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Chris Phillips and his wife Caryn chat to Rachel

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Rachel Treadaway-Williams has met some unhappy SCS customers, who bought new sofas which failed to live up to their expectations.

Chris Phillips and his wife Caryn, from Carmarthen, decided to invest in a sofa which they could enjoy for years to come, after making do with hand-me-downs in the past.

Chris said, 鈥淲e decided the time was right to invest in a new sofa - our very first new sofa.鈥� When they visited the SCS store at Trostre in Llanelli he said, 鈥淲e sat on every one.鈥�

The couple eventually they settled on a 鈥榗uddle sofa鈥�, a separate chair and footstools - and their final purchase amounted to more than 拢2,000.

But their idea of a cosy sofa where the family could cwtch up together, turned out to be a real disappointment.

Chris showed Rachel the sagging cushion of the cuddle sofa.听 He said, 鈥淚t's very dipped down and if you look underneath it, this just seems so slack, and you can feel the wooden base of it.鈥� He said, 鈥淵ou're basically sinking right into it it's not a natural position to sit in.鈥�
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After they complained to SCS, the company sent an upholsterer 鈥� but he said there was no fault with the sofa, leaving Chris and Caryn frustrated and unhappy.

Fellow SCS customer, Cheryl Brekke from Llanedeyrn in Cardiff, paid almost 拢1,000 for her suite, which she bought from the company鈥檚 Cardiff Gate store in April 2010.听

She said, 鈥淲e wanted something that was manageable to use, that didn't need a lot of attention, something that was going to last.听 Because I've got five children and because I'm big myself I wanted something quite sturdy.鈥�
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But Cheryl didn't get the low maintenance sofa she wanted and now there鈥檚 a regime she and her family have to do daily to plump up the sofa.

The frame has had to be repaired under warranty but Cheryl says the problems have been on-going.

She said, 鈥淭hey've been to repair it, for about the fourth or fifth time, and it's still not right, it's not 100%.听 All the sagging material at the back, the frame's coming through, it's not what you expect from a sofa that's 18 months old.鈥澨� 听听听

In January last year, Tracey Evans from the Rhondda, chose two three-seater recliner sofas, also from the Cardiff Gate store. She paid over 拢1,500 but when the sofas arrived on April 1st last year and she says there have been problems.

Tracey contacted SCS who sent representatives out to try and fix the mechanism on a number of occasions, but months later her recliners still don't work properly.

She explained one engineer tried to get the recliner to work by 鈥渏erking鈥� the mechanism.

鈥淚 don't want to have to go through that process every time I want to put my feet up,鈥� she told Rachel. 鈥淒o that with a cup of tea in one hand, doing that jerking motion and end up scalding myself, so obviously not ideal.鈥�

X-Ray have been in touch with SCS who tell say Chris and Caryn's "cuddle sofa" sofa is designed with a 'casual sit' in mind.

They claim the couple could have paid more to have a foam cushion - but Chris says they weren't offered that and insists they thought the one they bought would be identical to the one they had tried in the shop.

SCS say they are in the process of repairing Tracey's faulty recliner and they will contact Cheryl to look into her problems with her sofa.