty cream colour with a hard cotton type feel rather than chanille.
The fact that the fabric bleached and changed colour when in contact with water / perspiration set the alarm bells ringing. I avoided any attempt to clean it. As far as I was concerned the damage is beyond repair.
It looks dreadful and especially as the customer had forked out big money for the sofa.

[Simon Gerrard]

The picture looks like it is a side panel, not a footstool.
Has she been using the SCSstain remover on it as it looks bleached?

Simon

[Tom Molloy]

That mark is just from perspiration. A relative leaning against the arm of the sofa!
No way should it be marking up like that.
I will try and send a pic of the footstool that had been cleaned by the scs cleaner! That looked seriously bad.  A dirty creamy colour.
Nothing like the original and therefore, it was beyond cleaning (or accept the awful changes).
Tom

[DB]

Hi Tom

You are correct there are a lot of similar fabrics being sold and moisture will alter the appearance.

As Simon says many can be wet cleaned BUT only after the customer has been made aware of any potential problem and the subsequent consequences. They then have the opportunity to say no.

[stuart_clark]

I clean quite a few high percentage viscose suites but not veloured , always flatweave and I always advise the customer if thefe are any worn pieces on the upholstery as viscose\ rayon doesn't hold its strength when wet

[Hilton]

Didn't the furniture have a maintenance label stitched into it..explaining 'recommended ' cleaning procedure.

[sean oregan]

Only problem with labels is they lie, I have seen wet cleanable sofa's with "dry clean only"
  stamped on them

[Hilton]

It's not a lie they just take the safer option.
The label should explain the fibre content and cleaning method, the 'professional' cleaner then decides the best method based on the information at hand....

[Paul Redden Countryfresh]

Confirming DB's post.  This fabric is being sold by a lot of retailers and is causing no end of problems.
One of my customers son left a hand print on it just by leaning on it.  When wet cleaning it will leave a considerable light area, not bleached but a change of texture making it looked bleached as the light hits it. It will only stand a light mist and towelled off.  I agree with Simon don't get too involved.
It is basically ruined and dry cleaning wouldn't have touched those stains.

[Steve Chapman]

Would not some dri pro solution soften the pile again and give its natural shading back.... ?

[Ian Harper]

Tom Molloy

with great respect you are being used and have got yourself into a situation that will not benefit you. people like this would not have paid you the going rate for this advice and would just move on to someone that will back up their view. one reason I dont apply stain protection is that people that will pay for this type of protection dont understand what they are buying. and its not 3M that gets the come backs its you. when I first started out I was trained by 3M for stain protection and the guarantee they gave us to give to customers was for a refund on the product not the damage to the carpet. but people where under the misunderstanding they would get a new carpet if the product failed. which was just a urban myth. lesson learnt stay out of the middle of customers and manufacturers.

you should just point them in the direction of trading standards.

With great respect Ian Harper

[Hilton]

Did the furniture have a maintenance label stitched onto it..explaining 'recommended ' cleaning procedure.

At risk of repeating myself,

[DB]

Ian
To the best of my knowledge over many years 3M NEVER  gave a guarantee or warranty on carpet protection

They did however have a 5 Year Warranty programme for upholstery treatments ...if there were genuine claims under the warranty programme 3M did honour them. If one of the applicators messed up then yes, you are correct.. they had to stand the cost as they would if they messed up on any cleaning work
I was involved with 3M  throughout the 5 Year Warranty programme and I have to say the vast majority of warranty claims were on units treated by the retailers...don't get me going on this subject please.

It's enough to say that Protectors work providing they are applied correctly.

[jim mca]

I think this could be the same material as John Kelly was talking about this a while back the problem is the fire retardant is water sensitive and bleeds through to the fabric when wet.

[Kev Loomes]

As Paul mentioned the fabric hasn't been bleached at all - it just looks that way because the fabric has just gone lighter in appearance. As we know this is caused by the fibres swelling and thus reflecting more light. Whenever viscose gets wet it will always go lighter than an untouched area, but no actual bleaching takes place.

Ian, we have been applying protector for donkeys years and never ever had one complaint. As you know it's how it's sold.

[poles apart]

i think the first thing yourcustomer needs to do is to stop letting her fat, sweaty relatives sit on the sofa!

[John Kelly]

Viscous not fit for purpose in my opinion. Until people are educated about it there will be more and more of it about. Because its cheap and looks like Silk.