A woman said she is “fed up” and feels “fobbed off” after her purchase from SCS has been delayed time and time again since she ordered it six months ago.
Lesley McEvoy, from St Helens, made her order for two three-seater couches on the SCS website at the beginning of July and was told she would receive them in October.
But after five reschedule emails, she is now due to receive her order in February, around seven months after purchasing the furniture and four months after she expected to receive them.
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Lesley told the ECHO: “I’m really fed up now and feel like I am being fobbed off.”
Lesley, who lives on her own on Park Road, said the cancellations have heavily affected her job as she has had to make arrangements every time she was supposedly due to receive her new couches.
The 54-year-old said: “I live on my own so I have had to keep altering my shifts, changing my days off, or asking not to be put on the rota on the days they said the suite was coming.”
Lesley said she had really hoped to get her new furniture ahead of the festive period, which at the time was around five months away, so she could have her house “all sorted for Christmas”.
However following three delays including her initial October date, a new delivery date was provided which confirmed Lesley wouldn’t receive her order until the new year, causing her to feel deflated and even impacting her Christmas celebrations.
Lesley said: “I wanted to have my house all sorted for Christmas.
“I didn’t even have the heart to put up my Christmas tree because of it."
The St Helens woman said it’s not only her and her Christmas plans that have been affected by the countless delays either.
After ordering the new furniture, she had promised to give her current couch to a friend’s daughter-in-law who is a struggling mum-of-three.
Lesley said: “A young girl with three kids, one of which is autistic, is waiting on my old settee and she doesn’t really have much.
“The first time I had made arrangements with my friend to collect my old suite then had to cancel it and rearrange my time off at work too.
“I just feel really bad for the other family who are waiting for my old suite.
“It’s just all the waiting around and only letting you know a week or two before your delivery date that’s it’s been changed."
Lesley described her correspondence with SCS as “minimal” besides from the emails informing her of more cancellations, as well as “one phone call to say its beyond their control”.
Lesley’s order was first delayed in an email sent on September 20 due to “unforeseen challenges [SCS] are experiencing as a business”, delaying her October delivery to November 5.
Despite the inconvenience, the new date seemed set in stone as Lesley received an email confirming the November date and telling her they will be delivering her order "very soon".
However, just two days following the confirmation, Lesley received yet another cancellation email postposing her delivery until November 17, once again due to “unforeseen challenges“.
Lesley emailed SCS regarding her frustrations and questioned them over their 'guaranteed Christmas delivery' which was still being advertised by the company on their Facebook on October 10.
She wrote: “How are you offering ‘Guaranteed Xmas Delivery Now’ when you can’t get suites to customers that have been on order and paid for in full for nearly 6 months?”
From this, Lesley's delivery date was delayed a further two times, pushing the date back from November, to January and most recently, February 11.
Lesley added: “I’m just really fed up. I keep saying I’m going to cancel and get my money back which I paid in full and go somewhere else, but then I think, ‘well I've waited this long, it will come one day’.”
A spokesperson for SCS told the ECHO: "The customer placed an order with us in July which was expected to be delivered pre-Christmas. However due to the global shortage of available shipping capacity, the order has been delayed.
"We have provided ongoing updates to the customer and we do now expect their order to arrive with us in late January. We do apologise for the delay, it’s not what we want for our customers, and we will continue to manage the situation closely.”
