THAT’S MY SOFA!
Shopper told she can’t have settee she’s paid for as House of Fraser has gone bust – so marches into store and gets friends to carry it away
FOR two years Fiona Boston had her heart set on a two-piece suite on display in her local House of Fraser – but could never afford it.
A half- price sale finally allowed her to snap it up for £1,500 in cash.
But before it had been delivered, the chain went into administration. A furious Mrs Boston, 53, was then told that she wouldn’t be getting the sofa and chair after all and would have to join a list of creditors seeking payment.
Her best option was to buy it a second time using the company’s finance scheme, she was told.
That was when the determined market trader decided to take what was rightfully hers – and so began operation furniture snatch.
Armed with a tape measure, she carried out reconnaissance at the store in Darlington – where the suite was still on display marked ‘sold’ – to check it could be carried outside. She recruited seven friends and family members to provide the muscle and arranged to use two vans from her son-inlaw’s company.
She then led the swoop on the department store last Saturday.
Carrying the receipt to prove she had paid in full, Mrs Boston and her burly troops dismantled the sofa and took the furniture down the stairs from the second floor.
‘It was all done so quickly and no one on the shop floor said anything,’ she said. ‘It was about five minutes from start to finish. A security guard said, “Nobody told me there was a sofa being moved out,” and he very kindly helped us with the door.’
But as the sofa and chair were being loaded, the department manager, who had told her husband Alan how sorry he was on the phone, confronted them. He said: ‘This is theft. You are stealing this.’
Mrs Boston responded: ‘You stole our money. You took the money and put it in the till and you have given us nothing in return.’ She added: ‘I was so mad because they are the thieves.’
A mile down the road, the vans were stopped by police, who told Mrs Boston she would have to return the furniture. But Mrs Boston had no intention of following the instruction.
She told an officer: ‘I’m not going anywhere, this is my suite, I’ve paid for it and I’ve got the receipt here in my hand, it’s mine and they are the crooks, not me.’
The officer phoned his inspector – then backed down, saying it was a ‘civil dispute’.
Mrs Boston now has the sofa of her dreams sitting in her living room at Stockton- on-Tees. But she and her husband, an asbestos company supervisor aged 66, are still £710 out of pocket as they also paid for a footstool and cushions. Mrs Boston said she initially rang the police, consulted trading standards and spoke to the Citizens Advice Bureau before taking action.
The couple have received hundreds of messages on social media backing the action.
House of Fraser went into administration last month before being bought by Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley. A spokesman said: ‘The correct course of action for customers who have issues regarding goods purchased prior to the 10th of August is to contact the administrators.’